What My Clients Say

The bookkeeping services have been second to none. The confident and efficient way in which the services are provided mean that a layer of stress has been removed from our financial management. Having an expert, professional bookkeeper makes life easier – would highly recommend!

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!

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.

Wanted to say thanks for your training session earlier.

I thought you really nailed the impossible and made a dry subject matter really engaging.

Amethyst Racoon has brought clarity and responsiveness to the financial workings of New Mills Festival. We can now see the current state of each project and event within the Festival as well as overall figures. Additionally by having immediate access and understanding of all our figures when she attends meetings Sara-Jayne is able to directly respond to any queries that arise on whatever aspect of our finances.

For the project that I was directly responsible for she ensured that it came in on budget and was able to follow through on all grant requirements, etc. Beyond that she is personally interested in how the various events are doing and can contribute informed suggestions on how to proceed.

I would happily recommend her services to any arts organisation or individual trader.

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.

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!

I have worked with Sara-Jayne for a few years & she is an amazing supportive person who supported me so patiently in our previous roles. I continually contacted Sara-Jayne requesting support and she was very efficient and effective in her support and an amazing personality. Sara-Jayne is very approachable and nothing was too much of a problem. Thanks for everything, Wayne

A must-attend fixture in my schedule every month – I really value the opportunity to explore burning operational and strategic issues in this confidential and collaborative environment.