Business Advisory

We care passionately about our client’s businesses and thrive on playing an active role in their development.

Whether you’re just starting out in business, expanding or thinking about selling, we’re ready for your call. Book a free, initial meeting and we’ll give you honest and impartial advice.

Business Plan

Thinking about setting up or expanding your business? We’ll help develop your vision into a viable plan

A business plan is a written document that describes your business and helps to clarify your objectives and strategies, set out goals, and identify potential problems in advance. While a plan is useful for charting your progress, it is also essential when securing business investments or loans from a bank.

Tearle & Carver recognise that a clearly formulated business plan can not only help raise finance for a new or expanding venture, but can more importantly unlock the potential within your business. The key benefits of our business plan service include:

  • A clear vision and path to success that can be shared with your whole organisation
  • Defined goals and actions based on your vision and designed to steer the delivery of your business plan
  • Improved profitability and return on investment
  • Clear directions that encourage your whole team to invest in the plan’s success, improving morale and productivity
  • Maximised potential for future sales through the creation of a business that can stand in its own right
Business Valuations

All businesses are unique. Clients can tap into the experience we’ve built up over 25 years, to achieve a successful acquisition or sale of a business

Business Valuations are used to determine the value of a business for numerous reasons, which include determining the appropriate sale or purchase price, on incorporation, when new partners join and for inheritance and capital gains tax computations.

Tearle & Carver can support you during the purchase or sale of a business through our range of business valuation services, which include:

  • Help in maximising your selling price
  • Support and advice during negotiations
  • Due diligence analysis, to investigate a business prior to acquisition, to ensure you can make the most informed decision
Raising Finance

Raising finance has never been as challenging as it is today. We’ll help you through the funding options available

Raising finance for a new venture or existing business can be especially hard in today’s financial climate. Numerous funding options are available, however, and include business loans, small business grants, investment from business angels, crowdsourcing, venture capital and peer lending.

Tearle & Carver offer a range of benefits for businesses looking to secure finance for a new or existing venture, including:

  • Advice to help you make sense of the different funding options
  • Access to our network of contacts from various organisations able to supply finance
  • Assistance in creating a sound business plan, which could make all the difference when persuading banks or business angles that the business is a solid investment
Business Start-up

Starting a business is both an exciting and daunting time. After your initial free meeting, we will guide you through the process of company registration, VAT, book keeping systems, choice of business structure and anything else you may need to get started.

Starting a business might seem like a leap into the unknown, but with the right support you can minimise risks and guarantee your business the greatest chance at success.

With over 25 years experience of helping people start up their own company, Tearle & Carver has extensive expertise working with a variety of businesses, including individuals going it alone or those working with business partners.

Guiding you through all the stages of starting a business, Tearle & Carver’s range of services include:

  • Creating and registering a company with Companies House as required
  • Assistance with the financial and business planning required to support the securing of finance or other needs
  • Advice relating to the choice between sole tradership, partnership, and limited company status
  • Provision of a registered office address if required
  • Company Secretarial service
  • Fixed fee preparation of annual accounts in the first year
  • Advice on tax planning, financial planning, and cash flow management
  • Payroll and bookkeeping services
Patents & Intellectual Property

Managed well, your IP portfolio can be immensely powerful, generating substantial income and preventing competitors from undermining the market share you have worked hard to achieve.

Intellectual property is a legal term referring to creations of the mind including inventions, artistic works, designs, symbols, names and images. Through intellectual property laws, owners can gain particular rights over their creations, enabling them to claim recognition or financial benefits from these creations.

