The Complete Roadmap
to a Legacy Business

With your Virtual CFO and Finance Team from Basecamp

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What defines a Legacy Business ?

Highly profitable & scalable
Usually family-owned
A culture of excellence, fairness and integrity

Excellent long-term customer retention
Committed & accountable senior management
The business can be sold for a high profit multiple

Our Service

Strategic Financial Oversight

For over 20 years we have been helping UK SMEs achieve their full potential.

We provide part-time Finance Directors who manage your in-house team of bookkeepers and accountants, or provide a fully functioning Finance Department, at a lower cost.

Monthly Finance Reviews
Quarterly Board Meetings
Budgets, Accountability, Business Strategy
A Legacy Business to pass onto the next Generation or a Successful Sale.

Did You Know?

Some facts about UK Small & Medium Sized Enterprises:

There are about one million businesses in the UK with a turnover between £500K to £1M. They are the backbone of the UK economy.

Yet most owners in these businesses work crazy hours, with few holidays, poor pay and no pension provision.

About a quarter of these small businesses are either lossmaking or just breaking even.

And the profit margins for the rest, are very poor – on average only between 7-9%.

The sad truth is that only about 10–12% of the one million SMEs achieve a satisfactory profit margin of 25%.

And 25% is the minimum profit margin required to build a resilient, scalable legacy business.

The reality for most UK SMEs:

For many businesses, »finance« means a bookkeeper or accountant recording day-to-day transactions and filing VAT returns. Once a year, the owners receive statutory accounts to sign and that’s pretty much it.

There are no monthly Financial Reports, showing how the business is performing in key areas, such a Sales, Profit Margins, Client Payments.
There is no Business Plan for Growth. There is no Annual Budget.
Cashflow is under constant pressure. Paying Suppliers and the monthly Payroll is an ongoing challenge. The owner is usually paid last, if at all.
Despite a desire to sell the business and retire, most owners have no idea what their business is worth, whether it could be sold or how to increase its value.
Most owners started their business to achieve more freedom and financial independence. Instead, they are working 60-80 hours a week, with less money and more stress.

Imagine…

…the following scenario in just a years’ time:

You have a part-time Finance Director, who is highly experienced in helping your business become more successful.
Cashflow is under control. Customers are paying on time. Bills are paid when they’re due.
Each month, you receive a detailed Report from your Finance Director, telling you how the business has performed. You meet each month to discuss your progress.
You now have a proper Budget with clear objectives. Everyone is motivated to help the business achieve its targets.

Your Finance Director chairs the Quarterly Board Meeting with you and your senior management team. There is a clear agenda with accountability and a commitment to achieve the annual budget.
You have a realistic 5-year Plan to grow the business and increase its value.
The business is protected with the right insurance cover and intelligent inheritance tax planning for an eventual business sale.
You are no longer working crazy hours, and you can now take time off. For the first time that you can remember, you are no longer a slave to your business, and you are excited about the future.

About

What does Basecamp Success mean?

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Basecamp Is the Real Achievement

Each year, only 600-700 highly trained mountaineers make it all the way up to the 8,849-metre-high summit of Mount Everest. These expeditions cost hundreds of thousands of Pounds, year-long fitness and endurance training and a huge commitment in time.

This is the equivalent in the business world of a Jeff Bezos (Amazon) or Elon Musk (Tesla). These super high achievers work 100 hours a week for years, work including weekends, and sacrifice the best years of their life to reach the absolute pinnacle of success.

And there is nothing wrong with this, but it’s not for everyone.

By contrast, 40-50,000 climbers each year reach Everest Basecamp at 5,364 metres. The good news is that virtually anyone can achieve this. It will cost between £5,000 to £10,000 and a 6-month fitness preparation of a few hours each week. Of course, it will still require your time, your commitment, your discipline, your willingness to follow professional advice and your desire to reach Everest Basecamp.

And the business equivalent of Everest Basecamp is this:

A privately owned family business with sales of £5M to £10M per annum and a profit margin of 25%.
A management team that runs the business day to day, allowing the owners focus on business strategy and making sure the businesses’ objectives are met.
The business owners earn a 6-figure salary with generous pension provision.
The business is an asset worth £7.5M to £15M and can be sold.

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Plan confidently for the future

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Our Benefit

Why Basecamp CFO?

25 years ago, I created an award-winning accounting practice, to specialise in entrepreneurial start-ups and family businesses. During that time, several clients asked me to join their company as non-executive director, which gave me the opportunity to help them become more financially literate and focus on the numbers that really matter, so they could scale their business. A few of them were sold for very high multiples.

I founded Basecamp CFO to help entrepreneurial or family businesses to achieve their full potential. Over the years I saw many businesses punch far below their weight because they did not have the proper financial support. They could not afford a full-time finance director and tried to manage with a bookkeeper and some support from their accountant at year-end.

Basecamp CFO has a team of well-trained bookkeepers, accountants and finance directors who can either support your in-house team or provide a fully functioning finance department at a fraction of the cost of employing all these people yourself.

You will have your own part-time Finance Director, who not only manages the finance team, but delivers the monthly and quarterly reports that put you in control of your business. The quarterly board meetings give you financial clarity and control along with accountability from your senior team.

We offer a FREE one-month trial, and our service can be cancelled at any time with only a months’ notice.

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