The Deputy Lord Mayor of Norwich, Caroline Ackroyd, and the Chief Executive Officer at Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, Chris Sargisson, joined Jeremy Gilks on 7th November to celebrate the official opening of a new TaxAssist Accountants shop on Ber Street, with a party for the local business community.
Since Jeremy first opened the doors to his shop at 113-119 Ber Street on 27th August, he and his wife Sally have already become firmly embedded within their local business community resulting in dozens of clients, colleagues and well-wishers drop by.
“The shop is slap bang in the hub of the busy Ber Street community, which has become a buzzing hive of small independent businesses with a vibrant local traders association. There is also plenty of on-street parking for clients to use when popping in, as we want to be convenient to the city centre, to make it easy for clients to come and visit us while doing their shopping.
“We do not consider ourselves to be typical accountants, which is clear from the look and feel of our modern shop. We are passionate about offering a bespoke, tailored service to every kind of small business client and we have adopted the latest software on offer, which allows us to be more responsive to clients’ needs and provides greater efficiencies. But we have a best of both worlds approach for those who enjoy using tech and those who prefer just to come in and talk to us.”
As well as providing all the regular services you would expect from a local accountant, Jeremy, who has over 30 years’ accountancy experience across a range of sectors, is looking for his shop to become a destination for new start-ups by providing a business hub. This will offer a flexible working environment with space to hire by the hour, half day, day, week or month.
Caroline Ackroyd said: “It is delightful to see another small independently-owned business become part of the regeneration of Ber Street. Not only that, but TaxAssist works with small businesses and we know the importance of small independent retailers working together. I am told that for every £10 that we spend at a small independent shop, £50 goes into our local economy, so how good is that for Norwich.”
Chris Sargisson added: “Ber Street is a small business community and it’s great that a home-grown organisation like TaxAssist has opened a shop in this thriving area. Most of the things that small businesses need to know are ‘unknown’ unknowns. And that is where TaxAssist can really help as it not only helps small businesses with what they know, it is telling them what they don’t know and that is how businesses survive.”