business focus
Chartered accountants Haines Watts presents a series of articles based on its blogs. It offers analysis, reviews and comments and welcomes your feedback at
hwca.com/blog
of the month
Plan to safeguard your business wealth writes Kapil Davda, partner at Haines Watts
Our recent survey For Love or Money found that business owners are risking their livelihoods by neglecting to implement important safeguards. Here are our tips:
• Have several suppliers – if you rely on just one or two they could change their terms of business or even fold, leaving you with potentially a big funding gap to fill – or no product.
• Delegate – if you do everything in your business you will be unable to cope if you grow: and what would happen if you have to be absent from it for a while?
• Put into place a sound management structure – consider your recruitment requirements. If you want to exit
your business in the future it’s essential you can show potential buyers a sustainable structure.
• Never rely too much on just one key member of staff – train others up so they can step in if someone leaves or is away. To support the process prepare appropriate notes and robust systems that can be followed by everyone concerned.
• Training is essential to motivate and develop your staff – it’s an investment that will pay dividends.
• Diversify your customer base – don’t depend on just one big client or you expose yourself to being dictated to – or worse, if they go bust you could too.
• Get a mentor – it’s helpful to
bounce ideas off someone from outside of your company when checking your business strategy and plan. This can be a trusted friend, coach or mentor but they should have the experience to ask you the tough questions you might not want to hear. These should be proper sessions where you work on your business instead of being in it for a while.
Look on these sessions as a valuable investment which will give you the opportunity to think things through and build a sustainable business plan for the future.
For further information about this or other financial matters:
hwca.com HBA supported by VitalSix
VitalSix is helping to boost entrepreneurship and early-stage businesses by supporting Henley Business Angels (HBA), which has been established by Henley Business School
HBA, which was launched in October 2016, is a network of experienced business leaders, successful entrepreneurs and private investors. VitalSix is working with Jurek Sikorski, executive director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and founder of HBA at Henley Business School to support the new initiative, bringing expertise and knowledge in helping to make businesses investment- ready.
Targeting new and early-stage high-growth businesses whose founders are seeking £50K to £250K to accelerate the growth of their business, HBA will support (S)EIS registered businesses founded by entrepreneurs who graduated
from or are affiliated to the Henley Business School, the University of Reading and its various communities. Support will be through investment, networking and mentorship.
The VitalSix team has extensive experience in helping high growth SMEs plan for, seek and secure funding for growth. For any ambitious business, a strong business plan needs to be prepared with substantiated financial projections that will stand up to external scrutiny – VitalSix will maximise the chances of success.
Ed Cooper, VitalSix director and co-founder, has joined the HBA selection panel that will
• review applications THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – DECEMBER 16/JANUARY 17 • select and interview a shortlist
• select those to present to the HBA membership.
VitalSix will also deliver Investment Readiness Workshops for HBA applicants and those in the planning stages of applications to ensure they are well prepared when they apply to the HBA, present to the HBA Company Presentation events and negotiate for an investment. These will be:
• One-day practical workshops to ensure you are ‘investment ready’
• Topics covered – legal aspects of fund raising, negotiating a deal, preparing a great executive summary and pitching your business.
Cooper commented: “The team at VitalSix has supported over 150 companies to secure £250 million of funding over the past 10 years. Working with
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us, businesses can be assured of long-term relationships, a commitment to those we work with and an understanding of the complexities of building a growing SME.”
Contact VitalSix about making your business investment ready or Henley Business Angels if you are interested in raising seed finance or joining Henley Business Angels as an investor.
vitalsix.co.uk 0118 9357369
henleybusinessangels.com 0118 3788188
*The Haines Watts Wealth Survey is based on interviews with 514 owners of UK businesses, which are at least two years old, have a turnover of between £1 million and £50m and have between 10 and 249 employees. The study was conducted in 2016. The survey findings can be found at
hwca.com/for-love-or-money
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