Owner Managed Businesses Specialists | Accountants, Tax and Business Advisers in Cumbria and Carlisle

As a business owner, you may find that you are trying to juggle numerous different demands all at once, leaving you little time to focus on developing your business.

At Lamont Pridmore, we can provide all the compliance services you expect from your accountant but we don’t just produce your accounts. We work closely with our clients, as a trusted adviser, to offer innovative yet practical solutions to help you achieve your business goals.

Our services include:

Strategic business planning

Creating a clear strategic direction for the business, including organisational structure, products and services, quality, customer care, skills and experience of staff, marketing and sales plans. We can help you test the viability of a project, secure funding to get it off the ground or expand it, or just formulate a clear plan for the future.

Outsourced finance director service

For businesses unable to justify a full-time finance director or with a time-specific need, this cost-effective, outsourced solution ensures important financial duties are taken care of, including monthly management information, updating key performance indicators or developing the dashboard to regularly monitor performance.

Business growth and financing

We can help you access the finance you need, whether from banks or alternative funding sources, including commercial mortgages, invoice or asset financing, grant funding, peer-to-peer lending and business angels.

We’ve published a guide ’57 Ways to Grow Your Business’. You can request a copy here.

Protecting yourself, your family and your business

What will happen to you, your family or your business if you are unexpectedly unable to work? We can advise on life assurance, critical illness cover, income protection, key person insurance and corporate and partnership life assurance, helping you arrange the right amount of cover as tax efficiently as possible.

Tax saving and tax planning

Tax payments are naturally linked to profitability. However, with careful planning at critical stages of the business cycle, we can help you make considerable tax savings. In some cases, we are able to reduce your tax liability to nil.

Profit and performance review

We have considerable experience in helping businesses boost profitability and performance. Our proactive approach considers your current situation and benchmarks your performance against others in your sector, creating the key performance indicators to drive the business forward.

Pricing review, profit margins and competitor analysis

Knowing how your competitors are doing is integral to your own performance. Our annual competitor analysis and pricing review can help you increase profits while remaining competitive in your markets.

Marketing strategy and marketing plans

Behind every successful company is an effective marketing and sales strategy. We can help you draw up a marketing strategy together with detailed marketing plans based on your goals and aspirations. This is then continually reviewed as your business grows and circumstances change.

Credit control, your cash flow cycle and working capital management

Keeping a close eye on the money coming in and out of your business is essential in order to maintain a healthy cash flow. We can review your credit control procedures to ensure they are as robust as possible, and advise on ways to manage work turnaround times, stockholding, debtor days, creditor days and help you to understand your cash flow cycle.

Training and skills development

Our in-house HR Manager can help with your business’s training needs and assist with skills development and signpost you to appropriate providers leading to noticeable improvements in motivation, efficiency and productivity. A detailed recruitment and succession strategy is also an essential part of every successful business.

Cost reduction service

We can help your business make significant cost savings in areas such as utility bills, telephone, mobile phones, internet, insurance, finance, leasing, paper and ink cartridges, transport and courier services, cleaning and waste management, leading to increased profits.

Asset and Wealth Management

Our Asset & Wealth Management team will understand your personal and business goals and work with you to develop your Life Wealth Plan. This will your financial solutions, protection, pensions and investments continue working for you throughout your lifetime with regular reviews to ensure you remain on track.

Retirement or Succession plan

We can help you plan for a comfortable retirement in the most tax-efficient way, including preparing a Life Wealth Plan, by reviewing your pensions, savings, investments and exit strategy throughout your lifetime to ensure they continue to meet your future requirements.

We can help you put a succession plan in place to ensure your business stays in safe hands on retirement. We also specialise in family businesses and can support you through the succession process, particularly if this involves both family and non-family members.

Maximising the value of your business before sale

You maximise the value of your business by making it as attractive as possible to potential buyers. As well as valuing your business, we can also identify potential new growth opportunities and ensure all contracts, systems, procedures and structures are appropriate and up to date. We can also plan ahead to minimise future tax liabilities and identify any further changes that you could make ahead of a sale to boost its value.

Wills, Inheritance Tax and estate planning

No one likes to think about what will happen after they die, but planning ahead is the best way to ensure that your loved ones are adequately provided for when you are no longer here. Our wills, inheritance tax and estate planning service ensures that you decide how your affairs will be managed, in the most tax-efficient way possible. We can also significantly reduce your inheritance tax liability through lifetime giving and appropriate planning which may include trusts, qualifying investments and whole of life cover in trust for the future generation.