Vince Dalaimo operates from a shop on Southwark Bridge Road, where he looks after nearly 1,500 clients with a fee bank of over £1.3 million.
After reaching the milestone anniversary of 20 years as a TaxAssist Accountant, Vince looked back on his decision to join the network and where his business has taken him to today.
“I was a very small cog in a very big wheel and thought there must be more to life,” explained FCMA qualified Vince, who, before he joined TaxAssist, was a senior product controller in credit derivatives for the Royal Bank of Canada.
"At the time I was mid-thirties, fearless and looking for my next challenge. I had no sales experience, I'd only worked in a corporate environment as an accountant in investment banking and that's why I turned to franchising.
"I didn’t think there would be a franchise model which matched my skillset so well, but TaxAssist Accountants enables you to build your own client base, with the back-up of a national brand and the high visibility of shop-front premises. I wish I'd done it sooner. It's definitely something that comes with huge rewards.
"I've found the support of TaxAssist Accountants invaluable. They have given me the tools, the experience, the knowledge, the software and the confidence to go out and do it.
“Clients have really taken to the concept of a ‘drop-in’ shop, where they can get all their tax returns, payroll and bookkeeping needs taken care of as they walk in to work or at breaks and lunchtimes. It means they can concentrate on running their business and increasing their own income and profitability. Being so accessible on the high street, means clients feel free to call throughout the year, not just when the end-of-year accounts are being prepared. In contrast to nearly every other accountant hidden away in back offices, we’re in a prime position.
“After the Franchisee Assisted Management Buyout in 2014 which enabled franchisees to take a stake in the Franchisor’s business, and seeing the success of my franchise, I knew that TaxAssist Accountants as a network and the TaxAssist Group as a whole would continue to grow from strength to strength. The management team/support staff of the support centre and the quality of the franchisees that were entering the network added to this.
“This, plus the strategic plan to extend the brand into Financial Services, International development, company owned franchises in Central London, tax/payroll outsourcing, convinced me that the value of the Group would increase significantly in a relatively short space of time.
“With that in mind, I have been investing some of my profits from my franchise and have been buying shares in the TaxAssist Direct Group Ltd (TADGL) to such an extent that I now own 5% of Group. The landlord of my shop also offered to sell me the shopfront premises in 2020, which I then bought, and I also entered into a joint venture with TADGL to develop the rest of the Central London franchise area that I owned.
“Buying a TaxAssist Accountants franchise now means that I have been able to set up the following investments, which will hopefully ensure a well-deserved future retirement when the time comes:
- London Bridge/Waterloo franchise
- Investment in TaxAssist Group shares
- Central London Practice investment
- Owner of my shopfront property
"Twenty years on, I have a business that's worth a lot of money and I'm earning more money now than I've ever earned before. From a financial point of view, all the hard work has paid off in a way that I could never have dreamed of, and next year is the year that I hope to redress my work/life balance by sharing my time between London and Spain and working remotely whilst in Spain which is something that I will be able to put in place because of running my own business.”