My Business Life: John Carolan

John Carolan, managing director of Solve Outsource, shares his life and business lessons.

Carolan is the founder of Solve Outsource, a growing accounting firm that serves business in the €1m-plus revenue bracket.

Tell us about your background, what journey did you take to arrive at where you are? 

I originally started my career with the Grafton Group. This company provided a great grounding for me and I’m still thankful to this day for it. Then wanderlust set in, and I resigned to spend a year travelling and working in Australia. This was the start of Solve Outsource and the goal was to provide accurate accounts on time to help grow my clients’ businesses.

Today we’re a team of 13. And we’re launching our franchise opportunity to help other ambitious accountants grow profitable accounting firms.

Why are you doing what you are doing? What need are you meeting? What’s your USP? 

My team and I meet innovative entrepreneurs all the time. However, many of these entrepreneurs are not focused on the practical accounting side of their businesses.  This is not intentional.

But it does come with a cost, which can be anything from falling behind with Revenue payments to going bankrupt. 

Needless to say, any entrepreneur worth their salt will want to avoid those outcomes. 

Better yet, paying attention to the accounting requirements of your business is one of the key ingredients for growth.

This is the USP Solve Outsource provides to our clients.

We’re in the business of giving our clients a good night’s sleep because we’re taking care of all their accounts and Revenue requirements. And we’re in the business of supporting our clients to grow sustainable profitable companies. 

Get your accounting right, and there’s no limit to what your business can achieve.

How did you fund and start the business and what are your growth plans?

From inception until today, Solve Outsource has been self-funded all the way.

That’s a technical term for saying we’re a bootstrapped business!

I started the business with just myself, my mobile phone and my laptop.

What are your key skills and qualities that set you apart?

I have a real drive to grow businesses, both our clients’ businesses and our own.

The key skills and qualities that set me apart to do this are my combination of technical accounting skills and commercial awareness. I invest time and effort into the Irish business community to maintain a keen insight into the challenges business-owners face.

What (or whom) has helped you most along the way? Who was your greatest mentor/inspiration?

Inspiration comes to me from two sources.

Firstly, I have to call out the Irish business community again. No matter what the headlines of the day might be saying, plugging into Ireland’s entrepreneurial networks is a guaranteed way to find optimism, resilience and good old fashioned banter. I’m really proud to both serve and be a part of this community.

And secondly, books are great mentors of mine. I’m a voracious reader and constantly find gems to implement in my business in the books I read.

What was the greatest piece of business advice you ever received?

“Success is where you’re heading towards.”

I like this statement for the clarity it provides. It makes me think of a GPS system. I enter my destination, in this case “success”, and now all I need is to figure out the map to get there.

What circumstances/qualities/events can mark the difference between success or failure in life or business?

Challenges will always be there, regardless of the economic cycle we’re in.

You discover this truth quickly as an entrepreneur. Just when you thought you could put your feet up, another hurdle to overcome appears on the horizon.

This is not a pessimistic statement. In fact, it’s one of the reasons why running a business can be so invigorating.

In light of this, it’s your character that’ll determine whether you encounter success or failure.

And, in my opinion, one of the chief character traits you can develop is perseverance. 

How did you navigate your business through the pandemic and what lessons did you learn?

Like everyone else, we were totally thrown when the lockdown announcement was first made.

We learnt quickly that the way we were going to ride the storm was to focus only on the things we knew for sure and leave the unknowns to themselves. 

This took the form of explaining the Government supports available to our clients. Not only did this help make sense of things for our clients, but it also gave us a valuable opportunity to strengthen our relationships with them.

Setting goals and achieving them naturally comes with a lot of momentum.

How has digital transformation been a factor in your scaling journey and do you believe Irish firms are utilising digital technologies sufficiently?

Yes, Irish firms are aware of digital transformation and actively integrating automation tools into their business processes.

What was the most challenging aspect of either starting or growing the business? 

I find the plateaus you reach in business to be one of the most challenging aspects to navigate in business.

Setting goals and achieving them naturally comes with a lot of momentum.

But once you’ve achieved a goal, a new normal is reached. Now you’re at a new level of ability and income generated, so what’s next?

I rely on my close business network to discuss these times with when they happen. And I always come away inspired for my next steps. 

If you were to do it all over again, what would you do differently?

I’d truly understand what mistakes mean and become friends with them earlier. 

That’s not to say I advocate a careless approach where you make a load of mistakes with no thought to the consequences. I don’t.

But honest mistakes are great for providing feedback and data. This is a big plus in helping you do things better the next time.

Also, if i did it all over again, I’d take some actions earlier to grow the business.

Who inspires you in business today?

I’m inspired by our clients, our team, our competitors and business leaders. And history books!

What advice/guidance do you give new hires and how do you nurture talent in your organisation?

Onboarding our new hires is an area where I’ve invested a lot of time.

All of our new hires are supported with the right tools and guidance from day one to do their job. 

However, we are clear that success in our firm stems first and foremost from embracing our values. A new hire doesn’t need to know everything, but they do need to embody the Solve Outsource way.

What business books do you read or would recommend?

• The Everything Store by Brad Stone
• Traction by Gino Wickman
• Built to Sell by John Warrillow

What technologies/tools do you use personally to keep you on track?

I’d get nowhere without my Outlook calendar!

What social media platforms do you prefer and why?

LinkedIn is my social media platform of choice. It’s seen as the B2B platform and the business community we work with is active on it.

What are your thoughts on where technology overall is heading and how it will apply to business generally and your business particularly?

Technology has been moving at a rapid pace for a long time. 

This speed intensified with the launch of ChatGPT in early 2023. 

Overall, I believe automation tools can serve businesses and business-owners well. The key is going to be to stay at the forefront of how to integrate these technologies into businesses that serve people. Our customers are not software tools. They’re humans.

The human touch is going to become even more essential. 

But don’t forget, humans like efficiency and getting their problems solved. 

This is where technology can really make a difference.

Finally, if you had advice for your 21-year-old self – knowing what you know now – what would it be?

Embrace risk earlier and commit to it. And don’t get distracted by the shiny things.