Business disruption caused by both the Pandemic and Brexit has meant there are thousands of firms in the print industry facing strained cashflow, significantly increased debt and having to make diffcult choices about where to cut costs – especially when it comes to redundancies.
As Innovation in Print Media and Marketing has found out – by talking to Ian Gostellow of Graywoods – there is a helping hand that can help give business directors the advice and guidance they need to make good decisions and relieve the pressure.
Insolvency practitioners have evolved to play a crucial role in the modern economy, becoming a vital resource to prevent businesses from lapsing into insolvency through their skilled expertise at creating space for organisations to manage debt and reorganise their cashflow. If the worst happens, they are then a lifeline to ensure that an orderly closure is carried out and those who are owed can recover as much as possible.
“What I hear from a lot of directors who have had to go through the process of insolvency is that they expected it to be stressful – and of course it is, to see your hard work and journey come to an end – but the comment we get time and again is that we have ‘taken the pressure away’,” says Ian, who continues: “We hold our client’s hands through it, so they can see the wood for the trees and make progress again in their professional lives.”
Experience counts The insolvency advice sector is still relatively small and is still made-up of only around 2,000 qualified professionals. Ian started his journey in 1987 at a Yorkshire-based independent accounting and insolvency firm.
He then moved to a larger practice in 1989, where he worked his way up through the business and saw a huge variety of different work around the country and was “thrown in at the deep end” before joining a national firm in 1999.
In 2008 Ian joined up with a former colleague to setup a brandnew insolvency practice within a large independent accounting practice and then spent the next eleven years assisting in the building and expansion of a number of independent insolvency businesses across West and North Yorkshire before Joining Graywoods in 2019.
A focussed approach
“Graywoods are a completely focussed and independent firm, two partners, twelve staff and we have more than 100 years’ experience in the senior team alone,” says Ian, who adds: “A really important part of our work is first of all preventing insolvency – giving business owners the right advice and a range of options well ahead of time so they can retain their livelihoods and the product of all their hard work.
“If a business can’t be saved, then we are an empathetic partner to directors, counselling them through the process and ensuring that the assets of the business are fairly and equitably distributed.”
Ian concludes: “When I say focussed, what that means is we provide trusted professional insolvency business recovery advice, and that is it. We don’t have multiple arms trying to push invoice finance or debt collection. That means we can provide real expertise and the correct options to our clients so they can make informed choices, and there is no other influence on the advice we are providing.”
For more information
07437 028 768, ian.gostellow@graywoods.co.uk
