S U M M E R S C H O O L · L E S S O N 4 O F 7 Lesson 4: Patisserie Valerie, and why “I trust my finance person” is a feeling, not a control. Welcome back to Summer School. Last week Gymshark showed us what it looks like when…
S U M M E R S C H O O L · L E S S O N 3 O F 7 Lesson 3: a 23-year-old demotes himself, a garage brand becomes a billion-pound company, and the case for buying experience before you can afford to employ it. Welcome back to Summer School. After…
S U M M E R S C H O O L · L E S S O N 2 O F 7 Lesson 2: why cash, not profit, decides whether a business survives — and why owner-managed businesses walk into this one more than anyone. Welcome back to Summer School. Last week, Lego taught…
S U M M E R S C H O O L · L E S S O N 1 O F 7 And the one question that saved it — a question worth asking yourself before you read on. First, a quick word on what this is. The school holidays are here, and like…
Two doctors missed my daughter’s appendicitis. A walk-in clinic nurse spotted it in thirty seconds. Why pattern recognition — not seniority — is what a fractional CFO really brings to a scaling business. I’m writing this from a hospital ward, which is not where I planned to spend the week. Ten days ago my thirteen-year-old…
What I shared at the CIMA Members in Practice Conference — and the £10M problem most founders don’t see coming Last week I spoke at the AICPA & CIMA Members in Practice Conference on what genuine fractional CFO leadership looks like — what it is, whether it’s right for your practice, and how to do…
In February 2026 the UK filed almost exactly as many redundancy notices as in February 2009. Here is why proactive cost discipline beats waiting — and a calculator to run your own numbers.
The deal closes. That’s the moment the value is most at risk. Winning the deal is the easy part In private equity, enormous energy goes into winning the deal — the diligence, the negotiation, the financing. And rightly so. But the value in the investment thesis isn’t created at completion. It’s created in the eighteen…
Every integration works. Every login holds. Then the board asks one simple question — and nobody can answer it. Here’s a scene that plays out more often than anyone admits. A growing business invests serious money in a new finance system. The IT team — capable, diligent, exactly the right people for the job —…
There’s a persistent assumption that fractional CFOs are for companies that can’t afford a real one. That a fractional engagement is a stepping stone — something you use until you’ve grown enough to hire the proper, permanent version. It’s a tidy story. And often it’s true — plenty of growing businesses use us exactly that…