Tatsiana completed the following course package:
The ICB Career Path

A background in finance and a degree in economics in her native Belarus helped encourage Tatsiana Sviatsets on the path to running her own practice. When she came to Cheltenham 10 years ago, she found her feet working as a dental nurse in a large private practice.

But she still wanted the freedom of running her own business, so she started a local cleaning company which now has 7 employees. She gained valuable business experience, but the lure of books and finance was still strong.

Tatsiana had had an unpleasant experience with some local accountants who didn’t provide the sort of service she was expecting, and it kindled in her a determination to provide a cost-effective, SME-tailored service to local businesses.

She found the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) website and explored her options on colleges which would allow her the flexibility to study around the needs of the business. Ideal Schools was her best choice.

Tatsiana said “I had bookkeeping experience from back in the ‘paper and pen’ days and found the ICB website that listed the colleges and schools. Ideal Schools had the best reviews and some very attractive portfolios of courses.

“I started the process in November 2016 and completed all my exams by May 2018. Over the summer I had a very busy time with the cleaning business and we’ve only really started Acorn Bookkeeping recently.

“Ideal schools tutors have been excellent teachers and I’ve been able to use their materials to study flexibly and work around my other business.

“I have always been interested in the world of finance. I was fascinated by the way businesses could use their figures for so much more than just bookkeeping and running my cleaning business gave me a wealth of experience.

“I knew what it was like to start a business from the very beginning; a blank page. Between my business partner and I, we have 25 years of business experience, and I keep up to date with the changes in legislation, to make sure I can offer cost effective, business-focused services to small and medium businesses local to Cheltenham.”