Business Plan & Strategy

“Really gets under the bonnet of a brand to understand its uniqueness and create the right strategy for growth.”

— Jade Elliott, Founder, ICONIC London

A well thought out business plan sets out your vision in a clear and realistic way. It should lay out your strategic goals and show how you plan to overcome any internal or external market and macroeconomic challenges.

You may have grown successfully to date without any formal plan in place. However a business plan is a must to communicate and get buy in from your key stakeholders such as your staff, your bank or potential investors.

Over the last 20 years, our team has formulated business plans for entrepreneurs, investors and debt providers. We know exactly what ingredients are needed to make a credible business plan and can help you save time and needless mistakes with yours.

We provide our clients with access to our network of contacts including senior executives of large corporations, serial entrepreneurs and investors. Our clients are able to leverage our experience, relationships and knowledge to strengthen their hand in decision making and access the right people to make things move quicker.

Step 1: Conduct a strategic review of your business

Before we help you tailor your business plan we need to get underneath the bonnet of your business. Much like an investor or lender or a buyer would conduct a due diligence review of your business, we will assess all aspects of your current business and propose potential improvements/modifications to consider. Some of the key areas of your business we will focus on may include:

  • Brand Positioning: vision, purpose, plan and profit objectives that underpin the product, culture and reputation of the business.

  • Market Opportunity: SWOT analysis, benchmarking with competitors, route to market, key geographies, barriers to entry, new markets.

  • Growth Strategy: unique selling points, core customers/clients & key channels, marketing plan, NPD & pricing strategy.

  • Operating Model: Ownership structure, management & staff roles and responsibilities, processes & operational scalability.

  • Financial Overview: historical and forecast integrated profit and loss, balance sheet and cashflow model capturing detailed revenue and expenditure drivers/assumptions; Funding requirements and working capital management.

  • Roadmap for implementing plan and framework for tracking progress.

  • Exit planning.

Step 2: Formulate your business plan

Having conducted a comprehensive strategic review we will work with you to create an agile business plan which serves both as a working document for your management team as well as for any external third parties.

Successfully communicating a cohesive plan should be succinct for readers whilst addressing key issues. A core part of our help and is the back bone of your business plan is usually centred around pulling together an integrated financial model which includes all your key growth assumptions and how this will drive your forecast profit & loss, balance sheet and cash flow statements on a monthly basis.

We will also look at What-if scenarios to help you test out different business outcomes. We will typically create a business plan used for internal purposes and externally such as a pitch deck format expected by potential investors.

Step 3: Implementation of plan

We have been involved in a number of projects where our help goes beyond that of providing recommendations and formulating a business plan particularly where there is significant change required and it is crucial this is successfully implemented in the business.

We do this by assisting on specific projects, serving in an ongoing non executive capacity, or providing a tailored mentoring programme that clients can tap into on an ongoing or ad-hoc basis.

Some examples of where we have helped before include:

  • Strengthen the core team with senior management, non-executive introductions and coaching of senior leaders on their mind-sets, capabilities, and understanding of the core business purpose;

  • Provide interim or part time FD or CFO services to assist a growth plan , a fundraise or an exit;

  • Redefine and implement a new pricing and promotion strategy across all products and services;

  • Lead a turnaround programme to remove inefficiencies and losses, to make cultural shifts,  and to ultimately restore growth;

  • Explore an opportunity to penetrate a new market or scale up an activity through research and trial (such as setting up an ecommerce or local partner in an overseas market);

  • Look at product portfolio and category extensions through NPD, partnerships and acquisition opportunities;

  • Plan and execute geographic expansion through branch roll-out, buy & build and strategic alliances;

  • Put together and implement a post-acquisition strategy and 100 day plan for transitioning and transforming the business;

  • Present financing options and introduce relevant debt and equity funders to support a specific growth plan;

  • Approach potential acquirers, on a no names basis, to gauge market appetite and valuation, without formally putting your business on the market.

  • Put together a comprehensive exit strategy whether that be planning a sale process or putting in place a proper succession planning for those considering retirement.

We are here to be an independent sounding board and an extension of your team, to collaborate and provide rigour on key decisions made at any point along your journey

Contact us

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FAQs

  • We are the trusted advisor for many businesses and have helped to successfully build and execute numerous exit strategies. A key recipe to our success is the ability to leverage our team's global network of relationships, coupled with deep sector knowledge. An international reach of buyers and vendors and an intimate knowledge of transaction requirements enables us to give you the inside track from valuation and market insights to tools and tactics required for a tricky exit negotiation.

  • Corporate finance transactions require specialist, up-to-date knowledge, so we provide the expert advice you need to plan and execute your business exit strategy. This includes finding the best solution for you and creating the most value.

  • Ideally, business owners should start thinking about their exit options at least two years before it actually happens. In fact, it’s not uncommon for some to create their business with the exit plan in mind. However, as most businesses evolve as they mature, somewhere between two and four years in advance will give you enough time to prepare and engage professional advisors so that they can help you ensure matters from structuring to tax and legal are all addressed in advance. This will save you a lot of worry and provide you with significant savings and value that you simply cannot underestimate.

  • We typically work with businesses that have a value of more than £5 million. In recent years, we have advised businesses that have sold for more than £100+ million, with our medium deal value being £20m.

  • The business exit process typically takes between six to nine months to ensure you give yourself sufficient time to prepare the business for sale and maximise the value by running a competitive sales process. It actually really helps to start planning your exit two years ahead of the game. There are often circumstances where time is of the essence, particularly if you have received an unsolicitated approach or if you’re in financial difficultly and need help to run a process in a short period. Our team are experts in running accelerated M&A transactions (AMA).

  • Due diligence usually involves a detailed report being prepared on the target company's financial and tax, IT, operational, market and commercial aspects. Due diligence is used by investors or buyers to ascertain if the potential target company is suitable for their needs. It helps ensure investors or buyers get the right price for the target, mitigate risk and maximise returns. Quite often, the target company may also request a due diligence report to help get themselves ready for a potential sale or fundraise.

  • The most important thing to have in place is a plan. There is a lot of planning and work that goes into the exit process to make sure you get the best deal and fulfil your exit ambitions. Secondly, you need to understand your buyer or investor market to ensure your business meets their needs. This includes corporate governance, market positioning and strategic direction.

  • There are several things that can impact a business exit, but the most common issues come from a lack of understanding in relation to the key drivers of the business. This often means owners are unable to clearly articulate how and why their business is successful, which ultimately erodes buyer confidence. Other common issues include poor governance, weak information and volatile cash-flow. This is why having the right advisors and conducting due diligence is vital for a successful business exit.

  • No, we are not brokers. We are professional advisors. We support our clients throughout the entire process, from developing your business case and advising on how to create more value, to finding potential buyers and managing the negotiations.

  • Whilst we have specific sector knowledge as a result of the different deals we’ve made happen, we work with many different sectors, so our experience remains very diverse. This naturally means we bring unique insights to our clients, helping them to create robust business exit plans.

  • Our fees vary depending on the scope of the engagement. Our corporate finance related fees tend to have a large component which is based on the success of a transaction completing. Our strategy advice fees are normally charged as monthly retainer fees or charged on an ad hoc time basis. Our fees are always tailored to your specific needs, ensuring we are completely aligned.

A selection of brands our team have worked with

Recent insights.