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Business Finance

Business Mortgage Solutions

Their partnership can draw from a combined background in both mortgage finance and banking totalling over 60 years. This unique association has enabled them to build enviable connections with many principal lending institutions. They offer an exceptionally personal level of service to all their clients whose best interests remain paramount in their dealings. They are members of The National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers.

STOP PRESS : "Yes, the banks are still lending!" say Business Mortgage Solutions in one of their recent press releases - see full details in the "News" pages (via our menu) on this website.

Contact details:-

Phone: 44 01761 241144
Fax: 44 01761 241858
e-mail: graham@businessmortgagesolutions.co.uk

The Right Solicitor

Gard & Co Solicitors

Gard and Co is a long established city law firm with a track record for service excellence and offers a London style service at provincial prices.

The focus of the commercial department is on the legal work associated with the transfer of limited companies and unincorporated businesses.

Led by senior partner Steven Hudson the team includes Stephen Harman, Rima Bhattacharya and Tom Langrishe who are all successful and experienced specialists in their own right.

At the heart of communications are secretarial assistants Melanie Fairbairn, Helen Staddon and Sue Graham each of whom have had many years experience in law firms at senior level.

The combined effect of the number and experience of the solicitors and assistants ensures efficiency and continuity for you when any one of the team is not available.

As specialists each of the solicitors are able to tailor their service to your needs. In practice this means that if required they are able to work "around the clock" to ensure that deals, which you have worked so hard to line up, are contracted on time and on the best legal terms achievable.

Naturally, over the years, they have acted in the sale and purchase of most types and sizes of businesses. They have a widespread reputation and act for sellers and buyers throughout the UK and abroad.

It has been our experience that when dealing with commercial and industrial businesses, their "know how" and expertise shows through when compared to the work of other solicitors who, even if they have considerable experience of business transfer work, are more used to dealing with consumer type businesses such as retail, catering and those connected to the licence trade.

Each of the solicitors specialises in company and commercial work and this allows them the opportunity to provide as much support and guidance as you may require through the often difficult steps of negotiating the detail of contracts.

Each of the solicitors will be happy to discuss your transaction in an initial free consultation to ensure that you are properly advised prior to their work starting.

The main features and benefits of the Gard and Co company and commercial service may be summarised as :-

 

• free initial consultation :- this means that you will have ample opportunity to weigh up and consider whether you think that Gard and Co are the firm for you on a completely no obligation basis

   

• no obligation free written terms of business :- this means that Gard and Co believe in setting out their fees expenses and v.a.t. in a clear and transparent way and are happy to follow up any verbal indication of cost in a detailed terms of business letter so that you can judge their words against actions, even before you have made a decision to instruct them

   

• highly competitive fees :- hourly rates in London and the home counties can range from £250 to £1000. In the south west hourly rates can range from £185 to £500. Whilst each solicitor is charged out at a particular hourly rate, according to seniority, they are very competitive when compared to solicitors undertaking similar work

   

• excellent negotiation skills :- it is the role of your solicitor to help you to crystallise the main terms and structure of the contract that you have, possibly, reached in principle. The skill set that marks the good commercial solicitor apart from the rest involves the ability to use anything from hard bargaining to tact and diplomacy according to circumstances. The existence and application of those skills may be vital and often can mean the difference between transactions succeeding or aborting

   

• attentive to detail :- "the devil is in the detail". Opportunity and great ideas combined with energy and enthusiasm do not alone guarantee success in business. Even if you have secured the main terms of the contract any slip up on the fine detail in legal contracts can be likened to "building a house on sand".

   

• experienced commercial solicitors :- this means that because they have dealt with countless (often complex) commercial transactions they can add value to the legal contracts they negotiate by substantially reducing your risk, saving you money or improving your prospects of securing financial benefits

   

• successful in their own right :- they say that if you want something done you should approach a busy person. This is often (although granted, not always), because the individual concerned is successful. Gard and Co have a strong reputation and following because they have been dedicated to providing excellent professional services for nearly 200 years

   

• pro-active case management :- the solicitors only carry a small number of transactions at any one time i.e. twenties rather than hundreds. This allows each solicitor the capacity to drive a transaction forward in order to keep to the timetable agreed at the outset. Assuming the co-operation of the other party and his or her representatives it is possible to bring your transaction in on time and budget

   

• regular progress reports :- Gard and Co will communicate with you by e-mail if this is possible and will copy you in on pertinent correspondence with all parties so that you are involved in each step of the journey from instruction to completion and beyond

   

• good and careful communication :- Gard and Co solicitors leave their egos at home and use their negotiation skills and charm to secure your goals and more besides

   

• expedited transactions :- this means that when you are asked to move more quickly than normal you can be confident that Gard and Co can support you in that goal. This is achieved because the solicitors only carry a small number of transactions at any one time

   

• "out of hours" contact :- the solicitors are used to working long hours but, even then, events in transactions do not always fit neatly into working hours. As commercial solicitors Gard and Co recognise that you may need help outside of working hours and offer flexibility in that regard

   

• friendly and courteous :- sometimes confident experts may appear arrogant. Gard and Co have a friendly and respectful culture internally and this approach is reflected in their friendly and courteous approach not only to you but to all others involved in your transaction

   

• national reputation :- if you are looking for a large law firm with a factory approach then Gard and Co may not be for you. Gard and Co is a medium sized city law firm offering legal services through specialist departments. The firm has been able to achieve notable successes for its clients and has through this achieved a strong reputation for affordable expertise well beyond the boundaries of the local region

   

