How can you turnaround your business performance? Should you cut costs, source additional funds or talk to your customers and suppliers? Could you delay tax payments? If you keep going will you stay legal? When should you ask for help? In our experience, it is never too early to ask for help. We are now doing Strategy sessions and cash flow forecasts for clients, and also offer our ‘Survive and Thrive workshop‘, please email me for more details. Our experienced virtual finance directors will review your business, identify the critical success factors and then agree a recovery plan with you for both the short and medium term. We can’t guarantee your success but we can help ensure that good businesses are given every chance to succeed.
Growth companies sometimes get into difficulties through over trading, and a perfectly good business may be close to the edge through lack of forward forecasting and poor cash flow prediction.
vfdnet provides confidential services as follows:
- Our one day helicopter review – gaining a quick overall perspective of the business with a verbal feedback at the end of the day
- Advice on Directors personal liabilities
- Detailed financial models to assess cash needs over the critical period
- Advice on potential options if your business can not meet its debts as they fall due, such as Creditors Voluntary Arrangement, Members Voluntary Liquidation, Creditors Liquidation
The benefits are as follows:
- Protection of Directors and company from wrongful or fraudulent trading
- If there is a way forward our FDs will find it
- Precise, commercial advice at critical times
For tips on the ‘top ten warning signs’ read our newsletter on ‘How do you manage recovery‘
Case Study
How do business owners learn from other peoples situations? We have several FDs currently involved in recovery situations and here is a client case study from a technology business one of our FDs has been working with:
“Mark joined the business in mid 2004 to improve our financial processes, reporting and forecasting. Of particular concern was the cash flow management, which was, up to Mark’s arrival, ad hoc and unfocussed. Mark’s clear and decisive analysis determined that the business had been trading insolvently and it was recommended to the Board that professional insolvency advice be sought. Having placed the business in the hands of a high calibre liquidator in October 2004, Mark was integral to the team that was to ‘re-phoenix’ the business on the back of a sale and purchase agreement of the old company’s assets. I am delighted to say that the business has since flourished and under the continued and professional financial stewardship from Mark has traded profitably in the past 2 quarters and is in a sound financial position. Mark continues to drive the financial strategy of the business and is core to the management team and successful realisation of the business in the best interest of our investors”.
Dave Cole – CEO of IPV Limited, Cambridge
Mark continues to works as a part time FD in this business and the re-phoenixing of the business involved the injection of £750k of new funds.
How do you manage Recovery?
Many businesses will sail ‘close to the wire’ on occasions as circumstances don’t always turn out as expected. However what is the difference between this… Read More >>
“When I was Chairman I worked with our experienced Virtual Finance Director, David between 2012 and 2015, in one of the most difficult business…” Read More >>
James W – Chairman
“Our Virtual Finance Director Mark joined the business to improve our financial processes, reporting and forecasting. Of particular concern was the cash flow management, which was, up to Mark’s arrival, ad hoc…” Read More >>
Dave C – CEO
The large EPoS business which I joined (as UK FD) had just acquired a significantly larger cash register business with operations across Europe and the Americas. The acquired business had deteriorated rapidly prior to acquisition, and many problems came to light following the acquisition. Read More >>
The business had performed exceptionally well over the previous 3 years growing to £7m T/o with $8m revenues in the US. We were poised to continue strong growth with a $3m contract with The Home Depot and a $2m contract with another major rental business both at contract signature stage. Read More >>
We were called in when the business owner recognised all was not well, primarily due the Cash not reflecting the apparent profitability of the business, despite turning over £7m pa. Read More >>
