Case Study: VIQU IT

“It’s been fantastic to see TC BSN grow and thrive as VIQU IT and our wider businesses have done the same, and I’m excited to see how our partnership evolves in the future.”

Matt Collingwood, Managing Director, VIQU IT

 

Celebrating 10 years of partnership

Founded in 2014 in Birmingham by Matt Collingwood and four other colleagues, VIQU IT is an IT recruitment agency offering IT and technical recruiting services to businesses and organisations from SMEs and start-ups, through to established household names.

TC BSN has been supporting companies with their IT recruitment for over 10 years now, and since VIQU IT’s inception, our Oldbury team has been doing the same for VIQU IT.

TC BSN’s been a cornerstone of their operations since day one. In particular, TC BSN’s Partner, Pippa Miller-Hawkes, has been instrumental to their success. She’s consistently supported the business since their launch to now, with their ongoing growth, group financial planning and strategic development.

 

A strong foundation for success

When Matt was first starting to explore the possibility of launching VIQU IT, a piece of advice he was given by multiple entrepreneurs and business owners was to get a really good accountant that could grow with the business.

Therefore, he wasn’t looking to partner with an accountant who was right for his business at the beginning, but someone who could transition and grow with them. Matt knew Pippa through his social network, so when he’d initially engaged her to talk about potentially starting a business, he was struck by the amount of effort she put in to understanding what they were wanting to do and trying to achieve.

Pippa comes from a Big 4 accounting firm background, meaning she has a process-driven, strategic mindset that Matt thought working in that kind of corporate environment can encourage. However, Pippa has an appreciation for smaller businesses too. That was evident from the start in the way she cared for her partnership with VIQU IT, even though they were a tiny business at the time.

 

Scalable support

Since then, their partnership has evolved from TC BSN supporting a single business to being integral across seven companies they operate.

Their business interests have diversified over the years, with investments in three other recruitment agencies. VIQU IT, VIQU Energy, Morela and MoveATech now form an informal recruiting group called the VIQU Group. Furthermore, Matt has three other separate business ventures he’s involved in.

Pippa has supported VIQU Group with everything from tax planning and day-to-day accounting to structuring, scaling, governance and procuring other businesses. She’s truly been alongside them on their entrepreneurial journey.

 

Aligning values with expertise

As a business owner and company director, Matt’s always taken his position seriously. Therefore, it’s been reassuring for him to partner with a firm like TC BSN – one that’s on the ball, stays ahead of regulatory and compliance changes, and aligns closely with the VIQU IT team in both working style and priorities.

Over the years, VIQU IT’s faced challenges regarding how the business is structured, but whenever they’ve had an obstacle in their path, Pippa’s always worked with Matt and their Finance Director to come up with a workable solution quickly. Pippa understands the intricacies of small businesses, and she uses her network to widen their understanding on other critical topics and to support different parts of their business journey.