making business work
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EMC – originally called Eastbourne Management Consultants Ltd – was formed in 1989 by experienced local businessman and former Accountant of the Year Nik Askaroff to fill a gap in the market for practical hands-on support and mentoring for the owner/directors of SMEs. Within three years the team had grown to include sales, marketing, production, financial direction, turnaround and corporate finance specialists assisting with one-off projects or providing part-time retained Board- level support. The concept was dubbed the ‘mobile boardroom’ by the Financial Times and the members of our team were early adopters of a portfolio career that is now much more widespread.
The name was changed to EMC Management Consultants Ltd in the late 1990s as the business expanded across the region. At the same time, we created EMC Corporate Finance Ltd (a wholly-owned subsidiary) to recognise that transactions such as selling and buying businesses and raising capital had become a significant part of our offering.
With offices in Eastbourne, Brighton& Hove, Maidstone, Crawley and Chichester, our operations now cover all of Kent and Sussex as well as large parts of Surrey and Hampshire. We look to minimise our overheads and keep our fee levels highly competitive and flexible. Our offices are small and most of the team run home offices when not with clients. Our fee structure is not rigid and each team member has the scope to agree mutually acceptable contract fees and structure.
The team has grown and evolved over the years. It still includes specialists from all of the professional disciplines, but now also has people with particular sector-specific skills and experience such as construction, media and education. While the offering has broadened, the core principle remains the same:
We are a high-level, experienced resource for SME owner/managers who require project or part-time assistance without having to worry about recruiting or funding a permanent resource.
Several of the team are experienced in business sales, and we have helped to create a significant number of millionaires in our time. This has been achieved through a mix of hands-on business advice during the development years as well as handling the owner exit where we are able to use our strong working knowledge of the business to good advantage.
There is no typical EMC client model, but our retainer portfolio may include such roles as:
On an assignment basis, areas we typically cover include:
We frequently work alongside other professionals, particularly accountants, because the services we provide complement rather than replace what they do. Indeed many will vouch for the fact that we make their lives easier as they cannot always devote the time to the business that the client requires. Bankers also welcome our involvement as our finance people ensure proper management reporting.