Entrepreneurs can learn so much from each other, sharing perspectives on strategic and operational issues, as well as success stories. Whether it’s helping to scale their business, streamline operations or simplify financial management, provide advice on specific matters or guidance on raising capital and funding, each one has a story to tell about overcoming challenges and achieving their goals.

Hear directly from some of the many founders, business owners and management teams about the valuable insights they have gained from our Business Lens diagnostic tool and how we have been working side by side with them. 

Click the tabs above to navigate between the case studies.

How BDO helped to drive real results through information technology

18 July 2023

About Bryant Dental

Bryant Dental are leaders in the optical technology sphere, providing innovative equipment for dental professionals. Founded 2016 by friends Priyam and Connor, they quickly emerged as a leading provider of high-end, lightweight headsets with integrated lighting for dentists, after recognising a gap in the market for better technology and tools in this industry. After seven years of trading, the company recently embarked on a journey of further innovation and expansion - all with the help of BDO's solutions.

The challenge for BDO

Because of Bryant’s ambitions to scale, they needed a variety of different information technology services that could help them to navigate the complexities of their ambitious growth, integrate their acquired businesses, and expand their international presence. In 2016, they sought the guidance of BDO, guided by Priyam's father's recommendation, based on an existing relationship with the firm. BDO and Bryant Dental quickly established a close and trusted partnership, which has since played a vital role in the company's trajectory and scaling.

BDO's commitment to Bryant Dental is demonstrated through the unwavering support they have shown since day one. With an open line of communication, Bryant Dental were often able to reach out to BDO for advice and guidance, whenever it was needed. The relationship has evolved from Bryant's early start-up phase to supporting the company's expansion into international markets – even including the opening of a workspace in Australia.

BDO’s specialist solutions

BDO has offered a range of services to meet Bryant Dental's specific needs, supporting their growth and success. Among the services provided, the following have been particularly significant:

Tax services

BDO's tax team has been instrumental in assisting Bryant Dental with Research and Development (R&D) tax credits. By leveraging their expertise, BDO helps maximise the benefits available to the company, enabling them to invest in further innovation and expansion.

Growth advisory

Recognising the importance of funding for expansion, BDO's growth advisory services have played a crucial role in Bryant’s growth. They have guided them in securing the necessary funding to support their growth initiatives, providing strategic advice, and assisting in navigating the complex landscape of financing.

Corporate tax support

BDO's corporate tax team ensures Bryant Dental remains compliant with tax regulations, providing guidance on tax planning and optimisation. This expertise ensures the company's financial resources are effectively managed while maintaining compliance with tax obligations.

Business services and outsourcing

BDO's business services and outsourcing offerings have completely streamlined Bryant Dental's operational efficiency. By leveraging BDO's expertise, the company can focus on its core competencies while BDO oversees critical back-office functions, allowing for enhanced productivity and scalability.

Business Lens

BDO's utilisation of the Business Lens diagnostic tool has provided valuable insights for Bryant Dental. Employed on two key occasions, this tool enables the company to capture and analyse data effectively, gaining a comprehensive view of their operations and facilitating more informed decision-making. Priyam actually cited the Business Lens solution as one of the most helpful aspects of Bryant’s partnership with BDO, as it allowed him and his staff to pin point key challenges, through the tool’s meticulous discovery process. He says:

An empowering alliance

BDO's partnership with Bryant Dental has been pivotal in driving the company's growth and expansion. Through a close and trusted relationship, BDO has provided valuable services, including tax guidance, growth advisory support, corporate tax expertise, business services and outsourcing, and data-driven insights. This collaboration has empowered Bryant Dental to establish an international presence, expand its operations, and maintain a strong trajectory of success. By leveraging BDO's expertise, Bryant Dental continues to thrive in the competitive dental industry, solidifying its position as a leader in high-end dental headsets.

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How BDO helped to streamline and simplify financial management for ITSX

18 July 2023

About ITSX

ITSX was formed in 2020, as a start-up company with big ambitions. They help clients better understand their IT software assets, particularly when it comes to optimising costs and future-proofing their tech solutions. ITSX’s client base includes both public and private sector companies, operating in many different business models and sizes.

The company’s main aim is to help customers to simplify and demystify the world of IT solutions - showing them how they can be maximising their growth, revenue, and impact through the implementation of smarter tech solutions.

Founder, Chris Morgan, recognised early on that to sustainably scale up his business, he would first need a partner to support ITSX with its finances. While ITSX are certainly experts within their field, the company simply did not have the in-house financial expertise they required to keep up with Chris’s rapid growth ambitions. Chris was also looking for a way to free up his leadership team’s time, so they would be able to dedicate more resources to clients.  

Enter BDO...

The challenge

ITSX required a major update to their finance functions - one that the entire team could be completely confident in. They also wanted to regularly receive the information they needed to deliver effective and astute decision-making across the entire business. ITSX acknowledged from the very start that they were asset managers, (not money experts!) and with their team suddenly doubling in size, as they scaled rapidly, the business desperately required some expert guidance when it came to their managing their finical processes. Initially, ITSX was concerned that a company of the scale of BDO would not offer solutions fit for smaller businesses, but they thankfully discovered this was not the case!

BDO’s approach

After a seamless introduction and onboarding process, BDO were able to implement a cloud-based accounting ecosystem that introduced automated processes and controls. There was a close partnership with ITSX established from the start, with Operations Director, Jac Reed, saying:

“We needed someone to hold our hand through the initial process and actually work with us. We’re a company who likes to build partnerships and we consider working with BDO to be a partnership.”

Subsequently, BDO were able to guide ITSX through their new fully outsourced finance functions – rolling out a package of services that proved they had fully understood the financial management needs of ITSX, as a small, growing business.  

Just some of the services BDO were able to implement for ITSX included the likes of VAT preparation services, tax planning services, bill payment runs, and many more other labour-intensive solutions, that ITSX would not have been able to facilitate without their expertise. 

Through regular touchpoints and developing a ‘one-team’ approach, ITSX have also benefitted from the wider expertise that BDO has to offer, including advice on the likes of employment taxes. Not only that, BDO’s Business Services and Outsourcing team continue to support ITSX on their growth journey through:

• Delivering timely financial insights to help with decision making
• Providing a sounding board for ideas followed by proactive specialist advice and guidance
• Providing a fluid service that adapts to changes in the company’s needs

As the company continues to evolve, they can be confident that BDO will continue to provide the specialist advice that they need.

