An ongoing focus on product diversification and meeting customer needs and the ability to recognize and forge strategic partnerships all over the world are just some of the factors that have helped propel Taxback.com from a student sideline 13 years ago into a global business with over 650 employees, offices in 21 countries and a projected turnover of €90m this year. Meanwhile, the man behind the company, Terry Clune, was recently named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year in Ireland.
Coming from a farming background, Clune displayed early signs on his entrepreneurial side organizing discos and events while still at school. Taxback.com was developed while he was working in Germany for the summer while studying business at Trinity College Dublin. Clune identified a need in the market to offer support and help to fellow students working abroad to recover income tax.
The business remained a sideline business back in Ireland while Clune completed his studies. He then applied to be an accountant which he did for only a week before deciding to focus full time on Taxback.com.
He hired his first employees with the help of grants from Enterprise Ireland. “Our business is mainly built on making partnerships with other companies,” he says. “Our first partner was USIT, the student travel company at the time, and we set up next door to it. So we got a lot of passing trade for our tax service as a result.”
The company has continued its policy of partnering and as a result does little advertising. The company’s largest worldwide partnership to date is with credit card company Visa, which makes its clients aware of Taxback.com’s VAT recovery service. Travel companies and recruitment agencies also form a large part of their business.
The taxback.com group now consists of eight companies, which provide a range of services including income tax refunds for individuals and business operating overseas, international corporate payments, VAT recovery, property tax returns and business and travel visas. The company also has a strong focus on corporate social responsibility, and has set up its own ‘International Outreach’ programme.
The focus on diversification was also driven by a big shock to the business around eight years ago. “At the time we were heavily dependent on the income tax market. There was a change in US tax policy which wiped out about 80 percent of our business over a period of a month or two. Thankfully, you’re talking to me now so we obviously got through it,” he laughs.
Clune says the company will never be reliant on any one market or sector again. “We’re an Irish company and about 130 of our staff are in Ireland and most of our key management are here, but only 5 percent of our clients are in Ireland. Right now, that’s a comfortable place to be in, given the Irish economy. In income tax, big markets for us would be Brazilians who work in Australia, and Russians who work in England. So, even if the Irish economy is stalled for a while, lots of other economies are doing fine and we’re able to continue to grow. Over the past year, we’ve grown over 40 percent in turnover.”
Clune says he’s delighted to have won the Entrepreneur of the Year award, which he believes will help the business in terms of recognition. “There were a lot of really good companies there and it’s absolutely brilliant to come out on top. It’s great for our staff to recognize that they’re involved with a successful company and it’s not just me saying it,” he laughs.
Clune firmly believes that Irish companies needs to start looking outside for opportunities and making the most of their natural advantages. “We sit in Ireland and we’re able to do business with Brazilians who work in Australia. We help Chinese guys who work on Tokyo building sites to claim back their Japanese PRSI, and we can manage all that from here.
“You could sit back and say: ‘How the hell would you do that? How could anybody do that? That’s not possible at all.’ But if you have a positive outlook on stuff, you can make a success of anything you want. We’re just one small example of that.
“The future for this country isn’t going to be sitting in Ireland hoping we can sell more properties to some other Irish guy. It’s going to be going out on the international stage and selling stuff overseas and managing it using Irish brains.
“Also in terms of assets, we have the likes of Enterprise Ireland and ministerial trade missions. “ Ireland’s diaspora is another asset, he says. “There are huge numbers of Irish people in every corner of the world that you could be using if you just made contact with them to create leads or develop partnerships. Many other countries don’t have that network across the world. Over the past 10 years, I suppose Irish people have forgotten how to sell because we just got drugged up on property. We’ve just got to learn it back again.”
To discover more about what drives the Entrepreneur of the Year and the services available from Taxback.com, please contact the team directly at www.taxback.com.