How a booming Harborough business has defied the Covid-19 pandemic to smash the £2 million turnover barrier

A booming Market Harborough business has defied the Covid-19 pandemic to smash the £2 million turnover barrier.

Myriad Associates is a specialist R&D tax credit and innovation grant consultancy based on St Mary’s Road, Market Harborough.

The high-flying firm helps companies all over the UK secure the maximum amount of R&D tax relief to fund critical research and development projects.

Myriad Associates has worked flat out to grow at an astonishing 20 per cent – as they recruited four more staff – during the toughest year for businesses ever in peacetime.

Chief executive Barrie Dowsett is thrilled as he’s brilliantly built up his thriving brainchild from scratch over the last nine years.

Vowing to carry on growing, Barrie said he was dedicated to offering his growing army of customers a “seven-star service”.

“As I’m a qualified accountant I knew I wanted to start a business that was finance-related in the service sector.

“But I didn’t just want to do general compliance work like bookkeeping, management accounts, self-assessments, VAT returns, etc.

“You can make a living from doing that type of thing.

“But because everyone’s doing it, it’s hard work, and it just wasn’t exciting enough,” said Barrie.

He said that working as a group finance director for a large manufacturing business had helped him to set up and run a highly-successful business.

“I love innovation - so starting an R&D tax consultancy felt like a natural fit.

“I was able to utilise my accounting brain and experience and apply it to an area I was incredibly passionate about - innovative businesses!

“Without a doubt, the biggest challenge was (and still is) finding team members,” said Barrie.

“Recruiting talented people that have a passion for the business.

“Nine years after I started the company, I’m proud to say that we are now an incredibly strong team of 17.

“At the end of the day, we’re a people business.

“We deliver our service through the expertise we have.

“That’s our greatest asset.

“We’re about to launch Myriad Associates in France.

“We’ll start by offering our seven-star R&D tax and grant consultancy service.

“Then, after that’s been established, we’ll look to introduce our French clients to Tax Cloud.”

Asked for the secret to his success, Barrie replied simply: “People.

“It’s the people within the business that makes it a success.

“It’s as simple as that.

“This business is growing because we get such great client responses,” he said.

“To get those great responses, we recruit happy, talented people.

“If we can keep doing that, we will continue to grow.”