The CFN provides resources around Deal Origination, Deal Cultivation and Deal Execution. There are 3 categories of membership in The Corporate Finance Network depending on how your firm views their corporate finance service – Reactive, Active and Proactive
Reactive Membership – for the smallest firms
The Corporate Finance Network was launched in 2007 to fulfill a massive gap in the market and it has evolved to meet the needs of all sizes of accountancy firms.
This membership category is ideal for small firms who wish to be a member of a community of experts to keep themselves informed and in touch.
Do you describe yourself as ‘Accountants and Business Advisers’? If so, do you believe you can fully assist your client as they develop on their commercial journey, when they require support and funding to grow, either organically or by acquisition, and ultimately when they wish or need to exit their business?
In addition to being part of the leading corporate finance community in the UK market, this membership will provide a General Practice CF Toolkit consisting of some basic tools so you are able to respond to your clients’ corporate finance requirements, if the need arises.
Should a more complicated assignment arise, you are also able to buddy with a more experienced firm or adviser if you feel your client would benefit from that added expertise.
Most SME businesses will require at least one kind of corporate finance advice at some point in their business’ life, such as fundraising assistance, exit planning, buying a business or a valuation exercise.
If your client doesn’t believe you can assist with this, where will they go? Don’t run the risk of losing your best clients to larger firms as they grow, because they are concerned about your level of expertise around these issues.
Join our community so you can gradually learn from the UK’s market leaders & be prepared to handle these deals as they arise in your client base.
Active Membership – for general practice firms
The Corporate Finance Network has already assisted 40 regional accountancy firms to launch a cost effective and efficient corporate finance service within their firm.
Aspirational firms who want to help their clients grow use The CFN to access all the practical requirements necessary to increase the level of corporate finance services in their firm and to support their ambitious clients.
This membership category is ideal for regional accountancy firms who wish to actively build their corporate finance services. Not only will you be a member of the UK’s leading CF community of experts, but you will receive coaching, resources and systems to enable you to teach your team how to carry out these types of assignments:
- Strategic & business planning
- Fundraising for growth & working capital
- Lead advisory & transaction services
- M&A
- Due Diligence
- Disposals & vendor mandates
- Exit planning
- Valuations
Before the launch of The Corporate Finance Network, regional independent accountancy firms had limited choices if they wanted to offer their clients a high quality of corporate finance advice, which was also cost effective & efficient for the firm to manage.
Previously, many general practice firms struggled to offer this specialised service, usually working alone & without much support.
As a member of The Corporate Finance Network your clients & contacts can be assured that you have the capability & skills, and your reputation for providing this service can be upheld, attracting better quality clients to your whole firm and providing exciting development opportunities for your team members.
Proactive Membership – for larger firms or those with existing CF services
Accountancy firms who have already developed a corporate finance service offering, either with full-time or nearly full-time team members, will recognise how important this department is to the success of the whole firm.
We can help these firms overcome these common challenges:
- ensuring there is always a steady pipeline rather than peaks and troughs;
- supporting on the earliest stages of transactions, reducing the time spent by high value individuals who can better spend their time progressing deals
- providing regular technical written content for marketing and business development activities
- growing the SME transactional market overall, so there are more businesses willing to make an acquisition & more sellable businesses where an exit can be secured;
- managing the interaction and handover of clients between general practice and corporate finance teams;
- In short – more numerous, simpler and more profitable transactions!
The mission of The CFN is to drive the culture of the SME economy in the UK. The aim is to support more OMBs to become successful and to understand how to grow a well-capitalised business, whether organically or by acquisition. And when the time comes for owners to exit, OMBs need to be able to do that efficiently so that the trade and employment is protected and the business can continue, rather than be lost to the confines of history.
In order to do this, we support established corporate finance teams to be more proactive. We provide more effective deal origination opportunities and to enable the UK’s SME corporate finance community to collaborate more to ensure we complete more deals.
Join us and help us achieve this aim of growing the SME corporate finance economy.
Membership categories and fees
The Corporate Finance Network provides a range of resources to support different elements of Deal Origination, Deal Cultivation & Deal Execution.
- Coaching, training, mastermind groups & national conferences – to teach, inspire and share ideas or knowledge
- Marketing and PR, both locally and nationally, to businesses and professional contacts to raise awareness of corporate finance
- Technical support, practical tools, resources and systems to enable more efficient assignments
- Research and market intelligence to inform and enable more effective deals
Can I join?
All sizes of accountancy firms are welcome but for some categories we have some entry requirements:
Any firm can join as a Reactive Member.
Firms who wish to take an Active Membership or Proactive Membership must be:
- A UK based general practice accountancy firm with 3-8 partners, regulated by ICAEW, ACCA, ICAS, ICAI or FCA or a corporate finance house
- Probably already offering some sort of other ‘added-value’ business advisory service to their clients or already have an established corporate finance function
- A commitment by the whole firm’s management team to engage with the ideas and community philosophy of The CFN
For further information or to enquire about becoming a member, please contact us.
