News and Advice

News and Advice

News

Secantor can provide high quality, experienced FD support, right through to a total back office solution for law firms

Seminar in Leeds Proves a Great Success

At the end of March Secantor staged a seminar at Leeds Metropolitan University Faculty of Business and Law aimed at helping SME owner managers better understand the challenges of business in this banking led recession.

Expert challenges future size of Nottingham's retail space

Dean Murray, retail specialist with Secantor, the network of finance directors, examines the prospects for Nottingham's retail landscape. What can retailers expect to get on Christmas Eve this Year? Unfortunately it could be a call on their cash and assets by their banks and investors.

Advice

Getting the Best out of your Banking Relationship

In this 7 minute video, Douglas Kerr, the Chairman of Secantor explains how you can improve your relationship with your bankers. A good relationship is essential to obtaining funds. There has to be mutual understanding and trust on both sides.

A Challenging Part-time FD

In this 2 minute video Malcolm Harvey, Chairman of Lorega, relates his experience of working with a Secantor part-time Financial Director, emphasising the latter's strategic approach to financial management. He also points out that the cost of employing a full time FD of the same calibre would have been prohibitive, whereas the Secantor arrangement was "worth its weight in gold".

Strengthening Your Finance Function: The Key to Surviving Challenging Times.

In this short video, you will hear how you, as the MD of a small or medium sized business, can resolve problems and strengthen the performance of your company with the help of one of Secantor's highly experienced Finance Directors - working on highly cost-effective part-time or project basis.

Marketing in a Recession

Are your customers trading down, buying less, becoming more price sensitive or taking ages to make buying decisions? These are the problems of recession and they can be tackled through "Smarter Marketing Thinking". In this 11 minute master class, Chris Knight steers the small business through some marketing fundamentals and the special measures needed to turn the recession from a threat to an opportunity.

The International Centre for Families in Business

Secantor has considerable experience in helping family businesses to grow profitably and handle issues such as succession planning. In this important field we have a close association with the International Centre for Families in Business.

Government support packages for SMEs

On 14th January the Government announced a package of support for small and medium businesses to help them through the current economic climate. The package includes:

Employment Fact Sheet February 2009

Ann Sheldon, Secantor's specialist Human Resources Associate, has developed this fact sheet to assist your understanding of recent employment legislation that may affect your business.

Riding the Recession

Now that the UK is officially in recession many businesses are facing a lengthy period of difficult trading. Many business owners have not had to deal with such tough times before and are going to have to think carefully and take appropriate measures to weather the storm ahead. This article looks at some of the actions businesses should be taking now to maximise their chances of survival.

Foreign exchange issues

As the current economic climate bites, many are now experiencing the realities of an unstable foreign exchange market where currencies have moved significantly.

Nine steps to minimise bad debts

There are several things a business can do to minimise the likelihood of bad debts. The following is a good starting point: