I am an Economics Graduate, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a member of Institute for Turnaround I am also member of both the Association of Business Recovery Professionals and the IfS School of Finance.
Originally from Somerset (I was born in Taunton) I studied for my degree in Bristol before moving to Kent to take up my accountancy articles. I spent the next 27 years living and working in the South East, the majority for Smith & Williamson. In 2011 I relocated to the North West settling in Warrington and setting myself up to provide business support and interim financial advisorry services.
I am a keen sports fan avidly supporting my home county cricket club, my adopted baseball team, The Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC. I have this year begun contributing to The Anfield Wrap and made my podcast debut in March.
Professional Experience and qualification
I began my professional career with a three partner practice in Kent as an “articled clerk”. My timing was, I believe very fortunate in that I trained initially in “classical” bookkeeping (incomplete record, “paper bag” jobs forming a significant part of my early work) using bound ledgers and extended trial balances, before the days of computerised accounting systems. I was, however, also exposed to a number of large audit assignments during this time, initially as a junior but ultimately managing these engagements. Having become well versed in manual double entry book-keeping I was able to adapt to computer-based accounting and accounts preparation software systems easily.
I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1988.
Post qualification I moved to the Woolwich Building Society to work in their lending division and spent three years working on commercial lending appraisals, training branch and regional staff to evaluate company covenant strength and, at a time of a crisis in the property and construction sectors, managing the “bad book” over a three period. During this time I qualified as a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.
In the early 90s I moved to Smith & Williamson, at the time a rapidly growing practice, to use the combination of my accountancy qualification and my lending and banking experience within their restructuring department.
During my 18 years with the firm I also worked in the firm’s Corporate Finance team, completed a secondment to the Business Support team of Barclays in Cambridge and helped establish, grow and ultimately manage the firm’s Kent team. I obtained my insolvency licence in 2002 and became a partner in 2003.
In the latter years of my time at Smith & Williamson I set up and grew a turnaround team within the Kent practice working closely with a former senior banker to develop a complementary service offering to the mainstream restructuring team.
I left Smith & Williamson in 2009 and moved to a provincial practice in Kent to try to develop the turnaround practice alongside setting up a new restructuring department. A combination of factors led me to conclude that I wanted to work exclusively in Business Support and Turnaround and that to do this I needed to break away from the restrictions imposed by an accountancy practice.
In the autumn of 2011 I moved to the North West and at the same time revoked my appointment taking insolvency licence to concentrate on business support and turnaround without any insolvency agenda. In February 2013 I became an accredited member of the Institute for Turnaround.
Since setting up SteveTancock.co.uk I have advised over 50 business of vastly varying sizes across a wide range sectors.
Practical Experience
Partly by design, but more by chance, I have developed a possibly unique and certainly rare mix of skills; auditor, financial and management accountant, lender, relationship banker, insolvency practitioner, turnaround consultant and business adviser.
My initial training exposed me to everything from the preparation of accounts and tax computations for self-employed tradesmen to a 20 site manufacturing group audit.
Three years’ experience in the Woolwich Building Society’s lending department managing live relationships, distressed and insolvent loans helped me greatly when I went back into practice in a large restructuring team.
My experience of writing countless business reviews, managing trading administrations and liquidation over an 18-year period in a large accountancy practice has given me the ability to evaluate the options available to businesses, help them through the minefield that is trading while potentially insolvent and plotting a course for turnaround and growth.
Over the course of my career I have acquired extensive knowledge of a range of accounting systems and, using spreadsheet software, developed a wide range of tailored accounting, forecasting and modelling tools which are constantly being refined by their use. These can easily be tailored to meet the individual needs of a new client without significant time being incurred developing the model.
The wide range of accounting practices and industries I have worked with and in where I have applied my technical skills give me a vast resource of knowledge and experience that can be drawn on in business support situations.
I have over 25 years’ experience in SME business restructuring and turnaround. My career has encompassed a wide variety of assignments for businesses ranging from £500,000 turnover SMEs to large multi-national corporate groups. This wide range of experience informs and assists me in my everyday role of business support to my clients and provide an empathy and understanding of the difficulties and challenges entrepreneurs experience every day.
During my time at Smith & Williamson I specialised in trading instructions running a range of businesses and selling them, as a going -concerns in the UK, Australia and the US. I have, through my work in formal appointment, turnaround and business support assignments and my senior management responsibilities at Smith & Williamson developed leadership and inter-personal skills and strategies which are constantly being applied to and extended and refined by the situations I am asked to assist with.
