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| About Us
 Chris is a graduate chartered accountant with 25 years experience in blue chip companies and the last five years with small high growth companies.
He is able to use his financial background to help businesses get to grips with the challenges and opportunities ahead of them. With significant experience of fund raising as well as acquisitions, joint ventures and turnarounds, he also has extensive experience of IT systems development and implementation.
What do we do? - We help small businesses grow to become bigger organisations and achieve sustained profitability.
Who do we work with? - We work with small to medium sized organisations that are working too much "in the business", rather than "on the business".
Who are we? - We are a group of independent business advisors working across the UK. Accredited by the Institute for Independent Business (www.iib.org.ws), we all have hands on experience of running our own businesses. We know what it's like!
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How do we do it? - With expertise across a wide range of industry sectors and skills, we adopt a hands on, practical approach to the issues facing a business.....working with Managing Director/Owners to resolve problems across finance, sales and marketing, operations, people and management. We develop action based, timed and measured plans to achieve results. We look at where you are now, where you want to get to and how you are going to get there.
Why do we do it? - We get passionate about the different businesses that we work with and are driven by making your business (as well as ours!) | |
| Customer References
"Thank you so much for all the advice and support you have given me over the last nine months. The business is transformed from what we were before you started working with us. I now have a plan of where I’m trying to get to and visibility of progress along the way. The cheques from the VAT man and the PAYE man have been particularly useful!"
Matt Podesta
Podesta Design
www.podesta.uk.com
“Thank you for your clarity and communication”,
following the successful delivery of a restructuring project.
Mike Gilbert
Chief Executive Officer
BCA
"Dear Chris - I don't think I am speaking out of turn in saying both of us really enjoyed the session and felt it was extremely worthwhile. Looking forward to our next session and thanks to you and Mike"
Bernice Simpson
Director
Maverick Sales & Marketing Ltd
| | Customer Case Studies
Business planning and fund raising
Situation - The founder had an excellent concept and product but was struggling to run the business. This meant that his attention was diverted from his core skills to activities he had no real experience in and didn’t enjoy.
Solution - We developed a business plan for presentation to investors, setting out a vision for the next three years.
We sorted out the back office administration to lay a platform for growth. Raised two rounds of finance.
Result - The company was later successfully floated on AIM
Cost reduction/ restructuring
Situation - The CEO had attempted to expand the organisation rapidly to gain greater leverage off fixed overheads. However he had failed to carry the organisation with him and the expansion was not successful
Solution - Fintech performed a corporate review. This was presented to the major shareholders for their agreement.
The agreed proposals were implemented over a three month period. Staff were kept fully informed every step of the way.
Result - A new CEO was recruited. From being a loss maker, the company is now trading profitably.
Acquisitions/ Joint Ventures
Situation - The owners had sold their company to a plc two years previously. The plc had failed to make a success of it. The owners were interested in acquiring the original company and realising their vision for it
Solution - Fintech developed the business plan already in place. This was used to make a bid to the plc which was agreed in principle. One of the features of this was that the plc would retain a minority interest in the company and would become a preferred supplier. Organised the financing of the acquisition and assisted the solicitors with the preparation of the legal documents necessary for the acquisition.
Result - A successful acquisition
Financial management
Situation - Accounts were produced annually and always came as a surprise. Management felt unable to make medium term decisions because they always unsure of their financial position.
Solution - Reviewed the reporting systems in place and discussed them with the users. Reviewed the market for a simple computerised accounting system which was appropriate to their needs. Involved staff all along the way. Implemented it successfully. Introduced simple management information systems incorporating key performance indicators for the business as a whole.
Result - A strategic plan was then developed and longer term, more focused activities were implemented.
System selection and implementation
Situation - The company had aborted a major IT project to create a bespoke system because it had become too costly and complicated. It now needed to identify an off the shelf system and implement it quickly.
Solution - Created a system requirement specification, reviewed the market, issued an Invitation to Tender to the top 4 vendors, selected the most appropriate software and project managed the successful implementation. Ensured that the whole company and major partners were kept fully involved in the project. Re-engineered various processes to make them more efficient. Implemented Project Management techniques throughout the company
Result - The new system now provides a major differentiator in the market place.
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