Our everyday work brings us into contact with hundreds of different businesses and requires us to analyse how they work and how they generate cash and profits. These analytical skills, combined with our business expertise, enable us to assess financial performance and consider strategic options in an informed manner, for example:

• How much growth can be funded?
• Is a business activity generating acceptable returns on capital?
• How should risk be reflected in capital investment decisions?
• Should the company grow organically or by acquisition?
• Is the management structure right, or are there gaps?
• Does a proposed capital expenditure programme enhance shareholder value?
• Are the corporate governance arrangements appropriate to the company’s size and funding structure?
• Is the company making full and proper use of information technology?

Some of our clients do not have sufficient in-house resources to address this kind of issue themselves, and ask us to assist, either by retaining us to provide ongoing financial and strategic advice or by instructing us to undertake specific projects, such as budgetting or business planning. In some cases, an FC Business Support partner or consultant will join the client’s board.

It is sometimes the case that, when we first come into contact with a potential new client, the business may be facing some financial difficulties. Or an existing client may run into difficulties along the way – there can be many reasons for this type of situation to occur. In our experience, businesses that are considered by their management or owners as having a “cash flow problem” often have a profitability problem instead. Typically, the lack of cash is just the symptom and inevitable result of failing to generate decent profitability over a sustained period. FC Business Support’s principals and consultants have many years’ experience in industry, including in leading national and international businesses and venture capital-backed companies. They have a proven track record of restructuring acquired and underperforming businesses and business units and returning them to profitability. Because we have this real world experience, we are not just accountants or consultants who prepare a report and then disappear. We can work with our client to develop a turnaround or rescue plan and then we can assist the client to implement it successfully. If need be, we will provide or source interim management to fill any gaps in the client’s team.