“ITSX is a people company that do IT asset management, and we feel that BDO is also a people company, doing financial management. They’ve always wanted us to succeed and have been rooting for us to be successful. We’ve developed a really good working relationship with them. They keep us on our toes and we value that a lot because they’ve got our best interest at heart.”

Operations Director, Jac Reed

So why BDO?

When it comes to getting to know clients, BDO’s approach is a fully immersive - allowing for a clear detailed understanding of their customer’s business from the start. Just like with ITSX, these client relationships are built – not only on BDO’s expert knowledge – but on trust, transparency, and integrity. While BDO may be a large firm, a huge part of their unique service offering is focused on the close relationships built between experts and customers – always applying a personal approach, backed up by global expertise and sector specialisms.

Being part of a global firm, means BDO can support clients through every stage of their lifecycle and help them succeed as best they can.

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RD Content: A commercial success story where content is always king

14 February 2023

Ryan Dean is in the business of storytelling - so it’s no wonder his production company’s origin story is impressive. Dean founded RD Content in 2009 from a desk in his bedroom. Cut to 14 years later and he employs around 100 staff in offices in London, New York, Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

Clients include Williams Formula One, Qatar Airways, Barbour and Clifford Chance. In 2023, the company is looking at a projected annual turnover of £11m, up from £3m in 2019 and £7m in 2022. The RD Group recently expanded to include RD Studios, building, and occupying a 45,000-foot full-service film studio in Park Royal, west London.

With sustainability front of mind, this bespoke high-spec build, which opened its doors in May 2022, includes electric vehicle stations, solar panels and the ability to harvest rainwater for use in the toilets.

With a clear vision for the future of content creation, Dean also plans to create a further 250,000 feet of studio space in London over the next five years.

Here Dean, who was named as One to Watch in the LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders 2022, shares his vision for the future and offers advice to other entrepreneurs.

We spoke with Ryan Dean, founder of RD Content.

Can you talk about your business growth story and the journey your company has been on over the past few years?

I started my career as a journalist, writing about gaming and technology. When I left university, I met someone from the BBC who suggested I work for a production company. YouTube was becoming popular, and my job was to explain to businesses how we could make content specifically for it.

One of the first campaigns I worked on was about teenage pregnancy for Leicester Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood Partnership.

We shot it as if it was a fight in a comprehensive school on a mobile phone, so it had this rough, grainy footage of the kids. We released it without any branding, and it went viral. Even Good Morning America ran stories on it.

I was at the production company for a couple of years, but in 2009 decided to set up my business and specialise in creating content, primarily for YouTube. Rather than rely on freelancers, we wanted to bring as much of it as we could in-house.

Now we have a business that’s difficult to compare to any other in our sector because we have a large full-time staff that has been consistently growing.

What challenges did you face in the early days?

I won a job with the NHS, a sexual health campaign, and they paid me £15,000. I remember thinking how I’d never be able to spend it. But six months later, all the money had gone. One lesson I’d give to entrepreneurs is that the beginning is unbelievably tough. Making the first £10,000 is significantly harder than the first £100,000.

I was close to throwing in the towel when a phone call came in leading to a global four-month Bacardi campaign. When I returned, I decided to approach things differently.

For the first six months, I'd been so pleased with the fact I'd won this big job that I'd rested on my laurels. I haven’t done that a day since.

Were there any other significant turning points?

The other critical moment came in 2014, when we decided to go to clients directly as opposed to working for ad agencies. At the time, most of our work was coming from the likes of M&C Saatchi or BBH. Within one year, we'd lost 100% of our revenue from these sources, where we had generated all of our revenue for the preceding five years. It was a bold and terrifying business decision to make.

But then we won our first direct to client bid, with Williams Formula One and we’re still working with them today.

How important is it to be agile in terms of taking advantage of strategic opportunities?

Strategically, the big opportunity we saw was to secure professional film studio environments to create commercial content for the brands and businesses we work for. Back in 2019, we decided to hunt for a space, then COVID-19 happened.

But we found the most amazing location and built some of the finest film studios on earth. They are sustainable and built to an extremely high specification. We designed them ourselves and invested a lot of money to make them perfect.

With the creative agency, original content and the film studios, you've got a very exciting package. We rent the studios out to the likes of Apple, Netflix, Disney and Amazon as well as use them for our own productions.

What trends are you seeing in your client base?

The US remains at the forefront of businesses willing to take risks and try different things. The Middle East is interesting, because they’re going through a period where they’re investing heavily in shaping their economies for the next 50 years. As a result, they’re willing to invest and make stories come to life.

The UK remains a hub of incomparably talented, creative individuals, but the business landscape is so pressured that we are falling behind when it comes to brands and businesses wanting to use storytelling bravely. That’s not to say we're not doing huge amounts of work - we are.

We need something to spark things here, maybe some big innovation or a different policy.

Your studios have been designed to be sustainable. How important is environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) to your business and your clients?

Firstly, everyone in the company needs to be passionate about ESG issues because so much of the work we do with brands ends up being about how do we elevate and tell these stories. Secondly, we're a young company.

We're 14 years old as a business, but the average age of the team is probably somewhere in their late 20s or early 30s. These are people who've got many decades ahead of them. Everyone’s aware that if we don’t make significant changes, it's not just going to affect our great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. These are things that will impact - and are already impacting - our lives today.

Caring about ESG is also the right thing to do commercially, as governments around the world apply more pressure to pension funds and listed businesses on the stock market to ensure they are adhering to their ESG targets. That trickle-down effect means that if you’re not embracing ESG, you probably won’t be able to work with most of the big organisations out there.

As an entrepreneur, how do you keep yourself passionate and motivated to continue your business’ growth? What resources and support do you lean on?

I did a mini-MBA, funded by Goldman Sachs, and that introduced me to 70 other business owners. That's been a great resource. We have a WhatsApp group and often share advice.

Also - and I know lots of founders will say this - the group I have around me, I've worked with for a long time. For some, it was their first job and they have been with me since university. Members of my management team have been with me for over a decade. That tight-knit bond is important.

How do you continue to motivate your people to believe in your vision and transform your strategy into action?

