Insights
As a highly successful Business Advisor, Elephants Child is a well-placed to be a valuable source of news, information and thought leadership of relevance to UK SMEs, with articles created by our experienced advisors and our key partners.
What is your business actually worth?
Your business may be the most valuable asset you own. But unless you understand what drives that value, you may be making important decisions with an incomplete picture. Knowing what your business is worth is not just about preparing for sale. It is about understanding what you have built, protecting that value, and making better decisions about what comes next.
What is the right age to start thinking about selling your business?
If you're over 50, this message is especially urgent. Life circumstances, whether health, family needs, or simple burnout can change quickly. Waiting too long might force you into a rushed sale, which usually means accepting a lower price or less favourable terms. By planning ahead, you give yourself more options. You can wait for the right buyer and time the market selling when your business is on its way up and not when you’re ready to give up.
Employment law changes are coming fast: 8 things every small business should be doing now
The changes being introduced throughout 2026 and into 2027 represent some of the biggest shifts to employment rights in over a decade. While many employers are aware that legislation is changing, fewer have considered what these changes mean in practical terms for their business, their managers, and their day-to-day processes. The good news is that there is still time to prepare and ensure compliance with the employment law changes.
What happens when shareholders have different retirement timelines?
In an ideal world, business partners would reach retirement readiness at the same time, exit together, and move on with perfect symmetry. In our experience, that rarely happens. Misaligned retirement plans are far more common than most business owners realise. But there are ways to deal with the situation constructively.
Funding Options for Small Businesses in 2026
In recent months, access to finance has improved for small and medium-sized businesses. High street bank lending to SMEs reached £4.6 billion in the first quarter of 2025 — the highest level since mid-2022 — with lending to the smallest businesses up nearly 30% year-on-year
10 tips for business owners heading into the new financial year
Before anything else, give yourself permission to step away. Easter offers a natural pause. Or one of the May Bank Holiday weekends.
What Business Owners Are Really Thinking Right Now
Richard Murray reviews how business owners are feeling right now, based on our conversations with a wide range of SME leaders in recent weeks:
Purpose-driven business growth advice
Elephants Child is a holistic, purpose-driven business growth advisor dedicated to supporting business owners, leaders and their senior management teams achieve their business ambitions.
Whether you’re looking for valuable growth, tackling challenges or focusing on strategic exit planning, we are here to guide you every step of the way.
We’ll create a clear line of sight and strategy that maximises the value of your company, optimises operations, energises your people, and places corporate governance and social responsibility at the core of your business growth journey.
Curiosity is the key to unlocking new abilities, ideas, knowledge and focus. We’ll ask the right questions, drawing on the ‘six wise men’ of Rudyard Kipling’s The Elephants Child story – focussing on solving the ‘who, what, why, how, where and when’ to gain clarity, develop a workable plan, and deliver success.
More than just an advisor; we’ll be your strategic partner at every phase of your business growth journey.
Our ambition is to inspire a community of purposeful business, where leaders can achieve their personal goals whilst developing businesses that are a force for good.
How we help
Between them, our herd of advisors have experience of owning and selling their own businesses as well as holding senior management level positions in a wide range of sectors and in different sized companies. We know how it feels to tackle many of the issues business owners and senior managers face. As well as the herd’s impressive expertise, we also leverage the skills of a network of trusted partners, so there’s no challenge we can’t take on together.
Whatever your business ambitions, we’ll work in partnership to plan and execute your business growth journey.