‘I didn't want to get up and give a speech about how we’re great. I wanted to celebrate other people and their achievements.’

That’s Will Ryles, he’s the director of Yellowstone Accounts, which sponsored the Business of the Year category at November’s Media Isle of Man Awards for Excellence.

Many organisations involved in the Awards chose to use the platform to bolster the things their company has been doing well. But Will had a different priority.

‘A few awards before the one we sponsored, I’d watched Manx Care win the Teams Working Together category, and I thought “that's what I'm going to talk about”.’

Disregarding the question asked to him on stage, Will used the spotlight to highlight something close to his heart.

‘My son has type 1 diabetes and Manx Care saved his life. I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to highlight that.

‘The journey we’ve been on with diabetes has been very rough and thanks to the care and equipment my son gets from Manx Care he’s going to be able to lead more of a normal life.’

From Will’s point of view, while not everybody is going to have a child with diabetes, most families do have their own internal struggles and that’s something Yellowstone strives to empathise with.

‘The people trying to run these businesses are humans too. They don’t have all the answers and they have private links.

‘I think it’s important to empathise with people. As an accountancy firm, we predominantly deal with small to medium sized businesses and what I’ve found from working with them is that there's, what feels like, an underlying crisis among small business owners in terms of mental health.

‘How do you manage the stress of working 7 until 7, often with a family at home?’

To do its bit to help make things more manageable for people, Yellowstone’s values go beyond advising on accounts.

‘We're here to say, “I know that this curve ball has come out of nowhere, and you're really struggling with it, but if you trust us, we will help you get through this.” It’s not just about accounts; it’s about supporting people.’

Will is a big believer that we have a responsibility to hand the island over to the next generation better than how we inherited it, which is what the Awards for Excellence is all about.

‘I have two incredible children, and I worry about what the island will be like for them. It’s important that I do my bit in guiding the island into a brighter future and as an accountancy that means helping to hand over a strong economy.’

The world has changed immeasurably since Covid and with it, people’s shopping and buying habits.

‘The change is something we need to adapt to.

‘It means we have an opportunity to create new businesses, and ultimately, for me, the Awards for Excellence and getting to sponsor the 2025 Business of the Year is about finding new businesses, or those really pushing the boundaries and championing them so we can create a thriving economy moving forward.’