Nottingham finance specialist scales up with further north-west expansion

F Word Training, the Nottingham-based finance specialist for scale-up businesses, has announced its second licensee as it continues its expansion across the UK.

Ian Atkinson joins as licensee for Merseyside, North Wales and Cheshire, bringing with him decades of experience on the UK and international stage, especially within the manufacturing and transport sectors.

Atkinson is also a guest lecturer in finance at Liverpool Hope University.

He joins F Word Training founder Serena Humphrey and her seven-strong team of partners and associates, including Martin Horton FCMA, who took on the North West region in February this year as the first F Word Training licensee.

Atkinson said: “I am delighted to be joining Serena and the F Word team at a very exciting time. Everyone here is of course very highly qualified but just as crucially, they are hugely passionate about making a difference to people’s lives by helping them to build better businesses.

“We’re not simply talking about running the numbers and making more money, this is a far more holistic approach to creating a better, more sustainable future. We’re helping to create businesses that serve the purpose they were originally intended for, forging the financial future of the business owner and creating a business that works hard to deliver for employers and employees.”

Humphrey was recently appointed as the first local champion for Nottingham by small business support group Enterprise Nation and set up the 3,000-plus member strong Corona Business Advice group in March as a response to the Covid-19 crisis and the pressing need for business support.

She said: “I am very proud and hugely excited to have someone of Ian’s calibre and experience joining the team but this isn’t just about Ian’s qualifications and CV, he fully embraces the way we think and what we are trying to do here as a business.

“We’re approaching our 20th anniversary and we’re more focused than ever on our mission to help business owners make more profit, improve cash and grow their business value – without a life of stress and compromise.

“To do that, we need to scale our training offering both online and in person. A major part of this will be the launch of the F Word Academy later this summer and Ian and our other licensees will play a vital role here. These are very exciting times and I cannot wait to begin working with Ian.”