Expert Q & A – 26th April

Funding is crucial for all entrepreneurs, regardless of the stage of your business.  Perhaps you need funds to improve technology, hire the right people to grow your teams, launch a new product or service alongside a comprehensive marketing strategy to get a foothold in the market – the reasons are numerous. However, sourcing funds to meet your requirements can be challenging.  The following questions are usually high on the agenda for many entrepreneurs in terms of funding, these and more, will be covered at this Expert Panel …

What are the pros and cons of angel investment? 

Would taking a loan be more appropriate rather than diluting your equity?

What other sources of funding are available?

What are the most tax efficient ways of funding growth?

What about my business plan – what should I include and how detailed should it be?

How do R & D tax credits work and what is the criteria?

Join us at this interactive session to find answers to your questions pertaining to filling your funding gap and hear the thoughts, views and ideas to implement from our experts.  Questions can be submitted ahead of the event by emailing [email protected] or asked on the day.

MEET THE PANEL

GRAHAM LANGLEY OF QUEST CORPORATE

Through the auspices of his advisory Firm, GL Capital and in his capacity as a Director at Quest Corporate, Graham advises and assists a number of SME clients on the sourcing of finance, mergers and acquisitions, general business strategy and business development. He also has a varied portfolio of other business interests including co-founding a unique whisky brand business and co-owning an award winning bistro / wine bar.

Graham has a wealth of banking, business, management, funding and risk management experience, having established and run several businesses, worked very closely with owner-managers of SME businesses and assisting with fundraising, business development and strategy across a broad range of sectors for many years. Prior to establishing his own Corporate Finance boutique in 2006, Graham enjoyed a distinguished career at RBS where he was a recognised high achiever, winning 6 consecutive National Outstanding Achievement Awards during a 20 year career.

Graham founded the award winning Corporate Finance business Tiger Advisers in 2006 having identified a gap in the SME market in Scotland where firms were generally poorly served through the lack of quality financial and strategic business advice and support. Tiger Advisers was regulated by the FSA and provided the full range of M&A finance related activities. Graham was personally authorised by the Financial Services Authority (“FSA”) to raise equity and to undertake Corporate Finance work.

Graham has fulfilled consultancy engagements with a number of prominent Scottish businesses including the niche legal firm MBM Commercial and the Accountancy firm, Chiene & Tait. A number of these roles involved developing and implementing new business development strategies and personal coaching of key individuals.

Following a period consulting for the Edinburgh based Corporate Finance boutique, Quest Corporate, Graham was invited to increase his day-to-day involvement and join the Board in 2019.

He is well known and respected in Scottish business and financing circles and is renowned as a trusted business advisor and fund raiser who is both innovative and an outstanding business developer. He has a very strong financing track record going back many years and has successfully sourced or facilitated in excess of £1bn of funding on behalf of clients during his career to date. He currently sits on a number of Boards, either in an Executive or Non-Executive capacity.

CALLUM GRAY OF ANDERSON ANDERSON & BROWN LLP

Callum is a Director within the award winning AAB Corporate Finance team, acting as an Advisor in all areas of Corporate Finance transactions with a focus on deal origination. AAB’s Corporate Finance is market leading, offering M&A advice, fundraising, restructuring and litigation support.

Prior to joining AAB 14 years ago, Derek worked with Wylie & Bisset Chartered Accountants, PWC and RSM Tenon.  He is a Chartered Accountant and Specialist Corporate Chartered Tax Adviser.

ROGER DAYNES OF AMPLIFI SOLUTIONS

Roger has over 20 years’ experience working across the financial services and tech sectors in Scotland, New York, London, mainland Europe and Dubai. Roger returned to Edinburgh in 2016 committed to playing a part in helping the Scottish economy flourish. As Relationship Manager at Amplifi Solutions, he is focused on building relationships across the innovation ecosystem, including SMEs, their investors and advisers to ensure they harness the power of a range of entrepreneurial tax reliefs.

Amplifi Solutions is a UK-based (with offices in Belfast and Edinburgh) entrepreneurial tax incentive specialist who provide end-to-end R&D tax credit, land remediation relief and patent box services from a team of qualified accountants, data analysts and technical experts. Amplifi has built a trusted reputation in the marketplace with clients, accountants, investors, advisers and HRMC.

OWEN MURRELL OF SIMPLE CASH FLOW

Owen has almost 20 years of business funding experience, supporting businesses throughout the UK of all sizes, from small start-ups to large corporates. He started his finance career at Bank of Scotland as part of a SME banking relationship team, moving to Barclays’ Corporate Banking in 2012 and returning back to Bank of Scotland, before starting his own working capital and cash flow consultancy business last year.  Simple Cashflow supports the working capital needs of predominantly, but not exclusively, SME businesses throughout Scotland.  Working closely with his clients, he provides expert advice on how best to manage and improve their cash flow and sourcing the best finance facility to satisfy the needs of the business.

You can add this event to your calendar and will receive the Zoom link details in your registration confirmation email.