You need a strong ethos of what the business is about. We describe ourselves as makers, not middlemen. We’re here to find innovative, exciting ways of telling stories, primarily through film and animation.

If you have that ethos at the top of every conversation and interaction with potential or current employees, that's how you create driven teams.

What do you see as being the main growth opportunity for your business in the coming 12 months?

International growth is a big part of it. We’re becoming an outsource hub here in London because the pound is cheap. One of the most exciting opportunities for us is that a weak pound presents international opportunities for trade.

We have phenomenal educational institutions in the UK, in all sectors but certainly in film. However, further investment is required as the prediction for the UK is that we're going to be short of 25,000 technical staff by 2025.

What do you see as being the biggest risk to business’ growth in the coming 12 months?

I recently read a phenomenal book by Ray Dalio. He founded Bridgewater, one of the world's biggest hedge funds, and now he's giving away all his learnings through various books. The latest book is about economic history but also about predicting what happens to great empires.

It’s alarming how often history repeats itself. What we're seeing now is increasing interest rates to try to combat inflation. Typically, the next thing you see is unemployment go through the roof, which leads to social unrest, which then can lead to more conflicts. We have even started looking at buying a surplus of computers and laptops, because it feels imminent that potentially China will either invade or blockade Taiwan, which is where 70% of semiconductors come from.

Have you experienced difficulties in recruiting for specific skills, and if so how are you managing them?

Six months ago, there was more difficulty with recruitment because the labour market was tight. It's startling how rapidly that is unwinding right now.

But we're fortunate in the creative industries in London and New York, in that we have a deep pool of incredible talent to choose from.

What other markets do you plan to explore in the future?

I'm raising £120m to buy land in the west of London, to build a larger film studio. That's because I believe, for the reasons stated about the lower currency and great concentration of talent, that there will be even more film work coming from the States over to the UK.

The other area we’re keen to move into is original content creation. We're looking at acquisitions in that area. In the core business, international expansion remains at the front of mind. We're looking at more locations in Europe, the West Coast of the US and the Middle East.

If you had to pick a piece of advice from your career, what would that be?

Hire people on their personality over their CV. One of my colleagues says the test is to imagine getting stuck at an airport on an eight-hour delay with the person you’re interviewing. Ask yourself: is that something you would fear?

The Ambitious Entrepreneur 

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For more information how BDO can help your company achieve real results through information technology guidance, accountancy and restructuring advice, as well as many more specialist services get in touch today.

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Astrid & Miyu: bucking the online trend with high street expansion

23 May 2022

Connie Nam, Founder and CEO of the jewellery brand Astrid & Miyu, is a rare leader in 2022. Having built her business online, she sees its future growth in bricks and mortar - and is planning significant high street expansion, both in the UK and overseas.

This arguably unconventional route to growth was born of a rare intuition and has been validated through experience and data, with Astrid & Miyu looking to generate a greater share of its revenues from offline sales in future.

As the brand has scaled £12.7m in sales revenue in 2021, it has graced prestigious league tables including The Sunday Times Fast Track and JP Morgan’s Top 200 Female Powered Businesses. Here Nam, named one of LDC’s Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders, shares the secrets of her success.  

We spoke to Connie Nam, Founder and CEO of the jewellery brand Astrid & Miyu.

Can you talk about the story behind your brand and your growth journey to date?

I was born in South Korea and spent time living in the United States, as my Dad worked for the World Bank for a period of time and then as a diplomat. So, as a family unit, we travelled around the world a lot and my mother, my sister and I would always visit amazing markets and pick out treasures that we could keep to remember our trips.

As a profession, I started my career in investment banking, working there for four years, and came to London to do my MBA at London Business School. But my passion was always to work in fashion or a consumer brand, so I worked at LVMH as a consultant and shortly after I graduated, I launched Astrid & Miyu in 2012.

I wanted to create a brand that reflected that feeling, when I looked at high-street jewellery brands at the time, I didn’t get that same emotional and sentimental vibe that I got from travelling and going to markets.

What factors drove your decision to expand into physical retail operations alongside your successful e-commerce business?

I set up as a digital-first brand, because it was easier to do so at the time but physical retail was always in my vision board for the brand, so I did a couple of pop-ups to test the model and see how people would engage. In 2015, I raised a small amount of money from Angel investors to open our first store. It really drove traffic and sales in our stores. Every day just got fully booked.

After lockdown, people wanted to go out, enjoy experiences and retail became affordable because landlords were willing to do a deal. We actually signed a number of leases during lockdown as I knew we would get out of the pandemic. I took a risk but just saw a huge opportunity there.

I thought, there’s a scalable business model here: I’m selling services that complement my existing products and it’s easy to predict demand because a lot of our sales are driven by piercing or tattoo appointments. We opened four new stores last year and planning on seven new stores this year.

How do you continue to motivate your people to believe in your vision and transform your strategy into action? 

By defining what our mission and vision is very clearly, having great values and making sure the values are portrayed all the way up and down. We hire great people who work hard. Being authentic and being myself when I talk to people really helps.

I’ve been told that inspires people, that I’m not someone who’s untouchable. Sharing everything, being transparent, has helped me, but I think it really empowers the team as well because they feel like they’re part of the journey, they’re also running the business.

I also have an executive coach and other founders that I speak to—having that support is helpful.

How important is ESG and how are you incorporating it into your brand?

We are driving towards sustainability and looking to become B-Corp certified, so we have started using recycled gold and silver for our new collections. Our goal is 50% of our new products will be made with recycled materials by the end of this year.

With packaging, we’re much further ahead. In our store fits, we’re using recycled materials for our joinery. We’re making sure our VM [visual merchandising] materials are also sustainable. Rather than creating VM for every campaign, we reuse everything.

From a people perspective, we recently hired a manager specifically to focus on our sustainability goals.

What do you see as being the main growth opportunity for your businesses in the coming 12 months?

The biggest opportunity will be growing the brand outside of London and the UK. In 2015 we opened our first physical store in St Christopher’s Place and, so far, all our stores are in London. There’s so much opportunity outside of London. Edinburgh, Leeds, Brighton and Cambridge are some of the locations that we’re looking at.

We’re putting a huge investment in our New York store. Right now, physical stores are profitable. Jewellery doesn’t need a big space, so we can get away with small rents and staffing overheads and generate a lot of cash. Last year, revenues were 70% e-commerce, 30% retail. This year it will be 50-50.

