Business finance expert wins Enterprise Nation’s top 10 Advisers Award
Finance and funding guru recognised for professional support provided to business owners.
Finance and funding expert Serena Humphrey, founder of The F Word Ltd and creator of the ‘‘F Word Academy’’ has been crowned one of the UK’s Top 10 advisers for the finance training support she provides to small businesses and entrepreneurs, taking the title in the Finance and Funding category.
The virtual awards ceremony, which announced the winners of the Enterprise Nation Top 50 Advisers competition, across a range of professional disciplines such as legal, finance and funding, technology, HR, PR and marketing and a special ‘Above & Beyond’ category – took place on the evening of 25th November.
Serena, was picked from hundreds of advisers from up and down the UK, nominated for the behind-the-scenes guidance they have given to local entrepreneurs and small businesses, helping them navigate the challenges and opportunities they have faced during 2020 – not least Covid; for many, this professional advice has made the difference between their business surviving, or thriving.
The 50-year old Chartered Management Accountant, experienced Finance Director, and NLP Coach – who has 30 years’ experience working in finance – founded her finance training business, The F Word, in 2012.
“I've been advising small business owners for over 20 years, setting up my first business, a management accounting practice, in 2000. In 2012 I set up The F Word because I had to do more. I knew I didn’t want to be an accountant anymore, and that high impact training and coaching was the key to putting critical financial skills into businesses” Serena said.
“Being an advisor is a mission for me, to help more small business owners achieve the financial rewards, freedom and lifestyle they thought owning a business would give them – instead of a life of stress, financial worry and compromise.”
Meanwhile, to help the thousands of UK small businesses navigate the challenges of the Covid pandemic, Serena created a Facebook group called Corona Business Advice – supporting and advising over 3,300 businesses to navigate the daily changing landscape – alongside the The F Word Academy an online platform offering business owners access to The F Word’s training and advice resources.
Serena added: “If my expertise and advice can help to increase the national level of survival in the small business sector and contribute to the wider economic recovery – especially during these particularly challenging times – then it’s time well-spent not to mention professionally rewarding.”
The Top 50 Adviser Awards are run by the UK’s leading small businesses network Enterprise Nation – in association with Xero, Dell Technologies and Neat – and set out to highlight the work done behind the scenes by experts across nine professional disciplines, in helping Britain’s army of entrepreneurs to build and grow a sustainable business.
Collecting the award, Serena said: “I couldn't be more thrilled to be named a Top 10 Advisor and to win this category, especially through Enterprise Nation which is so well known for its small business support.
“This will be invaluable in helping us in our ongoing campaign to help small businesses owners to get the financial success they deserve, and to increase the survival rate of small business in the UK. I will soon be launching a campaign to help British businesses by focusing on simple factor - their buffer cash. If they can start to build that financial discipline into their businesses we will see far fewer small businesses struggle and far more begin to build a robust business that will not only survive but thrive in the years after the incredible challenges of 2020.”
Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation said: “Business advisers are the unsung heroes behind Britain’s booming small business culture and their insight and experience are needed now more than ever.
“The awards were designed to show how important their work is in action and the entries have uncovered incredible advice efforts that have helped firms pivot to keep trading.
“2020 has also seen a record increase in the number of start-ups. These fledgling businesses can greatly benefit from the expertise and support of a professional adviser, in particular during their crucial ‘make-or-break’ first year."
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Notes to Editors
About The F Word
https://fwordtraining.co.uk/ and the F Word Academy helps small business owners get the financial skills they need to design their financial future, and consistently increase their profit, cash and value of their business. The online training platform brings together a community of ambitious business owners and keeps them on track every month with accountability, coaching and support alongside a structured financial training program.
About Enterprise Nation
Enterprise Nation (https://www.enterprisenation.com/) is the UK’s leading small business network and business support provider delivering support to more than 50,000 small businesses every month. Its aim is to help people turn their good ideas into great businesses – through expert advice (including a comprehensive resources library), events, acceleration support and networking. This year it launched two high profile business support initiatives: the Amazon Small Business Accelerator and the Recovery Advice for Business scheme which collectively aim to support more thousands of small firms impacted by the pandemic.
Enterprise Nation’s small business active membership has grown by 34 per cent since March. It now has more than 60,000 members and subscribers, ten per cent of which are professional advisers from a range of sectors offering strategic support to small firms. The adviser platform now sees hundreds of connections every week with small firms reaching out for expert support.
Enterprise Nation was founded in 2005 by British entrepreneur Emma Jones MBE, also co-founder of national enterprise campaign StartUp Britain. She is author of best-selling business books including Spare Room Startup, Working 5 to 9, Go Global, Start a Business for £99 and the StartUp Kit, Going for Growth. She is also a frequently called-on and regular media commentator on a huge range of issues which affect the UK’s growing number of SMEs. In 2018 FTSE 100 entrepreneur and HomeServe founder Richard Harpin invested in Enterprise Nation with the aim of creating a ‘more entrepreneurial Britain’