Anyone who has done business with Ashley McGuirk will know that his favourite saying is “the fish rots from the head”.

While it doesn’t exactly conjure up a pleasant picture, his meaning is clear – effective leadership is the key to success in any business.

Add to this a well-defined set of values that includes references to quality and consistency, integrity and work life/home life balance and you can rest assured that Core Business & Management Advice is proof that the business advice and systems he talks to his clients about are the basis of his own operation.

Call it leadership or business mentoring, he believes it’s all about communication that involves breaking down what can be complex accounting and business issues into easily understood units that may be implemented properly.

While clearly a problem solver, Ashley considers himself a facilitator with expertise in accounting and business practices and experience across a diverse range of industries. He is well-connected with other specialist professionals such as estate and corporate lawyers, financiers and financial planners, and as a result well able to guide his clients effectively.

His approach is one that includes partnering his clients in their decision-making providing a sounding board for ideas and offering advice and experience that can illustrate processes for achievement of goals as well as indicating likely outcomes.

He works predominately with small and medium sized business owners and managers on issues of accounting, taxation and financial strategies with particular emphasis on asset protection, business management and succession planning.

His client base is varied including construction and building related industries, professional services, manufacturing and engineering, property, transport and storage, retail and franchise and master franchise - both micro and macro businesses.

Working in an environment where family owned businesses are the norm, Ashley has a strong understanding of the issues that affect family relationships and often facilitates succession planning between parent owners and their children, and assists couples experiencing divorce to settle their business affairs.

While he has worked in public practice for his entire career, he is also a business owner with varied interests. He purchased his first business with a partner while in his mid-twenties - a successful earth moving business near his home town of Gatton.

His is real world experience – both holistic and pragmatic.
He enjoys the challenges of work, but values his time off equally.
He supports the Broncos and spends time travelling.

While Bali is a favourite destination for a quick getaway, he enjoys adventure holidays which have included trekking the Himalayas (and being battered by hail stones the size of golf balls) and cycling across Vietnam from Ho Chi Min City to the Laos Border, peddling up to 100km a day.

In the often stereotypical world of accounting, Glen Palmer has been labelled by some as an un-accountant accountant. While this sits comfortably with Glen, he is still very capable with numbers, as you would expect of an experienced accountant and business advisor, but you can also count on Glen Palmer to know the cricket and football scores.

He calls himself an “armchair sports tragic”, and while he may not have reached lofty heights on the sports field himself, many of his clients are professional sports people, so perhaps it’s a simple case of ‘birds of a feather’.

He has also managed the affairs of various celebrities and entertainment industry personalities.

Glen reviews his career and equates it to that of a ‘journeyman’ – a football term that refers to a player who moves from club to club seeking satisfaction and enjoyment and picking up valuable skills along the way.

Following 15 years working in various accounting practices in Sydney’s CBD, and studying part time for his Chartered Accountant qualification, Glen believes he has achieved a balance that blends his academic knowledge with street-smart know how.

He understands the need for plain-English advice and working proactively with clients to apply sound business models and strategies that deliver planned outcomes.

His approach is one of partnering.

While his clients have extensive knowledge of their market place or industry, Glen brings vast experience and knowledge of business systems, compliance legislation, property and share capital gains tax expertise and income tax, asset protection and personal wealth management. He also contributes a significant quantity of ‘gut feeling’ which comes with tenure, as he anticipates and knows instinctively the signs of change and the need for action.

No longer a ‘journeyman’ he feels he has found his niche.

He now describes himself as a business builder – someone who simply works out where people want to be and helps them to get there – his approach is goal and outcomes oriented.

He works across all aspects of business, advising clients on how to plan for and cope with expansion and growth; to effectively manage finance and cashflow; to implement structure especially asset protection and how to benchmark business practices and performance to create yard sticks that may be used to measure success, now and in the future.

When not glued to the television watching the cricket or footy, Glen goes bush – four wheel driving and camping.

Jenny worked in the Sydney commerce field for 16 years.

For ten years she worked for a Multi-National freight company – five of those were dedicated to the role of Head Office Administration Manager where she managed 80 staff members and implemented new administrative procedures that were ultimately adopted by the group Australia-wide.

Here she developed an expertise in people and systems management - the ability to create environments where each supports the other, systems that are user-friendly, effective and that minimise the opportunity for human error.

With children, Jenny swapped her career and the city-scene for Mudgee in rural NSW.

However the slower-paced rural lifestyle did nothing to diminish Jenny’s work ethic and natural leadership. She became involved in the local community and soon found herself in the role of Administrator for a 50 bed Nursing Home run by a voluntary board.

In 1993 she was "head-hunted" by a firm of Chartered Accountants who recognised her energy and highly motivated nature and of course, her vast background and considerable breadth as well of depth of achievements. She has remained in public practice since.

In 2001, as ‘empty-nesters’ she and her husband moved to the Sunshine Coast and Jenny joined Ashleys’ firm, Rafter McGuirk & Associates.

Today, Jenny is a Client Manager for Core Business & Management Advice where her expertise in people and systems management are put to good use. She also has a particular interest in self-managed superannuation funds, is a member of the Self-Managed Superannuation Fund Professionals Association of Australia and is responsible for the management of all the superannuation funds which Core advises.

In fact, you could say that through Jenny’s leadership in administration assessment and pro-active business operations systems, Core is walking the walk of sound business practices...effective workload and processes, sound management of information, efficient cash flow and business asset protection and security.

While it is clear that Jenny is a go-getter committed to efficiencies and outcomes, she does take a break from it all every now and then.

Although, it does seem that her high achieving nature spills over into her recreation, as evidenced by the types of holidays she takes – trekking to Machu Picchu in Peru for example. While there, she was brave enough to sample the local delicacy of…you don’t want to know! She’s fished for piranha and held her nerve while enjoying an anaconda cocktail (again, don’t ask!) at a bar in the Upper Amazon as a wild tapir casually strolled in!

Uta Bender has ten years public practice experience, and a Bachelor of Business degree in accountancy.

Following completion of her degree, Uta spent two years managing a retail store. The experience provided a hands-on insight into the real issues of private enterprise including stock control, meeting monthly sales budgets, human resource management and marketing initiatives.

Buoyed by her success in retail management, which included a small business achievers award, Uta commenced her career in accounting with a chartered accounting firm in Brisbane which offered business as well as taxation compliance service to clients.

In 1999, she relocated to the Sunshine Coast where she was employed by Ashley McGuirk, a partner in the firm Rafter McGuirk & Associates.

Uta has seen a couple of changes of identity of the business, and now as Core continues to put extensive knowledge and experience in taxation compliance, business services and the accounting software commonly used by clients – MYOB & Quick Books to good use.

She is responsible for managing a significant client portfolio which includes small and medium businesses, sole traders, companies, trusts and self managed superannuation funds.

Considered by her peers to be a great communicator, Uta blends her considerable experience, natural empathy and understanding of her client needs with the ability to provide practical and workable business & accounting solutions.

When Uta needs time out, she heads bush. She and her husband enjoy nothing better than packing the camping gear and heading out to some secluded area where mobile phones and modern technologies simply don’t work.

When she pulls on her dusty hiking boots the stresses that come with a busy professional life simply melt away.

It’s all about work/life balance, which is a consistent theme across the Core Business & Management Advice organisation.

The thing about those with tenure is their ability to know things intuitively. It allows them to suggest solutions before there is ever a problem and to innately and effortlessly represent the true culture of their organisation. 

In 2008, Etain joined the Core as sales and marketing coordinator before moving to her current role in 2009