It was June 2009, at the height of the expenses scandal, when Crunch MD Darren Fell was invited by parliament to pitch ideas for a new expense management system. After meeting with the Procurement Director at the Houses of Parliament, a simple idea was formulated to make MPs expenses more open, and cost-efficient.

Here’s how it would work:

Each MP would have their own Limited Company, quickly setup by Crunch. They would be provided with a new Business Bank Account and all expenses and payments through it would automatically drop into the Crunch Accounting System. This would then allow their support staff to simply mark what each expense was – they could label them as: ‘travel’, ‘restaurant’, ‘phone’, ‘water-based bird shelter’ etc.

If an MP did charge for a duck house, they would quickly find themselves humbled as the secure Crunch system could send each MPs expenses to a government website for real-time public viewing.

In our proposal, each MP would be running under their own Limited Company, so when they submit their annual accounts, this information would be publicly available. The Limited Company would only be available for parliamentary duties and not constituency duties.

The current Expenses and Administration support team (EAT) in Parliament extended to a staggering 600 people to support 650 MPs. Crunch could drastically reduce this by handling a lot of the support, providing Accountants and the MPs own Account Manager on the end of the phone.

Crunch only charges £60 to setup a LTD company and the Crunch Accountancy service is only £59.50 per month. The MPs self assessment would be charged additionally however this would be incredibly cost effective at only £200 for a really complicated self assessment.

So, what has happened as a result of the proposal requested by Parliament? In short; not a lot…

A committee was setup, which, after a number of months presented a series of conclusions to be adopted in the expenses system.

Following this, another committee was setup and after a few months presented their conclusions. Almost all of the previous findings were ignored and the new conclusions have changed virtually nothing. Viva la Revolution!

Free event!

When: March 10th, 2010 18:30 - 20:30
Location: University of Westminster, 115 New Cavendish Street, London, W1W 6UW
Price: FREE (sponsored by Crunch)

Do you actually like selling? Do you follow a structured approach to bringing in business?

For some, this is easy, for others this is the hardest part. Bringing in business successfully and following a structured approached will be the difference between a fantastic career or one that is just too painful and very poor!

Darren (The Crunch MD) will guide you through his story from corporate sales in a pan-euro position to his first start-up, Pure360.com. Setup on a shoestring and existing on a fierce cash burn rate Darren was forced to sell fast or face personal bankruptcy.

A lot of the tips are common sense however this course will give you the structure to sell well, actually enjoy the process and ensure you create the perfect pipeline!

The seminar will deliver:

• Sales basics, getting the word out there
• Managing the contacts and the actions - picking the right software
• Reasons to stay in touch - keeping up the momentum of the sale
• The importance of the pipeline - ensuring you never end up with a sales black hole
• Closing business - how to close effectively

The seminar will also comprise of an interactive question and answer session to learn from your selling woes and hear Darren's solution.

To find out more, visit the University of Westminster's site here

The following article featured in the FT, focuses on the battle on Crunch's hands. Why so many consistent attacks from every part of the industry? Are the traditionalists in small accountancy practices, large contractor accountancy firms and even competing online software firms running scared?

We'd like to think we've delivered a service that was so right for the customer and at such a good price we were inevitably going to cause a few ripples. You make your own mind up. When disruption causes this big a fight it can only mean one thing - the customer (you) is going to benefit. Benefit with a better service, a much better price and most importantly a price that doesn't escalate.

"Don’t be fooled by the grey, stuffy exterior of the accountancy profession. If you start to challenge their livelihoods, bean counters can turn quite aggressive.

This is what Darren Fell discovered when he launched Crunch – an online business offering basic professional services, such as invoice tracking and the filing of year-end tax returns, for a flat monthly fee of £59.50.

One rival firm ran a search on the Companies House database to find all the businesses that used Crunch. It then targeted each of these companies with a mailshot promoting its own service, in an attempt to poach their custom.

None of the companies signed up with Crunch switched, according to Fell, who runs the business with a team of 17 accountants and software experts from an office near his home in Brighton. However, he has clearly been rattled by the experience.

“It was a really weird feeling to be attacked like this,” he says. “Down here in Brighton, I help a lot of other entrepreneurs. I hadn’t really grasped that I was going to be incredibly disruptive.”

In some instances, Fell had no one but himself to blame – such as the time when one of his freelance marketers made a mistake answering a question on an accountancy blog. The marketer had not checked the answer with any of Crunch’s accountants or tax experts, and quickly issued a retraction.

But news of the mistake quickly spread across other business chat rooms, leading to a noticeable drop in businesses signing up to Crunch’s service.

Fell was on holiday in Majorca at the time, trying to take his first real holiday since launching the business three years earlier. However, he was soon back on his Blackberry trying to stem the bad PR.

“We had a massive dent in new customers seeking our services,” he recalls. “All that they could find on the internet was that Crunch gives bad advice.”

Although Fell might have expected a hostile reception from established accountancy firms, he has clearly been shaken by the experience.

His first start-up – an e-mail marketing company called Pure, which he sold for $7.8m two years ago – had created no such ill will, despite shaking up that market.

“Never in seven years did I receive one snide comment,” he says. “It makes you frightened to read anything on the internet.”

Rubbing competitors up the wrong way, however, is an occupational hazard for the innovative entrepreneur..."

The full Financial Times article can be found here

Crunch was at the Glug networking event in Brighton on Friday (February 5) handing out free beer! The event was aimed at designers and creatives tired of boring networking events, this was a great event to meet people and have a few beers at the same time.

Glug was organised by Glug Brighton in partnership with Glug London Made Studio, Studio Output and Agency Rush.

