29 years of accounting
Steady growth, and new paths worn in on the way to our place in Estonian business life. This is the story of one small company – and a small piece of Estonian life.
Next year Tähelend turns 30. Now that is a respectable number – and an achievement in its own right.
What have these years taught us?
Staying power and dedication to our craft – the two things that keep a firm going for decades.
Flexibility and resourcefulness – knowing how to cope, whatever the situation.
Balance – in setting goals, finding solutions, getting past obstacles, and growing the company.
Passion – for work we enjoy and that keeps us inspired.
Ethical values – forming them, sharing them, and holding on to them. This matters enormously to us.
Joy – in the work and in working together, in our clients and their success, in new challenges and in outdoing ourselves, in wins large and small.
Success – which can mean something different to every one of us.
Why do people start companies?
There are a million reasons. Why some people prefer to work alone, and why many get better results working with others, comes down to the people themselves, their nature, or simply their circumstances.
For some, a company begins with a big dream; for others with iron will, with necessity, with an opening – or with pure chance.
Tähelend was born when several circumstances happened to line up. It was sheer chance that a need arose and an opportunity appeared at the same time. Everything else came later.
Fragments of our journey, and of Tähelend’s history
On 3 January 1994, I submitted an application to Tallinn City Government to found the public limited company “Tähelend”. Its share capital was 400 kroons (the legal minimum), divided into 4 shares. One share, one vote.
On 1 February 1994, Tallinn City Government issued a certificate bearing the coat of arms of the Republic of Estonia, registering the public limited company “Tähelend”.
Our main line of business was accounting services, but the company was also allowed to operate in 12 other fields. Our ten-page articles of association had to list every one of them, and anything not on the list was off limits. If we wanted to do something new, we had to amend the articles.
Compare that with today: your main line of business is simply declared in the annual report, where you report last year’s sales revenue by EMTAK code as a percentage, and your secondary activities can change from year to year without registering anything in advance – unless the activity requires a license or an entry in a specific register.
Choosing a name
A company name had to be approved by the naming committee, which judged both what the name meant and whether it worked linguistically. Tähelend suited me, and it suited the committee.
On 31 January 1995 the name changed to “AR Tähelend”, still a public limited company.
Plenty of people have asked what the letters A and R stand for. I have several good answers:
- The initials of the owners and board members, Anu and Raimo.
- A nod to our main line of business – “Arukad Raamatupidajad”, “Smart Accountants” (for a while, auditing sat alongside accounting on our agenda).
- A nod to a sideline – AutoRemont, car repair.
The most down-to-earth reason, though, was the phone directory. In a thick phone book, a name starting with T landed you somewhere near the back.
The letter A put us right at the front.
A small, effective, and very much of-its-time marketing trick :)
From AS to OÜ
On 20 August 1997, the public limited company was converted into a private limited company, and the name became AR Tähelend OÜ. The share capital was 400,000 kroons. Accounting services remained the main line of business, with room for 4 more. We were issued a blue-tinted registration card showing the company’s registry code – the same one we use today – along with the amount of capital, the board members’ personal details, the company’s legal status and the date of registration.
The dates on the Business Register’s B-card are, unfortunately, slightly different: the Enterprise Register records the company’s founding as 28 January 1994, and its entry in the Business Register as 28 January 1998. The dates probably don’t matter all that much. But it is reassuring to have the original documents in a folder of your own.
Location
Location has always been extremely important to us. We have paid close attention to how easily and comfortably both clients and our own people can reach us.
Our first home was the main building of AS Vasara on Pärnu maantee in Tallinn. There was a bus stop, a tram stop and a train station nearby, and plenty of parking around the building.
When AS Vasara’s headquarters went through a reorganization, we had to find somewhere new. At the same time, I was studying for a master’s degree in economics in Tartu and had to prepare a SWOT analysis. I chose our company’s location as my subject. There were three options, and I weighed each against the four parameters: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
- Find new rented premises
- Buy a larger commercial space together with a partner
- Find commercial premises of our own, at the right price
The SWOT analysis pointed to the third option. It was time to act. In May 2000, we moved into the ground floor of our own building – our new office on Tondi Street.
In Tallinn you pay for outdoor advertising, even for a sign on the wall of your own building. All you are allowed to do is state what kind of office is inside. And so a lit sign went up on the front of the building: AR Tähelend Accounting Firm.
When the railroad crossing barrier on Tondi Street is down, plenty of people notice our lit sign and drop in to ask about our services. Another small and timely marketing trick :)
Owning our own property also opened up new lines of business, and Raimo took property management onto his shoulders. We started by renting space out.
People
People are what give a company its face and its substance. In more modern language, you might call it a brand.
At the start, our company had 3 accountants, myself included. Raimo joined right away too; in the early years he worked in car repair.
Back then, accounting as an outsourced service was brand new and rather unfamiliar territory in Estonia. Business owners were used to having an accountant on the premises, always within reach. The first to use the service were Finnish businesspeople, along with the more innovative and forward-thinking Estonian business owners.
At first, founding a company was a long process, but it soon picked up speed, and every year more companies were founded than the year before. Their owners needed accounting. A small business couldn’t offer an accountant full-time work, so buying it in as a service was the natural fit. Outsourced accounting grew quickly and became popular.
As clients came in, our team grew with them. We soon began working with various business schools and took on students as interns. Quite a few of them stayed on with us once their internship was over.
Every business owner has their own idea of growth – fast and bold, or calm and careful. At some point you have to choose whether to be small, medium or large, given the scale of the Estonian economy and business world.
Tähelend has always had between 10 and 15 employees. Intuitively, that feels like the right number for us to work as a single team. Finding people and fitting them into a team is an art in itself. That work is never finished: there are always changes, surprises, and the joy of discovery.
What matters to us is that we can talk to each other, learn together, discuss things – and that a trustworthy system of checks is in place.
A few years ago we adopted Uku, a practice-management software, which has been a great help with our internal organization, with managing different systems, with getting the data we need for billing, and with communicating among ourselves.
Most of our clients have found their way to us through recommendations. Over the years we have certainly had around 550 clients, and with nearly half of them we have worked for more than 5 years. With a third, we have passed the 10-year mark!
We have grown, developed and adapted together with our clients in an economy that never stops changing.
“Our company started operating in 1995, and we began working with Tähelend in our very first years. There was always advice to ask for, or a solution to find together. A sense of certainty and mutual trust give us the strength to keep moving forward.”
– Mari-Liis Amiel, board member at Almelo
The business landscape is never flat. There are always ups and downs, hills and hollows. Not every road is straight or smooth, and more than once you have to change direction or wear in a path of your own. With good, trustworthy companions, all of it is an adventure, and you carry on bravely.
A deep bow to everyone at Tähelend, and to everyone who has played a part in Tähelend’s life and growth.
It is remarkable what wonderful documents I have collected in my folders over the years, and how many photos have piled up from our projects and get-togethers. Keeping records is a worthwhile pursuit.
This is the story of one small company – and so, also a small piece of Estonian life.
