From a young woman in Devon taking a chance on self-employment, to leading a multi million pound  financial business with 17 staff, £110 million under management and a move to bigger premises on the horizon, Allie’s story is one of steady determination, real client care and knowing exactly why the details matter.

There is something instantly reassuring about speaking to Allie.

Finance can feel like one of those worlds that belongs to other people. People with huge portfolios. People who understand pensions, investments, protection, tax, legacy planning and all the things many of us quietly push to the bottom of the list because, frankly, it can feel complicated.

But within minutes of chatting to Allie, that changes.

She is warm, straight-talking, funny, refreshingly normal and completely without ego. The kind of person who can talk about business protection, retirement planning and investment portfolios in a way that makes you think, “Oh, I can actually understand this.”

And that, really, is the heart of what she has built.

A young woman taking a chance

Allie did not set out with some perfectly mapped-out plan to build a financial advice multi million pound business. In fact, her original dream was to become a financial journalist.

She loved writing. She loved numbers. On paper, financial journalism made sense. She was due to go to Warwick University, but took a year out while she worked out what she really wanted to do. During that time, she found herself working for a young IFA practice in Devon, where she is originally from.

It was there that something clicked.

Watching the advisers, learning the industry and seeing the impact good financial advice could have, Allie started to wonder whether this was the path for her. She began taking exams and building her knowledge, before being headhunted to Bristol to work within an estate agency practice, covering mortgages, protection and financial advice.

That role even brought her to Liverpool for three months of training, which feels rather fitting now, given that the North West became home.

After moving back to Devon, Allie was faced with two offers: one secure role with Midland Bank, and one self-employed opportunity as an IFA with no guaranteed income.

She chose the risk.

“I was still young, living at home, and I thought, I can take the risk,” she says. “At the time, I didn’t really see it as risk. I just saw it as doing my thing.”

Building from the ground up

By the age of 22, Allie had been offered a partnership. She had clients, momentum and a career she loved. Then life took her north.

Allie found herself considering whether she could build something of her own in a place where she did not yet have a network.

She started by freelancing in Chester. Before long, most of the clients were coming to her, and she made the decision to set up on her own.

Looking back, she laughs at the boldness of it.

“Would I do that now? Absolutely not,” she says. “But at the time, I just thought, they’re all coming to me, I’m really busy, so I’m going to set this up.”

The business began with just Allie. The name was simple, personal and practical. The first year turned over £30,000.

Twenty-two years later, the business has grown to 17 staff, and more than 1.6 million turnover.

That kind of growth can sound glossy when you read it quickly, but Allie is very clear about what sits behind it: consistent work, repeat effort and a refusal to give up when things got difficult.

“People say, how have you done it?” she says. “It’s consistently hard work and repeat. A lot of people like the view, but they don’t necessarily like the climb.”

Motherhood, business and doing both

Soon after setting up the business, Allie became pregnant. Her mum reassured her that she could always go back to her career, but something inside Allie pushed back.

“I thought, what do you mean, go back to my career? I can do both.”

And she did.

Her children are now 17 and 20, and they have grown up seeing the work, the sacrifice and the determination behind the business. For Allie, that matters. Not because she wants to glamourise the hard parts, but because she believes success takes time.

In a world where social media can make everything look instant, Allie is refreshingly honest about the reality.

“Success does come with time,” she says. “It takes a while to build it up.”

The moment she had to hold on tight

Of course, there have been difficult chapters.

The 2007 banking crisis hit hard. Overnight, the mortgage market changed dramatically. Investments were falling. Clients needed reassurance. The business needed reassurance. At one point it became tight even paying the staff but she did it.

It was frightening.

At the same time, she was dealing with the personal grief of a miscarriage between having her eldest and youngest children.

For a moment, she considered taking a job elsewhere. She even went to visit a company in Leicester, but she knew almost immediately it was not right.

“I thought, no, I need to do this,” she says. “I can carry on.”

And carry on she did. By focusing on clients, communication and doing the right thing, the business came through it. In fact, the years that followed became a strong period of growth.

That experience shaped the way Allie sees business, finance and uncertainty. External events will always happen. Markets will shift. Governments will change. The world will throw things at us that we cannot control. But what we can control is the plan, the process and how well we look after people.

A business built on values

As the business has grown, Allie has had to learn how to step back from doing everything herself and build a team around the same standards.

Anyone who has ever started a business will understand the fear of taking on that first member of staff. Will they care like you care? Will they do it properly? Will they understand the values?

For Allie, the answer has been culture.

The company now works around three clear values: we care, we are insatiably curious, and we are better together.

