Simon Keeling - Corporate Finance Advisor
About Simon
Simon enjoyed a city based corporate finance advisory career until 2015, with clients ranging between government departments (UK and foreign), large and small public companies, private companies and private individuals; latterly working as finance director of a family controlled wedding business whilst sales were growing from £5M pa to £14M pa.
His key corporate finance expertise across thirty years was in fund raising and M&A; key expertise as finance director in the last six years, has also been in fund raising, as well as in the management of the wedding group’s finance function and in the management of critical internal (eg. boardroom) and external (eg. professional advisory) relationships.
Across both parts of his career, Simon has had experience of investing in and managing change in private companies. It’s a truism and it’s obvious that companies are made up of people and the rewards of engagement are the rewards of resolving people to people questions and problems.
An interview with Simon
Tell us a little bit about your work and your role
I advise clients – companies or individual business owners – as they go through strategic change. I will usually help coordinate inputs from specialist advisors, funders and/or investors in order to arrive at the optimal outcome. Assignments can last from a few weeks to several years, depending on the situation and the client’s ultimate objectives.
What does your work with a client usually involve?
Each new client will differ from the last; and each project will be different too, whether it’s for the same. If there’s a common denominator, it would be the assessment of the working capital or cash needs of the client. In all cases it’s as near as it can be to being true to say, that businesses or projects don’t function if deprived of cash, so it’s vital to assess available resources and act accordingly.
Do you find companies try to do this area of work themselves - and get stuck? What are the common issues?
Sometimes; there is an understandable tendency for people to want to ‘DIY’ a piece of work or a project. The most common reason for things coming unstuck in such circumstances is poor planning: it is very easy in the early stages to overlook something that will be vital, obligatory and impossible to achieve at short notice at a later stage – which can lead to project failure.
Should a busy entrepreneur prioritise this area of work? How can they make time for it with everything else on their plate?
Undoubtedly this sort of work has to be given the priority it deserves and needs; for this exact purpose it makes sense for the entrepreneur to bring in external expertise to carry out work that will be at the edge of his or her comfort zone.
What's the best advice you've been given?
Study carefully Ed Wood’s excellent book.
What do you do when you're not at work?
Nothing much; I regard myself as 100% available to anyone wishing to speak with me and I’m always free to take a call. So, I am never not at work.