Check out some photos of the evening below.

Glug Brighton - 050210 - Images by Craig Sawyer

Crunch is proud to sponsor a new website launched with the aim of uniting the UK’s surging community of self-employed. FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk is an advice and networking website for freelancers and contractors, and it comes into action at a time when uncertainty has forced many people to look at their skillsets and consider working for themselves.

According to recent research carried out by trade body the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), there are currently 1.4 million people freelancing in the UK. The website makes its debut as official Government figures released last week show that unemployment has reached an 11-year high – the number of people out of work in the UK in the three months to September rose by 140,000 to 1.82 million. Economists claim this number could top two million early next year – leading to an inevitable rise in the number of freelancers and contractors.

FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk is written by experts from all industries within the freelancing community, offering guidance and advice on managing all aspects of the lifestyle. 14 articles are published each month along with a podcast featuring an influential figure. High-profile contributors include John Brazier, head of the PCG and Government lobbyist, mand Emma Brierley, CEO of freelance resourcing expert Xchangeteam and responsible for the Freelancer of the Year Awards. A two-part podcast interview with Brazier is currently live on the site. Brazier gives his views on the UK’s working trends and provides analysis of in-depth research into the current number of people working for themselves.

FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk was founded by award-winning online entrepreneur Darren Fell. Fell appears in this year’s ‘Courvoisier The Future 500 in association with The Observer’; a league table of the UK’s most talented business people and was also named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Sussex Business Awards 07/08.

“More people are being made redundant and in the current climate, we predict the UK will see a surge in freelancing,” said Darren Fell, Founder and MD of Freelance Advisor.

“By their very nature, freelancers and contractors don’t have a universal offline or online meeting point, so there was a gap in the market for this website.” He continued: “It’s been growing since it soft-launched in February this year and has been so successful we now want to put it in front of a wider national audience. The content is timely, genuinely useful and will help ease the transition from employee to freelancer.”

Further research carried out by the PCG in September 2008 reveals that of 1.4 million freelancers, 183,000 are freelancing as a second job. These are people in well-paid nine-to-five jobs who are seeking the security of working for themselves.

“We will shortly be introducing a specialist social network; providing a novel way to allow freelancers to collaborate and find work,” Darren continued. “We are already becoming a trusted resource for thousands of freelancers looking for direction in all areas of the
lifestyle.”

FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk intends to attract tens of thousands of users within the next two years.

Crunch.co.uk has won the ‘Innovation in Business’ accolade at the Brighton and Hove Business Awards (BAHBAs). Crunch.co.uk is aimed specifically at freelancers and contractors, and is the UK’s first combined online accounting system and practice – a fully automated online service backed up by an integrated chartered accountancy practice - for which customers pay a fixed monthly fee of £59.50. All annual company returns such as PAYE, Corporation Tax and VAT are included in the price. The company received the award at the sixth annual BAHBA’s, which recognise excellence in business, at a ceremony held at the Hilton Metropole in Brighton on Friday 9 October.

Read full release

Crunch.co.uk is the UK’s first combined online accounting system and accounting practice dedicated to freelancers, contractors and independent consultants working across all professions. Brighton-based entrepreneur Darren Fell, who previously built and sold email marketing technology firm Pure for $7.8m, is behind the project. Crunch.co.uk launched in April this year.

Following van Swaaij’s intended exit from Skype after the company’s $1.9bn majority stake sale to a private investor group closes, Crunch.co.uk is one of the forward-thinking new projects he’ll focus on.

"The accounting industry is ripe for some disruption in order to make it more efficient, lower cost and less time consuming for freelancers,” said Michael van Swaaij. “Freelancing is booming and here to stay as a form of employment, giving millions of people access to work and income otherwise out of their reaches. I've been privileged to be involved with eBay and Skype, and like them Crunch not only aims to reshape an industry but will genuinely help freelancers and micro companies be more productive - thereby supporting an increasingly important part of our economy."

Read full release

Crunch has been shortlisted for the 'Innovation in Business' Awards at the Brighton and Hove Business Awards 2009! The award recognises those business that have outshined competitors through their use of technological, operational or marketing innovations.

Crunch's combination of easy online accounting system and access to a team of chartered accountants is the first of it's kind... So it's not surprising that Crunch, with its revolutionary new technology, has made it through to the final three!

View the nominations

Darren Fell, Crunch MD, was invited on to the popular Chris Evans Drivetime Show on Radio Two to talk about Crunch and accounting with Chris and Foxy.

The show was well received and a great boost to Crunch's notoriety.

There was a minor ripple though; They cited Crunch as the first online Freelancing Accountancy system which wasn't exactly true.

Crunch is the first truly integrated online Accountancy service backed up with an Account Manager and Accountants to gain expert advice over the phone for a fixed fee!

Listen to the full interview with Darren below

The Brighton Argus recently reported on the Crunch launch and interviewed Crunch chief Darren Fell.

Read more (Argus article)

According to recent research carried out by trade body the Professional Contractors Group (PCG), there are currently 1.4 million people freelancing in the UK. The website makes its debut as official Government figures released last week show that unemployment has reached an 11-year high - the number of people out of work in the UK in the three months to September rose by 140,000 to 1.82 million. Economists claim this number could top two million early next year – leading to an inevitable rise in the number of freelancers and contractors.

Read more (PDF)

The launch of Network comes as FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk unveils a new-look site. It has a brand new design, freelancing-specific jobs board and features expert advice from high-profile figures such as author of the globally successful 'Pitch Yourself' series of books Bill Faust and Emma Jones, author of Spare Room Startup. The site's podcast interviews with influential people from all industries also appear on iTunes.

Read more (PDF)