When accountancy and IT firm Mullen Stoker was founded 11 years ago, the company brought together a group of experienced people from a diverse range of sectors. Each has their own area of expertise, creating a unique business model which has enabled Mullen Stoker to organically grow its client portfolio. Director Neil Mullen explains more...
When founders Neil Mullen and Gary Stoker decided to launch their own business 11 years ago, they had a clear vision. They wanted to bring the skills, expertise and professionalism of the large corporates they’d previously worked for together with a friendly, personal and trustworthy approach which they felt was missing from the industry. They assembled a team that brought over 200 years of experience to create a unique business model – based around every member of the team having their own specialism. Neil Mullen said: “Our business is based on our people. We knew what we wanted to achieve when we launched and that was why we looked for the best people to join us to create an offering that would appeal to businesses of all sizes. “We’ve all experienced the ‘director’ offer – at the start you’re promised access to the most senior and experienced staff, but in reality you are often looked after by numerous people but never the person you were meant to be supported by. “That’s not the case here. For us it’s about the personal touch so we all have our own clients that we support. That’s based on our areas of expertise, so the client knows they’re being properly advised by a member of the team who fully understands their business and their needs.” The ethos at Mullen Stoker is that every member of the team plays a key role and are as important as the next – regardless of their position within the business. That approach also shapes how the Durham-based company recruits, looking for those people that they know will share the passion and integrity that the existing 15 members of the team bring to their job. Neil added: “At every level of the business we have brought in people who are experts within their field, whether that’s accountancy, IT, administration, rural and farming or auditing and compliance. “And because they know just how important they are to Mullen Stoker’s growth, they each go above and beyond for the business. They push themselves every day because they know they’ll be rewarded with the chance to progress at the right time for us and them. “That’s something that can’t be underestimated – it allows us to offer the level of expertise you’d associate with a 75 employee-plus team with the personal touch of a micro-company that services just a handful of clients. “Our people are so important to us – they’ve been the key to our continued success since launching and will be the key to us achieving our ambitious plans for growth over the coming months and years.”
