By Sarah Dale
18 August 2026
Andrea Scott is a force of nature. Straight talking, ambitious and armed with a refusal to limit either herself or her company has meant she has established a successful business.
In 2006, as a new mum, she started her own business from her kitchen table. In 2013, she formed a limited company – A E Scott Accounting & Business Support – and opened her first office which stood on Yarm High Street for 10 years. Three years ago, A E Scott moved to its current location at Falcon Court on Preston Farm Industrial Estate in Stockton.
It was a Friday night during another lockdown during the Covid pandemic in late July 2020 that Andrea Scott had a lightbulb moment – “I can work anywhere, so why don’t I?”
By the Saturday morning, the accountancy business owner had found an island to move to, and the pieces of her emigration plan were starting to come together.
By the end of August 2020, Andrea and her then 14-year-old son, Shayne, had moved into a new home in Madeira, a tiny Portuguese island in the Atlantic Ocean. Her then partner and their dog joined them a little while later. In September, Shayne started Year 10 in a new English school.
“Shayne rarely left the house when we lived in England as he was fixated on his computer games and playing his friends online, but in Madeira, which is one of the safest places in the world, he made new friends, started socialising, and started learning Jujutsu martial arts,” said Andrea.
“For me, the experience of living in Maderia for 2.5 years gave me more independence. When they both moved back because they missed the UK, I stayed out for an extra year (travelling home regularly to see them) and it showed me I could live on my own and we can do anything we put our minds to. I joined GGI (Girls Gone International), a group of women from all over the world and I made some good friends.”
Andrea has a tight team around her, which supported the business’s success while she was abroad, and as far as clients were concerned, they had no idea she was in Madeira.
“It was the time when online meetings were the norm and I was home every few months anyway so would book all my face-to-face appointments then,” said Andrea, whose interest in accountancy developed while completing her Business Studies degree.
“Madeira also taught me an appreciation of quiet. I could sit on my own and feel grateful for the peace. Now I appreciate different ways of living. I love going out and spending time talking to people, but I also appreciate quiet periods at home.”
On her return to the UK in 2023, Andrea and her team moved into their new office at Falcon Court. The team includes operations director Ben Phillips, accountants Samantha Mason-Hill and Christopher Smith, payroll clerk and administrator Emily Phillips, bookkeeper Kye Ayre, and apprentice bookkeeper Lucy Oates. They plan to recruit another bookkeeper and accountant in the spring.
A E Scott services provided include accounts, bookkeeping, corporation tax, capital gains tax, payroll, personal tax, property portfolio advice, R&D claims, VAT. Andrea’s focus since returning to the UK has been growing the firm while taking a step back from day-to-day operations.
“If you want to grow your business, you need to remove yourself completely from the day-to-day,” said Andrea, who lives in Yarm.
“I will always be an accountant, but I don’t do the day-to-day accounting. Instead, I am focused on our long-term growth. I have got the most amazing team. When we take on new staff, we take them on for life. We want people to come on board who want to grow with us. We are all different – me and Ben are complete opposites but we work really well together – and that is our strength as a team. It reminds me of the Richard Branson quote: ‘Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to’.”
A strong work ethic is crucial to be part of Andrea’s team. She says the relevant qualifications are expected, but what Andrea and Ben look for when recruiting new employees is their work experience too.
“Both me and Ben have worked in McDonald’s and we look for that kind of customer service experience in new staff,” she said.
“We want to know if they can work in a fast-paced environment, that they have the right work ethic and the ability to muck in together.
“I originally wanted to be a PE teacher or a physio but decided on a business studies degree and I found that I really enjoyed the accountancy aspect of the course. I have never looked back and got a good job at Barclaycard, but when I became pregnant, I was made redundant. When he was six months old, I decided to pursue accounting. I already had bookkeeping experience, and I kept studying and passing every exam I could to expand my service offering.”
Andrea says each of the four accountants at A E Scott are very different, which works across a wide client base.
“I am more empathetic, especially with tradespeople,” she said.
“I am from a broken home in Thornaby and I have dyslexia, so I understand why some people are nervous about the admin side of business. People always say to me they always come away from me more knowledgeable. I’m very straight talking but also empathetic. I’m also a firm believer in you get out of life what you put into it. Anybody can do what I’m doing. I started out driven by a fear of failure. I was very aware of where I came from and not having the best prospects, but I have never let anything hold me back or stand in my way.
“My favourite part of the job is talking to people and reading feedback we have received from clients. I am always working; I even take my laptop on holiday – sometimes that’s when you have your best ideas! It’s great being self-employed. I love the flexibility and having the final decision. You must be persistent and persevere in business. It was hard at the beginning, and it puts pressure on the family, but once I opened the office in Yarm it started to feel like a real business.”
Last year, Andrea, 47, bought a cottage in Staithes.
“Shayne was wanting to go into property and we wanted a project to work on together,” said Andrea, who has owned a buy-to-let property for the past 20 years.
During the renovation work, she worked Monday to Thursday in the office and Friday to Sunday at the cottage.
“At the time, I was doing lots of half marathons, so I was super fit, which is a good job because everyone knows what the road to Staithes is like!” she said.
“We completed it in just one day short of a year. It had no direct access to it, it’s set into a cliff edge, it needed a full back to brick renovation. It was very hard work and I learned some huge lessons on the project, but I am really proud of it and it was nice for us to tackle a project together.”
And having both professional and personal experience of having a property portfolio gives the business the edge when supporting property clients.
Whether it’s running half-marathons or lugging a beach buggy full of materials up and down hills or driving more business growth, Andrea has the same spirit and determination for whatever she sets her mind to.
For more information about A E Scott, visit www.aescott.co.uk
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