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. 

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)

• Financial and commercial management
• Financial forecasting and modelling
• Financial analysis and design of KPIs
• Due diligence
• Change management
• Liquidity management and treasury.

1. Technology
2. Distribution
3. Professional services
4. Hospitality
5. Retail
6. Third sector
7. Business intelligence
8. Consultancy
9. Automotive
10. Publishing
11. Family office.

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.