Business advisory & succession · Reading, England
Business advisory and succession planning
There is a point in most businesses where the operational questions stop being the hard ones. Funding, restructuring, and eventually handing the business on involve decisions that are difficult to reverse.
See how an engagement is scopedWhat advisory work covers
Advisory engagements usually start with a specific question: how to fund growth, whether to restructure, how to bring in a partner, or how to plan an exit. From there the work involves financial modelling, tax analysis, and practical sequencing. It is less about a standard deliverable and more about working through a decision until the options are clear.
Growth and funding preparation
Raising finance requires a credible financial story. Lenders and investors want to see historical performance, a forecast that stands up to questioning, and an explanation of how the money will be used.
Fractional CFO support
Not every business needs a full-time finance director, but many need the thinking one provides. Board-level reporting, cash management, pricing analysis, and financial input into commercial decisions, delivered part-time.
Restructuring and turnaround
Some businesses need to reduce cost, refinance, or restructure a loss-making division. That work is more urgent and less forgiving of delay, and it needs reporting a lender will accept.
Ownership transition
Bringing in a partner, transferring shares, or stepping back from day-to-day control all raise tax and governance questions that are easier to answer before a date is fixed.
Exit planning
A sale, a family transfer, a management buyout, and an Employee Ownership Trust each carry different timelines, buyer expectations, and disclosure requirements.
Funding conversations are won or lost on the forecast, not the pitch.
We prepare the financial element of funding applications and review the assumptions behind a forecast before it goes out.
Before a forecast leaves the building
We test the assumptions behind the numbers — margin, timing, and the working capital the plan quietly assumes — and say which ones will not survive a lender's questions.
Growth, funding and a finance voice at board level
Most weak applications fall down in the same place: the forecast does not match the history, or nobody has explained how the money will actually be used. Preparing that financial story is the work, and it is worth doing before an approach is made rather than after.
Fractional CFO support covers the same ground on an ongoing basis: board-level reporting, cash management, pricing analysis, and financial input into commercial decisions. It suits businesses past the startup stage that have outgrown basic bookkeeping but are not ready to hire a permanent finance director. The arrangement is part-time by design, and the reporting calendar is agreed up front so nobody is waiting on figures that arrive late.
What a funding pack should contain
Historical trading figures, a forecast with its assumptions written down, the use of funds broken into line items, and a short explanation of what happens if revenue arrives later than planned.
Where fractional support fits
Businesses with a finance function but no finance director, where the director and the board still need monthly figures they can act on rather than a year-end pack.
Succession is a process, not a single event
Succession is often treated as a date on a calendar, but it usually spans several years. Valuation, buyer or successor identification, tax structuring, and the gradual transfer of responsibility all take time, and the order they happen in matters. Starting early keeps options open — a sale, a family transfer, a management buyout, and an Employee Ownership Trust each have different timelines and requirements, and choosing between them becomes harder once a date is fixed.
The practical work starts with an honest valuation and a written view of what the owner wants from the transition: an income after the sale, a role that continues, or a clean exit. From there the tax structuring and the transfer timetable can be sequenced so that no single step forces the next one prematurely.
Routes worth weighing early
- Trade sale — an outside buyer, usually the fastest route and the most demanding on disclosure.
- Family transfer — control passes internally, and funding the retiring owner's income needs its own plan.
- Management buyout — the existing team takes over, which takes time to finance and agree.
- Employee Ownership Trust — ownership moves to the employees through a trust.
An Employee Ownership Trust is a structure, not a shortcut.
Setting one up requires valuation, trust structuring, and implementation support, so it is not a quick decision — and it does not suit every business.
Employee Ownership Trusts
An Employee Ownership Trust is a structure that transfers ownership of a company to its employees through a trust. It is used by owners who want to step back without selling to a trade buyer, and it has tax provisions that make it attractive in the right circumstances. It is not a lighter version of a sale: the valuation still has to be defensible, the trust has to be structured properly, and the implementation has to be carried through with the same care as any other transaction.
The questions that decide whether it works are usually commercial rather than technical. Does the management team want to run the business under a trust? Can the company support the payments to the outgoing owner from future profits? Does the ownership change alter how decisions get made day to day? Answering those honestly is part of the early work.
Family and management transitions
Transferring a business to family members or to an existing management team raises questions that a trade sale avoids but does not simplify: how the transition is funded, how control passes, what happens if plans change, and how the retiring owner is paid over time. Each of these has tax consequences, and they work better when agreed in writing well before the transfer happens.
Agreeing the mechanics in writing early is what keeps a family or management transition from being renegotiated at the worst possible moment.
Restructuring is the advisory work that will not wait.
Not every engagement is about growth. Some businesses need to reduce cost, refinance, or restructure a loss-making division. That work is more urgent and less forgiving of delay. We help with the financial analysis, the options appraisal, and the reporting a lender or creditor will expect to see — including a shortlist of what happens under each option if trading does not recover on schedule.
How engagements are structured
Advisory work is usually scoped as a defined project or an ongoing retainer, depending on whether the question has an end date. A funding application is a project. Board-level reporting is ongoing. We set out what is included, what it costs, and what we need from you before starting, so there are no surprises partway through.
Questions owners ask before they commit
If your question is not here, the contact page is the right place to put it. We answer before an engagement starts, not after.
Contact CrownfieldWhen should we start planning a succession?
Earlier than most owners expect. Valuation, structuring, and the transfer timetable can take years to sequence properly, and the options narrow once a buyer or a date is fixed. Starting while the business is trading steadily keeps a sale, a family transfer, a management buyout, and an Employee Ownership Trust all genuinely open.
Does an Employee Ownership Trust suit any business?
No. It works best where the management team wants to keep running the company and the business can support payments to the outgoing owner from future profits. Where the owner needs the full value out at completion, or the team does not want the responsibility, another route is usually the better answer.
What does a fractional CFO actually do each month?
Board-level reporting, cash and working capital management, pricing analysis, and financial input into commercial decisions such as a contract, a hire, or a new site. The reporting calendar is agreed at the start, and the figures are presented so the board can act on them rather than file them.
How do you handle a restructuring that has a deadline?
We start with the financial analysis and an options appraisal, then work backwards from the date the lender, creditor, or landlord expects to see a position. Where an option affects a third party, we set out what they will ask for and what happens under each scenario if trading does not recover on schedule.
Do we need to be ready before the first meeting?
No. Bring the question you are trying to answer and whatever financial information you already have. The first stage is usually to work out whether the question needs a defined project or an ongoing retainer, and that is easier to judge once the position is on the table.
Bring the question, and we will work through it.
Crownfield Limited is registered in England and Wales, and works with business owners and directors from our office in Caversham, Reading. Advisory conversations are held by appointment, Monday to Friday, between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM.
Registered in England and Wales, company number 16239480.