Jon Shipton’s career is as varied as it is impressive. With over 25 years of experience in Finance and financial management, specialising in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in big-name consultancies like KPMG and Grant Thornton, this Chartered Accountant has also worked in the voluntary and charity sectors, and run his own advisory firm.
A natural problem-solver, with the ability to delve into numbers and create insights and business plans from them, Jon is also helpfully hands-on. He enjoys nothing more than working with business founders and owners to help propel their companies through all the key stages of business growth: start-up, scale-up, raising finance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and exit.

For Jon, it’s not just about understanding where the business is now and how to move it forward – it’s about actually pitching in and putting his shoulder to the wheel to make that happen.  And as with all his communication, he expresses this plainly and transparently. “Some clients require an extra pair of hands to get the important Finance things done,” he says, “and I am that pair of hands.”

Jon’s consultancy background in helping SME businesses to be grown, bought, and sold, has equipped him with the knowledge and skills to serve the needs of clients across multiple sectors.

About Jon

Jon is strong on data and analysis, working with his clients to create vital management information (MI) that reveals both where the business has issues and where it potentially has opportunities for better performance and stronger growth. He then gets to work on delivering the solution.

Just a few recent examples of his work include advising a childcare business to enable it to get the best possible value for its acquisition, turning a construction company’s cashflow around and renegotiating its financing, and helping an international supplier of cooking equipment to reduce its financial exposure to a European customer

He’s also experienced in advising founders and owners to help them navigate management buyouts, share sales, and other transactions relating to controlling interest, based on the solid financial data he’s produced.

It follows from this that Jon is accomplished and comfortable working at the Board level, but he’s also practised in building productive relationships with bankers, funding bodies, private equity investors, and other influential sources of external finance.

Jon is also acutely aware that there is, in his words, “a dearth of advice in the smaller end of the market”, and he is determined to make Finance transparent and relevant across all roles, in SMEs of any size.

What Jon will help EFM to do

Jon describes himself as “more problem-solving than procedural”, but he’s clear that the problems he will enable EFM to solve for its clients are strategic – the sticking points, the business blockers, the deal-breakers.

He cites many examples of this, including as a Board member resolving HR grievances that had paralysed the business and producing and an integrated p and l, cash flow and balance sheet forecast to enable a construction company to secure the necessary finance required from the bank.

His focus on insights will enable EFM’s clients to analyse financial data and better understand their business. He will also help them financially appraise future plans, forecast accurately, raise additional finance for expansion and acquisition, and, where required, prepare the business for sale.

In short, Jon will empower EFM’s clients to identify, pursue, and achieve their business goals - removing the financial obstacles, one by one, along the way.

And from an organisation made up of growth advisors, specialists in business mentoring and business coaching, and finance experts, that’s exactly what our clients should expect.

In his own words

Jon says: “I’ve joined EFM because I wanted to work with like-minded people, but I also wanted the flexibility to work the hours - and with the clients - that fit best with me.”

“With EFM, I can achieve my financial objectives but still have time for my family commitments and sporting passions. And because I don’t come with a full-time Finance Director’s price tag, I’m doing my bit for smaller businesses that need cost-effective, pay-as-you-go financial management, and a trusted partner who is skilled in modelling Finance.”

Click here to view Jon’s EFM Profile.