Engaging creative minds: The Wow Company’s journey to visual financial planning with Fathom

In this case study, we explore how The Wow Company, an accountancy firm specializing in agencies, consultancies and tech businesses with over £1m turnover, reshaped its client engagement using Fathom's visual financial planning and forecasting tools.  

Struggling with disengaged clients and the limitations of traditional spreadsheets, The Wow Company needed a solution to make financial data accessible, engaging, and impactful. By adopting Fathom, they could inspire client meetings, maintain energy levels in long sessions, and empower creative clients to make confident, data-driven decisions.

We spoke with Dan Arhin, Account Director, to delve into The Wow Company's specific challenges, how Fathom provided the solution, and the tangible results in client satisfaction and business growth.

The Company  

The Wow Company, based in the UK, is a business advisory firm helping creative agencies, design firms, and innovative startups. What sets The Wow Company apart is its focus on simplifying financial management for businesses that thrive on creativity but often need help with the rigid and complex nature of financial planning. Their clients, who excel at visual storytelling, often find traditional reports built in spreadsheets disconnected from their way of thinking.

According to Dan Arhin, Account Director at The Wow Company, many of their clients needed more structured financial planning in place, with budgets either forgotten or never created. This left these businesses needing a clear financial roadmap and decision-making difficult. Recognizing this gap, The Wow Company set out to reshape how their clients approached financial forecasting and planning. By integrating Fathom's visual tools, they created a more intuitive and engaging process aligned with their clients' creative mindset, turning complex financial data into easy-to-understand, actionable insights.

• Website: www.thewowcompany.com  

• Number of Employees: 60

• Industry: Business Advisory and Accounting  

• HQ Location: Full remote team based in the UK

The Challenge  

Picture this: A quarterly meeting room filled with creative-minded clients, and up comes a spreadsheet—rows and columns of tiny black text. For many of The Wow Company's clients, it felt like someone had hit the pause button on their energy. According to Dan Arhin:  

• Disconnection from data: "Budgets in Excel get created and then forgotten about, or small businesses don't even create them. A forecast is a living, breathing tool to guide the business monthly or quarterly."

• Keeping the energy high: "Quarterly meetings are typically quite long—2.5 to 3 hours. Keeping the energy levels high throughout these sessions, especially when dealing with complex financial data, is challenging."  

• Translating financials into stories: For creative clients, rows of numbers failed to communicate the whole picture. "Visualizing data to aid decision-making is crucial for creative clients who prefer to see data rather than read through numbers." ‍

‍The Solution  

Enter Fathom—a tool that helped The Wow Company flip the script. Instead of presenting data as static numbers, they used Fathom to create visuals that told stories and brought data to life.  

• Visual engagement that feels like art: "Fathom's visuals have changed the way my clients understand their finances—it's like a lightbulb moment for them," said Dan. Instead of sifting through numbers, clients could interact with colorful, intuitive charts and graphs that illustrated their financial health in real-time.  

• Keeping the momentum flowing: Using Fathom's interactive dashboards, The Wow Company turned long quarterly meetings into collaborative sessions. "Interactive visualizations keep the energy up, even during long meetings," Dan shared. Clients no longer felt bogged down; they were part of the process, exploring scenarios together.  

• Tailored conversations that resonate: Fathom's flexibility meant Dan could tailor each meeting to the client's unique challenges. "We use Fathom's formula builder to tailor conversations with our clients, revealing insights specific to their business." This personalization made clients feel seen and understood, moving meetings into meaningful, action-oriented discussions.

The Results  

Since integrating Fathom into their practice, The Wow Company's meetings have gone from just another appointment to something their clients look forward to. Here's what's changed:  

• Improved engagement levels: Clients are now more than passive participants; they're active collaborators. "Fathom helps us bring scenarios to life so clients can visualize their options and make informed decisions," Dan highlighted. Meetings have become interactive, hands-on experiences.  

• Dynamic meetings that inspire action: The Wow Company has shifted quarterly reviews from hours of disengaged data review into sessions where clients leave inspired and motivated. "Our clients leave these sessions feeling excited about the direction of their business—Fathom keeps the energy high and the conversation flowing."

• Defined visual stories that drive understanding: When clients can see the impact of their decisions visually, they get it. "Visualizing data helps our creative clients see the bigger picture, enabling them to make confident decisions that align with their goals," Dan added.  ‍

‍A success story: visualizing growth for a design agency  

One of The Wow Company's design agency clients was looking to scale, but they needed clarity on what that growth would mean financially. With Fathom, Dan and his team created a visual, interactive forecast that showed different growth scenarios—hiring more staff, expanding services, increasing marketing spend—all laid out in a way that resonated with the client's creative mindset. "Fathom's visuals made it clear for them—they could see the impact of each scenario and felt empowered to make the right choice," Dan recalled. It wasn't just a meeting; it was a turning point.  ‍

Customer Testimonial  

"Fathom has turned our quarterly reviews into something our clients actually look forward to. The visual tools keep the energy up and help us connect with our clients in a way that spreadsheets never could."

— Dan Arhin, Account Director, The Wow Company ‍

Are your meetings stuck in the world of spreadsheets?

Bring your client conversations to life, just like The Wow Company. Use Fathom's visual tools to turn financial data into stories your clients can understand and act on.  

Ready to make your meetings more dynamic and impactful? Start your free 14-day trial today.