Hazlewoods Lifecycle of a Client 2025 by Hazlewoods

Offering Hazlewoods services throughout the lifecycle of a client

We have a wide array of service lines and expertise within our firm.

This guide will help you to identify suitable opportunities for maximising all the possible services you can offer your clients to fully support them on their business journey.

Our firm reaches its full potential when we truly act collaboratively – we’re better together.

To do this you need to understand the trigger points to introduce other Hazlewoods teams to your clients at the right time.

Ultimately, we are here to help businesses, families and individuals thrive.

So, why introduce othercolleagues to yourclients?

We’re here to help each client achieve their strategic goals – and support them from start to finish.

Whatever point we join them on their journey, we want them to know that we offer a full and comprehensive service, always looking out for them and planning one step ahead. We want to ensure our clients are aware that we can provide other services without them having to look elsewhere.

There are so many benefits to growing Hazlewoods as a business, and cross referring our other services.

Client perspective

Efficiency and ease

We act as a one-stop shop with a full-service offering.

Expertise

As clients’ needs grow they can access the right expertise at the right time.

Trusted partners

They develop a deeper relationship with us as a firm and don’t need to look elsewhere to meet their full business needs.

Hazlewoods perspective

Knowledge and experience

Working with other teams builds your technical understanding and internal networks.

Career development

It can help your career progression within Hazlewoods and these broadening opportunities are key for us attracting and retaining staff.

Job satisfaction

Retaining happy clients and growing their business makes your role more rewarding.

Strengthens our external brand

Happy clients spread the word amongst their own business networks.

Case studies

Here are some examples of how cross referrals can work really well.

A Bristol-based travel company, became a client in 2023 with an initial engagement covering audit, accounts, and tax compliance.

Following the first audit, we identified a significant opportunity to reclaim overpaid VAT, delivering an immediate financial benefit.

As our relationship developed, we were also able to support the company through a recent acquisition, demonstrating our ability to provide strategic guidance beyond core compliance services.

Sawday’s

Lioncourt Homes

A Worcester-based housing developer building family homes across central England, has been a client since 2011.

Each year, we provide audit services, prepare financial statements, and handle corporation tax computations and submissions.

Over time, we’ve expanded our support by involving other specialist teams within our firm to deliver VAT advice, workplace pension scheme guidance, and restructuring services.

Brighton-based telecoms start-up appointed us in 2014.

Over the years their trusted relationship with Hazlewoods grew as we supported through every stage of their business journey with bookkeeping, growth advice, corporate and personal tax, VAT, governance and compliance.

We supported them through every stage of their business journey, culminating in the successful sale of the business for over £18 million, and continuing to manage their own investments with our Financial Planning.

Smart Numbers

Littlecroft Vets

Based in the Wirral, they originally became a client in 2014, following a meeting at the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) Conference.

Initially engaged to produce year end company accounts, we went on to provide remuneration planning, personal tax compliance, establishment of a workplace pension and payroll services.

With the support of Hazlewoods, the business was sold in 2017, investing the proceeds through Hazlewoods Financial Planning.

Lifecycle of a client

We’ve split the typical lifecycle of a client into four stages to help you identify the best opportunities to signpost other services and introduce new teams to your clients.

You should review this document ahead of client meetings or preparing year end accounts, to see if there may be any opportunities to promote certain services based on your knowledge of your client, where they are in the cycle, and their ambitions.

This will help you grow your relationship with your client as it can show that you fully understand their business needs, and that you are being proactive, looking at the potential bigger picture, and helping them plan ahead.

You’ll find a fuller overview of specific trigger points for each of our service lines along with key Hazlewoods contacts in the appendix.

Reach out to these key contacts to discuss potential introductions in advance –remember, the sooner the better for preparation and resource planning.

The Beginning

At the start of a new business there are a number of ways we can help our clients:

Company Secretarial

New entity services can include incorporation, appointment of directors, and the issue of shares.

Governance services such as board meeting support, director’s induction, and initial governance systems reviews can also be introduced at an early stage.

VATregistration and structure

It is important to assess when or if the business will be required to register for VAT.

Getting this right for the type of business can lead to benefits for the client such as improved cash flow from monthly VAT returns, or reduced filing requirements.

R&D

R&D claims lead to tax relief and/or cash payments for new product research and development.

Accounts / Bookkeeping

Assisting the business in preparing reliable financial information supports strategic and informed decision making.

Payroll

If the business intends to employ staff then we can assist with setting up the PAYE registration and provide ongoing payroll services.

Financial Planning

Legal requirements around staff pension schemes need to be considered. Appropriate protection policies need to be in place e.g. partnership or shareholder protection and keyperson cover.

Audit

Consider at what point the company requires an audit i.e. if the audit threshold is breached, the company has lenders that require an audit, or the company is a subsidiary of a large group. Do not assume that a new business does not require an audit.

Growth

In the growth stage you can help your client to meet the demands of their developing business.

VAT

Ongoing VAT reviews are recommended, particularly when new companies are added to the structure or the nature of the business changes e.g. new revenue streams or expansion overseas.

Bookkeeping/Payroll

Growth can put pressure on clients and therefore, there could be opportunities for us to help the client avoid problems with payroll compliance and management reporting.

Remote Financial Director/ Management Accounts

As part of the growth stage a client’s bank may require a forecast or regular management accounts to comply with covenants.

Financial Planning

Staff retention can be improved by offering enhanced pension schemes and benefits such as health or life insurance. We can review their existing policies to ensure they remain appropriate.

Corporate Finance

When a client is looking to grow through acquisition or diversify, we can support with due diligence or raising finance through our extensive network of banks and private equity providers.

