Ian Smith | The Portfolio Partnership

M&A Negotiation Checklist

by Ian Smith | Nov 20, 2017 | Acquisitions

Whether you’re buying or selling it always helps to have a little checklist by your side for those big meetings. Here is my top 20 tips: Checklist Always clarify the up to date position. e.g. when buying a company, talking to the owner – perhaps you could update...

Checklist To Build The Perfect Budget!

by Ian Smith | Nov 13, 2017 | budgets

It’s budget time. For many management teams the months of November and December represents the Budget sign off time. However they are so often badly done. Frankly they are recklessly compiled representing the classic “hope over experience” document instead of an...

Acquisitions – A Checklist of Checklists to Support Success

by Ian Smith | Nov 6, 2017 | Acquisitions

In 2009 Atul Gawande authored a great little book, The Checklist Manifesto. I ingested it. Well, I’m fanatical about checklists! As the publicity around the book stated: Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors...

Launching a New Website – Checklist

by Ian Smith | Oct 30, 2017 | Marketing

At some point in a company’s life it’s time to relaunch the website! The catalyst is often the need to reposition the brand to tell a stronger more relevant story, but it could be a move to quantum leap exposure in the marketplace 12 months ahead of an IPO...

Cracking the Silos Using Fractional COOs

by Ian Smith | Oct 22, 2017 | Scaling

As you scale your private company to its next level of sales and profits there comes a point when, systems, protocols, know-how and expertise from your existing team just won’t cut it. The evolution of a private company will always come down to these 5 basic...