What My Clients Say

Anyone who has ever had eureka moments will want to be in a mastermind that’s built the way Sara-Jayne structures them. It can take a little group of creatives in various iterations of a business-orientated world and give them a well-rounded perspective that helps clarify what they can do, and how they can set about to do it.

It doesn’t demand, but it reveals. It empowers, because there is something reassuring about bouncing ideas around with contemporaries who inhabit different worlds but utilise the same business philosophy, principles, and standards. More self-employed people need this as part of their strategising — I certainly benefit from it.

Thank you so much for being really generous with your time sorting out my computer problems and anxieties. You were so calm and patient and listened carefully to the difficulties I was experiencing. Then with amazing speed you created a system which I could use easily and with confidence. I am delighted, relieved and feel more in control. Thanks again.

This workshop was incredibly helpful. I have been selling products for quite a while now, but always have to do lots of “back of a fag packet” calculations every time I work out my pricing. If I’m honest I often have an uneasy feeling that I am not charging the right amount for some of them, or that I am not tracking my profit margins properly. I wanted to understand my pricing properly and thought I’d try out Sara-Jayne’s workshop because I know she works with small businesses and people who make their own products as well as bigger businesses.

The workshop was brilliant! She went through all kinds of concepts but in a way that I could really understand and didn’t make me feel foolish for the bits that I didn’t quite grasp at first. We walked through some pricing psychology that I can definitely use on my website, and looked at some different ways to calculate costs when you sell on lots of different platforms. There was definitely something in there for all the scenarios I was worrying about.

Best of all, she provided me with a spreadsheet that was already set up for me to do calculations from so that I can go away after the workshop and enter my products in. We entered one product during the workshop itself so I was able to check that it would work for me and I have set aside some time to put the others in. It has taken such a lot of work off my plate having the spreadsheet set up exactly the right way for a business like mine that makes things for different audiences.

The two biggest takeaways that I got from the workshop is that I am not respecting my time properly and need to make sure that I am factoring that in more to my pricing, and that I shouldn’t be afraid of looking at my product figures, because if I find out something that I don’t like in them, I should be working out what to change, because they are not serving me well.

Highly recommended if you are a bit overwhelmed by the idea of investigating your pricing and want someone who is expert and experienced to walk through the process with you and provide you with tools to do the rest.

Most of all, recommended if you want help from someone who passionately cares about you making a good living from the thing that you do, and wants you to succeed.

Sara-Jayne carried out an hour masterclass in my group for small business owners. She was super well prepared and gave so much value. Sara-Jayne knows her subject so well and was able to give the attendees with practical and useful knowledge. She also helped increase their confidence in understanding what they could and shouldn’t do.
Thank you Sara-Jayne it was super helpful.

Before I worked with you, I would do my books on the dreaded January. It was the only time I would look at money. I would get very stressed. Obviously you don’t know how you’re doing, do you? You don’t know how profitable you are. You don’t know about any of your products: are they making money?

For someone like me who completely buries their head, it was a really big thing to get my head around. It was quite monumental to realise I’m actually earning money because I don’t feel like I’m earning money. Actually looking at the books, I’m actually earning quite a bit of money.

Having you there to encourage me to face it led was just incredible.

The experience was transformational. Purely because it has completely transformed my business. Every aspect. I get a lot of copycats. Now, when they’re undercutting me, I know they’re making a loss. So it’s given me a lot of confidence to let people copy me. At the end of the day, I know the figures because we’ve been through it together. I want a business that’s going to last and not put me in debt. That’s not what business is about; it’s an energy exchange. I have so much confidence now.

I know what I can afford to do now. I can actually sit there like a businessperson and say, ‘That was not a financially safe thing to do. Don’t do it again!’

Going out and doing talks knowing that I can help other business owners, knowing that I am profitable. Knowing the figures so I can grow the profit.

I’ve found this Basic Bookkeeping spreadsheet so useful, it’s a great resource especially for someone like me who is number phobic and beyond clueless with excel!

The information Sara-Jayne provided my members helped them to gain so much clarity and confidence around their book keeping, they were all very grateful!

Thank you so much for presenting your masterclass to my group, it was so valuable hearing how to think a bit differently about the categories of sales in a business and to use that information to help improve profitability. It’s something that I think is so valuable and that business owners of all types should embrace! Your knowledge and insights were excellent and super useful.

A huge thank you for the bookkeeping spreadsheet! It’s amazing! Made my end of month mad rush to do the books so so so much easier! Absolutely love it thank you so so much!

We have had the immense pleasure of working in a voluntary capacity with Sara-Jayne from Amethyst Raccoon for the last two years as bookkeeper for New Mills Festival CIC.

Prior to Sara-Jayne joining us the job of generating accounts and invoices, providing updates to the rest of the committee and the multitude of other day to day tasks had defaulted through a lack of volunteers to one of the existing volunteer directors and the additional workload was proving too much. We always seemed to be playing catch-up and preparing the books and making them balance for meetings especially the AGM was hugely stressful.

Since Sara-Jayne has joined us, she has expanded the role of bookkeeper way beyond our expectations. This has freed up other volunteers to think more strategically and to concentrate of the sustainability of the organisation. The directors are now always fully briefed on the finances and are confident that the bookkeeping and day to day financial tasks are in safe hands.

Although Sara-Jayne is a volunteer she treats the role with the utmost professionalism with exceptional attention to detail. A huge benefit has been transferring our accounting to an online and more automated system which has meant the end of large amounts of paper to be archived and a central point where directors can find information.

However, whilst we would highly recommend Sara-Jayne for her professionalism it is her personal touch and genuine interest and concern in our organisation and activities that has impressed us the most.