Advisory and corporate finance
At a time when productivity is drifting, costs are being squeezed and revenues are more challenged, it can be worth reflecting on how effectively aligned productivity is with people engagement. Here’s a quick self assessment to understand how you are doing: If you honestly think you are performing well against the above, you’re onto something. … Continue reading Hope is not a strategy for people engagement and productivity
Build and buy strategies are where a business acquires other businesses, very often to help increase value ahead of an exit. They are not uncommon for private equity or companies trading on a public exchange and can also work for smaller businesses but are less common. Build and buy strategies can be an attractive way … Continue reading Thinking about Build and Buy?
If you are a scale up business, you will already be familiar with the challenge of growing with limited financial resources. Our article ‘Considerations for Scale-ups when raising funds’ outlines some of the common solutions in addition to fundraising support we provide clients. Do you lack financing to sufficiently scale? The Scale Up Institute notes … Continue reading Access to Finance Challenges for Scale up Businesses
Value creation is an integrated approach to optimising shareholder value. Value creation is based on developing and applying value drivers (sometimes called ‘value builders’) that help articulate commercial development and also support higher transaction values. By not drawing on the experience of best practices successfully applied by other businesses, founders can risk leaving money on … Continue reading Time to focus on value creation
Preparation for selling a business will obviously need to take into account five considerations, namely Ultimately your adviser should be able to help you to make the most of your given circumstances, rather than merely being driven by circumstance and happenstance. For example, we have helped clients by accelerating succession planning, reinvigorating growth and strategic … Continue reading How long do you need to sell your business?
In the absence of a clear guide, many founders and their boards will chart a steady and linear progression in value, supported by revenue or profit growth, starting at the implied valuation of the initial investment and heading towards a target valuation with valuation reference points to validate this approach. In determining the target value … Continue reading How do you drive value when fundraising?
Business valuations are typically assessed by using one or more of the following approaches as follows: Selection will depend on the sector and the first two are the most common for businesses trading as a going concern; discounted cash flows will more frequently be applied for more mature businesses, which can be relevant for businesses … Continue reading How do you drive value when selling your business?
“Only 0.05% of startups raise venture capital” (Entrepreneur). The market is notoriously difficult for start ups but can be equally challenging for scaling and venture stage businesses. The risks of getting it wrong are not just that you don’t raise enough funds but also include giving away too much equity, incurring high investor costs or … Continue reading Considerations for Scale-ups when raising funds
For high growth businesses that have benefitted from investment under venture capital schemes such as SEIS and EIS many companies focus on complying with the rules at the time of receiving an investment and overlook the ongoing compliance requirements. The regulations can be very complex and our article SEIS and EIS Pitfalls focusses on considerations … Continue reading Ongoing risks for venture capital reliefs such as EIS
As outlined in our previous article, the recovery is unlikely to be linear yet there will be good growth prospects for many businesses. While the competitive landscape has changes, references to the ‘new normal’ dangerously suggest there will be a paradigm shift, with new fundamentals and where totally new rules apply. Instead we see an … Continue reading How to return to growth? Ten growth hacks