If you thought Accountancy was just about annual reports, tax returns and balance sheets, that’s far from the whole story, according to Nelisca’s Henk Groen. He thinks every start-up should have a clear idea of what their objectives are and how they want to grow in the future.
OPTIMISM is inherent in the development of medicines. After all, you develop them for a better future!
“Pivot Park is an incredibly inspiring environment,“ says Henk. “Developing medicines is all about hope, optimism and a ‘can do’ spirit.”
Groen is a founding partner of Nelisca, an Accountancy and Consulting firm specialised in the Life Sciences sector and oriented towards small to medium sized companies. Nelisca has been based on Pivot Park since 2012. That’s when Groen became aware of the science park through a major investor and experienced first hand the ‘future focused’ atmosphere that prevails there.
“It was a revelation for me. As Accountants, we usually look back at the end of every year. But to work with partners in Life Science we needed a change of mind set. We wanted to collaborate and facilitate more, to help our clients achieve their goals. We think along with our clients and help them build healthy, growing companies.”
Starters and small companies in the life science sector experience a lot of pressure and uncertainty. The first annual reports often show large losses because they are working on the long-term development of products. Start-ups have to apply for grants on time and write progress reports. And then there are the tax concerns of expats, all important matters which need to be prioritised according to their urgency. The large accountancy firms have little patience for this kind of complexity and broad range of challenges. These growing companies are often assigned to a junior member of the partnership with little or no experience in the sector. Groen continued further, “At Nelisca, we specialise in this and have all that experience especially when it comes to applying for grants. We can make a realistic budget forecast. Appraise the existing capital and how it can be best utilised. Projections are important, working with our clients, we create a scenario with a ‘scope of work’ estimate and a plan for the future. We also make a tax forecast and discuss these projections with our clients on a monthly basis. So we meet up regularly.”
That’s why Groen thinks it’s important that Nelisca is located at Pivot Park. He sees opportunities for expansion in the near future and estimates that he’s looking to recruit new people. In addition, Nelisca are establishing other locations at other science parks and at universities. One of the biggest compliments Groen ever received from a major international client was that Nelisca operated an ‘extension of the client’s team’. “Due to our proactive attitude, we are often seen by clients as colleagues. A role we are happy to fulfill.”
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