Colin Fowler

I joined the Chester office in 1988, qualified as a Chartered Accountant and since then have had (and still have) the privilege of working with some really great team members and clients and have seen our people, systems and procedures continually develop and evolve.

We have always invested in IT infrastructure and software and been ahead of the curve in many respects and I am glad to see this is continuing since becoming part of the DJH group.

My main area of expertise is in advising and working with individuals and owner manager businesses, assisting them with their personal and business compliance needs and also being a point of contact for a wide range of client advisory services.

In my time I have been Chairman of the local ICAEW Chester & North Wales branch and have held treasurer positions for various clubs and associations that I have been involved with.

My role now also involves assisting with student development. Seeing students develop in confidence and ability and providing excellent service and advice to our client base is a very satisfying experience.

• What makes DJH great…

  It’s our clients.

  Our clients are diverse in their individual and business needs and nature and what we are really good at is being able to cope with pretty much anything that may be “thrown at us”. There’s a wide breadth of knowledge and support within the office which is further enhanced by being part of the DJH group and associated partners. That enables us to deal with the routine day to day work, but also to be able to taken on more challenging matters that enliven our days.

  I have always believed that it is it is good to have a real challenge every now and then, although you perhaps don’t need a challenge every single day!

• My most trusted piece of advice in business is…

  Keep on top of things, know where you stand and always consider taking advice before you enter into something where you don’t fully understand the accounting and taxation consequences. Having an awareness of the impact of any decision making is always better before rather than after the decision is taken.

  I like to think that we are really approachable here, conversations with clients is always a pleasure and there is nothing more satisfying than being able to make clients aware of the impact of their decisions.

• On a Saturday morning, you’ll usually find me…

  In the woods, competing against my eldest son on the Blaidd Field Archery site just outside Wrexham.

  Having played (and still play) badminton and midweek cricket for many years (in fact too many to want to work out ), field archery is a new challenge.

  For those who haven’t experienced field archery before it has many similarities to golf, walking up and down hills, judging distances, different target settings and in differing weather conditions, but the main difference is that you get to walk round and shoot a bow and arrow – you can’t do that on a golf course !!

  Like golf, archery is a challenging activity, but with great satisfaction on those days where everything clicks.