This month, McCarthy Browne enters its 5th year in business — a milestone that deserves celebrating.
Many businesses don’t make it this far, and we’re incredibly proud (and grateful) that we have. But behind every success story, there’s a beginning — and ours started not with a grand plan, but with a moment of crisis.
In early 2020, when the world shifted overnight, so did our lives.
I’d left my career in accounting and bookkeeping — despite holding a degree in the field — because traditional roles simply didn’t work around my young children. The lack of flexibility, the long hours, and the constant juggle made it unsustainable. I moved into the beauty and chiropody industry to gain that flexibility… only for it to stop overnight during the Covid lockdowns.
With an autoimmune condition, I was already living life carefully. But suddenly, with both income and security gone, I had to make a decision — not just for myself, but for my family.
So I turned to what I knew: numbers, businesses, people.
I had already been doing bookkeeping for friends and family. I took a leap and turned that into a business — because I had to. There was no safety net. I needed to keep a roof over our heads.
When the furlough scheme launched, I quickly realised I needed help with payroll. So I asked my sister, Stacey, to join me. She had been the payroll manager at British Gas, and that decision became the beginning of McCarthy Browne. From that moment, things started to grow quickly.
💡 What began out of necessity grew into something much more powerful:
✅ A business that provides financial stability
✅ The time freedom to be present with our children — no more asking for holidays or fighting to balance school runs and sick days
✅ A working life on our own terms — something that, pre-Covid, was rarely offered to women in our industry
✅ And above all, a way to serve others with heart, honesty and real-world understanding
We didn’t plan this journey — but we built it together, with resilience, grit and a whole lot of care.
Together, we’ve grown a business built on trust, heart, and resilience. It has given us not only financial stability, but something even more valuable — time freedom. The freedom to be there for our children, to take holidays without permission, and to shape a life that traditional employment never allowed.
Before Covid, flexible, remote, and family-friendly roles in accounting were almost unheard of — especially for women. We decided to change that.
To our wonderful clients and referral partners: thank you for believing in us. Your trust and support have made this journey possible.
And to anyone standing at the edge of a decision, wondering if they can build something from nothing: you can. You already have more than you think.
Here’s to five years of McCarthy Browne — and to what comes next.
