Who We Are?
About us
Nicholson-Smith provides Finance Director and Non-Executive Director Services to ambitious entrepreneurs who want to grow their business.
If you own an established business and your desire to grow is greater than the management teams ability to achieve that growth, then perhaps it’s the skill set of an entrepreneurial Finance Director you are missing. If so, you might be saying to yourself, “why am I the only one taking responsibility”. If you want to “maximise your chance of success” please give us a call or send us an email.
Extraordinary Experience
James Nicholson-Smith is a chartered accountant. He has provided these services for the last 15 years as co-founder and Group Product Director of The FD Centre. James has considerable expertise across a number of business areas including Software, Electronic Hardware, construction, OEM manufacturing, consulting, consumer goods, wholesale and retail. That is on top of his experience as a Finance Director and Managing Director of subsidiaries in a listed plc.
Why pick us?
Some entrepreneurs see a Finance Director as a sales prevention officer – fear not – James has run sales teams across the UK as well as been the principle sales resource for the FD Centre for the Midlands, Cotswolds and South Wales regions. Often described as a good sales person that happens to be even better at “counting”, James firmly believes that its his personal chemistry with entrepreneurs and willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with the team on the front line that matters
Many recruitment companies will impress the importance of sector knowledge when recruiting an FD. In our experience, this is secondary and can be learnt very quickly. What is essential is an ability to rapidly build a trusting relationship with both the entrepreneur and the rest of the management team. To be a successful FD in an SME one needs to have the experience to appreciate that the strengths, weaknesses, fears and ambitions of every entrepreneur are different. There is no rule book to building a successful SME, one has to build on the strengths of the entrepreneur.