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What We Do

Capital for Colleagues specialises in advising, investing in and supporting businesses to grow that are or want to become employee owned.

Collectively we have many years of experience from working in and with employee owned businesses and we bring this to bear through the following approach.

Advice

As a current business owner, you may be thinking about succession, but getting capital out of your business may not be straight forward. C4C has its own capital which could be available to invest (via loans or equity) and help you make the transition to employee ownership.

We can:

  • Help you clarify your wishes and long term strategy for the business
  • Set out the options for how you might structure the shares
  • Support meetings with employees to explain how employee ownership will work in future
  • Look at your funding requirement and the possible sources of funds
  • Work with your appointed lawyers
  • Manage the transition project through to completion
  • Help establish the right governance structure and processes going forward.

Services

MI Accountancy Solutions

C4C recently acquired MI Accountancy Solutions Limited (‘MIA’). MIA is a Staffordshire based accountancy firm which offers a range of accounting services, principally the preparation of management accounts. MIA already provides accounting services to a number of C4C’s investee companies, and by bringing this capability in house, C4C will now be able to offer broader accounting and support services to a much wider selection of Employee Owned Businesses.

miaccountancysolutions.com

 

Investment

In order to make a possible investment decision by C4C, we will carefully analyse the investment case presented to us. This will include information about past and present financial performance, future business and financial plans, management and operational capability, the markets you operate in, your competitors and the culture of your business. If C4C were to invest in your EO business, this would typically be an initial minority equity investment, with the possibility of a loan alongside.

We describe our investments as patient capital, as we ordinarily invest for a minimum of five years.

Growth

Our structure and experience enables us to support EO businesses as they grow. This support includes working with boards, helping to develop the culture, and if you choose to introduce an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), we can help you to select and appoint Trustees and can even act as Trustees if appropriate. You may also decide to implement direct share ownership for employees through a share scheme and we can design, implemement and administer that on your behalf. Where appropriate, we provide additional financial support to existing portfolio companies, so that they can achieve their potential.

We are strong supporters of the Employee Ownership Association and have contacts in many employee owned businesses, so we can introduce you to those so you can benefit from their experience of having gone down this route before you.