The growth office for founders of specialist advisory firms.
Strategy, intelligence-led organic growth, acquisitions and people, run beside the owner. For founders who want growth, a return, or an exit on their own terms.
Who we work with
Owners. Founders of specialist practices in tax, accounting, law and consulting, and the tech-enabled advisers alongside them. Firms of £1m to £20m of revenue, and specialist brands inside larger groups whose leaders run them as their own. Excellent at the work, and short of the time and the hands that growth needs.
Some want to build. Some want the business to pay them properly. Some want to sell well, in a few years, to the right buyer. The growth office is built around what the owner wants from the firm, and we partner with them to get there.
The Growth Office
Four parts. Each has its own scope and its own fee, and we start wherever the need is.
- Strategy
A plan the founder owns and we hold them to: where the growth comes from, what to add, what to buy, and in what order. Then counsel through it, month by month.
- Organic growth
A market intelligence engine built for your firm. It reads public filings and registers, finds the companies most likely to need you, and refreshes as the signals change. A route to market that runs on it: measured, intelligent outreach to the companies it finds, with offers shaped alongside the founder. And a referral channel from finance leaders and board advisers who know us. The engine and the route to market are built and run with Thomsett Lockey.
- Acquisitions
A live acquisition map, not a broker's list: the firms worth buying, ranked and refreshed as ownership, accounts and people change. Then the first conversations, the assessment, and the deal to completion. Built and run with Thomsett Lockey.
- People
Finance, board leaders and rainmakers, fractional or permanent, from a network we know personally.
Example markets
- Corporate tax
- Transfer pricing and international tax
- Private client tax
- R&D and innovation tax
- Capital allowances and property tax
- Employment tax and payroll
- Customs and trade
- Accountancy and outsourced finance
- Corporate law
- Private client law
- Employment law and HR
- Business immigration
- Wealth management
- Insurtech
- Corporate finance and debt advisory
- Management consultancy
- Tech-enabled advisory
- Education and training
How it works
- An introductory conversation. Where the firm is, where the founder wants it to be, and whether we are the right people to help.
- Scoping sessions. Two or three working sessions with the founder to settle the plan and the first piece of work.
- The engagement. Its own scope, its own fee. The next part follows when the first has earned it.
Placements
Interim and fractional finance, board leaders and rainmakers, placed from a network we know personally. For firms after an acquisition, in growth mode, before a sale, or when the finance director leaves. Permanent hires where the role calls for it.
A shortlist in days, a placement within 4 weeks, a fixed fee, a 60-day guarantee.
Principles
- A small number of firms at a time. One in each market.
- Paid per project, and on the outcome.
- Discretion as standard.
Joe Thomsett
Chartered accountant. Six years a partner in executive search, building boards and management teams. Managing director of a turnaround. Deal adviser to founder-owned businesses on both sides of the table. Principal at Thomsett Lockey, with Alex Lockey.
Current mandates are confidential. References on request.