Heather Flack

Heather Flack is the impassioned business leader of Flair Accounting, a boutique accounting practice based in Morningside, Durban.

Heather grew up in Vereeniging in the Vaal Triangle. When she matriculated in 1997, she was unexpectedly offered a full bursary to study any form of art, which Heather says was quite unheard of. “However, I was blessed with the wisdom to know that while art was my passion, it’s a subjective field. I could end up in jail for beating somebody up when they said they didn’t like what I had made!” she explains with a chuckle.

Preferring the structured nature of accounting and realising the impact sound financial decision making could have for businesses, she started her articles after school and studied at night at the then Potchefstroom University.

After working in a practice for a few years, Heather realised that the traditional accounting model was never going to work for her. Heather explains, “My heart was always in a space to really help business owners in the full sense of what finance can give to a business owner – not just their tax structure.”

Heather then joined a business in Durban in 1999 and after three years, on her 23rd birthday, started Flair Accounting, which has now been serving clients for 21 years.

“I am blessed to lead a wonderful team. We have always said that we want to change the world one business at a time because life is about people, not about numbers, titles, or accolades. Finance has an amazing ability to empower people to make decisions to change their businesses to affect the economy, and to positively affect the country.”

Flair Accounting’s mission statement is “to be the most loved accounting practice in Durban.”“We love the work we do and seeing the impact it makes.We want the businesses and clients that we serve to love working with us because ultimately relationships are what empower us to make that difference in their lives.”

THRIVING FOR 21 YEARS
The accomplishment that makes Heather the proudest is not just surviving for 21 years but thriving. “I’m very proud of our legacy of impact, which was not my intention when I started, but which has been the outcome of the last 21 years of focusing on relationships whilst providing incredible accounting solutions. This means the world to me.”

She is proud of the many people who have worked for Flair Accounting, who believed in her ethos of breaking the traditional accounting practice mould. The grounding gained has seen them go on to work for companies such as Unilever, Derivco and the PKFs of the world. Heather says, “Our success is really due to each individual who has served with us.”

The best advice Heather has received was from George Ross, the first client that she took on when she started her business. He said that the definition of a leader is somebody that people WILLINGLY follow, which shaped Heather’s approach to engaging with staff, clients, community and stakeholders. “If you are not a leader that people will willingly follow, you’re just a dictator. Understanding that defined my entire company culture and how I interact with every single person in my life,” explains Heather.

Heather has faced two major challenges in her business. The first she has resolved by getting older because the immediate challenge that she faced was her youthful age when she started Flair Accounting.

“Firstly, to get anybody to have the confidence that I had the ability to do what I said I was going to do was quite difficult. Developing trust in my abilities took many years and sometimes meant that I offered to do the work for free. If the clients were happy afterwards, they could pay me, which worked. One client even paid me double!” she explains.

The second challenge, which took a little bit longer for Heather to resolve, was realising that when it comes to hiring people to join the practice that you can’t just hire anybody – you need to find the right body.

“I overcame that by developing a meaningful hiring process whereby we can discover who you are before you work with us, because who you are we can’t change. What you know we can change; we can teach you and you can learn. I’m immensely proud of our hiring process and how we go about finding those right people.”

LIVE YOUR WHY
In addition, Heather says that although businesses will always encounter obstacles and workforces will always have conflicts, the best way to resolve these is to be clear about what your culture is and to live your why.

“There’s a wonderful book by Simon Sinek called Leaders Eat Last and that ethos I’d like to think we model here. When the times are tough, I will be the first one to join the team and do the hard yards. I have always found that when I climb in the trenches with the staff there’s nothing that we can’t achieve.”

Heather is inspired by ethical people who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in. She adds, “Not because they have to, but because it’s the right thing and that has always been a wonderful affirmation for me.” An example of a leader she follows is Thuli Madonsela, because in a male dominated world and in an incredibly challenging environment, she has had the strength of her convictions.

Heather’s vision for her business in the next five to ten years is that, although they’ve grown exponentially over the last years, she would like to see even more impact being had on the economy by empowering people with brilliant financial information.

The motto that Heather lives by is “life is about people” which is the superpower driving her company culture. “If we always remember that, whether it’s a tax return I’m dealing with or a financial statement or a forensic audit or estate planning. I’m doing it with numbers, but I’m doing it for people,” she concludes.