“If you hire on culture and values, people stay a lot longer than if you hire on just qualifications alone,” she says. “If they’ve got the right character and work ethic, you can teach them everything else.”

It is an approach that has helped her grow from a one-woman operation to a business with a leadership team, divisions and clear areas of expertise.

Now, as the business prepares to move to bigger premises, there is space for the next chapter. The new building will allow room for around 10 more people as the team continues to grow its private client, mortgage and protection, and corporate benefits arms.

The move is planned for early July, and Allie describes it as exciting, a little nerve-wracking and the natural next step.

Making finance feel human

What stands out most about Allie is how human she makes the financial world feel.

She talks about planning not as something cold or intimidating, but as something that gives people freedom, confidence and peace of mind.

Many clients come to us because they have pensions dotted around, savings they are not sure what to do with, a mortgage they want to understand, or a general feeling that they should probably get their finances in order.

The first conversation is free, and it can be done by phone, Zoom, Teams or in person. The team will only take someone on if they genuinely believe they can help.

From there, clients can move into a full holistic review, where the team looks at risk, savings, protection, pensions, retirement planning and what the client actually wants life to look like.

That last point is key.

Because for Allie, money is not just about the number. It is about the life behind the number.

“Everyone works so hard,” she says. “But what’s the end goal? What are they actually going to do at the end?”

She compares financial planning to going to the gym. If you walk in with no plan, no guidance and no idea what you are doing, you are unlikely to get the result you want. Finance is the same. Often, people do not realise how much they need financial planning until they have experienced it.

Why women need to feel empowered around money

One of the biggest messages Allie wants to share is that financial advice is not just for the ultra-wealthy.

It is for business owners. Families. Couples. Clients going through divorce. People approaching retirement. People who have worked hard and want to understand what they are building. People who know they should be doing something, but do not know where to start.

For women especially, the conversation can be powerful.

Allie often sees situations where men have traditionally managed the household finances, leaving women unsure of the full picture if circumstances change. In divorce, for example, the family home can feel like the priority, but pensions, future income and long-term security matter too.

“You can’t get the money out of the house until you sell the house,” Allie says. “It might give you a roof over your head, but it doesn’t pay you an income.”

That kind of clear, practical guidance can change everything.

It is not about judgement. It is not about making people feel they should have known better. It is about saying: from today, let’s understand where you are, what you have and what you need to do next.

For business owners, the details matter

The company also works with businesses, including corporate benefits and business protection.

Allie gives a simple example. Two directors build a business together. In the early days, it is worth very little. Years later, it may be worth millions. If one director dies, what happens to their shares? Does the remaining director want to find themselves in business with the other director’s spouse? Does the family know how they would be paid out? Has anyone planned for that?

Often, those conversations have not happened.

That is where proper advice, protection and agreements become essential. It may not be the most glamorous part of business ownership, but it can be one of the most important.

Allie has deliberately kept full ownership of her own business, while building a leadership team and putting growth share plans in place so key people can benefit when the business eventually sells.

It is thoughtful. Strategic. Very Allie.

The next chapter

Although the business carries her name, Allie is clear that the business is no longer just about her.

The goal now is to continue building something that stands on its own. A business with the right people, the right processes and the right culture, so that clients are buying into the business, not just one person.

That does not mean Allie is stepping back from the vision. Far from it. She still holds the strategy, the standards and the direction. But she is building something with longevity.

She is already an award winning entrepreneur and is now also up for North West Adviser of the Year at the Professional Adviser Awards, with finalists expected later this year — a lovely recognition of the reputation she has built.

And yet, when asked how she would like people to describe her, her answer is simple: down to earth.

“How I am now is how I would be if I saw you in the street,” she says. “There are no complexities with me. I’m very black and white, and I think that helps.”

No judgement, just a plan

Perhaps that is why clients trust her.

Because finance can feel exposing. People worry they have left things too late, made mistakes, missed something important or created a situation that feels complicated. Allie’s answer is always the same: try me.

Most of the time, what feels complex to the client is something she has seen many times before.

“It is complex to you because you are living it,” she says. “So let’s work that through.”

That mix of technical knowledge, lived experience, humour and absolute practicality is what makes Allie stand out.

She has built the business through hard work, client care, resilience and consistency. She has grown it without losing the personal touch. She has taken the climb seriously, not just the view.

And for anyone who has been putting off looking properly at their finances, her message is clear: do not leave it just because you have not had the guidance.

Get the plan. Understand the picture. Know what you are working towards.

Because life is for living now — but it is a lot easier to enjoy it when you know what the future looks like.

To contact Allie and the team – hello@allisonsfinancial.com or 01744 885555

Instagram @allisonsfinancial