Commercial Advisory for UK Trades and Small Businesses
Most owner-managed businesses in the UK do not have a finance function. They have a bookkeeper who records what happened and an accountant who files it. Nobody is answering the questions that actually decide whether the business makes money: which jobs are worth quoting for, what the work really costs, and whether the next hire pays for itself.
That is the work we do. Fixed scope, fixed fee, delivered remotely. This page covers our UK work. For businesses operating in Thailand, see our full services.
Why would a UK business use a consultancy based in Thailand?
It is a fair question and worth answering before anything else.
Anglo Siam Advisory is run by a British economist based in Phuket. The work is quantitative: pricing, margin analysis, capacity modelling, forecasting, and management reporting. None of it requires being in the room, and all of it is delivered over video call, spreadsheet and written report.
What you get in exchange for the distance is a lower cost base than a UK consultancy carrying office and staff overhead, and an adviser whose time is not being rationed across a portfolio of large accounts. What you do not get is someone who can visit your yard. If your problem needs boots on the ground, we are the wrong firm and will say so at the first call.
Calls run on UK hours. Reports are written in plain English, not consultancy language.
01Pricing and Job Profitability
For owners who are busy, turning over decent money, and still unsure where the profit actually comes from.
Job Profitability Review
We take your last twelve months of jobs and work out what each type actually earned once labour, travel, materials, rework and unbilled hours are properly loaded. Most owners find that one category of work they thought was their bread and butter is running at or below cost, and that a category they treat as filler is carrying the business.
Typical output: profitability by job type, true hourly recovery rate, and a list of work to stop quoting for.
Pricing and Rate Review
We model what happens to profit at different price points and win rates, so a price rise becomes a calculated decision rather than a nervous guess. Includes the break-even answer to the question every owner asks: how much work can I afford to lose if I put rates up ten per cent.
Typical output: rate card options, break-even win rate, and a phased implementation plan.
Quoting and Win Rate Analysis
We look at what you quoted, what you won, what you lost and at what price, and identify where quoting time is being spent on work you were never going to win profitably.
Typical output: win rate by job type and value band, quoting cost analysis, and qualification criteria.
02Capacity, Hiring and Cashflow
For owners at the point where the next decision is expensive and hard to reverse.
Hiring and Capacity Decision Support
We model the fully loaded cost of the hire against realistic utilisation, and identify the revenue level at which it pays for itself and how long that takes. Includes the alternatives you may not have priced: subcontracting, overtime, or turning work away.
Typical output: break-even analysis, utilisation model, and a go or wait recommendation with the assumptions stated.
Cashflow and Seasonality Review
Profit and cash are not the same thing, and rural trades businesses in particular carry a seasonal shape that makes the gap dangerous. We map the cash cycle across the year and identify the months where the business is exposed and what to do about it in advance.
Typical output: twelve-month cash model, exposure months identified, and mitigation options.
03Reporting and Owner Support
For owners who want to stop running the business from memory.
Management Reporting Setup
We build a small number of figures you can actually keep updated, showing what the business is doing while there is still time to act on it. Not a dashboard project. Usually one spreadsheet and a monthly routine.
Typical output: reporting template, defined metrics, and a monthly review routine.
Ongoing Owner Support
Monthly or quarterly sessions to work through whatever is live: a contract, a price, a hire, a customer who is not paying, or a decision that has been sitting on the desk for a month.
Typical output: advisory sessions, written decision notes, and agreed actions.
How an engagement runs
A first call, at no cost, to establish whether there is a problem worth paying to solve. If there is, you get a written scope and a fixed price before any work starts. If there is not, we will tell you, and that is the end of it.
Most reviews need your invoices or job records, your last set of accounts, and one or two conversations. Turnaround is typically two to three weeks. Everything is delivered as a written report you keep, not a presentation you sit through.
Who this is not for
We do not do bookkeeping, tax, payroll, statutory accounts, or anything requiring a UK regulated licence. Your accountant does that, and we work alongside them rather than replacing them. We also do not take on businesses looking for validation of a decision already made. The work only pays for itself if you are willing to hear that the numbers disagree with you.
Find out what your jobs actually earn
A first conversation costs nothing and takes half an hour. Bring one decision you have been putting off, or one job you suspect lost money.