When Amir Absoud founded Upstreamly in 2015, his aim was simple: to offer highly tailored financial advice combining accountancy, tax, payroll and strategic counsel. By 2020, the firm had grown quickly but lacked clear structure. There was no HR function, no policies or procedures, and no defined company culture.
As Amir puts it, it felt like: “This is how I work; this is how I expect you to work. Let’s go hustle together.”
Joining the Help to Grow: Management Course
It was during the pandemic that Amir first noticed the Help to Grow: Management Course, and when face-to-face sessions resumed, he enrolled at Strathclyde Business School.
His key goals were to formalise internal processes and strategy, and to create a strong company culture. These were areas he had neglected as Upstreamly was focused almost entirely on clients, “You can become so focused on serving clients that you sometimes forget you have a business to run as well.”
Enhancing client experience and operations
For Amir, the most helpful modules were about digital adoption, strategy and innovation. These helped the founder and his team to:
- Review how they deliver services, spotting bottlenecks in the client journey.
- Segment clients by size and industry, refining their service tiers to make them more appropriate and valuable.
- Rework onboarding and workflow via process‐mapping. Previously, onboarding was burdensome with lots of emails, forms, and spreadsheets. Now, clients and staff submit information online, automated reminders keep things on track, and there’s greater visibility of progress.
Recognising the sensitivity of handling financial data and wanting to reassure clients of robust data protection, Amir also introduced a cybersecurity policy and achieved the Cyber Essentials certification.
Building internal capacity and culture
Perhaps the biggest transformation came in how the business is organised internally. Since the course, Upstreamly has appointed new leadership roles, notably a Head of Operations and Sales, and expanded the back-office, operations, administrative and sales teams. What was five employees has become 15.
With this structure in place, Amir could shift from reacting to daily crises to planning proactively. The company introduced team-level KPIs, a performance review cycle, regular review sessions, and greater transparency about the business’s vision and progress. Employees were no longer just doing tasks, they were part of something purposeful.
Triple growth and future focus
The result? Upstreamly has tripled both headcount and turnover since completing the course. It has also expanded beyond London, opening offices in Aberdeen and Porto.
Amir is clear about what drove this change: “I needed to step away and talk to other business leaders and see how they do things, and learn about how to take my business to the next level. It’s had a huge impact.
“The structure the course gave us has been critical to maintaining top talent and continuing our upward trajectory.”
Looking ahead, he wants to maintain the personal, high-quality service Upstreamly is known for, even as they scale up. For Amir, people remain at the heart of the business—employee well-being, company purpose, and consistent client experience are non-negotiable.
You can find out more about the Help to Grow: Management Course here.
