Mazuma is a national service specialising in providing monthly bookkeeping and accountancy to sole traders, the self-employed and owners managing limited companies throughout the UK.
 
Sophie Hughes had always wanted to be an accountant. After completing her A-levels, she heard about AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) and how it offered a fast track non-graduate route into chartered accountancy. Sophie said: I knew university wasn’t the right option for me, the AAT seemed like the perfect first step into my chosen career and a quicker route to my end goal.

Lucy Cohen took a gap year after her A-levels and worked as a runner for television and film. Quickly realising that being a runner wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, Lucy started seriously thinking about accountancy and came across the AAT. After consideration, Lucy thought the AAT was the best all round qualification out there and immediately knew she’d made the right decision as soon as the course started.

Lucy and Sophie bumped into each other by chance at the very last AAT exam revision class in Cardiff. Previously being old school friends, they went for a glass of wine and in December, 2006, Mazuma was born.

Lucy and Sophie have expanded quickly and now have an array of branches throughout the UK and they’ve recently moved into a new head office in Bridgend, West Cardiff to allow room for even more expansion! They currently have over twenty staff and almost two thousand clients nationwide. They have also just opened their first office internationally, in Salt Lake City, US.

Lucy commented: We’re continually evolving and growing as a business. We spotted a gap in the marketplace and took advantage. We offer a service like no other - easy to understand, no fuss and low cost. Our customers appreciate this approach and we go to great lengths to always make sure the customer comes first.

They have won numerous awards such as HSBC Start Up Stars, UK Winner, 2010, HSBC Start Up Stars, Wales Regional winner, 2010, National Chamber of Commerce: Winners of Wales Region, Excellence in Customer Service for two years running, South Wales Business Award: Finalists in 'Business Service Business of the Year' Award - August 2009 and the list continues on.

The awards have been won in recognition of their “Purpleforce Package” which allows any customer to add in a few details online, the customer immediately gets a quote and then a welcome pack is sent out with twelve purple freepost envelopes. The customer puts their accounts, invoices, sales figures into one of the purple envelopes, pops it in the post and then an email is sent to the customer saying that the envelope has been received and within five working days, the accounts are sent back - done and dusted!

Lucy and Sophie’s success continues to flourish. Lucy says: Other budding entrepreneurs out there should not be put off by the continued economic downturn. When we first started out, not many people believed in us or our business proposition. However we knew we had a good idea and we persevered and look where we’ve ended up.
Sophie further adds: University isn’t always the best option, we wouldn’t be where we are today if we hadn’t studied with AAT. We’ve been able to climb the career ladder faster and we’ve got transferable skills which we’ve used in our business from day one.

To find out more about Mazuma please visit www.mazumamoney.co.uk