Zoo Accounting Wayne, 43, clearly shares his father’s determination to dust himself down and absorb the knocks as well as enjoy the triumphs. After all, this is a man who completed two London Marathons in 2007 and 2008 without any training. His motto was if the marathon was going to beat him it would do so on the day rather than during training…..
But he’s also learnt from Mr McCormack Senior’s attitude to investment, or more precisely the lack of it.
“We will invest. The first two years of the business, I lived on credit cards for 18 months. Where possible, we do not take money out of the business for ourselves so we can use it to continually grow and develop.”
Combining his father’s never say die attitude to work with his own long-term ambitions and more visionary approach to business, Wayne has been on a largely upward curve – albeit with a few bumps along the way – ever since he landed his first job in the world of accountancy with Scrivens Opticians in inner-city Birmingham after completing a £2,000 book-keeping course sold to him by a door to door salesman.
“I knew that I wanted to be an accountant because of my ability with numbers and the commercial side of things. I was an Assistant Accountant at Scrivens, that was my foot in the door.
“I loved it there. I used to do the management accounts for the different shops. I would go through the accounts to see how the shops were performing. Why is Northfield making more than Yardley? I was learning all the time.”
Finding career progress blocked by a more senior accountant, Wayne moved to the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) in Birmingham in another trainee role. “I left Scrivens on good terms. One of the owners took me to one side and tried to convince me to stay. I had wandered into accountancy, but happily so. It (EEF) was a similar role to Scrivens, but more defined.
“I met up with some really good people at the EEF, colleagues I have kept in touch with. I was there for about five years.”
Undeterred by Redundancy
Wayne found himself redundant following a restructuring but was undeterred. “All of this is just fate,” he says today of his chequered career history.
His next role was with accountancy software providers Infor Global Solutions at Blythe Valley Park in Solihull – “I worked there for about a year, it was only temporary, I was always looking for the next job that would assist in my development” – before switching to Sanctuary Housing, one of the UK’s leading social landlords, in a role based in Worcester.
After three years he was again made redundant – “I sat down and cried, I do not understand why I was so bothered, I hadn’t seen it coming, I struggle with trusting others in business and what happened there made me feel betrayed. I think it goes back to that.”
Once more, Wayne bounced back and secured a new job with office space specialists Citibase in Birmingham city centre for a five-year stint where he was to meet Zeta Hewings, a fellow colleague. The seeds for what would become Zoo Accounting were slowly being sown.
“She quickly got promoted through the ranks and became equivalent to me. We worked together there for two or three years jointly managing the finance team.”
Wayne had earned extra income by undertaking freelance self-assessment work for clients and finally decided to take the plunge and, eventually in tandem with Zeta, branch out with a new venture, initially as Stealth Financial Services, and later as Alphabet Business Consultants based in Redditch before hitting on Zoo Accounting and Business Solutions.
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