Company Secretarial

Ongoing governance, consultancy and board support is important. As a business grows, more officers may need to be appointed, or further shares issued.

Tax

There are several tax opportunities at this stage, including share incentives, group restructuring, international expansion and R&D.

Audit

Each year it is necessary to consider how close the company is to breaching the audit threshold – particularly if they are planning for investment. If a client is audited by a different firm, we should consider pitching for the work.

Maturity

The mature stage of a business is a period of stability - whether a client is thinking about succession or maintaining the status quo.There are many opportunities for us to offer more services.

Management Reporting & Payroll

Loss of key staff within a client’s finance team, and systems reviews and advice on more technical areas are common examples of where we can get involved.

Corporate Finance

This may be the time for a client to consider and plan for the exit. We can assist with putting structures in place to ensure tax efficiencies, and review compliance matters to make life far easier on the final sale.

We can advise on all potential outcomes including finding a suitable buyer and offering the full due diligence service.

Tax/Private Client Service

We can support with share schemes, incentives, and wealth planning.

The initial introduction of our Private Client Service team to high net worth individuals could be the further expansion of an already strong business relationship.

This could lead to identifying potential investment opportunities, and tax advice ahead of the next stage.

Audit

As with the growth section above, this always needs to be monitored to ensure the company is compliant and hasn’t breached the audit threshold.

Financial Planning

Excess cash in the business could be opportunity to offer:

Pension schemes for directors

Acquiring commercial premises within pensions

Growing wealth through investment

Cash management (Flagstone platform)

The Finale (...or is it?)

The final stage of a client’s lifecycle should be considered throughout our engagement with them. Helping them plan and prepare well in advance is key to making this transition as smooth as possible. What “The Finale” looks like should be discussed with clients during each of the previous three stages.

We want clients to stay with Hazlewoods well beyond the sale of their business and therefore, we should never see this as the end of our journey with them. We should always be looking for opportunities beyond the sale such as financial planning, private client service and potentially investing into or acquiring other new businesses.

Corporate Finance

Our Corporate Finance team can play a significant part at this stage and introducing them early to your client will help build their trust.

They will be looking at potential exit routes, identifying potential buyers or restructuring if required to optimise the sale.

There may also be an opportunity for us to support the business with its vendor due diligence. After the sale, the client may be looking for further investments and therefore could lead to opportunities to start the business lifecycle with us all over again.

Even if a third party broker is already engaged there can still be opportunities for our Corporate Finance team to assist in the process.

Tax

Well in advance of the sale we should be introducing our Tax teams to see if there are any opportunities or issues that need to resolved, and the tax structure is right for the long term, including inheritance tax planning.

Clients may need to have a structure in place 12-24 months before the sale for tax reasons. Identifying exit goals early in the process will help shape when our tax team can get involved.

They can help with tax efficient pre-sale restructuring or alternative routes such as Employee Ownership Trusts.

Financial Planning

The client goals will often shift from business orientated goals to lifestyle/passing wealth onto the next generation. Your knowledge of the client will help identify the point when this shift happens.

This service can especially appeal to clients who want regular contact and conversations around wealth planning as their situations may be complex.

Our financial planning service will also look at IHT planning, cash/investment planning as well as future investment advice, managing an investment portfolio and insurance policies.

Private Client Service

Our Private Client Service team could have a relationship with your client which continues for many years following the sale of a business.

It is important that these relationships are introduced early and that there is sufficient time given to ensure they can plan to retire if they so choose, and maintain their planned lifestyle or relocation abroad.

Corporate Recovery

Depending on the final exit strategy planned, there may be an opportunity to introduce our Insolvency team to complete the final process.

This is normally linked with the tax planning strategy and may be a result of the client not wanting to or being able to sell the business, or simply extracting the assets out of a company in a tax efficient manner.

So, what could be barriers to accessing ourfull offering?

Why might a client be put off using Hazlewoods for other services?

A client may initially be reluctant to use our other service lines for a number of reasons including affordability, time pressures, the client’s own knowledge or understanding of these services; or because they have inherited longstanding external relationships with other accounting firms.

Tips to help overcome these barriers:

Payment plan - arranging a standing order so that services can be paid monthly.

Time spent by the client performing tasks which are not key to the main operations such as bookkeeping can be taken on by Hazlewoods, freeing up their time to concentrate on the business strategy.

Errors at the start especially around structure can end up proving costly, so time spent getting it right at the beginning can far outweigh the cost.

Building a trusted relationship can help overcome legacy relationships with other financial suppliers.

What internal challenges could exist?

Resource of other teams –contacting them early and understanding the timescales they work to and the times of year for their most pressured points can help.

Lack of knowledge of other teams’ or individual’s expertise.

A lack of awareness of other colleagues’ external networks (introducers).

You can overcome these by expanding your knowledge of our full service range through internal training, manager and team meeting discussions.

Developing both your internal and external professional network

The more you develop your professional network internally the better you will understand our offering and build up key relationships to introduce other teams to your clients and vice-versa.

Simply put, the more you work on your own internal Hazlewoods relationships, the easier it is to ask advice and refer client work.

Equally important is developing your networks externally. Key “introducers” including solicitors, bankers, brokers, and surveyors are other industry professionals who could introduce new potential clients to you and our other Hazlewoods teams.

A personal referral from an established contact is one of the strongest introductions you can receive, and is how we have successfully grown our business over the last hundred years.

Knowing other professionals to reliably refer to will also strengthen the relationship you have with your client.

You should be open to building and referring across both your internal and external network.

Example introductions:

Referring a solicitor to our Legal team.

Introducing someone in your network to our Financial Planning team to help them to grow their wealth.

Introducing our Corporate Finance team to a banker or a solicitor involved in M&A.