Rachel Harris: ripping up the accounting stereotype and putting purpose at the heart of business
- operations0404
- Sep 16
- 6 min read
Charterpath’s Alex sat down with Rachel Harris, the co-founder of multi-million pound accountancy firm Strivex and trail-blazing influencer @accountant-she to discover that not only is she changing the face of accountancy but she is also an amazing advocate for volunteering.
From dining room table to multi-million firm
Read on to hear some highlights from Rachel’s journey - starting an accounting firm at her dining room table during Covid, to building a thriving business, personal brand and media career - all while keeping purpose and giving back at the centre of her work.
Watch full interview HERE
Building striveX and @accountant_she
Alex: Could you give us a snapshot of how you've got to this incredible place in such a short time?
Rachel: What came first is the accounting firm, which now has a multi-million turnover. Five years ago it was just me and my husband at our dining room table during covid with a mortgage to pay. After I had qualified as an accountant I did an MBA and did some really interesting work on market segmentation. As a millennial, I consume content on short form media, I have learned 80% of what I know on TikTok and I spotted that there was an opportunity to leverage this in professional services in the same way that Stephen Bartlett has done it for Diary of a CEO and Grace Beverly for TALA. Finance for me has also always been an industry with high barriers to entry, I really struggled to enter the industry, let alone feel like I belonged in it. I felt we could use the storytelling side of social media to show it was possible to overcome these barriers. striveX now has 800 clients, offices in Manchester and Oxford and 24 full time team members.
Through doing this, I started telling our story online as accountant_she, creating short form content to reflect the finance industry as I've always seen it and where you didn’t often see people that looked or felt like me.. My mantra was always: “You don’t become poor by giving — ask for help, but also help others along the way.”
Accountant_she is now a multi six figure personal brand where I do brand deals. I sell a lot of the internal systems and processes that we've scaled within the accounting firm to other accountants and bookkeepers and I host a podcast that is now generating recurring revenue.
The other part of my life is TV, press and PR. So I was interviewing Keir Starmer last week, I’m on This Morning quite frequently. I currently do a lot of work with Downing Street and sit on the new media unit. I also just wrapped for a new tv show coming out in September. So you could say my full time job is translating really complex topics into very easy to understand, relatable, accessible finance tools across these three areas.
Hard work and non-negotiables
Alex: It’s an incredible story. How do you manage your time across so many responsibilities?
Rachel: I work really hard is the first thing to say. I think it's very easy to say I just delegate and I do, but I have worked consistently hard for the past five years being self-employed and a long time before that. I also recruit people far more intelligent than me and I ask for help all of the time. I have non-negotiables that look after me — long dog walks, dopamine detoxes, phone fasts all play a part. We're not machines. We have to look after each other.
A lifelong passion for volunteering
Alex: Only around 12% of people with financial skills volunteer, yet finance is the most in-demand skill-set on charity boards. What’s your volunteering story?
Rachel: I think like many people who love volunteering, that for me has always come from seeing people receive life changing results from charities. I'm an identical twin and my twin sister is disabled. I wear a hearing aid and my mum is profoundly deaf and has a hearing dog. As a family, we received incredible love and support from charities. Being able to see the real life sparks of joy, which sometimes are these tiny moments that people would never realise the impact they've had on your life, means that I have always had an inherent passion for giving back what I feel I've been able to witness in my own personal life.
I started volunteering as a child — counting collection money aged 8 (I was born to be an accountant!) and running a village youth group as a teenager. At 15 I was awarded the Princess Diana Award for fundraising. As I became self-employed, I became a trustee and director of the Association of Accounting Technicians, AAT. Some of the best friends, experiences and skills I have in the world have all come from volunteering.
For me, volunteering is the best CPD I've ever had in my life. It's not me giving something away. I'm not giving, I’m receiving. You'll join boards and you hear people talking about giving back. And I used to sit in those rooms thinking, I leave here full of ideas and inspiration. I'm coming back to my own business saying, we need to do this, this, this and this. So it really is CPD on steroids. If I was employed and I wanted someone to give me paid time off to do volunteer work, I'd say, don't pay for that CPD subscription. Let me volunteer for a charity, get loads back and bring it back to my day job.
The first ever corporate bursary scheme in accountancy
Alex: Are there any stand-out moments for you?
Rachel: I started the first ever corporate bursary scheme in accountancy and so over the last three years we've changed 15 people's lives. People who can't afford to become an accountant but want to be. And for me it was an absolute no brainer that the minute that company was making profit, we reinvested that back into it. The scheme is now sponsored by FreeAgent, the accounting software, and they fully fund five people every year to become an accountant who wouldn't otherwise. This is so easy to do and it means so much. And for sure it has business benefits. I'm sure people see what I do and think, I want to work with you because I know where that money goes. For me, it just makes the world go round.
“You don’t become poor by giving”
Alex: What advice would you give to young finance professionals who aren’t currently volunteering?
Rachel: My mantra, which I'm sure will be on my headstone one day, is: “You don’t become poor by giving.” I have left every volunteer opportunity richer than the time investment I’ve put in. I could tie back nearly every business success to a volunteer opportunity I've been involved with. I could tie back nearly every business success to a volunteer opportunity I've been involved with. I'd love to see more people not have to take time out to do it, and see more employer funded volunteering schemes.
Looking ahead
Alex: What’s next for you, Rachel?
Rachel: My three-year term as an AAT trustee has come to an end, so I’m looking for new volunteer opportunities. One of my long term goals is to be a dragon on Dragons’ Den or an equivalent show. At striveX, we’ve just got our audit license and will be working with charities and large organisations to do the same things we’ve done within the accounting industry.
Get inspired
Rachel’s story shows the power of breaking stereotypes, building confidence, and giving back through volunteering.
👉 Watch the full interview on the Charterpath YouTube channel
👉 Read Rachel's volunteer story
👉 And if you’re inspired, please join us to volunteer your financial skills to charity.
About Charterpath
Charterpath CIO is a UK registered charity (1207509) charting a path between non-profits and volunteers with financial skills. Charterpath was co-founded by Alice Clementi and Alex Marsh, both chartered accountants with extensive volunteering and fundraising experience alongside their professional careers. They were inspired to start Charterpath in 2020, after seeing first-hand the unprecedented financial challenges facing the non-profit sector from the pandemic.
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