by ANDREW GIBBS e: news@businessmk.co.uk
BUSINESSWOMAN Alex Falcon Huerta is looking to inspire would-be entreprenuers to follow in her footsteps. “I hope I show that literally anything is possible if you put your mind to it and keep focused,” she says.
She runs an international tech-age accountancy service from Bedford. Her growing expertise in helping clients from overseas to set up UK operations and British companies to sell or set up overseas saw her being invited to join the All Party Parliamentary Group Technology Board two years ago. She is also a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants’ International Assembly.
It is a far cry from her childhood. Alex was born in Bedford to a Peruvian father and Spanish mother who met at Bedford College when they attended the same English class. When she and her siblings were young, the family moved to Peru, but Alex returned to Bedford with her mother to live in Castle Lane – just a few yards from where her office is now.
A short journey but a long road with many decisions to make for the teenage Alex who soon had to leave family troubles behind and turned to the Student Services at Bedford College for help.
“Bedford College was the most brilliant thing for me,” she says. “They helped me find temporary accommodation when I had nowhere to live. I did my Business & Finance Course there, then moved on to do AAT [Association of Accounting Technicians] to start my path towards being an accountant. It was like my ‘university’.”
A Fellow of the Association of Certified Accountants, Alex had the foresight to see how technology could revolutionise bookkeeping long before the current Covid crisis forced firms forward. “As a young trainee in a traditional firm, I heard about a product from New Zealand called Xero which would streamline financial systems and enable businesses to better plan for the future,” she says.
It inspired her to set up her own firm Soaring Falcon, which has won a catalogue of awards including British Accountancy Awards Winners – Best New Practice and Xero’s Most Valued Professional.
“I have clients all over the world, have some great colleagues and friends here and I think Bedford is great,” she says. “I would like to see more made of its rich cosmopolitan community.
“Lots of people have harder challenges to overcome than me, but I hope I show that literally anything is possible if you put your mind to it and keep focused.”
Away from work, Alex is a trustee of the Blues Foundation, Bedford Blues rugby club’s charitable arm. Giving back when and where you can is so important, she believes.
“More young people need support and inspiration now so I hope to be putting something back and showing them that being a successful entrepreneur will give them hope and they can be inspired to do the same.”
