You have the reports. You have the accounts. What you don't have is the full picture.

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£41m

Business Sale AT P/E 20

Commercial finance partner to the MD for ten years

£500k

Turnaround

Near-insolvency to cash reserves in eight months

£4m+

Margin Improvement

Forensic contract, pricing review and renegotiation

Sound familiar?

The business has grown. The finance function hasn’t.

This is not a failure of your business. It is the point at which most good businesses get stuck.

You check the bank balance to know if there's enough money. The management accounts arrive late, and when they do, you're not sure you trust them. Decisions about hiring or pricing get made on gut feel because the numbers aren't giving you what you need.

Your accountant handles the year-end. Nobody is connecting the finances to where the business is going.

When the business was smaller, you could hold everything in your head. The cash position, the key clients, the rough margins. That stopped working a while ago. Now the business is more complex than the finance function behind it.

You know you need better information. But you're not sure what "better" actually looks like.

The Issue

Is not usually
about the
numbers.

The cash flow problem is real. But the cause is usually somewhere else entirely.

In how the business wins work. How it prices. How it delivers. And how decisions get made. An FD who stays inside the finance function can describe the symptoms. Understanding what's driving them means working across the whole business.

Most businesses at your stage don't lack data. They lack someone who can tell them what the data means. Not another report, someone who connects the numbers to the commercial reality: which clients are genuinely profitable, whether the pricing reflects the real cost of delivery and where the business is actually making or losing money.

Your accountant can tell you what happened last year. Your bookkeeper can tell you what's in the bank. But who is asking why margin is moving, whether the growth you're chasing is actually making you better off, or what would happen to cash if your biggest client left?

The Approach

Six Dimensions, Not One.

01

Financials

Are the numbers accurate, timely, and useful? Can you explain last month's performance without opening a spreadsheet?

04

Commercial

Do you know which clients and services are genuinely profitable? Could you say right now what your actual margin is on your five largest clients?

When I work with a business, I don't start with the accounts. I start with a structured assessment across six dimensions. Most FDs focus on the first. I work across all six because the things that are costing you money rarely sit where you expect them to.

02

Operations

Does the business run consistently when you're not watching? Are key processes documented, or do they live in people's heads?

05

Risk & Control

What could go wrong, and is it managed? Are your financial controls strong enough that you'd spot a problem before it became a crisis?

03

Governance

Are decisions clear, owned, and accountable? When was the last time a decision fell through the cracks because nobody owned it?

06

Strategy & Leadership

Where is the business going, and is the team aligned around it? When did you last step back and genuinely think about where it's heading?

Evidence. Not Claims.

What this looks like in practice.

£41m

Business Sale AT P/E 20

Supported a business sale as the owner's trusted financial partner. Found the gaps before the buyer did. The business sold at a P/E of 20.

Twenty-five years. Nine organisations. Financials, operations, commercial, governance. The range is the point.

£500k

Turnaround

Near-insolvency to £500k cash reserves in eight months. Diagnostic, intervention, and rebuild across finance and operations.

£4M+

Margin improvement

Forensic contract and pricing review at Blackhawk. Recovered £4m+ gross profit through commercial analysis and renegotiation.

Testimonials

  • Its a true blessing to working with someone like David. David is an accomplished man of finance and much more beyond. His straightforward, thorough and visionary approach makes him a real joy to have alongside you in running your business. David managed to understand and take control of a very complex issue on joining us and in a matter of three to six months we are a completely different business. David has transformed our company from a finance, operations and structure perspective. This is the impressive nature of his expertise as he truly get business & people. David sees things I would never as a business owner, from which I'm extremely grateful. As a creative person I've always felt that it should be a good feeling working with the right people, you know in your gut that something just clicks. Drawn to those with deep routed values of decency, honestly, transparency, saying it how it is and putting others first while still being extremely personable and professional. I very much felt and experienced all these things working with David.

    Tim Mutton

    Founder and CEO at Blacksheep

  • I have known David for over 15 years and would be happy to recommend him for any role ranging from CEO, CFO or COO. David has a wide ranging skill set, being focused on everything commercial, procedure and process, goal setting, financial viability, risk profiling and above all a very strategic focus. David can demonstrate a number of career achievements ranging from, multiple business acquisitions and successful integration to assisting others in product development to crisis management, not forgetting growing a profitable business. One aspect which is so important to him is his value set and moral compass, which means he has the respect of all around him. In summary, David is one of those hard to find individuals, who has it all, bright, focused, loyal incredibly hard working and a genuinely nice bloke.

    David Lebond

    Managing Director at P&MM & Motivcom plc

  • I had the privilege of working with David during a pivotal period for the business and our Go-to-Market organisation specifically. His contribution was simply invaluable. As we evolved our GTM strategy and structure, David played a critical role providing insight, contributing to and leading key initiatives to improve ways of working and implement growth levers. It was David's discipline and commitment which drove key transformation initiatives that were essential to success. What truly set David apart was his agile thinking and remarkable versatility. He could seamlessly pivot between strategic planning and tactical execution, applying himself effectively to whatever challenge arose. Whether it was a complex organisational initiative or an urgent business priority, David brought the same level of rigor and commitment to every task. David's core strength lies in his data-driven critical thinking and commercial decision-making. He had an exceptional ability to cut through complexity, analyse the relevant data, and surface actionable insights that directly informed our business. His recommendations were always grounded in evidence and shaped by a deep understanding of the commercial implications. Equally impressive was David's collaborative approach to working within our functionally aligned matrix environment. He built strong relationships across teams, navigated organisational complexity with ease, and consistently brought stakeholders together to drive alignment and results. Personally, I am grateful to have had David on my team. He was more than just a high-performing team member; he was a trusted advisor whom I could always rely on for solid, well-considered recommendations. Any business would be fortunate to have someone of David's calibre.

    Chris Ronald

    VP EMEA Incentives at Blackhawk

  • Having worked with David for over 10 years at senior leadership level I feel able to write a glowing recommendation of his abilities, commitment and drive. As a senior leader his teams were engaged, motivated and clear of their objectives. David has a deep understanding of the commercial realities of business and the impact that operational decisions had on wider success, something that was also true of his work in financial planning, budgeting and operational control. On a personal level David was always my first port of call when looking for a second opinion or simply a degree of comfort that I was on the right track. Utterly dependable and willing to move mountains for his colleagues efforts to make a business successful, David's balanced but brave attitude mark him out as one of "the best" people it's been my pleasure to work with over the years.

    David Pearson

    CEO at Spark

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