AAT success stories: building a seven-figure accounting firm in five years

Rachel Harris has created a successful business, worked with Downing Street and landed a regular finance column in Stylist magazine across half a decade. Here, she talks about making it happen and the role AAT has played in her career.

Rachel Harris at a glance…

Age: 30
Years in accounting: 5
Name of businesses: @accountant_she and striveX
Top tip for students: Say yes to things that scare you and be ready to push through the discomfort.

Rachel Harris FMAAT loved maths at school but was told by a careers adviser that she would find accountancy “too boring”. Given that she now runs an accountancy business with clients including celebrities from Love Island, The Traitors and Dragons’ Den, makes regular television appearances and has worked with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, that advice has turned out to be rather wide of the mark.

When Harris first started out with an AAT qualification, she could not have imagined that it would one day lead her to Downing Street, a BBC show and a column in one of the UK’s leading women’s magazines. But, like many people who have started their accountancy journey with AAT, she found the qualification opened doors far beyond spreadsheets and tax returns.

Opening doors to a vibrant new career

Coming from a disadvantaged background, Harris decided not to go to university but instead took a business administration apprenticeship in the finance department of Cherwell District Council in Oxfordshire. She wanted to get practical experience of working and studying as she self-funded AAT Level 2, then worked in industry while being funded through Levels 3 and 4. “I was a free school meals and charity shop kid, so university was not an option,” she explains.

In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, she studied for an MBA at Cranfield School of Management in Bedfordshire, using the course to create and research her business strategy to build a dream accountancy business that disrupted traditional models. Upon completion, she set up an accountancy business called striveX and created @accountant_she, which builds her personal brand, attracts new clients and delivers business growth.

Harris has leveraged the core accountancy skills she learnt with AAT into a dynamic new career. Her personal brand on social media provides regular content and financial advice for the business owners and would-be accountants who follow her. Through short-form content, she also shows the human side of running a firm, highlighting the real highs and tough days of business ownership with honesty and humour.

That storytelling landed her a regular writing role with Stylist magazine, where she covers financial issues affecting women. She says that her online content, which started in a small way, was the key to attracting the interest of Stylist and Downing Street.

“Even when you think no one is looking, they are,” she says. “My content aims to challenge the stereotype of an accountant and show what ambition and leadership looks like when you are a young woman in finance.”

Her work with Downing Street has enabled her to communicate to government what business owners are looking for and she has participated in press conferences, including the spring statement with chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Yet Harris is also honest about how hard she is working to run the business, lead her team and carve out a spare hour each day to walk her black Labrador.

Five key highlights from Rachel’s career journey

• She started with an AAT qualification, which laid the foundation for building her own successful accounting firm.
• Harris scaled her business to two offices – Oxford and Manchester – with a growing team and newly approved audit licence.
• She built a personal brand with more than 120,000 Instagram followers, using storytelling to make finance accessible and engaging.
• She became the first financial columnist for Stylist magazine, offering fresh, honest takes on financial topics for women.
• Harris has collaborated with Downing Street, advising on financial literacy, representing business owners and even joining press briefings.

The future: AI and human skills combined

Within the accountancy industry, there has been much debate about the impact of AI, with some gloomy predictions suggesting that it will reduce the number of jobs available to new accountants. Harris sees AI as an opportunity and another tool in her skillset. She wants to champion it as a tool to enhance, not replace, accountants, emphasising the importance of critical thinking and human judgment in financial work.

“I probably use AI between 20 and 40 times a day,” she says. “Accountants are not going to be replaced by AI. They are more likely to be replaced by accountants who can use AI better than them.”

Her wider mission is clear – making financial education accessible for everyone, especially for those who, like Harris once did, feel like outsiders to the world of money.

“I accidentally became financially educated because I wanted to become an accountant,” she says. “What about the people who don’t want to become accountants but want to understand ISAs or Premium Bonds?”

Harris’s career shows what can happen when talent, determination and a professional qualification come together. For any AAT student wondering how to get started, she suggests you start with one platform and one purpose.

“Say yes to things that scare you and be ready to push through the discomfort,” she explains. “With the right mindset and your AAT qualifications, being an accountant can be the most exciting job in the world.”

This article was first published in Oct-Nov 25 edition of AAT Student magazine here.

Further reading

AAT success stories: swapping animal care for a career in finance

AAT success stories: studying alongside playing professional football

AAT success stories: escaping slavery and finding a new life with AAT

Marianne Curphey is an award-winning financial writer and columnist, and author of the book How Money Works. She worked as City Editor at The Guardian, deputy editor of Guardian online, and has worked for The Times, Telegraph and BBC.