Meet Jeff Hugh. Growing up in Thailand and bouncing back and forth between London and the United States, Jeff was constantly surrounded by art galleries and beautiful designs. After much deliberation, Jeff made the courageous move to plant his roots and set up Visual Contrast in Los Angeles.
Over the years, Visual Contrast has built a collection featuring the works of over 16 artists, specializing in fine art production, design collaboration, and curating modern collections. Primarily operating as an interior design company, the Visual Contrast team designs pieces based on the unique perspectives of the homeowner or tenant, taking into account the space’s style and size to ultimately create something vibrant that elevates the space and brings everything together.
Today, Visual Contrast has evolved to be a booming platform for young, up-and-coming artists to showcase and sell their work to interior designers. However, the company’s rise wasn’t as smooth as one would imagine.
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Chaos and Art Intertwined
Given Jeff’s upbringing and specialization in the art scene, it is safe to say that accounting and finance weren’t strong points to highlight in his portfolio. In order to create unique and impeccable pieces of postmodern art, one has to devote a part of their mind to embracing a level of chaos and disorder, which are aspects of life working in direct contrast with the orderly world of accounting and numbers.
In his own words, Jeff mentioned that as visually driven people, many are intimidated by accounting. This is with good reason, as accounting and finance are viewed as highly specialised professions that require typically at least 3 years of study to master.
Meanwhile, as Visual Contrast continued to grow in popularity, more young artists and established interior designers were ringing up Jeff’s office line, with one side hoping for a chance to work with Visual Contrast and sell their art pieces, while the other looking to work out a good long-term business deal with Jeff’s company.
With nearly half of all accounting students dropping out of ACCA exams in 2024, what realistic chance does Jeff truly have when it comes to juggling between his core passion of collaborating with prospective artists and interior designers while handling the more mundane and numbers-driven task of reviewing his company’s accounting and financial performances.
Xero Filters The Chaos Into Clarity
After discovering Xero, Jeff began implementing its systems into his business and workflow which quickly transformed his company. Even with zero background in accounting or finance, Jeff was able to quickly learn the steps and master Xero’s accounting software, translating tons of messy data and numbers into easily digestible charts and graphs that he could take a quick glance at on his dashboard.
Given that businesses have different priorities and performance metrics, Jeff and his team were able to come together and customize their dashboard to reflect the aspects most important to their business and filter out less urgent data.
Besides the easily customizable dashboard, Jeff’s vision is also supported by Xero’s strong reporting features. Being able to make stronger and easily digestible performance and metric reports, Jeff is now better backed by financial insights which allow him to trust his instincts and make more informed decisions as the company’s CEO.
Control Your Business Spending With Xero
Across the city, the Xero effect is also felt with Frogtown Brewery’s co-owner and head brewer Adam Kestel echoing a similar story. Located along the Los Angeles River, Frogtown brings in customers from all over the city thanks to its fine selection of craft and home-brewed beers.
While Adam’s crafty creations and customer visits grew in numbers, Frogtown Brewery’s finances remain stuck in the past. Adam might not have imagined owning such a large and vibrant business, so most of his expenses were accounted for on paper or spreadsheets, resulting in Frogtown Brewery’s finances being in a messy predicament.
Thankfully, after integrating Xero with Frogtown Brewery’s other software systems, Adam and his team were able to look into areas they didn’t think was possible. Soon, Adam was able to see which areas they could expand further and where they could save more by giving them real figures in real time, which made all the difference.
Recounting the past, Adam said “We didn’t have a good idea of what our finances were doing – what was coming in or going out. It was very hard to manage before we had Xero. It helped us see things in real-time.”
“We made a really expensive and crazy purchase in the height of the pandemic, which was a new canning line. But after looking at the numbers, it made financial sense for us to stop spending so much on bringing in a mobile canner and finding a way to do it ourselves” Adam added.
Transforming Businesses, Pursuing Passions
Back at Visual Contrast, Jeff continues to spend most of his day working with young artists and interior designers to make art more accessible, transforming dull spaces into artistic representations of the homeowner’s psyche. Through Xero, Jeff is able to cut through the drier and intimidating aspects of business ownership that previously held him back, and focus primarily on his passion, ultimately living his dream.
Reflecting on how Xero has transformed Visual Contrast, Jeff said “There’s no doubt that Xero has made us more efficient in everything that we do. It ties up the loose ends, it keeps an eye on things, makes sure that we don’t drop the ball, enabling us to balance and manage cash flow better and more effectively. We honestly couldn’t operate without Xero.”
Start Your Journey Today
Stories like those from Jeff and Adam are just the tip of the iceberg on what goes on at Xero’s clientele every day. Over the years, Xero has established itself in numerous major cities across most regions, from the United States and Canada in the Americas to Hong Kong and Malaysia in Asia, a testament to the transformative power of Xero across borders and industries.
Whether it’s streamlining your finances into clear, concise reports and analytics to support informed business decisions, as seen with Visual Contrast, saving costs on redundant expenses to be redirected to areas that are more important, as seen with Frogtown Brewery, or managing other crucial aspects such as tracking multiple projects, inventory management, integrating with local bank systems, accepting regional cashless payment methods, and so much more, Xero has the tools and solutions you need to fast-track your business’ growth and future-proof it from disruption.
To get started with Xero, sign-up with Fastlane, one of Xero’s most trusted advisors. We will ensure you receive the very best support and guidance for your plan, helping you maximise what the best of Xero has to offer and enhance your business’s potential.