CHORLEY ACCOUNTANT HAS BEEN NAMED AS ONE OF BRITAIN’S TOP 50 BUSINESS ADVISERS

A Chorley Accountant, and member of Let’s Do Business, has been named as one of Britain’s top 50 business advisers.

Martin Horton, who offers business advice to help local early stage entrepreneurs, was picked from hundreds of advisers from around the UK for Finance & Accountancy work with small and medium sized businesses.

Martin, who runs Rivington Accounts from his office in Adlington, said: “It’s all too easy for an early stage business to get distracted and lose sight of what’s important to its founders and what they’re trying to achieve – there’s a strong risk that without good strategic financial advice you can end up with a business that doesn’t bring you what you want from it, whether it be financial rewards or a different lifestyle.”

“Good financial advice can help you put simple systems and practices in place to make sure that the business stays on track and does what you wanted it to, and hoped it would.”

Martin has thirty years of experience as an accountant and has recently mentored a number of local businesses towards a clear path towards future growth.

The awards are run by small business network Enterprise Nation, which asked fledgling businesses to nominate an adviser that had helped them to build and grow a sustainable business.

The awards, which set out to highlight the work done behind the scenes by experts helping Britain’s army of small businesses to build and grow, revealed a rich vein of dedicated supporters for the UK’s expanding entrepreneurial culture.

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation said: “These business advisers are the unsung heroes behind Britain’s booming small business culture.

“The awards have uncovered some incredible work that has helped fledgling firms take steps towards sustainability and growth by taking a strategic look at their business.

“Research shows that those firms that take advice do better than those that don’t – and it stands to reason that good advice can help avoid some of the damaging, early mistakes entrepreneurs can make that can often force them to give up.

“Thanks to the Government’s £30m Growth Voucher initiative, there is now an increasing interest in taking strategic advice to overcome some of these behavioural barriers and unlock growth potential.

“The awards were designed to show this important work in action, in order to help more start-ups and small firms find out about the benefits of taking advice.”

The 50 advisers were chosen from hundreds of entries from around the UK, with ten outstanding experts picked out as the top ten.

Martin’s top tips for growing a business are:

• Always have up to date financial information
• Always have a financial budget & update it at least quarterly
• Ask others you know who’ve started up what they wish they’d asked for with hindsight – if you don’t know any, book yourself onto free business networking events (Eventbrite is a good place to find some)
• Set time aside to work on the planning & marketing of your business rather than just doing what you do. Be disciplined with your time.

A Government report entitled Growing Your Business, written by Enterprise Adviser Lord Young suggested if Britain’s smallest firms were to take on just one more employee each, it would eradicate unemployment in the UK.

He said: “The evidence is unequivocal: businesses that seek and engage external help are more likely to grow. But much more needs to be done to encourage firms to invest in their capability.”

A report from the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce suggested by 2018 there would be more than five million people working for themselves in this country – exceeding the number working in the public sector for the first time.

Entries were judged by a distinguished panel including Emma Jones, and representatives from professional bodies including the ICAEW, as well as the Department for Business, Industry and Skills, StartUp Loans and James Layfield, the founder and entrepreneur behind Central Working.

To see the full list go here:

https://marketplace.enterprisenation.com/top-50-advisers

ends

For more information contact:-

Martin Horton on 01257 429252 or email:  enquiries@rivingtonaccounts.co.uk

The above article appeared in the Chorley Guardian in February 2015