The Team

Mathew Forshaw

Mathew has been qualified as a Chartered Accountant for some twenty years now and has worked in various practices throughout the North West, looking after clients of all shapes and sizes.  He now specialises in giving advice to start-up, high-growth and entrepreneurial business, giving practical and hands-on support where needed.

Mathew has a vast wealth of experience to draw on, both as part of a management team and more recently as an owner/manager in his own right.  He recently set up his own accountancy practice and faced the same dilemmas as any new start-up.  He now runs a number of companies from his base in Preston.  His top tip for new start-ups?   “Plan, plan and plan!”

As well as his accountancy work, Mathew gets involved in networking to broaden his knowledge of the current issues and trends that affect the wider business community, whether on-line or off.  He takes a keen interest in learning from other business owners, helping him develop his skills to make sure the advice he gives is of the highest calibre.

Away from the office, Mathew is married with five daughters and has a wide range of interests from mountain-biking to music and was recently involved in a charity expedition to Borneo. He has also dabbled in fiction writing and his life-long ambition is to have a novel published.

“I and my business partner have used Mathew to initiate our company and Mathew’s support during a very stressful time has proved invaluable. Mathew’s strengths lie in his straightforward and personal approach to working with his clients. Technically Mathew had answers to all issues we faced and provided guidance on the best approach to each.  Mathew gets incolved in your business and adds much more.” Stuart Jackson (Cheetham Jackson)

Gill Millington

Gill started out life working for blue chip multinational companies in many varied roles and spent a lot of time learning at the hands of masters.  Based in the Home Counties for a lot of years, she did the dreaded commute until a slower pace of life beckoned and she headed back to her nothern roots, whereupon she got involved in running an Architectural and Surveyor firm, as the right hand ‘man’ to a dynamic boss, which gave her the boost to move in to working for herself.

So some 7 years ago, with encouragement from various around her, she got in to the commercial finance field, a very male orientated field, and worked as part of the management team for some 18 months, before deciding to use the networking contacts she had made set up and run several business’s all with a money theme running through them, which now run successfully with little input from Gill, leaving her to plenty of time to give to helping start ups ‘start up’!

Gill is involved with the Lancashire Education Business Partnership and acts as an Ambassador, encouraging school children to think about running their own business, and also having input in to the school curriculum, so that more ‘business’ skills are taught.  Gill has also been a guest writer on Small Biz Pod, and has had her work featured on Fox News, and is regular user of twitter and writes for many blogs.

When she is not working, Gill is busy ferrying her three children to the many sports they are currently involved in, or ferrying her older ones to and from University.  When she gets some alone time, you will either catch her on the farm with her old pony, or catching up on her reading, and at present is making her way through Shakespeare, War and Peace,  Mein Kampf, with a hint of Dara O’Briain on the side.

“Gill is a tireless and very successful entrepreneur. She is a great networker and someone I am proud to do business with.” Dan Matthews, (Fire and Point Media)