• advice in plain English :- it is a badge of honour for Gard and Co to make sure that you understand the advice that is being given and for this reason their solicitors try to avoid technical language wherever possible and where necessary such language will be accompanied by a crystal clear explanation in easy to understand English

 Contact information :-

Solicitors

Steven Hudson sjh@gardandco.com

Stephen Harman sph@gardandco.com

Rima Bhattacharya rxb@gardandco.com

Tom Langrishe tdl@gardandco.com

Personal assistants

Melanie Fairbairn mf@gardandco.com

Helen Staddon hs@gardandco.com

Sue Graham sg2@gardandco.com

 

Gard and Co
Solicitors
4 Bretonside
Plymouth       PL40BY

DX 8253 Plymouth 2
Tel : 01752 668246
Fax : 01752 222378
www.gardandco.com

For a free no obligation chat on the telephone or over a cup of coffee in the office just call.

Other Professional Advice

Simpkins Edwards Accountants

Simpkins Edwards is a long-established firm of chartered accountants, business advisors and tax consultants.

They operate through 8 offices and specialise in providing accounting and advisory services to businesses from start ups to corporate groups. Apart from standard audit and accounting services, which include a large payroll bureau, they offer a wide range of specialist services to assist the profitable development of businesses. 

They are a leading practice in IT business applications, provide strong advice and practical support for strategic planning, the development of business plans and exit and succession planning and are also able to provide, when necessary, a litigation support team for claimants or defendants. Tax planning, whether for the business itself or directors and shareholders personally, is undertaken by specialist tax accountants.

The ethos of the firm is to provide a personal service for every client according to the individual needs of each client.

A close relationship is established so that the firm has a clear and continuing understanding of the client’s needs. These can include, for example, when an acquisition of a business is being considered : -

• Undertaking due diligence on a business
• Advice on a prospective purchase of a business
• Assisting the production of or producing a business plan
• Supporting an application for finance, including accompanying clients to a meeting at a bank where appropriate
• Advice on the type of ownership, for example whether the business should be operated as a limited company, sole trader or partnership
• Implementation of new accounting or management control systems

A partner or other specialist will always be happy to meet clients on their own premises or elsewhere as appropriate. They are not office bound in their own offices!

This relationship will normally develop and deepen over time in order that the client can fully benefit from the advice and service required.

Contact details :-

Adrian Hemmings
Simpkins Edwards
Michael House
Castle Street
Exeter
EX4 3LQ
Tel : 01392 211233
Fax : 01392 413173
Email : ahemmings@simpkinsedwards.co.uk

businessVision

We are different to other accountants

We work much more closely with our clients than traditional accountants. We also have a much smaller number of clients than normal and are selective in the clients that we act for. We want to get to know our clients businesses inside out, enabling us to easily identify problems and spot opportunities. We want to help improve profits and encourage growth.

Our mission is to always add value

Whatever we do for you, we will always carry out our work with the aim of adding value to your business. We do this by a combination of increasing profits and cash flow. We run a very cost effective business by making the most of modern technology, resources and research, but we will never be the cheapest solution.

Amongst the many ways we look at to add value will be researching opportunities within your business to grow profits and cash flow, looking at hundreds of ideas for tax planning, including access to some of the most exclusive tax planning schemes (until now usually only available to the very rich), as well as looking at grants, funding, cost savings and benchmarking to help you achieve much more. In addition, our moneyVision financial service sister-company will be able to look at all your financial service aspects with a view to providing the best products at the cheapest available price.

We are so sure that we will be able to add value to your business that we provide a unique guarantee that says if at the end of each year you do not feel we have added sufficient value to justify our fee, then you simply pay us the value that you feel is relevant (including zero).

A unique feature of our service is fixed price agreements

Once we have established your needs we will give you a guaranteed fully inclusive price from the start. This will give you peace of mind and no surprise bills.

Our philosophy is to provide a high value service by: -

• Providing the best possible service
• Aiming to continually exceed our clients' expectations
• Making the time to really listen to the needs of our clients
• Suggesting ideas to improve profits and help the business grow
• Providing professional expertise in order to proactively identify opportunities and provide solutions
• Provide your accounts within 20 working days
• Reply to your communications swiftly and promptly
• To always let you know the status of any work we are carrying out so that you never need to chase us
• Being an indispensable part of your business

Our aim is to provide small and medium sized businesses with information and advice that goes beyond the traditional accountancy services on preparing accounts and tax returns.

We believe that many business owners work long hours and come under increasing amounts of stress for insufficient rewards. Our aim is to help businesses achieve a greater balance between the effort put into their business and the amount of income they receive back. This is achieved by making available a wide range of professional services starting with a substantial amount of free information, building up through relatively cheap business forums right through to full partnership type consultancy work, where we are involved in the day to day running of the business to a great extent.

businessVision benefit from having a stable number of long serving team members and a reputation in the South West as being a practice that is different from the typical accountancy practice, is small and friendly, but able to offer the type of services more commonly associated with large accountancy firms.

Contact details :-

Tel. 01752 752210

Fax. 01752 752211

E-mail. marc@marclawson.co.uk

Web Development

Crisp Group

CRISP is a leading edge provider of strategic business development consultancy, marketing led and geared to helping clients build their business in a profitable and sustainable way.

They pride themselves on their ability to effortlessly integrate appropriate skills and technologies to ensure that your business is future-proof, customer-rich and competitor-resistant.

Their advice to clients is unbiased, reflecting the fact that their start-point is the needs of the business, not a vested interest in any particular marketing discipline.