Tearle & Carver, in collaboration with Avidity-IP Ltd, provide guidance to businesses looking to gain the benefits of patents and optimise their development of intellectual property. Our range of services include:

  • Trade Mark Search and Registration
  • Brand development and protection services, covering trademarks, patents and design rights

The UK Patent Box enables companies to apply a lower (10%) rate of Corporation Tax to profits derived from its patented inventions and certain other innovations. Related services include:

  • Rigorous and detailed review of your work, both technical and financial, to maximise qualifying development and identify opportunities for fast-tracking qualifying patents
  • Production of justification against which a Patent Box application can safely be made

* All intellectual property (IP) and technical services are provided through our collaboration with Avidity IP Limited – a UK company regulated by IP-Reg and a member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys.

avidity

With you for the journey

Regulated by IPReg – CIPA Member



Case Studies

The Tax Man

Minimise the stress of an investigation and make use of our extensive experience in securing best outcome for our clients

Business Valuation in Distress

Take advantage of our impartial and rigorous due diligence procedures

FD in The Cupboard

Our innovative ideas are here to improve your business performance and secure appropriate and cost effective funding

The Tax Man

The Tax Man

A new client was introduced to us via a recommendation with whom we arranged to meet on a regular basis in order to determine a number of changes that we felt were needed to their business structure. The client was at the time operating as a husband and wife partnership. The business was flourishing and had a number of large contracts with big organisations.

At the start of the process they were still heavily immersed in their day to day operations so we can get a full flavour for their ambitions, aspirations and growth plans. We quickly recognised there were sufficient tax savings which can be achieved by changing the structure from a partnership to a corporate entity. We carried out a business valuation and disposed of the goodwill from the old to the new business. Unfortunately, as often is the case with efficient tax planning, HMRC got involved and disputed our valuation.

An HMRC investigation can be a very stressful time for any client, even for those best prepared. However, our client had minimal input in the HMRC communication as we dealt with this professionally behind the scene. As an added benefit, our client could rest on the security that all work was covered by insurance and therefore all costs and time in dealing with this enquiry were covered by the fee protection policy we had put in place.

The initial approach taken by HMRC was very aggressive and they tried to present an argument that there was no goodwill in the business. We challenged HMRC’s view that the goodwill was worthless. After lengthy correspondence and numerous telephone calls, HMRC agreed 100% with our original valuation, which preserved our original tax saving plan for the client. Tax savings on this case where in the region of £75K at the outset, with ongoing savings of £6,000 per annum. We are pleased to add another happy client to our portfolio.

Business Valuation in Distress

Business Valuation in Distress

Selling a business is never an easy process, but when disputes arise, the need for a reliable third party due diligence process is even greater.

Tearle & Carver have extensive understanding of the requirements for remaining objective when managing a potentially difficult company buyout. In one such case, we were approached by the courts to act as independent accountant for an acrimonious business sale in which one partner was exiting the business and selling shares to the other. Given the circumstances, both sides had totally polar views of what their business was worth.

After arranging an initial meeting with the company, we were thorough in ensuring we completed due diligence, validating the figures in the accounting records, carrying out adjustments where appropriate, and drafting a set of reliable management figures within the framework required by the court.

A draft version of the report detailing our findings and conclusions was submitted to both parties, giving them the opportunity to voice any queries or concerns and ensure all relevant factors had been taken into account.

Through this process, we were able to submit a final report to the courts that was both binding and acceptable to both parties, effectively resolving what could otherwise have been a time consuming and costly process for all sides.

FD in The Cupboard

FD in The Cupboard

For smaller companies, it is often not possible or cost effective to pay for a full-time Financial Director.
Many of our clients therefore make use of Tearle & Carver’s extensive expertise to provide the services of an FD as and when required.

In this case, we were approached by the management team of an organisation looking to acquire the existing business via an MBO (Management buy out). Their business plan had proved ineffective for securing funding, and what they needed was financial expertise from someone with a developed understanding of the company’s internal workings.

Tearle & Carver helped deliver the solution our clients were looking through utilising our bank contacts in order to make the MBO viable, while also building a robust business plan and preparing our client for the rigorous vetting process. To help with cash flow issues, we introduced factoring which led to improved cash flow management.

We advised on the appropriate business valuation and structure, and continued to prepare monthly accounts to track profgress once the management were fully in command of all the information they needed to move their business forward.

In order to best assist these clients through the crucial first year of ownership, we attended board meetings on a regular basis, a service that we continue to provide to date.

With our continually developing understanding of their business, this client is able to remain confident that Tearle & Carver can provide any financial support they may need, now and in the future.