Hello
Regards from Fd Solutions again.
Even though conditions are getting tougher, good quality businesses can still raise money. In May an AIM-quoted fuel cell developer for whom Simon Walters is finance director, raised £4.4 million from existing investors and a selection of City institutions. The placing was oversubscribed, and we were delighted to see a broader base of shareholders for our client and sufficient funding to take them through to commercialisation.
Cash is king right now and not everyone can raise money in this way. So another client was delighted when Simon Walters successfully concluded a two-month negotiation with HM Revenue & Customs as a result of which HMRC have agreed to accept arrears of VAT and PAYE/NIC in instalments over seven months, with no penalties levied.
Entrepreneurs who need assistance look for like-minded people to work with and we have always maintained that we are entrepreneurs too as all the directors of FD Solutions have run businesses as well as acted as FDs. So it is nice to have this claim backed up and we were pleased to be short listed in the competition for Docklands Business of the Year. I think we came second.
Staff continue to make a difference to our clients. This is one piece of recent feedback:
“Yes, going really well - Keith is doing a fab job of spotting what we have done wrong, should be doing and could be doing better - highly motivating.
But seriously a great asset to our team, giving clear direction to Karen & her team and setting us on a more professional accounting path which is long overdue.”
So we still continue to pick up new clients. The focus of our work has changed slightly and we are spending more time than before on supporting applications for increased or renewed bank facilities, including invoice discounting.
In many cases, financial forecasts are under greater scrutiny than for a while. Our clients benefit from the fact that our forecasts are reviewed internally by David Dawson, our Director of (Financial) Modelling (a.k.a. Kate Moss!) to ensure that the message they give is clear and so can be easily assessed.
Our message is reaching an ever wider audience. Last month I gave a talk on Effective Culture Change to managers in leading software and engineering companies. And Richard Brooks spoke on Business Planning at the Forum for Entrepreneurship for Physicists and Engineers from developing countries, in Trieste.
Now you may have thought that this newsletter is unusual in that I haven’t mentioned the R word. Strange then that I seem to have spelt it out!
Have a great summer
Best regards
Malcolm Durham
Chairman
