We ask every client for a candid review at the end of an engagement. Below is a selection covering different industries and project types. Some clients preferred to keep their company name private, and we respect that.
"We brought Astute Biz Advisors in when our margins were shrinking quarter after quarter. Within eight weeks they had identified that our procurement process was adding 11% to raw material costs through poor supplier terms. They renegotiated three key contracts and the savings paid for the entire engagement twice over."
"I was sceptical about consultants. I had hired a big-name firm two years earlier and got nothing but PowerPoint slides. The team at Astute Biz Advisors were different. They sat in our offices, spoke to our staff, and built a 90-day action plan that we could actually execute. Revenue grew 14% that year."
"They helped us prepare for a trade sale. The financial model they built gave our buyer confidence in the projections, and the deal completed three months faster than our solicitor expected. The only reason I give four stars instead of five is that the initial diagnostic took slightly longer than quoted."
"Cash flow was killing us despite strong sales. Astute Biz Advisors restructured our invoicing terms from net-60 to net-30 with early-payment discounts, set up a weekly cash-flow dashboard and trained our finance assistant to maintain it. We have not had a cash crisis since."
"We were a family business with no formal strategy. They facilitated two full-day workshops with my siblings and me, helped us agree on a five-year direction, and wrote role descriptions so we stopped stepping on each other's toes. Best money we ever spent."
"They ran a pricing audit across our product range and found that 22 of our 85 SKUs were being sold below true cost once overheads were allocated properly. We discontinued eight, repriced fourteen, and gross profit improved by £180k in the following year."
A 45-employee courier and warehousing company in Belfast was turning over £3.2m but netting less than 2% after tax. The owner suspected pricing was the problem but did not have the data to prove it. Driver costs were rising, fuel surcharges were inconsistent, and the company had not reviewed its rate card in three years.
We spent two weeks on-site. During that time we interviewed every department head, mapped the full cost structure per delivery route, and benchmarked rates against four regional competitors. The analysis showed that 40% of routes were profitable, 35% were breaking even, and 25% were losing money once vehicle depreciation and insurance were factored in.
We redesigned the rate card with route-specific pricing, introduced a fuel surcharge formula tied to the UK average diesel price, and recommended dropping two consistently loss-making rural routes. We also renegotiated the vehicle lease terms, saving £42k per year.
Eighteen months later the business is netting 7.5% after tax. The owner told us it was the first time in five years he had taken a proper holiday without worrying about the bank balance.
We track outcomes across every engagement so we can give prospective clients honest expectations. Here are some aggregate figures from the past four years.
143
Engagements completed since 2016
92%
Clients who say they would hire us again
70%
New clients who come from referrals
£2.1m
Total documented cost savings for clients in 2024
These figures are based on our internal project tracking system and client-reported data. Individual results vary depending on business size, industry and the scope of work. We are happy to discuss expected outcomes for your specific situation during a free initial call.