Our News:

	Postcard from Nevis - another happy matureaccountant .	27/06/2008
	Some wags said : "Nevis position - that'll be horizontal, then?" It's now three weeks since I arrived here in Charlestown, Nevis in the West Indies and the temperature is hot - usually around 30 C in the day and about 28 C at night. I had already met up with some of the staff at their annual group party in Surrey (prior to being offered the position) and in Guernsey and Sark for a few days to get a company teach-in. That was interesting and sociable - and I hadn't been to the Channel Islands before. So day 1 in Nevis wasn't a complete shock. My wife, Pauline, accompanied me on our journey out. The first flight was by 747 to Antigua and then an 18 seater for the half hour onward flight to Nevis. She then spent a week getting to know the place before returning to the UK. For the first week we also had a team of executives from Head Office for the Nevis office's quarterly meeting so I was thrown into the thick of it. Pauline will return to Nevis once she leaves her employer in England at the end of July. The company works in offshore financial services setting up and administering companies for clients to take advantage of Nevis's favourable regimes. My role is to concentrate on the internal accounts which were mostly run from Guernsey previously and to keep in order the many clients accounting and production of their statutory accounts, and I report to the finance team in the HO in Guernsey. This is to enable the local MD to deal with new business and operational work. I had been looking at the MatureAccountants.com website for a while. I realised after taking early retirement, a few years back, after 18 years in senior - but not top management, that I neither really wanted nor was likely to get a conventional senior position. And my age, 56, probably didn't help. However when this position in the Caribbean came up it looked 'just the job'. I gather there was a fair size response and am still surprised that I got the position. It certainly wouldn't suit everyone particularly in tems of lack of cultural events and non-availability of everyday UK items (eg your usual newspaper, the BBC, supermarkets, handbags and shoes). And I'm sure Pauline will miss some things too! Thank you Martin for the opportunity and well done MA. (the photo is of me on the balcony of the company flat where I'm staying with the bay and Nevis Peak in the background)
	Mature Sales & Marketing completes our Mature Brand	12/05/2008
	www.maturesalesandmarketing.com is going to be run under license by Trevor Lane an experienced sales and marketing practitioner with over 20 years experience. Trevor began his career in 1986 in a Field Sales role working for Scottish & Newcastle Breweries. Since then he has progressed through Sales Management, Key Account Management (including the big 4 UK retailers), Key Account Controller and International Business Development in various companies. Add to this his roles in Marketing and own label experience along the way and we have secured the perfect partner to head up our new Mature Sales and Marketing Brand. Seeking new challenges in 2006 Trevor set up his own Training and Sales Consultancy, Bespoke Training Associates Ltd. He is now looking to expand his own business experience by matching experienced sales and marketing candidates that can hit the ground running with the right roles. We believe that Trevor will also be able to hit the ground running by calling on his 23 years of front line sales and marketing experience to place the right candidates with the right company. If you know any sales and marketing practitioners that might benefit from our unique approach to recruitment please let them know. If you know any businesses that recruit sales and marketing personnel, then I am sure that Trevor would like to hear from you and you can contact him at: trevor@maturesalesandmarketing.com.
	Already mature - MDs' join the party.	17/04/2008
	Stop Press - Maturemd.com is launched Martin the mature accountant and Peter the mature MD do the deal.
	Lawyers reach maturity.	04/04/2008
	Maturelawyers.com is launched Martin the mature accountant and Ed the mature lawyer do the deal.
	Mature Lawyers launches
	It is just over 2 years since we started Mature Accountants and I am delighted to announce that we are launching a new "mature" brand on Monday 17th March. Maturelawyers.com is going to be run under license by Ed Simpson an experienced London-based lawyer who fancies a new challenge. Ed began his career with leading City firm Ashurst, where he spent 7 years specialising in public and private M&A, UK listed securities, private equity investments and general corporate matters. Between 1996 and 2007, Ed worked for in-house legal departments in both private and public companies in the telecommunications, upstream oil & gas, lease finance and technology transfer industries where he developed his experience of a wide range of commercial contracts, corporate issues affecting both private and public companies, private equity investment, UK employment law, IP licensing, and dispute resolution. He has been both company secretary and head of legal at listed companies. Seeking a change of lifestyle, Ed established his own practice, Faraday's Law, in May 2007. He is now expanding his practice to include matching businesses that need experienced lawyers with candidates that can deliver. After nearly 20 years Ed has plenty of first-hand experience of dealing with the recruitment process both as a candidate and a recruiter. If you know any lawyers that might benefit from our approach to recruitment please let them know. If you know any businesses that recruit lawyers, including law firms and in-house corporate teams then I am sure that Ed would like to hear from you and you can contact him at ed@maturelawyers.com. This is the next stage of our "mature" evolution and we are currently discussing other variations on the theme including: * Mature Managing Directors * Mature Sales & Marketing * Mature HR If you are interested in developing a "mature" brand please contact me to discuss further - martin@matureaccountants.com
	matureaccountants sponsors the Accountancy Age Employer of the Year award 2007	15/11/2007
	Matureaccountants sponsored the Accountancy Age Employer of the Year award last night - (14th Nov 2007) Click here to watch the video The award was presented by Martin at the Accountancy Age Awards for Excellence on 14th November 2007 at Battersea Park Arena, Battersea, London. Attended by nearly 1,300 guests, the presentation evening was a spectacular occasion and guests include key figures throughout the practice and business community – including senior partners and financial directors from some of the largest companies in the UK. Host for the evening was Boris Johnson - pretender to the throne of Mayor! Winners were BDO, one of Martin's old firms! Martin plans his evening's drinking - champagne nicely matured Sara shows Martin the technique for getting a word in with Boris prior to going up on stage. Many thanks to all our members who sent their goodwishes before the event. It was great to see Martin up with the big boys - we have come quite a way in just two years.