Once we’ve proven our model in the USA, we’ll be looking to raise Private Equity to finance our future growth.

From an international perspective, which markets are you looking to expand into in the future?

Back in 2018, we started doing PR and influencer marketing in the US market, and we posted three pop-ups. They did phenomenally well. It was the same kind of buzz as here, but even more so, with the American enthusiasm. I was planning to open a store in 2020, but COVID-19 hit.

The US is the second target market for us after the UK. There’s a lot of affinity and similarity, especially in the East Coast, to London customers. Similarly, Europe will be a focus for expansion, starting with Germany.

If you could share a single lesson for business leaders, what would that be?

Managing your own personal transition from being a Founder to CEO is so important, especially if you want to run the business. If a Founder can make that transition, no external CEO can be better.

Two or three years ago, I thought I needed to have the final say and know exactly what was going on in every area.

But I realised my value add to the business and the brand was not me doing everything, but giving people energy, communicating my vision and hiring the right team, because there’s always going to be people that are much better than me in different functions.

The Ambitious Entrepreneur 

Our Ambitious Entrepreneur hub hosts a range of resources designed to support you, the entrepreneur, to navigate the future

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For more information how BDO can help your company achieve real results through information technology guidance, accountancy and restructuring advice, as well as many more specialist services get in touch today.

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Selling to a consolidator, a Fulfilled by Amazon brand's perspective 

23 March 2022

Our FBA team recently hosted a virtual roundtable with Simon Staines, founder of HIKS Products, an outdoor sports equipment business, who recently sold his company to Profound Commerce, a Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) consolidator. Here are some of our key learnings from the roundtable discussion. 

HIKS, founded in 2014, is a brand that operates across multiple retail channels, at the time of sales the majority of its sales coming from the Amazon platform. With multiple sales options available on Amazon, Simon sold through a blend of FBA and seller fulfilled prime (SFP) and Amazon vendor. They had their brand registered with Amazon and participates in a variety of Amazon exclusive programs. The pandemic created the need to grow the business significantly and Simon decided to sell the business to a new owner who would be able to invest considerable sums into stock to enable the brand to scale quickly.

Amazon SFP vs FBA

Being a relatively small business Simon chose to use SFP to maintain control and flexibility of the customer experience. When the company started showing the Prime badge Simon experienced a 30%+ uplift in sales on Amazon.

It’s important for vendors to recognise the value of FBA for their smaller products and keeping SFP for the products which are large and bulky. This prevents the larger storage and pick fees using FBA.

Simon: “Our choice was driven by where was the best and most economical operational channel to push our products through”.

One of the downfalls of SFP to consider is that the prime badge can be temporarily lost if deliveries are not fulfilled in the time frame needed, which can be tricky if an order comes in close to carrier cut off’s or on weekends. But there are strategies you can use to by using FBA and SFP together to maximise sales and profitability.

Amazon vendor scheme

The Amazon vendor scheme is a useful channel to gain product and brand awareness, increase listing visibility and have amazon optimise listings. Algorithms are continuously changing on Amazon, so they are always best placed to optimise listings and product visibility.

Amazon brand registration is recommended if you own your own trademark. Amazon gives access to exclusive programs and Vendors will get to see advertising innovations first which can result in much lower advertising cost. As a brand owner you are also seen as trusted by Amazon. If you do come to sell the business, brand registry is an important and valuable aspect to any aggregator.

As a seller you are unable to control Vendor stocks, so it is essential to look at your margins and the channel you want most sales to go. Some businesses accelerate vendor stocks for a short time while a product at the start of a peak season, then throttle this to make better margins using FBA & SFP. If you can manage this process, you can really maximise your profits.

Key areas that acquirers are looking at

Simon, HIKS: “There are so many aggregators in the market with slightly different models. BDO understood what the aggregators were looking for and therefore knew who to place our business in front of.”

There are a lot of potential buyers fishing for information, they want to know more about the market and strategies than they do about the business itself. It’s advantageous to find a way to filter buyers who are interested in your market sector, understand the shape of the company, and are interested in the company and its potential from the outset.

If you want to sell your business, the first stage is to send a data pack to prospective buyers, working out adjusted EBIT calculations to use this as your multiple. This was something that can be difficult for business leaders to do without the help of a third party. It’s about giving enough information to create interest but not too much so competitors can delve into your business.

Multiples depend on what industry you are in and can vary dramatically. The normal levels are 4x-5x depending on the market, size of business and strength of your brand.

Lorna Hopkinson, BDO: “Consolidators used to be quite purist around the way that they would acquire businesses and almost robotic in their acquisition criteria and metrics. Over the last six months we have seen a shift. Consolidators are looking at quirkier, wider reaching brands, and bigger brands selling across multiple platforms. We have seen multiples push up for bigger businesses as there are fewer of them. They are still very focused on the last 12-months performance, but we have seen more openness to % of sales on Amazon, to multiples being flexed for brands that are not currently trading on Amazon. It’s easier for them to acquire bigger businesses, as this saves them time and resource.”

While there are other exit options available to brands, Simon felt the aggregator route was the best funded, due diligence is normally a very stressful process and most aggregators are relatively light touch compared to Private Equity and other funding options. A lot can change in the market during the due diligence process and once they had made the decision to sell, they wanted to get it done.

Simon, HIKS: “If I could go back four years, I would have borrowed money and grown the business quicker by putting a lot more investment in stock and products”.

We have seen aggregators being so focused on deal flow that they are low on resources to actually integrate businesses once purchased and are therefore keeping existing structures in place for longer. From an aggregator’s perspective, whilst they have access to sizable funding lines, the focus will be on acquiring brands, with a view of switching to optimisation and change once deal volumes slow.

Is 2022 the right time to sell?

It is becoming increasingly difficult to compete on Amazon and it can be hard for brands to judge when the right time to exit is.

Jonny Halmer, One Retail Group: “The appetite for acquiring smaller businesses is becoming less so. You want to find a balance between a healthy pricing period of the last 12 months trading that represents your growth, coupled with what is happening in the market. 2022 is going to be a year of heightened competition as aggregators consolidate, and some will fail. As inflation and rising energy bills come into play this will also have a knock-on effect to multiples.”

Simon, : “In my opinion now is the right time to sell. It is only in the past 12 months that mainstream investors have been looking at the aggregators and pushing money towards them so a lot more investment firms are out there looking.”

