Daniel Ernst CA

Fruitful Office  

Daniel had not initially planned to pursue a career in accountancy. In the wake of the dotcom crash, he spoke to several business contacts in the UK and abroad about what to do with his career. When someone told him "chartered accountants are only ever out of work when they choose to be", his decision was made. After training and qualifying at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Daniel set up Fruitful Office, the UK's leading office fruit supplier.

What has being ICAS route meant for you?

I was advised to do the CA qualification, as this would provide a fantastic training for any business function, and the flexibility to choose what to do at a later date. The CA qualification provided intensive training in financial, accounting, legal and tax areas - I felt that it was critical to understand these areas to develop my business career even though at the time I wasn't 100% sure whether I would remain as an accountant, work for a bank, work for a company in a particular industry or even set up my own company. I guess the CA qualification did provide me with three years to think this over!

Being ICAS trained certainly gave me a lot of confidence to be able to start my own company, as it equipped me with business knowledge, management skills and the ability to communicate well with clients.

What part of your work has given you the biggest sense of achievement?

Nowadays, I am mainly involved in business development for Fruitful Office, and I enjoy the challenge of identifying new opportunities for our company, analysing them and then implementing them. I enjoy the excitement of setting up new businesses, products or projects and seeing them through to profitability. Being an entrepreneur I also like being my own boss and having more flexibility with my free time.