“Coming soon – Start Grow Manage Sell – the book”

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Start

How much money will you need to launch. What legal problems may you meet. How do you assemble a team. What financial KPIs should you monitor. How to overcome launch inertia. And much more

Grow

Growing for sale is about more than getting bigger; how do you scale up. How to win without a pitch. Insight, Challenger, Experiential marketing and sales approaches versus S.P.I.N. and other methods. How to beat Goliath competition. And much more

Manage

The governance rhythm. How to get staff to own budgets. Which Board types
work and which don’t. Improving utilisation. Up skilling knowledge. Commercial Strategy. Know Cialdini’s Principles. Setting fees. And much more

Sell

How do you know when you are ready. Difference between trade and PE buyers. What multiple can you achieve and how to boost it. What due diligence should you do. How to kill a sale. And much more

I’m Writing a Book —

and You’re Invited to Join the Journey

If you want to scale your agency at pace, manage more commercially and then sell for a significant sum, this book is for you, whether you are running an established business, or thinking about starting one.

Over the past three decades, I have turned around and grown one of the biggest PR firms in Europe; started my own PR business and successfully sold it; and now I advise others on how to start, grow (scale, in fact), manage their business more commercially and for some, sell for significant sums. If you want to achieve any of these things, this book and regular newsletters will help you achieve that.

  • How to build a PR business from scratch

  • How to manage, grow, and lead a team

  • How to eventually sell your business (and why it matters even if you don’t plan to)

The book is currently in progress — and I’d love to share the journey with you.

If you want to be notified when the book becomes available, please add your details below. You will not be spammed.

If you’re thinking about starting a new business, I’d be happy to meet for a coffee, hear about your plans, and offer some initial advice — no charge.

If you’re running an established business, let’s grab a coffee and explore how we might help you take it to the next level.

Email: info@SGMS.uk

Phone: 07770947957

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Who We Help.

We work with Founders and CEO’s of marcomms businesses (PR, design, digital, etc), to help them create and implement plans to scale their businesses, overcome a growth plateau, improve profitability and productivity and, for some, prepare for sale.
And we coach founders to keep their business on track and deal with the intractable problems that inevitably arise.
Our smallest client had an income of less than £250K  and the largest >£10 million. Our youngest client was very much in its start-up phase and our most established was just over 14 years old.

Services

SGMS Our approach is entirely bespoke and relentlessly practical. We don’t believe in one size fits all solutions – every business we work with receives tailored advice and support. From “hands on” to “hands hovering”, from light touch to intensive we aim to work with each individual client in the way that suits them best.
 Start We are happy to have an informal chat, to discuss your aspirations. Thereafter, we can help you create realistic plans to get your start-up off the ground and moving towards the point where it is sustainable, and again to the point where “small” becomes “big”.
 Grow We have particular expertise in helping firms scale - not just grow, but evolve systems and processes that make the firm better, more efficient, and ultimately more valuable.

This may require advice on commercial strategy and positioning; it may require assistance in creating an Insight / Challenger / Experiential marketing and new business machine.

It may well involve helping identify service streams that complement the firm’s existing services.
 Manage Manage covers assistance in how best to manage staff, how to manage clients and how to manage yourself.

The aim is to help you boost productivity to >£150K, profitability to >20%, staff cost ratio to the range 55% - 60%, and create a healthy cash flow.

And help you find the time to work on the business, not just in it.

It is about not just the best way to deal with significant specific challenges that arise (and I have helped two clients deal with the aftermath of a fraud; helped clients deal with incompetent CEO’s and division heads; senior staff threatening a walk-out - all the usual stuff…), but how to create an engaged and motivated team; how to create management routines that cascade through the firm, to get the place running like clockwork.
 Sell If you want to sell your business for a significant sum, we can help you make sure your business is in the best possible shape to appeal to buyers and achieve the best possible multiple.

We will help you select the right broker to market your firm (it’s very much horses for courses) and see you through everything from the Information Memorandum to Due Diligence (buyer and seller) to buyer interviews.