Navigating the winds of change to steer your businesses successfully from start-up to exit
In this issue of Business and Industry Today, we are delighted to select Anthony Pollock & Associates as our financial services Company of the Month. In business circles, the term ‘scaling up’ has become synonymous with shifting direction to increase revenue and profit margins however this is a misnomer since the businesses components grow at different rates alongside the growth in revenue. Scaling requires a different set of management skills from growing revenues and profits, which many business owners do not understand. Experienced advice is crucial. When English poet (and ex-Poet Laureate) John Masefield wrote his poem, ‘Sea Fever,’ he opened with these two lines, “I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” The poem conjures up a sailing ship navigating by the stars through the vast expanse of sea and sky: the navigation motif is exactly how expert financial services operate. We chatted with CEO of Anthony
Pollock & Associates: Anthony Pollock to find out more. Anthony explained, “We help businesses navigate to a safe harbour, across the seven seas of commercial opportunity, buffeted by market forces, tacking through the winds of technological change, and avoiding the rocks financial disaster to reach their safe harbour destination. Sticking with the metaphor, we hold the compass and charts, whilst the company mans and officers steer the ship. We can even offer a GPS.” “We are industry agnostic, though our target customers are in the 1-20+ million turnover bracket. We work with purpose-driven businesses who need an informed perspective providing innovative customised solutions to the issues that they face, so they can accomplish their goals.” “We achieve this through our four main pillars: helping at start-up, getting businesses back on track, scaling the business safely and preparing for exit.” With over 35 years’ experience, including 10 years as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in start-ups/early stage of business development, Anthony is expertly placed to offer purposeful, insightful, commercial financially driven solutions for business owners. In 2022, he started developing further advisory services in ‘scale-up’ and ‘exit- planning’ strategies at the St James Square office in London. With a further office in Spencers Wood, Berkshire, the team has grown to include associates across marketing, sales, Bookkeeping and M&A. Anthony continued, “We offer remote virtual sessions with companies all over the world, but we have noticed more recently, companies returning to face-to-face meetings. With many working partnerships lasting between three to five years, it is important to build a strong relationship.” “We are currently focussing on our new
services helping companies ‘scaling safely’ and ‘preparing for a successful exit.’” “We have an expert scale-up partner, in Mark Baxter, who advises scale up businesses and has had successful hands-on experience. The support of such an experienced adviser for your businesses is vital to its success.” “With regards to exit planning, last year the team incorporated a tried and tested exit planning toolkit successfully used by over 70,000 businesses around the world. We believe that this provides a structured process for those businesses planning for exit in the next three to five years.”
Looking to the future, the team are designing a new service that will substantially de-risk investments in owner-managed businesses by private investors, venture capital and private equity companies. It will achieve this by adding new dimensions to the traditional due diligence processes employed by investors to uncover elements of risk, that are only normally recognised too late after investment decisions have been made. Anthony Pollock & Associates run webinars on subjects such as scaling up and preparing for exit, please see the Eventbrite links below: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/challenge-the- funder-learn-how-to-raise-capital-for-your-business- europe-tickets-656650147267?aff=oddtdtcreator https://www.eventbrite.com/e/challenge-the- funder-learn-how-to-raise-capital-for-your-business- asiaau-registration-638556639097?aff=erelexpml t&keep_tld=1 For further information on services and to book a call, please see below:
T +44 (0)791 907 8167
Anthony.Pollock@anthonypollock.co.uk www.anthonypollock.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/ anthony-pollock-virtual-cfo-services
https://calendly.com/anthony-pollock/ follow-up-zoom-business-and-industry-today
