Going for growth: Sofie Scott, Managing Director, ASH Elite, and Dan Tout, Partner, PKF Francis Clark.
A Dorset businesswoman who was told she’d never walk again after breaking her back says she’s living proof that you can succeed with determination.
Sofie Scott, Managing Director of ASH Elite, suffered devastating injuries when she was run over by a car in her native Sweden.
Doctors said the then 17-year-old would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.
Now 15 years later, Sofie, 32, said: “I’m fiercely independent and stubborn. There was just no way I was going to let something like a broken back get in my way.”
She added: “At every point in my life I have faced challenges that needed to be overcome. To me it’s second nature and whether it’s a broken back, or some other kind of issue, then you can ride above them with the necessary determination.”
Founded in 2015, ASH Elite is a Bournemouth-based specialist legal recruitment consultancy serving law firms in Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire.
Acting at all levels – from Partner to office junior – the business is the only one of its kind in Dorset. In 2016, 94.4 per cent of candidates sent for interview by ASH Elite were offered a position.
Sofie, a semi-finalist in the Business Mother of the Year category of last year’s Dorset Venus Awards, said she was “hungry for growth” and hoped to recruit up to four staff herself in the coming years.
“There are several hundred legal practices across the four counties so the market is very big. I reckon we’re just scraping the surface at the moment,” said Sofie, who was also a finalist in the ‘Start Up Business of the Year’ category of the 2016 Blackmore Vale Media Business Awards and is the driving force behind the new Dorset Legal Awards.
Dan Tout, a Partner with chartered accountants and business advisers PKF Francis Clark, said ASH Elite’s already ambitious targets had been quickly exceeded and the business was on course for a successful future.
He added: “We’ve been involved from the very beginning, providing a range of services from Xero cloud accounting to advice on VAT and software.
“Sofie is a very dynamic and determined woman and it’s a real privilege to work with her on growing and developing the business.”
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About PKF Francis Clark
Chartered accountants and business advisers PKF Francis Clark has annual revenue of £38 million, a team of more than 600 people and 58 partners. Founded in 1919, the award-winning firm has eight offices across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. PKF Francis Clark is a member of PKF UKI which is ranked 11th in the Accountancy Age 2016 survey of top accountancy firms.
