A stranger on LinkedIn decided a business owner's £90,000 turnover wasn't "healthy." Yet they had no context of what it actually took to get there.

A comment thread about VAT registration turned into one accountant judging another accountant's client, and it struck a nerve with me. Turnover means nothing without the story behind it, and business owners deserve better than being judged by the people meant to support them.

I'm sharing:

• The LinkedIn comment that questioned whether hitting the VAT threshold really counts as a "healthy turnover".
• Why the same number can mean completely different things depending on someone's circumstances.
• Why so many business owners feel too nervous to ask their accountant a "stupid" question.
• Why judgment from anyone you pay for advice should be a red flag, not something you just accept.
• Why now's the time to advocate for yourself if a service provider isn't giving you what you actually need.

Nobody gets to decide what counts as success in your business except you. They weren't there for the late nights, the risk, or the reason you started in the first place.

Let's Connect:

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Right Click Accounting

Blackline Academy

Episode Title:

Five Regulatory Changes Hitting UK Business Owners All At Once

Description:

Right now, UK business owners are facing several major regulatory and legislative changes landing at once, each one separate, each one significant, and together they're creating real pressure. This episode walks through what's changing and why it matters, without expecting you to become an expert in any of it.

I'm sharing:

• Making Tax Digital, and why HMRC are starting to mandate anyone who hasn't already registered
• The AML supervision reform, which will move anti-money laundering oversight for accountants and other regulated professionals to the FCA
• The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, including new identity verification rules for company directors
• The Employment Rights Bill, and why it's making some businesses hire more cautiously
• Data protection and AI, and why now's a good time to review how your business handles data under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025

If you're feeling the pressure of it all landing at once, that's a real, shared experience, not a sign you're falling behind.

Let's Connect:

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LinkedIn

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Ways to work with me

Right Click Accounting

Blackline Academy

Useful Links:

S2 EP9 - "What the heck is MTD"

MTD for Limited Companies

MTD for Self Employed

AML Supervision Reform

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act - Transition Plan

Employment Rights Act 2025

Data (Use and Access) Act 2025

Saying no to a potential client can feel like leaving money on the table. But sometimes it's the smartest decision you can make.

Software that used to do one thing well is now trying to do everything at once, and keeping up with it all was becoming impossible. So earlier this year, I made the decision to become a Xero-only accountancy practice, even though it meant turning away clients using other systems.

I'm sharing:

• Why software that used to have one clear purpose is now trying to do everything, and what that's doing to businesses trying to keep up.
• The decision to become a Xero-only practice, and why it meant saying no to some potential clients.
• Why I don't think my team can do a brilliant job if they're spread across too many systems at once.
• Why being upfront about what we can and can't support matters more to me than saying yes to everyone.

Because I'm a firm believer that doing fewer things brilliantly will always beat trying to be everything to everyone!

Let's Connect:

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Useful Links:

Monday.com

Pinterest

CapCut

Xero

Earlier this year, I emailed my clients to explain a new partnership between two platforms I use, Xero and Anthropic, the company behind an AI tool called Claude. I gave every client the choice to opt in, opt out, or have a chat if they weren't sure.

Then someone questioned why I'd bothered, since accountants don't usually announce every software change. I'm always interested in other people's point of view so started thinking about their opinion and why I felt different when it comes to AI.

I'm sharing:

• Why I chose to proactively tell clients about a new AI partnership, and gave them a real say in whether to use it.
• The pushback I got and why someone believed AI deserves no more transparency than any other software update.
• What actually makes AI fundamentally different from traditional software, in a way that affects your financial data.
• Why even the companies building AI can't fully explain how it reaches its answers.
• Why staying informed doesn't mean becoming an expert, it just means paying attention.

Transparency isn't about being an AI expert. It's about giving people the choice to understand what's actually happening with their own information.

Let's Connect:

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Useful Links:

AAT Bookkeeper Community Call

Diary Of A CEO with Daniel Kokotajlo

Every big opportunity I've taken this year started the same way: nerves, doubt, and almost saying no.

Saying yes to a speaking event outside my comfort zone led directly to becoming a fractional CFO for a growing tech company. Now I've said yes again, to exhibiting for the very first time, at The Business Show at ExCeL London this November, and the nerves are back.

I'm sharing:

• The link between one nervous "yes" to speak at an event, and the completely new career chapter it opened up.
• Why I always visit an event as an attendee first, before I ever commit to being an exhibitor.
• Everything that goes into exhibiting long before the day itself: furniture, banners, talk length, budget, the lot.
• Why Blackline Academy and Right Click are exhibiting side by side at ExCeL, and what that actually means for anyone who visits the stand.
• Why I'm sharing all of this in real time, nerves included, rather than after it's already polished.

Every big moment on socials is built on months of quiet prep that nobody sees, and I think that's worth showing every now and then.

Let's Connect:

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Ways to work with me

Right Click Accounting

Blackline Academy

Useful Links:

Business Show Live - Event

I've got an announcement, actually two!

