CUSTOMER STORY • 21 SEPTEMBER 2023 • 6 MIN READ

My TrueNORTH shows businesses to trust their compass with Beany

Banner showing Jay from My TrueNORTH and a quote from the article

SECTIONS

Meet Jay, founder of My TrueNORTH

Barriers and pain points

Jay's experience with Beany

Tips for other business owners

What’s next for My TrueNORTH?

Meet Jay, founder of My TrueNORTH

What does the word ‘success’ mean to you? Business coach Jay Allen helps business owners answer - and then achieve - just that. As a leading Ethical Coaching Company in the UK, MyTrueNORTH aims to aid and support 1,000,000 business owners to significantly and sustainably grow both themselves and their businesses.

After being medically discharged from the British Armed Forces, Jay turned his focus to entrepreneurship and has since opened or acquired several successful companies. He launched My TrueNORTH in May 2014, after noticing a common key problem - small business owners were too busy with the day-to-day of their job to focus on their goals and growth.

“We look at your end goal in mind, work backwards, and then ask ‘Is what you're doing right now effective?’” Jay explains. Working alongside his clients by getting to know their businesses innately, Jay teaches his strategies for success through workshops, Masterclass programmes and one-on-one mentorship.

Barriers and pain points

As a business coach, Jay knows all about barriers to success. One of the largest, he says, can be self-inflicted by simply “not thinking big enough”. Setting the wrong targets for success can limit business owners and hinder them from realising their true potential. For instance, when starting My TrueNORTH, the goal was to support 10,000 businesses.

“We're seven years in, and we've just crossed the milestone of helping 8,000 people. In the next 18 months or so we’ll hit our original target.” Jay explains. “If that had remained our target, well...we’d have slowed down. We'd have said, ‘That's it then isn't it?’.” Bringing his growth strategy back in line with his mission statement of helping businesses, My TrueNORTH decided to think without limits. “Whereas about four years ago, we reviewed, and we revised. Are we thinking big enough? Now, our current mission is to eradicate unemployment in the UK.”

According to Jay, there are 759,000 people currently actively seeking employment in the UK. “We want to support enough small businesses that we create 759,000 new jobs in the job market.” Part of this approach involves providing businesses with a survey designed to help them take a step back and consider the big picture. “Before we even start working with the clients, we invite them to complete a survey. We've had 117,000 people already complete the survey, of which 8,000 have subsequently done some work with us.” The report generated from the survey, Jay explains, adds value to any business. “The rest of them get their report and say ‘Well, that was sufficient to know what to do next.’”

Adopting such a growth mindset requires a combination of high-level thinking and loyalty to the overall goals of the business.

“The challenge is thinking bigger and not getting too caught up in the details. It’s about asking ourselves - how can we make our goal exist in reality? If the vision and our values are big enough it will resonate with people.”

Jay's experience with Beany

As a highly experienced entrepreneur, Jay is no stranger to working with accountants. “This is my fourth business. Beany are our fourth accountant in the last seven years, and the tenth accountant in our last four businesses,” he tells us. “I've also been fortunate to be a guest speaker at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants international conference and at the ACCA Regional Conference, where I've met hundreds of accountants.”

We were absolutely thrilled to hear we’re helping Jay achieve his dreams of helping business owners. “My experience with Beany has been - in a word, transformational?” Charlotte and Clare have been, according to Jay, a great fit for the My TrueNORTH mission. “It wasn't like you hit a six - the ball is out the field! We now see Charlotte and Clare as not just an extended part of our team, but an integral part of our team.”

As well as being an accomplished entrepreneur, Jay has previously worked with the accounting software company Sage, meaning he knows a thing or two about accounting. “Nothing has been difficult or overly complicated. Even if it was for me, it certainly wasn't for Beany.” Jay also made a point to mention Beany’s friendly and accessible approach. “There’s this overarching ‘we're here to help 24/7’ feel…that's where you set a new standard.”

"I have never met anybody as proactive, as professional, as courteous, and as forward thinking as I've had in the relationship that I've got with Beany."

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Tips for other business owners

As a business coach and mentor, Jay is full of tips, strategies and ways to turn an idea into a success. He shared these golden nuggets with us:

I would always say start with the end in mind and work backwards. Don't get caught up in the detail until you know how the detail is contributing towards the outcome you want to achieve. Always take time to map and measure the things that are irrelevant to whatever you want to achieve.
It's so easy to get caught up in doing the doing that in actual fact, your job as the visionary is to be able to step back from this and attract other people to contribute towards your vision. Stop thinking you're the best person to do everything in your business and make yourself redundant from doing the doing. Instead, attract other people to you that have a better (and bigger) influence on your vision and values. Step out of the way and ask yourself "Well, how best do I contribute towards achieving this?"
There's a lovely quote from Churchill from 1954. He said "A man's greatest strength is to first acknowledge his own weakness." Look at people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos - both of them, if they have one thing in common, is to ask for help early. Just be cautious of who you ask it from!
Never simply look up to somebody - you'll always be disappointed. Look into them and find out what inspires you. Then, you’ll be able to light that fire inside yourself and recognise other people can also be inspired by you.
What does the word success mean for you - both personally and professionally? Make sure the two are aligned, and one has the capacity to deliver the other. Make sure everything you're doing today is contributing directly to that outcome. If not, it's time to either review it, revise it, or stop doing it.

What’s next for My TrueNORTH?

For Jay, it’s all about using everything he’s learned as a launching point as My TrueNORTH continues to expand and help others. “We've really drilled down the niche for where we want to spend the next seven years. We've spent the last seven years becoming comfortable with who we were, and why we are here, and the next seven years will be focused on finding ways to support people better than we have already.”

With relationships formed and contacts established, My TrueNORTH now has the capacity to help businesses thrive in a variety of ways. “We have focused on supporting a breadth of people, so much so we can now explore the depths of ways we support people.” The health and longevity of a business are key goals for Jay, he explains. “There is so much content that we have now to be able to help businesses become what's called a ‘business for good’ - which predominantly means working towards sustainable profitability.”

“By 2026 I want to be able to celebrate having supported or witnessed the creation of 55,000 new jobs.”

So do we, Jay! Thank you for taking the time to chat with us - and we wish you all the best in your journey.

You can find Jay at mytruenorth.biz

Who are Beany?

We’re an online accounting firm that is always right here for you, your accounting pain relief. The most advanced technology lets us work way more closely with you than a normal accountant world.

We have a dedicated team of certified accountants and a support team to take care of your business no matter where you are, so you can focus on growing your business. We take out the ‘fluff’, break down the barriers and get things done. Looking out for you is what we are all about. Get started for free today.