The Corporate Finance Network was launched in 2007 to fulfill a massive gap in the market and it has evolved to meet the needs of all sizes of accountancy firms.
The CFN provides resources around Deal Origination, Deal Cultivation and Deal Execution.
There are 3 categories of membership in The Corporate Finance Network depending on how your firm views their corporate finance service – Reactive and Active for independent practices & National for groups of firms.
Membership provides the following resources:
Training and coaching on technical & soft skills
A library of playbooks & templated documents
Research as a service, with highly successful business sales marketing
Publishing marketing content for direct use by the firms
Creating a community of your peers in SME Corporate Finance, with a route for further help when required
“Reactive” Build Your Own Membership – for the smallest firms
This membership category is ideal for small firms who wish to be a member of a community of experts to keep themselves informed and in touch.
Do you describe yourself as ‘Accountants and Business Advisers’? If so, do you believe you can fully assist your client as they develop on their commercial journey, when they require support and funding to grow, either organically or by acquisition, and ultimately when they wish or need to exit their business?
In addition to being part of the leading corporate finance community in the UK market, this membership will provide a General Practice CF Toolkit consisting of some basic tools so you are able to respond to your clients’ corporate finance requirements, if the need arises.
Should a more complicated assignment arise, you are also able to buddy with a more experienced firm or adviser if you feel your client would benefit from that added expertise.
Most SME businesses will require at least one kind of corporate finance advice at some point in their business’ life, such as fundraising assistance, exit planning, buying a business or a valuation exercise.
If your client doesn’t believe you can assist with this, where will they go? Don’t run the risk of losing your best clients to larger firms as they grow, because they are concerned about your level of expertise around these issues.
Join our community so you can gradually learn from the UK’s market leaders & be prepared to handle these deals as they arise in your client base.
“Active” Growth Membership – for general practice firms
The Corporate Finance Network has already assisted 60 regional accountancy firms to launch a cost effective and efficient corporate finance service within their firm.
Aspirational firms who want to help their clients grow use The CFN to access all the practical requirements necessary to increase the level of corporate finance services in their firm and to support their ambitious clients.
This membership category is ideal for regional accountancy firms who wish to actively build their corporate finance services. Not only will you be a member of the UK’s leading CF community of experts, but you will receive coaching, resources and systems to enable you to teach your team how to carry out these types of assignments:
- Strategic & business planning
- Fundraising for growth & working capital
- Lead advisory & transaction services
- M&A
- Due Diligence
- Disposals & vendor mandates
- Exit planning
- Valuations
Before the launch of The Corporate Finance Network, regional independent accountancy firms had limited choices if they wanted to offer their clients a high quality of corporate finance advice, which was also cost effective & efficient for the firm to manage.
Previously, many general practice firms struggled to offer this specialised service, usually working alone & without much support.
As a member of The Corporate Finance Network your clients & contacts can be assured that you have the capability & skills, and your reputation for providing this service can be upheld, attracting better quality clients to your whole firm and providing exciting development opportunities for your team members.
“National” – for groups of firms with a CF service across some offices
Perfect for growing accountancy groups.
If your group is expanding in the UK, you likely have an extensive SME client base, but limited corporate finance or marketing resource. And so you may be missing out on vast numbers of valuable client engagement opportunities.
We help bridge that gap — supporting your internal teams with
- training content & workflows
- white-labelled marketing content
- and outsourced early-stage deal processes
You’ll increase your firm’s efficiency plus raise visibility of the wider services your clients will need over time (which will please your investors too!)
Get in touch to explore a tailored membership for your group.
Membership categories and fees
The Corporate Finance Network provides a range of resources to support different elements of Deal Origination, Deal Cultivation & Deal Execution.
- Coaching, training, mastermind groups & national conferences – to teach, inspire and share ideas or knowledge
- Marketing and PR, both locally and nationally, to businesses and professional contacts to raise awareness of corporate finance
- Technical support, practical tools, resources and systems to enable more efficient assignments
- Research and market intelligence to inform and enable more effective deals
Can I join?
All sizes of accountancy firms are welcome but for some categories we have some entry requirements:
Any accountancy firm can join as a Reactive Member.
Firms who wish to take an Active Membership or National Membership must be:
- A UK based general practice accountancy firm with at least 3 partners, regulated by ICAEW, ACCA, ICAS, ICAI or FCA or a corporate finance house
- Probably already offering some sort of other ‘added-value’ business advisory service to their clients or already have an established corporate finance function
- A commitment by the whole firm’s management team to engage with the ideas and community philosophy of The CFN
For further information or to enquire about becoming a member, please contact us.
We are very grateful to the following member firms who have been willing to feature as case studies in a Guide for Accountancy Practices which was a collaboration with Mark to Market.
- McBrides – a 7 partner firm, based in Kent, with two full time corporate finance team members, led by 2 hybrid corporate finance & general practice partners McBrides Case Study
- Knill James – based in East Sussex, with 9 partners & directors, with a full time corporate finance partner, supported by 2 team members Knill James Case Study
- Albert Goodman – a ‘Top 50’ firm based in Somerset, Dorset & Bristol, with 2 full time corporate finance partners and 2 full time team members Albert Goodman Case Study
- MDH – a sole practitioner based in Croydon, who brings corporate finance subjects into all his client conversations MDH Case Study
- Dyke Yaxley – a firm based in Shropshire with 11 directors, including a team of 3 in a hybrid corporate finance and business advisory role Dyke Yaxley Case Study
