Having spent much of his career as a finance director working alongside local authorities and LEPs, Adrian Goodman knew exactly who to turn to when he took the plunge and set up business on his own.

PPX Consulting was born in January 2021 and, having dealt extensively with LEPs in Leicestershire and Warwickshire throughout his professional life, Kettering-based Adrian immediately contacted SEMLEP for some advice and support for his fledgling start-up.

He said: “I specialise in financial controls and processes for start-ups and SMEs. I’m not a traditional accountant, I bridge the gap between the accountant and the business owner, and that is the message I needed to get across.

“When the client is in the system, everything is fine – the issue I had was getting the clients through the door in the first place. I reached out to SEMLEP for some advice around business plans and marketing plans and the help I received was absolutely fantastic.”

A year on, Adrian is now employing 2.5 people and has expanded into a new office to cope with the demand for his services. He is due to launch a new training initiative in the coming months that is expected to grow the company even further, with more recruitment planned over the next two years.

Adrian, who has written a book entitled The Four Points of Control which acts as the pillar of his business ethos, is now working with multiple businesses to refine their financial processes and improve profitability.

He added: “The past year has been fantastic. I’ve really appreciated the regular SEMLEP calls every six weeks or so to check on progress and evolve the plan. We’ve identified LinkedIn as the best place to focus our marketing efforts and we actually had to take our foot off the gas at one point as we were getting more clients than I could handle.

“Taking on two apprentices from Starting Off was a big step and has made a big difference. SEMLEP also helped signpost me to WENTA for a marketing grant which I am using to relaunch my website.

“I’d highly recommend SEMLEP to any business owner. They are able to quickly and efficiently point you in the right direction. I could Google the information myself but it would take me hours, the advisors have the information at their fingertips.”