Shield M&A's Hot Tip
"Grooming"

"Grooming" - More than skin deep?

TIRED looking City workers are increasingly turning to plastic surgery to present a fresher face in a competitive world, say recent reports*. But this drastic approach to grooming is only skin deep.

The success of health clubs in recent years reflects widespread public awareness that real appeal lies in health and fitness. Grooming is good, fitness is better, and a combination of the two is best.

You would think that our society's increasing preoccupation with attractiveness might be carried over to the sale of businesses.

But it isn't. When it comes to sale, owner managers often take the quick-fix route, focusing on grooming and forgetting fitness - they spoil the outcome as a result. Since attractiveness, for a business, is all to do with the growth and reliability of future cash flows, dressing up past performance, useful though it is, does not go far enough.

To really excite buyers, a business needs to be strong and fit, capable of consistent good performance, and set to grow impressively.

That's why Shield M&A focuses on sale fitness as well as sale preparation. We call it "Value-Building", and it's best started at least a year or two prior to sale.

*The Harley Medical Group says bookings from male workers was up 40% in Oct 2006 at its City and Harley Street clinics. The UK cosmetic surgery market was worth £224.6m> in 2003, and is growing at about 9.4% a year. Source: Keynote

Essential book on Value-Building now available to buy here

'Increase and Extract the Value of Your Business', co-written by Shield M&A's David Young, is an essential book for business owners and leaders, showing how to build value and make a business more saleable, what a sale involves and even how to realise value without losing control.

If you are interested in any of the following questions then this book is for you:

Can I realise value without selling/losing control?
How can I make my business more saleable?
How can I maximise value in my business?
What choices and alternatives are there?
What would a sale involve?
What is value?

Get your copy here

Shield M&A extends UK network to the Midlands and East Anglia with third UK office

We have extended our national network to the Midlands and East Anglia with the appointment of Bill McCue as Regional Practice Head. Cambridgeshire based Bill McCue is an established business coach and interim manager who will extend Shield M&A's ability to deliver its Value-Building and Value-Extraction services by working closely with owners and managers in the regions.

Bill McCue draws on a wealth of top management experience from his time as Chief Operating Officer of Cambridge Pharma Consultancy Ltd, and in senior accounting, IT and general management positions in subsidiaries of Babcock International, Royal Bank of Scotland and CACI Inc.

Bill McCue said, "I look forward to working with Midlands and East Anglian clients to really build value into their businesses and move them on to the next stage, which is often a tough, but always fulfilling journey." Contact Bill

About Shield M&A

Selling a business? Contact David Young, Founder & CEO, of Shield on 020 7031 8265

In 2001, David Young founded Shield Corporate Finance as an independent specialist advisory firm, to provide world-class M&A advice without regard to transaction size and without conflicts of interest. With a special interest in the keys to success in divestiture work, Shield M&A is committed to producing remarkable results for shareholders. We have offices in London, Cambridge and Poole, representatives in Beijing and Johannesburg, and alliances with Soft Bank in Japan and Kingsway and Tianyi Securities in China.