Supporting Small Business Owners
Business Advice
Business Coaching
Strategic Planning and
Fractional CFO Services
How I Help Business Owners
Business Advisory
Preparing for sale, integrating acquisitions, and turning strategy into action
If you’re thinking about selling one day, especially if that is a few years away, the work should start now.
I help owners:
Build their business in a structured way that makes passing it on to new owners, be they: family, employees, business partners or a 3rd party, attractive and an easy transition;
Identify and plan for acquiring a new business. Assist with due diligence analysing historical data to look for flaws, potential inaccuracies and red flags. Then help integrate the new acquisition with the minimum of stress, loss of key personnel and effective systems integration.
Develop strategic plans that are practical, realistic, and actually implemented.
Effective planning and implementation will make a massive impact on the transition of value and is an often overlooked step for new sellers and buyers alike.
“Selling your business is a huge challenge and Nick makes everything so much more approachable.”
Business Coaching
Supporting Growth, Financial Management, Skills and Strategy
Almost all of my clients have great technical skills, but are still either learning how to run their own business or are entering new territory as they’ve grown and need an impartial sounding board for ideas, a mentor or coach to develop new skills.
Coaching clients come from very varied business backgrounds: tourism, hospitality, marine services, hair salons, mortgage brokers, app developers, branding agencies, web and graphic design, plumbers, electricians, general contractors, fitness instructors, artists, landscapers, film makers and more…
As a coach, I work alongside you to:
Identify areas where you need to strengthen skills
Build systems and processes that enhance financial control and reduce owner-dependence
Strengthen decision-making across operations and finance
Develop confidence in your business skills over and above your technical comfort zone
You don’t need someone to tell you what you already know. You need an experienced coach who understands how businesses actually work, and isn’t afraid to challenge you to find alternative ideas and established ways of doing things.
“Nick helped us take our business from a generalist, take-anyone-who-walks-in-the-door design shop to a targeted, niche-oriented company with a clear, multi-year plan for our business development and growth.”
Fractional Chief Financial Officer
Senior financial leadership, without the full-time cost
As your business grows there are going to be specialist skills you need. Raising additional money or borrowing, setting up financial controls, making accounting information relevant, timely and reliable for decision making, appraising new revenue streams, allocating scarce resources (time and $$$) and acquiring new companies.
If you only need specialist CPA, CA or FCA, part time, why pay a full time salary when you can have all the skills of an experienced CFO at a fraction of the cost.
I act as a CFO to:
Be a non executive Board advisor;
Improve the quality and usefulness of financial information;
Translate numbers into insight and action;
Support funding negotiations with banks and investors;
Help owners understand what really drives value in their business
You get experienced CFO-level thinking, scaled to the size and reality of your business.
“Nick was a commercially aware, astute and very supportive team player who was a key part of our senior management team though a very successful period.”
About Nick - Experience You Can Rely On
Experience Matters. I’m a Chartered Accountant with over 35 years of experience across engineering, finance, operations, and entrepreneurship.
I have called Vancouver Island home for over 20 years. My wife and I moved here because we loved the outdoor lifestyle, hiking, sailing, skiing, kayaking, as well as the outstanding scenery and wildlife.
I brought with me a lot of business experience, a love of training and enabling success for entrepreneurs. My family used to own an engineering business and I trained as an engineer (BSc Eng.) before becoming a chartered accountant and I also have my Masters ticket for small passenger vessels
I have spent decades inside businesses of all sizes — as an advisor, a senior executive, and a business owner myself. That mix matters, because it keeps the advice practical, commercial, and grounded in reality.
My background includes:
Training with Top 4 accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers in London
Senior finance leadership in high-growth private and public companies
Helping three $100M+ businesses successfully exit (including a London Stock Exchange listing)
Acting as Interim and Fractional CFO for fast-growing companies
Working across multiple industries including: media, telecoms, hospitality, construction, tourism, marine, and technology
Starting and running my own yacht charter business in British Columbia
Bake awesome sourdough breads and extensive 80s music trivia (British Edition)
I’ve sat on both sides of the table, as an advisor and owner, which means my advice is grounded in reality, not theory.
“Nick is an exceptional business strategist who is able to identify points of leverage to increase sales, reduce expenses and optomise existing resources.Any business looking for growth or re-structuring ,whether a start-up or mature business, will benefit exponentially from Nick’s outstanding, expertise, humour and collaboration skills”
Contact Us
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