Insights on Finance, Growth and Leadership

Gulliver Moore built a £2 million creative agency, Sunday Treat, working with Google, Revolut and Canon without a penny of external investment. His approach to managing the working capital cycle is straightforward, and most agencies learn it too late.

Many profitable founder-led service businesses fail for one simple reason: they run out of cash. A well-built cash flow forecast ensures you stay ahead of risk, not reacting to it.

Most agency founders experiencing cash pressure assume it is a revenue problem. It rarely is. The more common cause is working capital: the gap between money that has been earned and money that has actually arrived.

Most founder-led service businesses reach a point where the decisions outgrow the finance function supporting them. Revenue increases, headcount expands, and the financial implications of each choice become more consequential. This is typically the point at which founders first encounter the idea of a fractional CFO.

Revenue is up. The team is busy. The pipeline looks strong. But cash feels tighter than expected, and the monthly numbers never quite line up with what is happening on the ground. This is where the accrued and accrual distinction stops being accounting theory and starts being a practical problem.

Most agency founders can quote their EBITDA. Far fewer can explain why it moved last month, what is driving it, or how to improve it deliberately. This article gives you the information you need to understand EBITDA in your business.

Most founders understand what an accountant does. Fewer are clear on what a CFO does differently, and why that distinction starts to matter as the business scales. This article sets out the role of a Chief Financial Officer, how fractional CFO services make that expertise accessible, and what effective financial leadership actually delivers in a growing agency.

Revenue is rising. The team is growing. But cash feels tight and margins are harder to find. If this sounds familiar, revenue is not the problem. It is what sits beneath it. This article sets out the financial signals that matter, and what CEOs of scaling UK service businesses should also be tracking.

Most growing agencies can tell you their revenue. Very few can tell you which clients are profitable, what their cash position looks like in eight weeks, or whether their margins have quietly compressed over the past two quarters. That gap is not a bookkeeping problem. It is a leadership problem.