Strategic Chartered Accountants & Business Advisors

Clients' net asset* average growth 

241% in the last five years & 582% in the last 10 years.

*retained profits after dividends and an indicator of resilience and longevity - Wood and Disney Limited Company client base, balance sheet review: 2015 - 2025

• Strategic Business Advice
• Award Winning Customer Service
• Expertise, Experience and TIME Invested in your Business

Wood and Disney are more than number-crunching accountants.

We look beyond the numbers.

We use data-driven insights, giving you Strategic Business Advice, to build your business future.

Your numbers are important.

Your numbers are a window through which you can see the innerworkings of your business; the cogs that turn to power your business forward or the brakes that hold it back. The numbers don’t lie but they are open to interpretation and how they are used (or misused) is critical. That’s why you need an advisor with the financial expertise and experience to accurately analyse, understand and explain to you the insight your numbers give into your business’ performance. That’s why Wood and Disney make producing accurate and timely annual, quarterly and monthly management accounts for our clients, central to our service as they are the foundation upon which we build the advice that we give our clients. We ask questions, and interrogate the data to make sure your accounts are accurate and true. If your numbers don’t look right, we want to know why and will drill down until we are happy that they are correct. This is vitally important as we use your numbers as the starting point for the advice, planning and strategy development that we give you. If your numbers are inaccurate or just plain wrong, then any advice based on those numbers will be at best, suspect, at worst misleading and harmful.

Beyond the numbers – the wider picture

When advising a client, we start with their financial data. But, it does not give the full picture. For a start, your financial data gives a clear picture of the financial performance or position of your business at the date of production of the data, i.e. it is historical. Plus a successful business is made up of a lot more than just getting the financials right. We could use the analogy of the human body representing your business.

• Business finances: can be thought of as the blood of the business, circulating throughout the system, providing nourishment and vitality. Healthy blood flow (strong cash flow) ensures the business functions effectively.
• Business Infrastructure: This is the skeleton of the business, providing support and structure. It includes systems, processes, and resources that keep the business running smoothly.
• Marketing and Sales: These are the muscles of the business, driving growth and revenue. They need constant exercise (campaigns, promotions) and nourishment (customer data) to stay strong and effective.
• Operations and Customer Service: These are the soft tissues that support the structure and function of the business. They need to be flexible, adaptable, and responsive to the needs of the "body" (customers).
• Branding and Reputation: This is the outward appearance of the business. It needs to be well-maintained, attractive, and reflect the health and vitality of the underlying structure.
• Human Resources: This represents the brain of the business, responsible for strategic thinking, decision-making, and managing the team.
• Technology: This is the nervous system of the business, enabling communication, coordination, and efficiency.

Wood and Disney look beyond the numbers, at your business as a complete entity. We don’t claim to be experts in all aspects of business, but we have been advising our clients for a long time now and have built up a mountain of experience in business. If we do not have the expertise in a particular area of your business that needs improvement, then we help you identify your need, and introduce you to experts and specialists who we trust and are happy to recommend.

Beyond the business – you, your life and your aspirations

Running a business can be a lonely life. Many times business owners find it difficult to talk through their problems with colleagues, family or friends. Running a business can lead to great rewards, both financial and personal, but there is an increased chance of high workload, risk, and isolation, leading to high levels of stress, anxiety and depression. A Durham University 2018 study on the prevalence and co-occurrence of psychiatric conditions among entrepreneurs showed that they experience more depression (30%), and substance mis-use (12%), than comparative participants.

Wood and Disney’s mission is “Using our skills with numbers we will provide strategic business advice to Ambitious Entrepreneurs to help them in Building Awesome Futures for themselves, their families and their communities enabling them to make better financial decisions and achieve their goals for success and wealth.” One of our most important roles is to be there for our clients to talk to. All of our discussions are held in the strictest confidence. We are often a sounding board for new ideas. A supportive, sympathetic ear when you just need to talk through your worries. We take your hand (metaphorically) and help you take a step back; help you to see your problems in perspective.

We want to help you create a business that you can enjoy. Our focus is to:

• give you confidence in your decisions,
• to take away your worries,
• to give you a stable and thriving business and
• to alleviate the pressures on you.

We want you to enjoy being in business, have fun at work, and have more time to spend with those who are special to you. We believe that most business people want the same.

Think of Wood and Disney as an investment in your Business

You may not see that the cost of an accountant is actually an investment. But with Wood and Disney, our results say otherwise:

• Our most recent client data shows that the average age of our company clients is 12.68 years,  defying the norm of business failures - the average age of a company at Companies House is just 8 years old; only 28% of businesses survive more than 10 years.
• Our clients' net asset values (retained profits after dividends and an indicator of resilience and longevity) have grown on average by 241% in the last five years and 582% in the last 10 years.

The Wood and Disney difference is that we combine expertise and experience with TIME invested in your business.

Experience

Anybody who runs a business knows that success in business depends on a lot more than just qualifications and memberships. At Wood and Disney,  the two directors have 70 years of experience between them working in Essex, Suffolk and London, and over half of the team have been with Wood and Disney for more than 20 years each. That may make us seem very old and we’re certainly not spring chickens! BUT it’s very rare for a client to come to us with a problem that we haven’t seen before and successfully solved for our clients. As the old saying goes “Experience is the Father of Wisdom” .

We don't just have experience advising our clients; we have the sort of experience you only get from running a business yourself and exposure to the challenges and pressures that fall on the shoulders of every business owner and manager. 

• Wood and Disney have first hand business experience – not just fresh faced out of uni, going straight into an established accountancy firm; we have real life practical experience of starting, building and running our own businesses. We know how difficult it is establishing and growing a business from first hand experience. Struggles with cashflow and growth, raising finance, getting our marketing mix right, finding and developing staff, we’ve faced all of these difficulties and many more. Nobody, family, friends or government, has ever given us a golden ticket to success – everything we have, we’ve built ourselves through hard work and creating opportunities ourselves.

• Wood and Disney understand what it’s like to face the pressures of running a business, the worry, the sleepless nights, the feeling of being alone and not sure of the best course of action, working all hours. Working to provide a better future for yourself and those that are important to you. We’ve been there and done it. We’ve made mistakes and learnt from them. We’ve survived through the early 1990’s recession (inflation peaked at 9.5% in 1990, with interest rates hitting a high of 14.8% on Black Wednesday), the 2008 recession (the deepest UK recession since WWII) and the Covid-19 pandemic. We use our experience of running our own businesses and helping our clients through the good times and bad, to make sure that the advice we give you is practical and works so that your business is resilient and thrives.

So yes, we are professionally qualified as Chartered Accountants – Members and Fellows of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) and accredited members of the ICAEW Business Advice Service, but we also have many, many years of experience advising clients both on the financials of their business and delivering pro-active business advice in Colchester, Essex and the East of England. But, perhaps more importantly, we are business owners. We know how to deliver success in our own business and in our clients' businesses.

• TIME to get to know you and your business
• TIME to deliver quality
• TIME to deliver proactive advice
• TIME to deliver success

We are sometimes not the cheapest option, but we are the best investment you will ever make in your business!

What our clients typically achieve with our support

• Increased profitability
• Stronger cashflow
• Higher business valuations
• Greater personal wealth

85% of our clients say they now understand their finances better

75% feel more confident about the future of their business

Based on Wood & Disney client survey, 2023.