It is very tax efficient at this time for investors to push money into aggregators via certain investment tools. With current inflation and pricing, consumers are investing, investors are putting the money with aggregators because it is a fresh growth model that is also tax efficient. In 12 months’, time funding will become far more selective as aggregators start to fall over. It is however, important to look into the performance of the aggregator you are talking to if you care where your brand ends up. 

The Ambitious Entrepreneur 

Our Ambitious Entrepreneur hub hosts a range of resources designed to support you, the entrepreneur, to navigate the future

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For more information how BDO can help your company achieve real results through information technology guidance, accountancy and restructuring advice, as well as many more specialist services get in touch today.

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Helping Omlet find the perfect Private Equity partner to support its growth ambition

04 March 2022

About Omlet

Omlet was founded in 2004 by James Tuthill, Johannes Paul, William Windham and Simon Nicholls, who met at London's Royal College of Art where they completed a postgraduate course in Industrial Design Engineering. During their final year, they developed the Eglu chicken coop a revolutionary product which made it easy and fun to keep chickens in any garden.

The Eglu went on to win several awards, has been exhibited around the world and is even included in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. More than 125,000 Eglus have been sold to date and they have housed the feathered friends of broadcaster Chris Evans, Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussein and comedian John Cleese.

Omlet's original chicken coop products have continued to expand and the product offering now includes additional core pet categories including dogs, cats and small animals. The business based in Banbury, Oxfordshire, employs more than 60 people and has expanded to Australia, Europe and the US.

The Business Challenge

Given the business’ ambitious growth plans, Omlet’s management recognised it needed external investment to grow the business long-term.

When considering who to lean on from an advisor perspective, Omlet, already being supported on outsourcing and tax services by BDO, looked to engage the corporate finance capabilities of the firm, aware that BDO had the breadth of services and global scale it would require over the long-term. 

Specifically, the founders required an advisory team that could take a holistic approach to help professionalise their finance function, and partners that understood the intricacies of both UK and international tax, had strong relationships within the Private Equity community and could run an M&A process diligently and aligned to the founders’ objectives. Similarly, their advisors had to be able to work as an extension of their team – adding value throughout the journey.

Why Omlet Chose BDO

As a business that self-funded its growth to date, the M&A process posed a challenge for the founders to navigate alone. In addition to the rounded accounting and tax advice BDO already provided, Omlet chose BDO as their M&A partner for three reasons:

• With an already established rapport and relationship, BDO has continued to deliver proactive insights and guidance.
• Omlet’s founders were able to have transparent, candid conversations with BDO’s experts - allowing them to bounce ideas off each other to uncover the best strategies and results.
• BDO’s team has an exceptional understanding of all M&A and financial matters, which means that they can guide Omlet through the process and keep them abreast of accounting and regulatory changes.

Our Focus

When it came time to secure outside investment in the business, BDO guided Omlet’s executive team through the process – from start to finish. BDO understood that Omlet wanted to bring on an investor who had a strong alignment to the consumer brand’s vision and customer-centric approach, while also supporting and elevating its mission to educate the market on animal welfare through peer-to-peer communication and resources.

Based on Omlet’s vision for an investment partner, BDO drew up a shortlist of potential investors – all of whom met the company’s funding and investor criteria. Navigating a Private Equity process can be a complex and lengthy endeavour, so BDO acted as a trusted sounding board for Omlet’s founders and helped them understand what the process entailed, what questions to ask potential investors and where or how to manage expectations.

This resulted in Omlet securing £33 million in minority investment from Piper Private Equity in November 2021, which will support Omlet to achieve its strategic ambition.

Ongoing support as the business continues to grow

Over the last 12 months, Omlet’s growth has maintained a steady upward trajectory, bringing its ambitious growth plans forward by two to three years. As a result, Omlet is in a strong position to meet customers’ needs and generate sales across multiple channels.

Looking ahead, Omlet is focused on achieving four core objectives:

• Growing its sales and market share in the US
• Acquiring and retaining more customers in the dog & cat categories
• Attracting/retaining top talent
• Fostering an inclusive, engaged workforce and protecting the business culture

To continue to support its global growth and ecommerce strategy, Omlet will rely on BDO to support them in financial, tax and accounting matters.

The Results

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Helping Tailify scale a global business and streamline its financial operations

09 February 2022

About Tailify

Founded in Stockholm in 2014, Tailify is a full-service influencer marketing agency and platform that helps some of the world’s most ambitious brands craft effective influencer marketing strategies and drive impactful results. Since relocating its headquarters from Stockholm to London, the company has designed and managed over 400 influencer growth programmes for brands like Uber, LG, IKEA and agencies like Group M and PHD.

Regardless of where Tailify’s headquarters have been based, it has always viewed itself as a global business, servicing clients across the world. While many businesses found themselves struggling to keep their business afloat and retain customers throughout the 2020 and 2021 COVID-19 pandemic, Tailify found itself in a very good position – experiencing strong revenue growth and raising £3.7m GBP in Series A funding in March 2021.

The challenge

As Tailify continues to experience steady growth and sign on major brands, the company’s executive team quickly realised it had reached a mission-critical stage of growth. In order to free up the leadership’s time to focus on building and scaling its business following its Series A funding round - Tailify looked to engage a business advisory firm that could proactively identify barriers to growth within its finance function and operations. The leadership team wanted a firm that could offer a one-stop-shop and full range of accounting, tax and advisory services.

Following an introduction from a former finance manager, they brought on BDO’s Business Services & Outsourcing team to support with the following:

• Payroll management
• Year-end accounting
• Corporate taxes (preparing and filing), including advice on:
  • VAT around place of supply with international clients
  • Employee mobility
  • Share option valuations and implementation of an EMI scheme

Our approach

Tailify identified its business goals and growth ambitions, which include:

• Continued revenue growth year-on-year
• Expanding into international markets by 2023

To scale its business and grow consistently year-over-year, Tailify needed to refocus its time and attention away from operations and into creating an effective strategy to grow the business long-term. To do so, it needed a strategic advisory partner who understood the intricacies of growing a business like Tailify.

