Empowering Medium to Large Sized Enterprises
Business Advisory Specialists in Profit and Business Growth
We assist and empower medium to large sized enterprises with short term executive capacity, analytical tools and management information to achieve their goals.
Who are we?
Ian Tennant is the principal of IMT Business Advisory.
Ian is a qualified chartered accountant with extensive experience in both financial and general management.
He completed his articles with PWC in KZN and spent almost two years in the London office, specialising in technology.
His career highlight includes almost 20 years with Multichoice Africa initially as CFO then CEO for sub- Saharan Africa managing operations in over 40 countries through a combination of joint ventures, franchises and agents.
Ian has worked in a wide range of sectors including mining, television media, logistics, tourism, retail, hospitality (accommodation, restaurants and pubs), business consulting, property development, commercial property management and business brokering.
Ian’s strengths include strong financial, solid legal understanding and excellent and wide business experience covering many sectors and all size of businesses.
His financial acumen and business experience in driving sustainable bottom line performance makes him the ideal business advisor and coach for ambitious business owners who want to take their business to a higher level.
What do we do?
We are an exclusive boutique business advisory firm focused on assisting business owners of medium to large sized enterprises who wish to better manage their businesses. Our services are focused on improving management processes, increasing profits and growing the business and the personal wealth of the business owner in a controlled and sustainable manner.
Business Plans
Business plans are required for many reasons, we meet all the requirements for banks, lessors, immigration visas, retail landlords, business owners etc. and cater for 3 to 5 year financial plans.
Short Term Business Planning, Financial Forecasting and Performance Management
A company needs a plan to know where it is going and, to succeed, it must regularly measure its progress against its goals, objectives and critical success factors. We can assist
Business Owner Decision and Problem-Solving Support
Business owners are constantly faced with tough decisions or difficult challenges that need high level financial or analytic support based on decades of business experience e.g. cash flow pressures. We can assist.
Preparing your Business for Sale with an Exit Strategy
We will devise an exit strategy that will ensure that the selling price of your business is maximised and the lead time on selling your business is minimised.
Business Valuations
The purpose of a SME valuation is to arrive at a realistic value that will, firstly, satisfy the owner and, secondly, catch the attention of a prospective buyer.
Who are our typical clients?
Our clients are successful, hard-working, hands-on and ambitious entrepreneurs who, due to the size of the business and management structures, cannot manage and run their business along the lines of a typical large corporate.
They lack the capacity and in-house management structures to develop strategic and operational plans with the comfort and knowledge that their decisions will deliver the financial returns that they desire. These constraints also challenge them from successfully executing the plans they do have.
The businesses do not employ qualified financial professionals and use internal bookkeepers for record keeping purposes. They use external accounting firms to produce their annual financial statements.
Many of these entrepreneurs experience frustration and problems
Here are some of the frustrations we hear from business owners:
- Planning seems like a good idea, but “I don’t know how to do it in a structured way and monitor the results against forecasted outcomes that will be successful and help my business”.
- “I know I need to set goals and monitor progress, but I don’t have time”.
- Financial statements are hard to read and interpret. Business owners often tell us, “Although I know my business, I don’t understand the numbers” or “I don’t know what part of my business is working and what is not” or “I often take decisions without knowing what the impact will be on my bottom line”.
- “I get the sales but it does not reflect in the bank …………… ”
- “I do not know how my business is performing until I get my management accounts a month after the event, I am frustrated…”
- There are times you feel vulnerable when having to take big decisions and you wish you had the sounding board of a trusted professional?
- Your business isn’t growing the way you want?
- The sales are there, but where is the cash flow?
- The rewards do not yet match the effort you put in?
- Your business isn’t as much fun as it used to be?
- You do not have a firm grip on where the business is and where it should be heading?
- No vision of where the business needs to be in the long to medium-term and no road map to get there
- No short term objectives, strategies and operational plans to achieve the vision and goals.
- A lack of understanding of which products, customers, branches, activities etc. contribute to the bottom line and which don’t.
- Management information that is not timeous, does not measure what is critical for growth and profitability and does not track performance against the business’s profit and growth objectives.
- A confusion between turnover, profits and cash. Cash is critical and not understanding the cash flow dynamics of the business often results in a deadly, downward spiral of mounting debt which finally extinguishes the life from the business.
- Gut feel or spontaneous decisions taken that do not take account of all the possible impacts on the business.
- Competition and no real differentiation in the market which makes price the only competitive differentiator.
- Rapid expansion leading to over spending and cash flow pressure.
- Achieving the sales but experiencing high churn for reasons that are not clear.
- “Fighting fires” and other inefficiencies because of poor systems and processes in operations, sales and marketing activities.
So, what is the solution?
Research indicates that businesses that actively plan — meaning they plan and measure against the plan — grow 30 percent faster. A comprehensive research study by Cranfield University in the UK, “Do Business Plans Add Value?” discovered businesses that actively plan grow 30 percent faster.
