Related Organisations
ALBERT GOODMAN LLP - More than 200 staff across six offices, Albert Goodman LLP is a modern, proactive full business advisory service accountancy firm
CFN - The Corporate Finance Network (CFN) is a body of professional movers, shakers and wealth makers, who help entrepreneurs and businesses to start, grow, develop and achieve their exit strategy...
THE EXIT CLUB - The Exit Club is a private club for small to medium sized businesses considering their exit options.
SWAIN - The South West Angel and Investor Network (SWAIN) connects private investors, or 'Business Angels', with companies looking for investment.
Albert Goodman LLP
About Albert Goodman LLP
Albert Goodman Corporate Finance is a trading name of Albert Goodman LLP, a firm of Chartered Accountants, providing a full business advisory service .
Albert Goodman LLP specialises in advising regional and national small and medium enterprises and private clients.
Albert Goodman has offices across the region including Taunton, Chard, Yeovil, Bridgwater, Weston-super-Mare and Weymouth.
CFN
About The Corporate Finance Network
The Corporate Finance Network (CFN) is a body of professional movers, shakers and wealth makers, who help entrepreneurs and businesses to start, grow, develop and achieve their exit strategy. CFN members help to raise funding and maximise shareholder value on the sale of a business. They include carefully selected accountancy and law firms, commercial bankers, venture capitalists and business advisors who provide a complete range of practical business advice to both individuals and businesses.
CFN was established in February 2007 by Tracey Williams (Accountancy: Exigo Corporate Finance) and Vanessa Williams (Law: Bates Wells and Braithwaite) as a new concept in networking specifically for women working in Corporate Finance in the South West. A new group is being established for London / the South East. Members are recognised as experts in their field and operate at Partner or equivalent level in their field of expertise.
Membership is effectively by invitation and by member nomination. Members meet quarterly in a closed capacity and the primary objective of the network is to generate work for each other. This is achieved by building relationships across the professional disciplines at the quarterly meetings for members only, with speakers drawn from the sector. Previous speakers include Sharemark (a ground-breaking share trading facility designed specifically to meet the needs of small and medium-sized companies) and Modwenna Rees-Mogg founder of Angel News and author of Dragons or Angels? What investors in business are really like (Dragons Den).
CFN holds open meetings and in January 2008 presented the successful CEO Agenda Trends and Predictions for 2008 a heavily over subscribed event incorporating hot topics such as: the biggest threats to UK business, economic prospects for the coming year, the impact of the credit crunch for companies seeking funding or an exit, whether IPOs or trade sales will be more attractive and whether VCs expect to be more or less active next year. Speakers, who included Alan Bristow (CEO and Founder, ICON Corporate Finance), Mike Reid (Director, 3i Plc), Mark Farmer (Co-founder, Eden Ventures), Sue Thexton (MD of ITN's fastest growing business ITN Archive and former VP Macromedia Europe) and Modwenna Rees-Mogg (Editor-in-Chief, Angel News) also named their hot investment sectors for 2008.
Another successful event, 'Cleantech Question Time', took place on Thursday 9th October 2008 at Burges Salmon solicitors. In the context of rising fuel costs and an increasing worldwide drive for greener solutions, cleantech is seen by many as a growth sector where investors have a real opportunity for returns. Our expert panel discussed a wide range of issues and shared their experience. Hot topics included: the challenges facing cleantech companies seeking investment; what cleantech investors look for when assessing investment potential; the economic prospects for cleantech in the next few years; and where the VC will money go in 2009 - renewables/waste/emissions/supporting technologies, or other areas?
Members of CFN include Albert Goodman Corporate Finance, RBS, HSBC, J.M.Finn, ICON Corporate Finance, Fortis, Sharemark Wards, YFM; law firms Burges Salmon, Bates Wells and Braithwaite, BPE, Clarke Willmott, Wards solicitors, Ultimate Finance; and marketing specialists Go Virtual Group.
If interested in membership or attending a future CFN open event, please contact Tracey Williams, Albert Goodman Corporate Finance: tracey.williams@albertgoodman.co.uk
THE EXIT CLUB
What is the Exit Club?
The Exit Club is a private club for small to medium sized businesses considering their exit options.
"Exit" in these terms means any of the following; family succession, a trade sale, a sale to management, floating or closing the business.
The professional parties involved in these Corporate Finance transactions include an accountant, a solicitor, and often a banker/private investor or venture capitalist and the business owners will need to choose and manage these professionals.
Once the decision has been taken to Exit, a business will often turn to their lawyer or accountant for advice. Usually, this initial point of contact is the trusted general advisor who they may not have a background specifically in Corporate Finance; the family lawyer for example.
Often, there is a charge for this initial advice (as the adviser is a retained adviser) and sometimes when discussed with a professional operating in a different area of specialism (law or accountancy for example) the advice can conflict. In these interesting and challenging times, the advice can conflict further by the time a funder (either debt or equity provider) is consulted. All of this can result in expensive and lengthy meetings before a decision is made regarding which adviser to appoint to the deal.
Rarely can someone in business obtain well thought out, joined up advice from professionals operating across several disciplines simultaneously. When this does happen, the critical path to deal completion is shortened and deal costs are minimised.
This was the impetus for setting up The Exit Club.
SWAIN
The South West Angel and Investor Network (SWAIN) connects private investors, or 'Business Angels', with companies looking for investment. SWAIN specialises in helping small and medium sized companies to find equity finance, and assists private investors in the South West to search for investment opportunities in businesses with growth potential. SWAIN operates throughout the South West region incorporating the counties of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, former-Avon, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall.
Albert Goodman is an Associate member of SWAIN and is recognised as an independent firm which has a demonstrable track-record in its area of activity.