I'm handing the Blackline reins over to my co-founder Tom, and taking on a fractional CFO role I've never done before.

Neither decision happened overnight. One is about knowing when to step back. The other is about knowing when to say "yes" to something that scares you a little. But this week I'm chatting about how I got to both.

I'll be sharing more on:

• Why I believe Tom is ready to run Blackline without me, after everything he's grown into over the last year.
• What a fractional CFO role actually means, and why I said yes despite never having done the job formally.
• How I weighed up my family, my apprentice and my existing business before committing to anything new.
• Why I'll be under an NDA, and exactly what that does and doesn't mean for what I can share here.

These are the moments that shape a founder's story just as much as the wins do!

(Even when they take weeks of quiet thinking to get right.)

Let's Connect:

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Ways to work with me

Right Click Accounting

Blackline Academy

Useful Links:

Check Out Tom Phillips

MTD for Limited Companies

MTD for Self Employed

GOV - Making Tax Digital

Nobody warns you that growing your business also means growing yourself.

After speaking to thousands of founders over the years, I've noticed the same thing holds almost every business back at some point: confidence. Not skill, not the market, not the support around them. Confidence.

I'm sharing:

• Why founders don't have the structure employees do and what that does to your self-belief
• The moment I realised my mum, my very first employee, taught me more about letting go than anyone since
• My "rubber band" way of picturing why delegation feels so hard when it's genuinely your baby
• Why founders who've been burnt by a bad hire hesitate to try again and why that's worth naming
• Why I believe you can't separate the growth of your business from the growth of you as a person

Because the business only grows as far as you're willing to grow with it.

Let's Connect:

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Ways to work with me

Right Click Accounting

Blackline Academy

Three days before my biggest talk yet, I turned to my husband and said I couldn't do it.

I'd said yes to speaking at the ICC in Newport, my biggest stage yet, and by the Wednesday before, I was ready to back out. This week's a bit different: a personal, unedited reflection on the anxiety, the doubt, and the prep that got me through it.

I'm sharing:

• How I ended up speaking there in the first place and why I hadn't even applied
• The moment I found out I was filling a slot meant for someone I deeply admire and what that did to my head
• What anxiety actually feels like in my body and why I think that's worth talking about
• The conversation with my husband three days before, when I genuinely considered pulling out
• The unglamorous prep that got me on stage: from charging my clicker twice to sorting my outfit down to the underwear

Because confidence isn't the absence of fear. It's doing the thing anyway, toes curling and all.

Let's Connect:

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LinkedIn

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Be sure to check out:

Ways to work with me

Right Click Accounting

Blackline Academy

Useful Links:

Lucy Cohen Substack

The CLEAR Way to AI-Ready Finance (Talk)

I recently spoke on the biggest stage I've ever stood on. ICC Newport, a session on AI in finance, and I was terrified.

This week's episode is a bit different. Instead of talking to you directly, I'm sharing some of what I said on that stage: the pain points I see in businesses every day, the framework I've built to fix them and why AI isn't going to save you if your finances are a mess first.

I'm sharing:

• Why you need to be AI ready before you can be AI led, and what the "messy middle" actually looks like
• My CLEAR framework: Clean, Live, Enhanced, Accountable and Relevant data
• A real story about a business that hit £3.5 million in turnover, on paper, before its Frankensteined systems caught up with it
• What Shadow AI is and why your team might already be using it without telling you
• Why I don't think AI replaces the human in the loop, and what that means for accountants

Because whether you're excited about AI or dreading it, the businesses that win won't be the ones with the flashiest tools. They'll be the ones who got their data right first.

Let's Connect:

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LinkedIn

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Be sure to check out:

Ways to work with me

Right Click Accounting

Blackline Academy

A friend of mine, who's self-employed and runs a few different businesses, text me last week and said, "Lex, I know you'll understand this stuff, but what the heck is MTD and where do I even start?"

So that's exactly what we're talking about today!

Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for IT) is the biggest tax reform in 40 years, and if you're self-employed or a landlord, it's about to change how you report your finances to HMRC. The tax itself isn't changing. How and when you tell HMRC about it is.

I'm sharing:

• What Making Tax Digital actually is, and why the name makes it sound way scarier than it is
• Who it affects (spoiler: if you run a limited company, this one's not for you) and the income thresholds that decide when you get pulled in
• The key deadlines coming up, including the first quarterly submission on 7th August, and why HMRC won't be issuing penalties in year one
• Why I'm calling this a "guinea pig year" and telling my own friend to treat it as practice, not pressure
• The practical homework to do right now, from sorting your Government Gateway login to figuring out how you actually like to learn

Because whether you're dreading it or you've never heard of it until this episode, the more you understand now, the less overwhelming it'll be when it lands on your desk.

Let's Connect:

Website

LinkedIn

Instagram

TikTok

Be sure to check out:

Ways to work with me

Right Click Accounting

Blackline Academy

Useful Links:

GOV Making Tax Digital

NatWest Accelerator Hub Cardiff Event

Making Tax Digital for Self-Employed Individuals (Blog)