Why Tailify chose BDO

Tailify chose to work with BDO for the following reasons:

• BDO are a global advisory firm with offices all over the world. With Tailify looking to expand internationally, BDO was a natural fit.
• BDO has a full suite of services in-house and Tailify were looking to consolidate its operations with one advisory firm.
• BDO proved they could simplify processes and alleviate Tailify’s growth challenges with a simple brief, giving the team time and space to focus on long-term growth and client acquisition/retention.

The Results

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Signify Technology: Building high performance teams while achieving high growth

06 December 2021

Ryan Adams CEO of Signify Technology, asks to reschedule his interview with us so he can whisk his top performers off to a corporate retreat in the Caribbean. That appreciation for staff, so rare in 2021, has earned Signify major industry awards and driven massive growth in the company’s five short years of existence.

This year Signify, an IT recruitment specialist with offices in the UK and the US, was certified as a Great Place to Work and Adams was named recruitment industry entrepreneur of the year.

The last 12 months have seen the business posting back-to-back record quarters, growing turnover to £17m a year, with £7m in gross profits, and expanding headcount to 60 staff across four offices, with a 65% focus on the US. Here Adams outlines the keys to his company’s success.

We spoke with Ryan Adams, CEO of Signify Technology

Can you talk about your business growth story and the journey your company has been on over the past 12 months?

The pandemic forced us to make a lot of changes. After slowing operations down for the first six months, we were able to double down on all the things we were doing well. We’ve managed to double our headcount across the business in the last 12 months. We’ve opened two new offices overseas and doubled our revenue as well.

I’m very proud of that, because at the start of the pandemic I think most of us in the world were taken back and worried about the security of our jobs, our companies, and the economy in general. Looking back, it was an emotional rollercoaster.

During the tough times, we made zero redundancies, which I think is a rarity in the market. We didn’t use the furlough scheme whatsoever. We didn’t make many cutbacks. The reason we are having a record year this year is because of investments we made during the pandemic.

Do you feel that the changes in your sector caused by the last two years are here to stay or were these just crisis responses?

I think most of the crisis responses have now passed: the furlough scheme, making company redundancies, cutting back on cost and tools. Some of the things I think are here to stay are flexibility and hybrid remote working. We use Slack now as a communications tool, which has been phenomenal.

It allows you to communicate with your colleagues, whatever office or time zone they are based in. Video technology, the likes of Zoom and Teams, is here to stay. It helps you communicate with your colleagues, interview people, hire people.

And a candidate-driven market will be here to stay. It’s an employee-driven market.

The fact that employees can go to the market and demand good compensation levels, are able to get multiple offers on the table and are even able to get a counteroffer if they are going to leave their employer, those things are here to stay.

It’s the craziest market I’ve ever worked in, and I’ve been working in the recruitment industry for 14 years. I’ve never seen a market as buoyant as this. The economy is bouncing back.

Many sectors continue to experience a skills shortage coming out of the pandemic. How do you think the situation will change over the next 12 months?

I’ve always believed there has been a shortage of talent, especially in the technology industry. To navigate around that, we have created online communities.

When the pandemic happened, of course, all the face-to-face meetups and conferences stopped, so we pivoted and created online communities.

Whilst doing that, we created online meetups and online conferences. A lot of them were free to attend—we made them donate-only, so we could donate money to COVID-19 charities, NHS doctors and Doctors Without Borders. We saw an immense response from that.

What we were trying to do in those events was bring people together that were maybe feeling a bit isolated while working remotely and missing their colleagues and friends and family. Our aim was to help our clients interact with engineers, and engineers interact with clients.

It helped our engineers to get more jobs and our clients to fulfil more of their job shortages. During a talent shortage, what you can do is go and harvest your own. Create learning events, teach people and cross-train them into new technologies.

What is your advice to tech companies facing a skills shortage?

I do believe that things have changed fundamentally, forever. I have the luxury of working in the technology industry, partnered with some of the best technology companies in the world, such as Twitter, ITV, Sky, Capital One, eBay, Credit Karma, Airbnb and many others.

Nearly all those companies and their stakeholders are telling me the same thing: that they are going to offer fully remote opportunities or they're going to offer flexibility. If people do want to come into offices, they're allowed to, but they won't be forced to.

I honestly have never seen a market where salaries are so high. I do believe that there has been an evolution. I have seen some companies move into flexible working hours, and even some moving to four-day working weeks and having offices closed on every Friday.

There's been a lot of change and if you don't change then your company will get left behind. You're going to lose a lot of your talent to your competitors. There is a massive talent war, one that I've never seen before. The main thing is being open and flexible.

That sounds basic, but if you are looking for a senior engineer with a skill set and you can’t find that skill set, you have to pivot and do something different.

We’re operating across 22 countries, so let’s say there’s a skills shortage in the UK—if the customer is open and flexible, we can move someone from anywhere in Europe or maybe South America to England for a reasonable price and the customer can pay for their relocation.

What do you see as being the main growth opportunity for your businesses in the coming 12 months?

To continue our global expansion is the main thing. In the last two years, we’ve moved from being a UK business, focused on the UK and European markets, to opening operations in the US as well. We’ve been in the US now for 24 months.

In that time, we’ve opened two global offices, the first in Los Angeles and the second in Austin, Texas. Our plan for next year is to open our third office, in Miami, Florida, and then we are going to continue our global expansion. We have ambitious plans: 65% of our revenue now is from US operations.  

How do you inspire your people to believe in your vision?

Our business has won a lot of awards recently, including the Recruiter Awards, APSCo [Association of Professional Staffing Companies] Awards, Investors in Talent Awards and many others. All of that has been really geared around everything we do for our staff.

When they start, we help all our staff to set personal goals. Working in the recruitment industry is more than just a job and finding someone for the job. It’s about you, thinking about your future and what you want to get out of this. At the end of the year, we review the goals all our staff have hit.

It’s an amazing time for me because I can see staff have started families, got married, bought houses, gone on holiday, passed driving tests. You might think: why does a leader care about that? But I do genuinely care about my people, dearly.   

If you could share a single lesson for business leaders, what would that be?

To invest in your people. Take good care of them. If you do, they will take care of your business.

The Ambitious Entrepreneur 

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Gaining confidence through financial insights and data-led growth strategies

15 November 2021

About Draw & Code

Draw & Code use cutting-edge technology to create awe-inspiring experiences for the world’s most renowned brands, including the likes of Sony Music, Mercedes-Benz, Philips and John Lewis & Partners. Given the global audience of its clients, Draw & Code’s experiences reach millions of people worldwide. The company currently holds two patents focused on XR (extended reality), which covers virtual reality and augmented reality. 

