The Consultant Clinic began life in Preston in 2014. It was set up by Ffyona McKeating to provide nonsurgical facial rejuvenation to prospective patients. She was completely determined to provide a top quality, natural looking service that would use the very best products available and only be carried out by fully qualified medical professionals. With so much adverse press and controversy about some of these products throughout the media, she was convinced there was a market for a genuine professional approach, and used consultant doctors – hence the title “Consultant Clinic”.
Given that five years on she now operates internationally from 14 centres across three continents, including Beverly Hills, Dubai, New York and Harley Street in London, it would seem her conviction was correct.
The Consultant Clinic offers a wide range of non-surgical treatments using various dermal fillers, mostly with the aim of smoothing the skin and reducing wrinkles. They only use the safest, reversible, medical grade fillers and every treatment is carried out by a qualified doctor or dentist. The clinic has won several prestigious industry awards over the past couple of years which demonstrate the high esteem in which it is held within the medical aesthetics industry.
The Consultant Clinic has experienced unprecedented growth since its inception and now has clinics across the world from the United States of America to the United Arab Emirates. Their success is surely testament to their professionalism and the quality of their service and treatments.
Whitehead & Aldrich weren’t The Consultant Clinic’s first accountant when the business was initially set up and Ffyona’s opinion of accountants really can’t be described as anything other than very negative. Ffyona commented, “Let’s just say my first accountant wasn’t very communicative or supportive, particularly with someone setting up a new business and leave it at that”.
Ffyona was so disappointed with her original accountant that she took to surfing the internet in search of a new one and discovered Whitehead & Aldrich. She was impressed with their website and in particular their Google reviews. They were local so she took the plunge and contacted them. Ffyona’s initial contact was with Jonathan Hughes-Deane although she now has regular contact with many of the Whitehead & Aldrich team, in particular James Jensen. She’s finding Whitehead & Aldrich like a breath of fresh air, and very different to her previous stale grey accountants. She used to panic when her old accountant rang up, but not anymore. Ffyona now feels she has a team that really care about her and her business, and are genuinely excited about her successes, keen to implement structure into her exponentially growing business.
The Consultant Clinic has grown extremely rapidly with profits doubling year on year. It’s now the largest clinic group of its type in the world, having seen 250,000 patients at clinics from New York to Dubai. Of course, this growth is down to Ffyona’s incredible drive, business acumen, determination and ambition, but she admits that Whitehead & Aldrich have been a key part of the development of the business.
She continues, “They’ve always been around to advise on the best way to do things financially or set things up as I was growing, and helped me to project years down the line, creating a smart and robust structure for me to work within. I do tend to travel a lot with work, so it’s paramount I can get hold of them by whatever method is most convenient for me, be that telephone, email or WhatsApp message. Whatever I use, I always get a cheerful and informative response from them, and at all times. They’ve implemented software that makes me genuinely look forward to doing my books, daily. Their flexibility makes them so easy to work with and they never, ever make me feel foolish when asking them about accountancy and business related questions. To be honest, this is completely opposite to my original accountant, they always made me feel stupid, to the point where I was afraid to ask for advice.”
Another point Ffyona makes, somewhat wryly is, “They even have a way of softening the blow when they explain to me that I’ve got a whopping big tax bill coming because we’ve been so successful, even though I know they’ve done everything feasible to make the bill as small as possible!”. Ffyona adds, “Being treated fairly and with complete transparency, and being able to trust my accountant is of great importance to me, especially when I’m so busy. We’re both straight and true, and think similarly – they are a perfect fit.”
Operating a business internationally presents some complex accounting issues, particularly as Ffyona is always adamant that she wants to pay tax due to the local economies involved. This means that Whitehead & Aldrich have had to cope with the tax regimes of several different countries. Ffyona said, “Understandably they don’t immediately know how the tax system works for example, in Dubai, but I’ve always had absolute confidence that they will go and find out, even if this means consulting with local experts. The key thing is that I just never have to worry about things like that. I know that’s what your accountant should do for you, but I know from experience that isn’t always the case”.
As to the future, The Consultant Clinic plans to expand the number of treatments they offer, particularly by moving into plastic surgery and dentistry. They also plan to expand further throughout the United States and have six more international clinics planned for the next 18 months. Exciting times to come, but one thing Ffyona is absolutely convinced about is that she’ll be taking Whitehead & Aldrich with her, wherever she goes and wouldn’t ever be without them or their services.