Episode 56 - Paul Collins - Equiteq

Today's episode is one I recorded just under two months ago and it’s amazing how much the world has changed in that time. For some of you listening, today’s episode could possibly be the most valuable episode of Climb In Consulting that I’ve ever recorded. And while the topics we discuss may not be top of your list right now, the principles and advice that today’s guest shares will certainly help you when we start to emerge from the current crisis. So who is today’s guest and what makes this such a valuable episode? In today’s episode I speak to Paul Collins, Founder and Chairman of Equiteq, the leading M&A Advisory firm for the consulting sector. Over the last 16 years Equiteq have helped over 100 consulting entrepreneurs successfully sell their businesses. Guiding them on what they need to do to set themselves up for sale and then helping them navigate the often-challenging sales process. Paul's journey in to the world of Consulting M&A started with his own experience when he sold his Consulting business WCI to private equity for $100 million dollars in 2002. He saw first hand how little support there was available to consulting firms in the current M&A market and decided to launch Equiteq to help fill that gap. In today’s conversation we go deep into the world of M&A and dig in to everything you need to know if you’re growing a consulting business with the view to sell it at some point in the future. Even if you’re not building a firm to sell, much of the advice Paul shares is equally applicable for you and will help you build a stronger foundation from which to grow your business. To give you an idea of what’s to come, some of the topics we discuss include: - What determines the valuation of a consulting business and how small adjustments to your business can have a huge impact on the ultimate valuation you receive. - What you need to do to set your firm up for success from the outset and the key functions that you need to establish in your business if you’re looking to sell it at some point in the future. - And Paul’s candid advice, from his own experience, on how to balance growing your business with maintaining a happy and healthy personal life. In an industry as broad and diverse as consulting there’s very few people who are known ‘industry wide’, people whose reputation precedes them and are known by firms big and small. Paul is one of those people.  You can find out more about Paul on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pecollins/  You can find out more about Equiteq at https://www.equiteq.com/home/

Om Podcasten

As a management consultant myself I’ve always been lucky to have mentors who have guided me through my career. When I was in house I regularly had quality time with Senior Partners that helped me rapidly accelerate my career and has continued to help since I’ve gone out on my own. While I had this great resource and knowledge bank to draw on I know many friends in Consulting aren’t as lucky with some only speaking with senior partners on a monthly or quarterly basis. That’s why I created this podcast. I wanted to help people like you who want to accelerate their careers in consulting by interviewing leaders in the field to share the advice, tips and strategies that they used to get to the top so that you can to so that you can too. In each Episode I’ll be interviewing a senior figure in the industry so that you can learn from them. We’ll be going deep in to their background, how they succeeded and what their advice would be for you. This podcast is brought to you by Create Engage the Digital Marketing agency for the disruptive Management Consultancy. Digital Marketing has moved forward, but most consulting firms haven’t. Many Consulting firms still see their corporate blog as their sole Digital Marketing channel and find themselves frustrated when these blogs yield little if any results. To help those of you who want to harness the power of Digital Marketing to grow your Consulting Business but don’t have the knowledge, capacity or in-house capability to do so I launched Create Engage, the first Digital Marketing agency for the Management Consulting Industry. If you’d like to find out more about how Create Engage can help you use Digital Marketing to take your business to the next level then drop me an email at Nick@CreateEngage.co.uk or go to our website www.createengage.co.uk where you can download our free case study that breaks down down the Digital Marketing strategies used by one successful Consulting firm to help them grow over 400% in just 3 years and gives you the secrets they used, so that you can apply them in your own firm.