The Challenge

Prior to 2020, Draw & Code had consistently grown its revenue year after year. But when COVID-19 struck in 2020, multiple lockdowns and social distancing requirements put an end to in-person events. As a result, the company’s revenue growth slowed considerably.

For a company that was built predominantly around producing immersive, engaging physical events for some of the world’s most influential brands, a ‘business as usual’ mindset was not only impossible, but also dangerous for the company’s long-term growth goals. Digitalisation was a critical first step in getting back on track. And Draw & Code’s clientele appreciated its nimble and agile approach in adapting to the circumstances. However, digitalisation alone wouldn’t suffice.

The company still needed support and guidance in a few key areas if it wanted to navigate 2021 and into 2022 with strong customer acquisition and revenue growth. So, the company enlisted BDO’s Business Services & Outsourcing team to help them tackle the following challenges:

• Lacking financial expertise and confidence: While the company was passionate and motivated to produce exceptional work for clients, it struggled to translate its value proposition into a cohesive, compelling narrative that would draw the attention of investors. And although the company had a vast amount of financial data at its fingertips, it lacked the knowledge and confidence to identify, capture, analyse and report on business performance, while also projecting future growth opportunities.
• Lacking visibility into the organisational structure: The company struggled to get a clear picture of its organisational structure. This made it difficult to identify all stakeholders – from senior management to board members to angel investors to core teams. If the organisational structure wasn’t optimal, or worse yet confusing to outsiders, the company would struggle to retain customers, grow its revenue and attract investors.
• Lacking proactive, strategic planning: The company was admittedly reactive and short-sighted in its planning. It also tended to jump from job to job without any thought to how each client aligns with the company mission, vision and strategy.

Our Focus

Given the challenges that Draw & Code faced, BDO came in as a strategic growth partner and advised the business on various matters, including:

• Understanding how to structure the organisation and teams for long-term success
• Mitigating risks, both internally and externally, to ensure consistent growth
• Identifying, capturing, analysing and reporting on financial insights to create a compelling financial narrative that would attract investors
• Gaining confidence in making strategic business decisions

Following the support from BDO, Draw & Code is now back on track with its revenue growth and 2021-2022 is set to be the company’s most successful year ever.

To that end, the company has set ambitious goals for itself - to become the best immersive technology studio in the world, produce end-to-end products and platforms for similar studios and release its own consumer products down the road.

Why Draw & Code Chose BDO

Draw & Code selected BDO as its business advisor for three key reasons:

• BDO’s teams are intelligent, professional, relatable and didn’t try to confuse the company with a lot of jargon and buzzwords. They gave Draw & Code the confidence to call on them about issues they were facing.
• BDO acted as a natural extension of the Draw & Code team and fit in well with the company’s values and culture. This was a major selling point as culture is a top priority for the business. Draw & Code appreciated that BDO not only understood and anticipated its needs, but also genuinely cared about the business.
• BDO’s teams have been instrumental in helping Draw & Code refine their business strategy to a place where it takes a holistic view of the businesses, builds in long-term planning past 12 months and is now more confident in telling their financial story to the outside world.  

The Results

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Serving up increased productivity and streamlined financial operations for The Turmeric Co.

11 October 2021

About The Turmeric Co.

The Turmeric Co. produce a unique range of raw turmeric shots. Developed over a decade, each shot provides a combination of nature's most powerful and fresh ingredients. The Turmeric Co. has identified a gap in the market where previously consumers would buy juices high in sugar from natural ingredients, whereas now, people are looking for more functional products with wider health benefits. In 2020, the company won the Great Taste Award, certifying its place in the market and proving that it is servicing a crucial consumer need.

The business challenges; accounting, payroll and suppliers

The business has strong growth ambitions but the company’s founder and CEO, Thomas Robson-Kanu, didn’t have the time, bandwidth or full depth of knowledge to handle all the company’s financial matters. Thomas needed a robust finance and accounting technology platform that allowed senior management to access, review, analyse and report data on business performance accurately and in real-time.

In addition, managing payroll had become a herculean task, taking valuable time away from focusing on the overall business strategy and growth plan. There was a real need to optimise the payroll management and processing system, with automation providing the ideal solution.

For The Turmeric Co., paying multiple suppliers on a weekly basis has made their financial operations somewhat ‘messy’ and complicated. The Turmeric Co. wanted address this as it makes financial analysis and reporting inefficient, inaccurate and problematic for auditing purposes.

Our Focus

Given the business challenges faced, The Turmeric Co. had a clear set of objectives it wanted to focus on, including:

• Developing top-quality products
• Delivering an exceptional customer experience across all touchpoints
• Driving operational efficiencies across the finance function including data, analysis and payroll, structuring staff to manage processes and support customers effectively

The Turmeric Co. use BDO’s Business Services & Outsourcing team as an extension of its finance function so staff and management can focus on meeting customers’ needs and boosting customer satisfaction. BDO now handles the company’s payments to multiple suppliers on a weekly basis. BDO has also taken charge of managing the company’s payroll. The result is a cost-effective solution, with employees paid in a timely manner and all tax implications handled properly.

To help senior management stay abreast of business performance, inefficiencies and growth opportunities, BDO produces a set of monthly management accounts. This ensures management are able to take data-driven decisions on planning and maintaining customer satisfaction, which is vital to revenue growth and the overall growth of the company.

BDO has leveraged its finance and accounting technology expertise to benefit the business by implementing a dynamic stock reporting system. At any given time, management can see the exact value of, and track, stock within the business and break this down into ingredients, packaging and merchandise.

Together, BDO and The Turmeric Co. configured an ERP system that connects to the company’s accounting software. The company tracks all accounts and transactions properly and quickly in real-time.  The increased visibility is tremendously valuable in pushing the company closer to achieving its growth goals.

Why The Turmeric Co. chose BDO to help meet their business challenges?

The Turmeric Co. decided they needed strategic support and consultancy advice from their accountants and business advisors. A mutual business recommended BDO as being “highly functional, dynamic and capable,” The Turmeric Co. felt positive and confident in their decision to engage BDO.

