Good, practical business advice from an experienced consultant can add real value to many businesses, particularly SMEs that lack both interaction with external shareholders and wider group resources. At Bellcrown Investments Limited, we provide general business advice on an ad hoc basis or as a regular service.

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Ad Hoc Business Advice

From time to time, most businesses find themselves facing challenges and opportunities, which present them with real dilemmas about how to proceed. Sometimes owner managers/directors/senior managers are unsure about how to move forward; sometimes they can’t see the wood for the trees; sometimes they’ve decided how to proceed but want their ideas to be challenged and tested to make sure they are robust; and sometimes they just need a sounding board. Whatever the need, Ad Hoc Business Advice

From time to time, most businesses find themselves facing challenges and opportunities, which present them with real dilemmas about how to proceed. Sometimes owner managers/directors/senior managers are unsure about how to move forward; sometimes they can’t see the wood for the trees; sometimes they’ve decided how to proceed but want their ideas to be challenged and tested to make sure they are robust; and sometimes they just need a sounding board. Whatever the need, Bellcrown Investments Limited provides advice for business, advice on business and advice in business. We’re pleased to structure that advice from a one off meeting or a number of meetings, as and when required, to a series of pre-planned meetings for the duration of a specific project. provides advice for business, advice on business and advice in business. We’re pleased to structure that advice from a one off meeting or a number of meetings, as and when required, to a series of pre-planned meetings for the duration of a specific project.

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Regular Business Advice

Many businesses find they benefit from a regular input from an external management consultant. An experienced consultant has less detailed knowledge, about the business in question, than the owner/directors/senior managers; but he/she has a much wider breadth of experience of other businesses and other sectors. The availability of this knowledge and experience to the business can add real value and provide a significant competitive advantage. It’s rather like an army unit fighting on the ground; the officers know what’s happening immediately around them and have the skills and experience to manage their soldiers appropriately. But someone else in a helicopter up above, whilst having less detailed knowledge of what’s happening down below, can see the outline of what’s happening over a much wider area. The two together then become a more formidable force.

We are pleased to provide regular business advice for our clients. This could be in the form of regular meetings with business owners/directors/senior managers; it could be through attending regular board/management meetings; or it could be designed as a special programme around a longer term project. Our aim is to structure the advice to suit the circumstances and by so doing optimise the added value.

We undertake a wide range of business projects, focusing on both the successful resolution of problems and the creative exploitation of opportunities. Through business consulting, we bring to bear our many years of experience and rely less on text book solutions. See below the type of projects we undertake.

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Business Reviews

A full business review, a strategic review, an operational review, a business health check or a functional/departmental review, all can add real value to a business depending on the particular circumstances; and we’d be pleased to discuss these options with you.

A business health check is a preventative process that looks for early signs of potential exposures that could become problems, at a later date, in an otherwise sound business.

A strategic review considers the business model and the current strategy of the business. It looks for weaknesses and exposures that could be potential problems as well as opportunities that could be effectively exploited. It also examines the most advantageous medium to long term direction for the business to take. An operational review looks at the operational excellence of the business. It identifies weaknesses and exposures and wherever possible solutions to them. It also looks for additional opportunities to improve the levels of operational excellence throughout the business. A full business review is a combination of all of these. Functional/departmental reviews consider individual functions or departments, within the business, such as sales & marketing or customer services. They look for solutions to weaknesses and performance issues as well as strategies for improving operational efficiencies and reducing costs.

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Turnaround Strategies

At one extreme, a turnaround strategy could be a strategy to achieve the turnaround of a business that is in serious financial difficulties; at the other, it could be a strategy to address the underperformance of a single function or department, within an otherwise sound business. It could also be anything between those two extremes and would normally have been preceded by an appropriate business review. We have substantial turnaround experience and would be pleased to discuss with you any business turnaround issues you may have.

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Business Growth Projects

There are essentially only four ways a business can grow: -

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Selling more of the same product to the same market sector.

Introducing new products into the same market sector.

Entering new market sectors with existing products.

Entering new market sectors with new products.

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The level of risk increases as you progress from one to four. Acquiring another business can greatly assist any one of these four routes but does, of course, involve risks of its own. How you grow your business is of paramount importance to its continued success and sustainability; and it’s something that you really don’t want to get wrong. So, experienced external support, during the development and implementation of your growth strategy, can often be a key factor in minimising your risk and ensuring a successful outcome.

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Business Plans

A business plan is essential for any business. But there are, of course, different plans for different purposes. The main business plan is normally a three or five year plan, which provides a framework to guide the decision making process, during the period of the plan. It also provides milestones and criteria that enable business owners and directors to measure progress. However, sometimes additional business plans may be required to help with such things as bank or finance house lending decisions, institutional investors’ investment decisions etc. Under these circumstances, an edited or updated version of the main business plan may be required. Whatever the purpose of the plan, getting it right, ensuring it is credible and achievable and presenting it professionally is extremely important; so it’s always best to consider whether you have the skills, time and resources you need, or whether it would be better to engage experienced business consulting help.

Our clients don’t always have the resources to successfully manage a change programme, whilst continuing to run their business day to day; so they need additional management support for a limited period. Because of our hands on experience of managing businesses and managing change and transformation within businesses, we can provide that support; and we’d be pleased to discuss this service with you. Essentially there are two options: see below.

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Transformation Support

This is where we work with you and your management team and have delegated responsibilities for some or all of the transformation process. The objective is to allow you and your team to focus primarily on the day to day management of the business but to be involved with and take increasing ownership of the change programme as it unfolds. Our role is to introduce and drive the change programme, whilst gradually handing over ownership and responsibility to your team. We manage ourselves in and then manage ourselves out.

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Full Interim Management

This is where we take full operational control of the business through an interim CEO role. We would report to you and/or your shareholders as any other CEO would do; and our responsibility would be to manage the full transformation process before handing over to a permanent CEO, who we would help to recruit.