Profile: Rachael Chadwick-Harrison

“I’ve got quite an interesting backstory,” says Rachael Chadwick-Harrison in what turns out to be a massive understatement.

Rachael is the owner and founder of Chadwick Accountants and Bookkeepers situated in a picturesque location close to the River Avon in the Warwickshire village of Bidford.

It’s a company that Rachael is shaping in her own image – good with numbers and even better at dealing with people.

Putting people first matters because it’s not something she has always experienced both in business and in her personal life.

Her mum was an alcoholic. which saw Rachael leave home at 16 to carve out a career and life on her own after a short period of being homeless.

An aptitude for numbers saw her land a role with a financial planner in Solihull where she studied for qualifications in the evening.

From there, Rachael moved through a variety of jobs from banking to bookmaking and from construction to communications, as well as the charitable sector.

She saw plenty that she liked when it came to managing people and how to support clients, but also quite a lot that she didn’t – including blatant sexism and toxic cultures.

But, ultimately, it was her own skillset and customer-care that led to her setting up on her own.

Rachael said: “The pandemic hit and people all around me were saying: ‘my accountant isn't helping me with any real advice. Can you help me with the furlough scheme? Can you find out what grants we should be eligible for?’

“I wondered why they were needing to ask. Where was the proactive support?

“A couple of people asked me to do their accounts for them but I couldn’t because I wasn’t regulated for that kind of work.

“But it made me think: ‘maybe I should do it’.

“So, I decided to give my husband a heart attack by telling him I was giving up the job as CFO that paid the mortgage and was starting my own practice.