profile 45


target of £1m by the time of London 2012.


It hit the goal with several months to spare and, with year-on-year compound growth of 50%, is already well on its way to the next milestone of £5m revenue within the next five years.


Since its launch, the business has grown considerably, helped in no small measure by Ross Wilson, who came on board towards the end of year one. His experience and expertise is such that he almost needs no introduction to a Thames Valley audience, not least because of his three-year stint as chairman of the Institute of Directors Berkshire which, when it finished, saw him accept a newly- created role as an IoD ambassador for the southern region.


The arrival of Alan Ross in 2009, a colleague from Ross Wilson’s days with the Williams Allan Group, where they worked together before they sold to Tenon in 2000, added taxation expertise that is always in demand from clients.


The corporate finance team is led by Adam Wardle, a skilled and entrepreneurial financier, working alongside Chris Wilson; while Iain Hopes provides wealth management expertise.


Allan Wilson sums up their expertise by saying he is proud to work with a team of individuals “at the top of their profession”.


What clients want


The services provided range from day- to-day matters such as tax advisory, accountancy and compliance issues through to bigger picture activity, including business advisory, corporate finance, fundraising, exit and MBO activity.


“Clients usually come to us through our referral network because they have an issue they need help with. Typical challenges include how to maintain growth, efficient tax planning, or resolving a shareholder conflict,” said Allan Wilson. “We work with people who want to grow their business so we take time to get to know them, find out where they are going and how they want to get there, what drives them to succeed.


“We look at their strategy, business development plans, their network and find out what the challenges are. From there, we can put together an outline plan of how we can help and, of course, all the time we are establishing strong relationships.


“Whether it’s finding a business angel to invest, growing the management structure, finding the right sales team, incentivising key employees to stay on board, we can share our expertise and help them overcome the challenges.”


“It’s about discipline too, making sure they THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2013


www.businessmag.co.uk Chris Wilson


Recognising that today’s smaller businesses can be the success stories of tomorrow, Wilson Partners also runs an incubator programme, often providing support to talented individuals in return for an equity stake.


Future growth is something everyone at Wilson Partners is passionate about supporting – after all, Wilson Partners was once itself a small start-up and who better to turn to than someone who has “been there – done that”.


Details:


Allan Wilson allan.wilson@wilson-partners.co.uk


Ross Wilson ross.wilson@wilson-partners.co.uk


01628-770770 www.wilson-partners.co.uk


are accountable and looking at the whole process rather than being consumed by day-to-day operational activity,” added Chris Wilson.


“Seeing people develop is very exciting and we really enjoy working with good quality clients who are keen to succeed. For us, it’s also about the lifetime of the client and beyond – it’s not just about now, it is future generations too and that’s where our wealth management experts can help because we don’t just look at the business, we look at the whole lifecycle, which includes inheritance planning and retirement.”


The secrets of its success


Networking – “We network like crazy, we have a network of some 3,000 industry professionals and contacts and for us it’s about introducing our clients to contacts who can help them. Over the past five years, we’ve helped our clients to secure over £2m worth of business by putting them in touch with our contacts, all with no return for us apart from the sense of satisfaction of making it happen,” RW.


People – “Building a great team and creating career opportunities is hugely important for us. We are always looking to bring in quality people to our team and have taken on an additional five staff in the past year alone,” AW.


Innovation – “Clients want to be more flexible, they want to be in control of their own destiny and they’re willing to change the way they do things.


In many respects,


they’re just like us, we think of ourselves as business people first and accountants and corporate finance advisers second, that’s what gives us great empathy with our target market,” AW.


Ambition – “Many of our clients are growing at 10-30% year on year, that’s who we work with – innovators and ambitious entrepreneurs who want to succeed and they turn to us to help them grow their business, meet their targets and be profitable,” AW.


Opportunity – “There are various crossroads in the business cycle. You have to make sure you don’t take your eye off the ball; we provide the necessary focus,” RW.


Communication – “Good communication is critical, whether it’s with new clients, existing clients or employees. We make use of social media to help us communicate and encourage our clients to do the same – often sparking them into action with their use of LinkedIn and Twitter,” AW.


Being proud – “When you look at what we have achieved so far, it has been amazing and we feel very proud to think we have created this. I love what we do, we have a lot of fun,” AW.


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