Spacecubed, a start-up co-working space in Western Australia is where Adam Stannett CA spent one day a week for three months, helping founders with financial challenges while learning about the start-up world.

As a senior manager at Westcourt Family Business Accountants in Perth, he had no prior experience with startups.

The CA in Residence program pushed Stannett out of his comfort zone. He says it improved his networking, presentation, and public speaking skills and gave him insights and knowledge he could share with his firm and clients.

“It also enhanced my sales skills because it made me polish my elevator pitch about our practice. I’ve had to answer: Who am I? What does our firm do? What makes you different?’ I got a lot better and more confident at it as time went on.”

Stannett joined the CA in Residence program because he wanted to push himself and win new clients. His practice, with 14 accountants, specialises in family-owned businesses.

“My big thing was just putting myself out there,” he says. “By building relationships with founders from scratch, I wanted to see how I could teach them a few tips and tricks — such as the difference between cashflow and profit — and make their lives easier and businesses better.”

How was the experience?

As part of the CA in Residence program, Adam Stannett CA spent one day a week at Spacecubed, networking with early-stage entrepreneurs. He connected with staff to promote his availability on platforms like Slack and focused on explaining the value of the Chartered Accountancy brand and how it benefits start-ups.

Founders would often set up meetings with him -, on the phone or in person -, to discuss general issues or ask specific questions. He also spoke at a pre-accelerator event for people at the business idea stage, discussing what financial literacy they needed to pitch to investors.

He learned how to simplify much of the complex technical accountancy-speak to make it more relevant to startups. “A lot of it was also explaining the brand value of having a Chartered Accountant,” he says. “Showing them what a CA can bring to the table to accelerate their growth.”

Attending networking events on Thursday and Friday evenings was also essential. “After-hours they were more relaxed, and we’d start to workshop a few ideas,” Stannett says. “I set myself a target of having a really good chat with at least one founder per event and begin a relationship.”

Stannett emphasises that the CA in Residence program is not a fishing trip for new clients. “It’s essentially a goodwill exercise that might pay off down the track” , he says.

Since finishing the program last year, he has continued to attend Spacecubed networking events every fortnight and deepening relationships with some founders and starting new ones.