Businesses of all sizes frequently need further injections of capital at various stages in its life-cycle. Whether this is to cover cash-flow, to start a new venture, to provide capital for expansion of an existing business, to acquire another company or to undertake a management buy-out, will impact on the availability and source of funding.

The day’s programme
The workshop provides a practical starting point for those setting out to finance a small business.  Starting with a case study in which Nick Barker gives a personal view of someone who has been through the process of raising money for their business, the day will examine all the potential sources of finance available, from grants (covering both UK and European sources and where to get more information on these), through loans and other forms of debt such as Invoice factoring, and on to equity financing from business angels and venture capitalists.  All fund-raising requires preparation of a business plan, and the final part of the day is devoted to the preparation of a business plan model.  Delegates will get the chance to use an Excel spreadsheet model to prepare the financial plan for a fictitious SME – ideal hands-on experience, and delegates can take the model away to use as a template for their own business plan.

The workshop leader
This workshop will be delivered by David Scott.   David is a Freelance Licensing & Business Development Consultant with proven skills in deal brokering, marketing, strategic planning, finance, business development and acquisitions. He is a skilled negotiator who has closed a number of major deals for inward and outward licensing for pharmaceutical and technology products.  He has also provided licensing training for a number of multinational companies and training organisations and has published widely (he is the author of the best-selling report, "Scrip’s Practical Guide to Pharmaceutical Licensing”).

David Scott

David has a BSc in Chemistry form Nottingham and post-graduate qualifications in marketing and market research from Kingston Business School. He joined Fisons plc in 1973 and held a number of roles including marketing, corporate development, finance director of their Spanish subsidiary, business development manager and licensing. He has been working as a freelance consultant since 1996, working mainly for companies in the healthcare sector (including a number of university spin-outs). 

David provides strategic advice and financial valuations and modelling to companies as well as undertaking all aspects of inward and outward licensing companies and is currently a director of three UK-based technology companies.

Further information is available at www.pharmaconsulting.co.uk