	Reaching Parts Others Cannot Reach!
	Greetings from war torn Iraq ! This has been a marvellous appointment for me. As I am based in Erbil, life is peaceful amongst the Kurds. Even though there is a lot of posturing between PKK and the Turks, that is in the mountains and quite a way from here. The work is pretty straightforward and, financially, it has made a huge difference to us – my wife is delighted! Monies are all tax free and everything is paid for – accommodation, food, laundry, driver and even booze. This a small office. I have no staff, which suits me, and I run the finances for 4 high earning, high charging lawyers. The other part of my job is work as a management consultant, charging myself out to the American and British companies out here. There is a great deal of oil exploration going on so you can imagine the client list. Local accounting expertise is pretty dire so often these companies are grateful for my knowledge and “mature” experience. The only downside (apart from missing my wife and daughters) is that I get paid in dollars. Every time I look at the rate it gets worse (for me anyway). I can’t believe it can dip much further so the positive is that if it moves to, say, $1.88 to the £ I get a 10% increase. Sorry to be selfish but a UK slump would suit me perfectly. Thank you once again for the introduction. My wife thanks you, my bank manager thanks you. All the best Alan Crawford
	Matureaccountants: better than Heineken!
	Martin, A note to say how much I appreciate the help given by matureaccountants.com. Since I started looking about 3 months ago, I have applied for loads of jobs via other web-sites and not even had a reply to most of them. In a situation like that you start to wonder whether because of your age you are wasting your time. You know you're capable of doing a job but recruiters appear to have written you off. Anyway I saw your advert for a very interesting job in Malaysia, applied, was interviewed and I start next month. Very exciting times! I definitely recommend your organisation and it's a concept that will work. There must be loads of mature accountants like myself (not on £80,000 a year!) who want a fresh challenge and are more than capable of making a significant contribution to whichever organisation hires them. Best wishes in your endeavours. Kind regards, Duncan MacLeod
	Matureaccounts: Finalists for the 2007 eBusiness Awards
	Following weeks of preparation by companies from across the East Midlands, 26 of the region’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have been chosen as finalists for the 2007 eBusiness Awards, with winners being announced on Thursday 22nd February at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham. Over 100 entries from across the East Midlands were received from a host of new and exciting companies who have the realised the benefits of using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to run their business. The eBusiness Awards, previously known as the eCommerce Awards, recognise companies across the East Midlands who have demonstrated the best use of ICT. SMEs account for over 95% of the region's businesses and investment in ICT has a crucial role to play in the Regional Economic Strategy (RES) published by emda in July last year. In the Category - Best eBusiness start up: Adoptahen Cruise Ahead Ltd fillmybelly.com Mature Accountants Ltd Q Car Ltd The Plate Market
	Martins Newsletter
	Newsletter from Martin (Jan 07) Click for pdf download
	Matureaccountants agree strategic alliance with 8020 Financial Management
	We have negotiated a fantastic franchising opportunity for OUR MEMBERS with 8020 Financial: If you are interested in kick-starting a new business then the 8020 model could work for you. Read more details here.
	Nottingham Business Venture: Spirit of Enterprise Awards 2006
	Having been shortlisted for the SAGA 106.6fm Business Achievement Award for people aged 50+ Martin won the award last night at a glittering ceremony held at the Council House in Nottingham for what MatureAccountants has achieved in the last 12 months. In his acceptance speech Martin noted that in the last week alone we have found jobs for 3 candidates with a combined age of 162!
	Our first-ever placement wows the client and gets the job done on time.
	Dear Martin, I had a lovely send-off today, even though I've billed tomorrow and been paid. They gave me a card & 4 bottles of high quality wine. Come and enjoy it with me! You really could not have picked a nicer team for me. Many many thanks. Robert Ropner
	Helping hand for older accountants seeking
	A job-seekers' website for mature accountants that was created as a result of an article in Accountancy Age is now finding jobs for its subscribers. From Accountancy Age, 18 Jan 2006 Read it here..
	Mature Accountants opens its London office ...	02/07/2006
	on the 4th Floor, Trafalgar House, 11 Waterloo Place, London SW1Y 4AU as Sara Longmuir joins the team. Sara is a Chartered Accountant with extensive corporate experience, including working as an FD. She now runs Coaching Talent providing executive coaching and training. She's also a certified trainer of NLP. As our London and South East Regional Director Sara will handle enquiries and placements in the area. After one day in her role Sara secured an assignment in West London and on day two she was asked to recruit an FD for a National Charity. Sara is developing a number of resources, including profiling tools, how to write great CVs and interview techniques. She is offering coaching to our members at special rates. Even a few sessions can have real impact. "Being an MD often involves putting out fires. The coaching time lets me focus on what's really important for the business and for me. I've seen the benefit across the board in everything I do, not just work. I've been singing your praises to lots of people.Phenomenally valuable!" Managing Director, London Sara is offering the first hour of coaching at a 50% discount, and all subsequent coaching is discounted by 10% to our members. See www.coachingtalent.com for how this could be of use both in your business and personal life.
	A dating agency	03/12/2007
	"A dating agency for the mature accountant" Martin's letter in the FT.