Connect with Business Planning by Daniel Sims of Ascent for Business Limited for small business support on Enterprise Nation

Connect with Business Planning by Daniel Sims to grow your entrepreneurial network of start-ups and small business owners on Enterprise Nation.

Business Planning by Daniel Sims, Ascent for Business Limited | Enterprise Nation

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Daniel Sims > Planning > Standard service > Business Planning 

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Daniel Sims

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Are you looking to turn your idea into a business but don't know where to begin? Did you have a plan when you started your business? How are you performing against that plan? Do you want to grow but don't know how to plan for growth?
Business planning is essential to keep you and your company driving forward and not getting lost along the way, whether your organisation is just starting, a fledging or ready to grow, you need a plan.
Contact me now and together we can write an achievable and cost-effective plan for sustained growth, enabling profitability. 

I am a specialist and entrepreneur in the merchanting sector, having over 20 years' experience and have set up and successfully run several businesses both for myself and for other organisations. I have also held senior roles, including manufacture and production, for national and independent merchant businesses, giving wide experience in leading small businesses, teams large and small and management and operations.

Business Consultant

I'm a freelance content creator and event host who helps small businesses and the organisations that support them. I'm also Enterprise Nation's Local Leader for Bristol.
I have 19 years of experience as a small business journalist having interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs from billionaires like Sir Richard Branson to the founders behind brand new start-ups.
I've worked for a range of leading small business publications and support groups, most recently as head of content at Enterprise Nation where I was responsible for the prolific output of content on the company's blog and social media. I now freelance for Enterprise Nation including hosting the Small Business sessions podcast.
I'm based in Bristol where I run and host regular events with the local small business community in my role as Enterprise Nation's Local Leader for Bristol. I also have strong connections with other major business organisations in the south west region.
In total, I've hosted over 100 events including conferences with an audience of hundreds for international brands like Xero and Facebook and live web chats from inside 10 Downing Street.
With my partner, I co-run Lifestyle District, a lifestyle blog focused on culture, art, theatre and photography.

Freelance content creator & event host

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Multi-award-winning named as one of the top 40 Digital UK Women to watch 2020, Business Consultant Online Innovation /Technology Enabler, Digital Transformation and, Marketing Specialist. Specialist areas include Business Systems, Process/Workflow, Digital and Online Business Models, Business Strategy, Demand/ Lead Generation, Marketing Funnels, Business Systems, Processes, Workflow, Digital Business Models and Online Business Strategies, Sales Marketing Funnels.&nbsp;

Supporting Global Clients, Katrina Consult’s, Trains/Coaches Agencies, Corporations, and Business owners with her framework process. With features in Forbes, Psychologies Magazine, and The Times, Kat assists clients to build a plan, solution, and strategy, to increase digital business growth, sales and passive income.&nbsp;

A certified and qualified Adult Trainer as well as being trained with industry experts such as Harvard Online and Silicon Valley Innovation Center.&nbsp;

Blending Academia, Corporate, Business, Practice and Theory, a serial accomplished Entrepreneur and Consultant. With over 22 years of extensive experience as a Marketing Strategist, Project Programme/PMO Manager and a Digital Business Transformation Analyst.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Director - Consulting, Mentoring & Training - Business Consultant | Digital | Senior Marketer

Digital Business and Culture Transformation Hub

We provide training, workshops, resources, expertise, and consultation support in adopting digital, technology, and innovative methods for business marketing, operations, systems, learning, and operations.

I help emerging and established product businesses increase sales and profit from their stock investment.
With 25 years broad sector blue chip retail experience I can help in the following areas:
? Driving Sales and Profit
? Inventory Management
? Strategy
? New Product Development
? Merchandising and Buying best practice
? Reporting
? E-commerce / Omni Channel Commerce
? Sourcing
? Getting stocked in major retailers
? Developing own-brand products

Retail Coach and Consultant

Retail Planning Power Hour

During this intensive session we will focus on key areas of your business to drive your sales and profit. We will look in detail at the following areas:

Key bestsellers
Driving Category performance
Marketing

At the end you will come away with a bespoke plan that you can implement immediately to boost your sales and profit

