He spent the early wintery days enthusiastically prowling local high streets touting for work. It wasn’t very successful!
Chris founded Maslins.
Signed up as accounting partner with little known cloud-based start-up, FreeAgent. It didn’t seem significant at the time…but it was a turning point.
Chris’s sister-in-law, Geri, started working 2 days/week as a trial. It worked well. Her hours gradually increased to become our first full time trainee.
Chris and his wife re-mortgaged their home and emptied the business piggy bank to buy and refurbish “The Old Bakery”. Staff would no longer work from Chris’s home! It remains the firm’s office to this day.
Recruited our first non-family member, Julie Falchevska. This was the third time she’d applied, though the first time we were advertising a vacancy! Her persistence paid off and we snapped her up! 8 years later, Julie leads the firm as a director.
FreeAgent was booming, our client numbers increasing rapidly too. Maslins grew from 2 to 8 staff during this time, including our fluffiest recruit, Hamish.
IR35 changes hit the public sector, then later the private sector. With contractors a core part of our client base, this was a tricky time, but we came through it stronger!
A pandemic hit the UK, you may have heard. We went from 100% office based to 100% remote over 3 days. The commitment of the team saw us through that, plus furlough/similar assistance for clients. Sometimes you need to break things to build them back better. We now have a hybrid WFH scheme that staff love.
A momentous event, Maslins becomes employee owned! Chris took a big step back from the business and transferred most of the company’s shares to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).
Julie Falchevska and Gareth Shaw are formally promoted as Directors of Maslins Ltd to drive the business forward.
