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Email: clientcare@efm.uk.com
Steve Smith
Change Manager, Consulting CFO, CFO, Finance Director, Business Advisor, Financial Controller, Non-exec Director, Accountant
Steve Smith, an experienced FD, excels in leading successful projects such as business setup, turnaround, growth planning, and optimizing cash-flow. He collaborates effectively with internal teams and external parties like accountants and investors.
With a track record in operational and strategic support for businesses, he prepares them for sale or acquisition. Steve's hands-on approach and analytical skills have benefited various sectors including business services, hospitality, manufacturing, and circular technology development.
About Steve
Experienced FD Steve Smith relishes nothing more than leading and delivering a successful project, whether it’s setting up a new business, turning a struggling business around, planning and modelling for growth and funding, or optimising the cash-flow and liquidity vital to every SME’s viability.
This is partly down to his personal determination and single-mindedness – as a seasoned marathon runner, he sees the project objective as the finish line – but also to his ability to work frictionlessly with the business’s existing team, and with third parties including accountants, insolvency practitioners, and investors.
With a track record of delivering operational and strategic support and advice in both privately owned and PE-backed businesses, preparing many of them for sale, merger, or acquisition, Steve prides himself on being ‘hands-on’, ready and willing to take the reins.
But at the same time, his strong analytical skills – honed through his experience of working as an FD/CFO in both early stage and mature SMEs - have enabled him to strengthen and grow businesses across multiple sectors, including business services, hospitality, manufacturing and distribution, not-for-profit, and, more recently companies developing circular technology in materials and waste.
Experience
Steve is an entrepreneurial FD. He understands how to deliver success at the different stages of the business life cycle, and has shown himself to be equally at home in owner-managed and investor-backed businesses.
His work has always been results-driven. His mantra is to design and implement practical business solutions, identify value drivers, and deliver that value into the bottom-line. This he has achieved through insightful analysis, performance management, and effective incentive plans.
His experience includes:
- New business set-up – Establishing and incorporating both UK SMEs and overseas operations for UK companies, the latter including planning for attribution of profits, Permanent Establishment, and Transfer Pricing
- Business planning – Collaborative development of business plans to support (as just one example) the global launch of a new manufacturing and distribution business, using an omnichannel strategy
- Cash-flow and liquidity management – Developing short- and medium-term cash-flow projections for long and demanding manufacturing/inventory cycles, and to fund additional working capital through the most efficient combination of debt finance sources
- Business turnaround – Review of major loss-making contracts, costing and tendering processes to improve financial viability, covering cost efficiency benchmarking and business mentoring
- Financial modelling, mentoring, and transformation – Development of model and management information (MI) for multi-site distribution business including rebate and stock management; redesign and reimplementation of finance and administrative functions to deliver on strategic vision
- Buy/sell/exit – Sales and acquisitions of privately owned and PE-backed businesses (publishing, technology, drinks distribution) including due diligence (virtual data room, presentation and analysis of relevant material); successful exit planning optimised the valuation of businesses sold (electronics, technology, hospitality)
Skills
- Financial and commercial management
- Financial forecasting and modelling
- Financial analysis and design of KPIs
- Due diligence
- Change management
- Liquidity management and treasury.
Sectors
- Technology
- Distribution
- Professional services
- Hospitality
- Retail
- Third sector
- Business intelligence
- Consultancy
- Automotive
- Publishing
- Family office.
Hobbies and Personal Interests
Steve’s love of extreme running - and the same competitive spirit that gets his projects over the line within time scales and on budget - has led him to participate in three Marathons des Sables. This gruelling, 155-mile (250-km) race takes place in the Sahara Desert of southern Morocco, and Steve is, at the time of writing, preparing to enter a fourth event.
The challenge of the task, in life as in work, is the very thing that spurs him on.
“Steve Smith grasped the important issues very quickly and developed a very good monthly financial report that covered all relevant details and was used by the Board to review performance and agree strategy and priorities. Steve was extremely accurate and conscientious and was always available to help with queries. The EFM Book-keeper was also excellent back up and very good at solving paper-work problems. Steve has extensive commercial experience and his views were always very sound.”
Peter Wall, Director & Shareholder of Tails Ltd
Steve’s work in action
Cocktails distributor receives high-level financial reporting support
An early-stage business developing and distributing batched cocktails, predominantly for on-trade distribution, was seeking accounting and financial management support. The current FD was leaving, and the business was struggling to find the right balance between an ambitious and bespoke IT led management reporting solution developed by the FD, and a more resilient and sustainable solution capable of being operated by non-technical resource and meeting the current needs of the business. A short handover was available, but time was critical. Systems and processes needed to be recorded, and resources made available to ensure that there was no interruption to the delivery of management information, and to ensure the continued smooth running of operations.
Read Case StudySteve’s recent insights
How mindset drives success in both sport and business: a Q&A with EFM Associate Steve Smith
Steve Smith is an experienced Finance Director but he’s also a keen athlete, having recently completed the legendary Marathon des Sables, the toughest footrace in the world. In this Q&A, he shares the parallels between the mindset needed to run 254km in the desert heat and that required by entrepreneurs to run a new business successfully.
Read Article