I am an expert in finance, having worked in big investment banks such as Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Shearson Lehman, and am a retired actuary (insurance/pensions financial mathematician). I have a maths degree from Cambridge University and have had multiple careers relating eg to M&A, investment analysis, pensions, insurance, property, investment, financial planning, banking, derivatives...I have written numerous cutting edge papers on these subjects.
My favourite activity is to help businesses, small and large, on developing their business: writing a business plan, preparing financial forecasts, developing pricing tools for them such that they can better assess the prices they should be charging their customers, valuing their business, helping them to raise equity or debt finance.
I have lectured on finance and investment at various leading universities. Written numerous papers which have had a major influence on how the insurance and pensions industries are run.  I have been a senior investment banker advising on M&A, risk management, shareholder value optimization, and also investment analyst (banking, insurance, pharmaceuticals, smaller companies...).
What distinguishes me is that I do NOT provide advice (!!). For example, I write a factual business plan. Or, I calculate how much your business is worth based on my knowledge and expertise, and information you supply. From this you can decide your best strategy, easily.
I am real good at helping you decide also, for example, how much your home is worth, what investments suit you, whether interest rates are headed up or down, whether there is going to be a market crash or boom, which type of loan finance to select...
In my opinion, companies stand to gain a lot of money in market value added terms from my work compared with other professionals. They have no understanding, in general, of statistics, of finance etc. They may be experts in their fields, but not in mine.
I am NOT a solicitor, estate agent, IFA, mortgage broker…I am an investment expert who has 46 years’ experience researching and thinking about financial matters. I love valuing things (property, mortgages, shares…). My philosophy is to do work such as is required by a client but have a preference for them using a market value maximization rule. Are you better off in £ value terms by taking out the mortgage, buying or selling the property with or without a mortgage, selling the business at this price…?
PLEASE NOTE. I AM NOT REGULATED UNDER THE PRA AND FCA, ALTHOUGH I USED TO BE WHEN I WAS WORKING. With any work undertaken by me, you are NOT covered by the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
List of my clients over the last 46 years:
1. Insurance. Virtually all UK life insurers, 20 UK general insurers, 4 Lloyds syndicates, 7 Italian insurance companies, 5 French, 4 Dutch, 20 Spanish, 15-20 German, 5 American, 2 Trinidad, 1 Jamaican, Jamaican government insurance supervisor, 2 Hong Kong insurers
2. Pension funds. 100 UK schemes, 4 large French schemes (including 2 state schemes), 3 Italian, 5 Dutch, UK government actuaries department
3. Property. 1 Australian company, 1 South African company (Liberty International hired me to value their Lakeside and other major shopping centres for inclusion in their group accounts). Numerous small clients, individuals, insurers, one pension fund.
4. Investment (equities, bonds, gold, property, bitcoin...). Many unit trusts, investment trusts, pension funds, insurance companies, 2 hedge funds, countless individuals. Numerous investment managers mostly in the City of London
5. Personal financial planning: retirement, insurance, property...advices. Some 70 individuals on a formal paid basis, many unpaid informal.
6. Mortgage advice. Mostly for myself over the years, very detailed analyses covering the market. 4 to individuals on a paid basis, 3 unpaid.
7. Asset mix advice. Derivatives advice. Mostly to large companies, institutions, pension funds and insurers, a few to government treasury departments in Europe.
8. M&A deals. Many industrial small and larger companies. Many insurers. 7 FTSE 100 deals, many proposals, UK, Europe.
9. Credit analysis. Many transactions for a Ukrainian bank. Chief risk manager for a large Swedish multinational insurance company, Lloyds syndicates&apos; regulatory body. One Australian bank.
10. Banking. Many projects for UK clearing banks, many for 2 Australian large banks
11. Small business appraisals and financial modelling. Many. Some 10 M&A transactions of small companies.
In my profession as an actuary I received the the Jim Anderson award for Professional Excellence, and was awarded ‘VIP’ status by Worldwide Who&apos;s Who in 2014.
In the actuarial profession, I had a high profile as a result of many influential papers including:
•	Financial Theory Of Defined Benefit Pension Schemes
(“Eighteen years&apos; ago today, Jon Exley, Shyam Mehta and Andrew Smith published what has been described as the most important and influential paper ever written on defined benefit (DB) pensions”)
•	ALLOWING FOR ASSET, LIABILITY AND BUSINESS RISK IN THE VALUATION OF A LIFE OFFICE
•	Asset Strategy For Defined Benefit Pension Schemes
•	Consistent Assumptions For Multinational Asset Models
•	Exley Mehta Smith Market Efficiency
•	Exley Mehta Smith Mean Reversion
•	Hedge Funds For Pension Funds
•	Pension Funds— A Company Manager&apos;s View
•	QUANTIFYING THE SUCCESS OF A LIFE OFFICE
•	Summary And Comparison Of Approaches Used To Measure Life Office Values
•	TAXATION IN THE ASSESSMENT OF PROFITABILITY OF LIFE ASSURANCE PRODUCTS AND OF LIFE OFFICE APPRAISAL VALUES
•	Life Assurance Sector Review: A Fresh Approach, Shearson Lehman Hutton
•	Pricing of Insurance Risk, Staple Inn Actuarial Society
My work has been highly influential in creating change to the way insurance companies and pension funds are run across the world, particularly in the UK (so that, for example the risk borne by insurance companies is now far lower, and for pension funds it is now mandatory to publish and also carry out valuations to see whether the scheme is solvent).
I am a yoga teacher with an advanced teaching certificate since 1977, having for example been a co-author of the best selling book &quot;Yoga: the Iyengar Way&quot;.
My favourite activity is watercolour painting.

Director

Shyam Mehta

I am an expert in finance, having worked in big investment banks such as Merrill Lynch, BNP Paribas, Shearson Lehman, and am a retired actuary (insurance/pensions financial mathematician). I have a maths degree from Cambridge University and have had multiple careers relating eg to M&A, investment analysis, pensions, insurance, property, investment, financial planning, banking, derivatives...I have written numerous cutting edge papers on these subjects.
My favourite activity is to help businesses

Business Planning by Daniel Sims

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