The Results

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How BDO is helping UK online retailer Blake Mill scale revenue growth & expand geographically

08 October 2021

About Blake Mill

Blake Mill is a men’s fashion ecommerce brand based in Manchester. Primarily focused on designing unique and high-quality men’s dress shirts, the business is operated by a small team of talented people and is led by two experienced entrepreneurs.

The business challenge

Blake Mill’s core customers have historically comprised men between the ages of 45 to 65 – looking for high quality business wear or a boldly designed shirt for a night out. The company had targeted revenue growth of 250% in the last fiscal year replicating the previous year’s growth rate. Given the closure of offices and the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/21, growing revenues was intensely challenging. The company did however manage to maintain the previous year’s sales level due largely to its dedicated existing customer base.

Looking forward to 2022 and beyond, Blake Mill is now focusing on how to optimise a rapid growth plan taking into account changes in the market resulting from COVID-19, Brexit and a multitude of other inter-related market factors. A key contributor to developing and executing such a plan is a highly capable finance and accounting partner. 

Having switched to BDO’s team from a local accounting firm in 2018, Blake Mill saw first-hand the value associated in working with a multi-faceted, international accounting company. Over the past few years BDO has made massive improvements to Blake Mill’s internal and external reporting. BDO has also been engaged to assist with VAT reconciliations, importing/exporting tax issues, fund raising and international market assessments. 

With all the basics now being properly and professionally managed, Blake Mill’s next challenge is rapid growth. BDO’s Business Services & Outsourcing team is perfectly positioned to help support this objective.

Our Focus 

The next 12 months will prove to be critical for Blake Mill, as it has set its sights on achieving the following growth-focused goals:

• Expanding its product range
• Establishing a presence in the US and/or Europe (and navigating through all the Brexit red tape)
• Achieving annual revenue growth of 250%
• Raising funds to support the company's ambitious growth plans

Blake Mill needs to secure enough funding from the right investor(s) to achieve these goals and overcome the operational business challenges it faces. BDO will support this by providing access to its extensive network of investors and leveraging its experience of helping other small businesses like Blake Mill to find the right funding.  

BDO has been tasked with guiding the company through the process of raising funds – from analysing its business performance data and translating it into a compelling story to vetting investors to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship and advising on how and where to allocate funding within the business. 

Blake Mill are also keen to expand geographically into the US and/or Europe, a plan that had previously been delayed. The company is relying on BDO’s knowledge of tax legislation and impact of trade deals and is confident as a result of the ongoing guidance and direction on all matters related to this expansion. 

Why Blake Mill chose BDO

For many ambitious, entrepreneurial businesses, hiring (and spending money on) an advisory firm can be daunting. Budgets are limited and must be spent wisely. Blake Mill had reached a critical point in its growth trajectory – relying on various consultants or trying to figure it out themselves was simply not a viable option if they wanted to grow their revenue by upwards of 250% year-over-year. The time had come to make the investment in the advice, knowledge and support of experts. 

Once Blake Mill decided they needed help from a more established, trusted advisory firm, they chose BDO for the following reasons:

• BDO shows a genuine interest and passion for helping ambitious, entrepreneurial businesses achieve strong growth
• BDO has significant experience in the key area of helping scaleups secure funding for growth plans
• BDO is a widely recognized and trusted brand which lends credibility to Blake Mill – a vital issue when fund raising

The Results

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How BDO is fuelling strong organic growth & international expansion for Aeroservices

29 September 2021

About Aeroservices

Aeroservices is a leading global business specialising in the distribution of services and hardware to the aviation industry including aviation lubricants & consumables, spares & Components, repair and maintenance, Safety and GSE, tooling and tyres.

The company provides ‘Nose to Tail’ management primarily for commercial operators with more than 50% of the business being contractual. Headquartered in Leeds, Aeroservices has a global presence with offices in Dubai and Shanghai.

The business challenge

2020 was the worst year on record for the aviation history. Countries around the world shut their borders, governments imposed multiple lockdowns and travel restrictions were imposed in response to COVID-19. The impact on the aviation industry was devastating, with a 60.2 percent decline in the number of passengers flying in 2020 (1.8 billion), compared to the previous year (4.5 billion).

Fortunately, Aeroservices avoided the worst by anticipating the impact of COVID-19 back in March 2020 and successfully implementing a mitigation and contingency plan. Nonetheless, the company knew that there was still more work to be done to ensure the company not only survived, but then also thrived post-pandemic.

The business, however, had concerns that their existing local accounting firm lacked the depth of technical expertise and strategic insight to help the business scale. In particular, Aeroservices was most concerned with the capabilities of their previous advisor in the following areas:

• Providing a comprehensive and accurate assessment of record keeping and suitable adjustments
• Advising on complex adjustments an area they struggled with previously
• Understanding the varied HMRC requirements and meeting deadlines

So, Aeroservices sought out the guidance and support of BDO to help them gain greater control of their business, deliver operational efficiencies and support its international expansion plans.

Our Focus

As Aeroservices looks to stay competitive and grow in the coming years, it had a clear vision for where it needed to focus:

• Implementing SAP
• Investing in people
• Office refurbishment
• Opening a new office in China

Most importantly, the company isn’t willing to let the challenges of 2020 stop it from setting ambitious goals. To that end, Aeroservices is targeting £50 million turnover by 2026. Meanwhile, the company has also set its sights on restructuring the business to fall under one group company, which will require specialised tax expertise.

To ensure Aeroservices doesn’t encounter any surprises with these plans, BDO’s team has provided a detailed overview of and advice on available tax deductions. BDO has also advising on the complex transactions that may arise as the company looks to transition to one group company.

Despite the ongoing recruitment demands and differing payroll requirements across multiple territories, including China and the United Arab Emirates, BDO’s Business Services & Outsourcing and Tax teams have given the company peace of mind that all their accounting practices are comprehensive, accurate and completed within the required timelines.

Why Aeroservices chose BDO

The drivers for Aeroservices selecting BDO as its business advisor came down to four key points:

• BDO’s reputation was best-in-class and one that stood out above other accounting and advisory firms. Aeroservices was able to talk to existing BDO clients as part of the vetting process.
• BDO demonstrated they had the expertise, track record and people to handle all Aeroservices accounting and tax needs.
• BDO’s ability to stay on top of changing regulations and guidelines and keep Aeroservices informed
• BDO’s data-driven approach tied in with Aeroservices emphasis on accuracy. 

The Results

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