Often the solution a business needs may not be immediately apparent until a full financial analysis has been conducted.
Keith has worked closely with small and medium sized enterprises to help business owners understand their options and then take an appropriate course of action based on his findings and recommendations.
Raising funds for business innovation
A successful business needed capital to develop an innovation to service the property investment market, however, it was unable to raise the required risk capital.
Keith was able to locate government funding that would support this type of innovation. Working with the business owners, he wrote a funding application that helped them clear the first hurdle in the government funding process by clearly defining their business case. He went on to give the owners further assistance with writing a detailed business plan to develop the innovation.
Selling a business for retirement
The owners of a small business were exploring their options to transition to pre-retirement. Their business assets comprised a major property and an associated operating business.
Keith worked together with the owners to assess their business and asset options. The owners decided to sell, so Keith engaged specialist property professionals to sell the key property at a favourable price, while maintaining close oversight of the process on behalf of the owners. The operating business was sold through a business broker.
Feasibility studies and resulting outcomes
A long-established small business wanted to expand into a related area to capitalise on existing skills. Keith worked with the owners to determine practical options to expand their operations and a number of feasibility studies were undertaken, some of which identified workable options.
In the end, however, the owners decided not to proceed with any of the suggested options. They felt the risks involved and scale required were more than they wanted to handle, even though they had access to sufficient capital and credit to proceed.
Sometimes investigating and finding workable options but deciding not to proceed is the ‘right’ response.
For these owners, the positive outcome was to realise that their long-term dream would require more energy and commitment than they were prepared to give at their stage in life. They realised the costs involved, which they did not want to incur, so they moved on to other things with no regrets.
