The one with the rudely long eyelashes | Saldo accounting

I really dislike accounting, or no it's wrong, disliked is more true.

Accounting today is actually exciting and creates a lot of great meetings with great people. I left accounting about 26 years ago because I found it extremely rigid, boring and unsexy. The restaurant business called, a number of cafes, restaurants, bars, bloody good fun and lots of alcohol later this era was over. Thank goodness. The coolest industry in the world but oh what it wears on you. In the meantime we had started a small agency to help businesses in the restaurant industry, there were many who needed help. Back to those primordial, uncreative piles of paper. At the same time, it was nice to get out of the smoke of the restaurant world.

Then the thing that only happens in fairy tales happened, into our then shabby, dark, small accounting office he walks, that handsome, tall, young 22-year-old with those unabashedly long eyelashes. Matias Aphram, the saviour and saviour. Internship at Saldo with the promise of a possible job. He accepted and took it upon himself to ask - Why do you work like this? We didn't have a good answer, we thought it was a pretty lousy way to work ourselves. Matias continued, "Why don't we do it this way? He showed us and we said yes, why don't we do it this way. This was about 10 years ago, and that beautiful guy started our change towards digital accounting.

Shredding envelopes, folding receipts, copying documents, inserting invoices into different binders, moving from one binder to another. Terribly tedious and a hole in the head. Agda, 57, the fastest person in analogue bookkeeping, no longer works for us. Now it's Michael, Alex, Elena, Evelina and others, who all come in with a completely different way of thinking and a different attitude. Paper lovers don't bother to cross our threshold. Customers loved digital, we loved it. Our clients loved it, we loved it. We could now get on with our lives without a lot of unnecessary double and triple work. We could start living, customers were happier and everyone's profitability was much better. All's well that ends well.

For us, yes, but why isn't that the case in all agencies and why hasn't it happened more than it has is the question. I am extremely curious, at the same time I know the answer. Besides the fact that fearful agency owners are a bit everywhere, the fault also lies with business owners who don't dare to change the way they work and don't require digital management. If you are one of them, the call is; you need to start changing, you need to start taking some steps forward. Come on, we'll help you!

I get on my race bike, on my way home one early Friday afternoon with a new customer in my headset. She talks about their change. Helena, as she is called, now picks up her children at school twice a week, this never happened before. She and her husband now hang out together several nights a week. Among other things, she said; "When I started my business, my goal was to get more freedom, but it's only now that I've got it. A big thank you to you."

This is part of my desire and power to do what I do every day. The longer I work, the more similar stories I hear.

I come home after cruising through the now hectic bike traffic of Stockholm, set the table for dinner, which for the evening is bought in the neighborhood's awesome Indian restaurant. Lovely aroma and fantastic taste.

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Our intern, our savior, the one with those long eyelashes, Matias Aphram, is now CEO and partner with us at Saldo, that's how it can go.

Join us on our journey, and let yourself be inspired.

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Mattias Segerbrand

Creative leader

Saldo Accounting

Agency of the Year 2017