Kieran Cooper

Kieran is a Director of CM Precision Components Ltd, a factory which manufactures components for organisations including Lieber, Bombardier, Terrex and Burnside Group. He took over the business in 2007 and is now one of three directors who are all part-owners. Their new factory opened two years ago.

Kieran explains:

“Around five years ago, we realised that we needed to improve our business model so that we were prepared for the future and in the best position to grow. We looked at everything, including HR, health and safety and business development with a view to making sure that the business could function with or without the directors.

Sometime after this, one of the directors had a heart attack. Thankfully, he made a full recovery, but the business did struggle for a few weeks because there was so much reliance on him.”

How did we help?

“I already knew Seán socially and asked him to advise us as part of our business change programme. One of the first things he did was organise key man insurance for the business which insures us against the costs of lost business, as well as the cost of recruiting and training a new director if we lose a key person.

Seán has also helped us identify our options for exiting the business. The other directors and I are starting to think about when and how we’ll retire. The difficulty is that we don’t know when we’ll want to retire!

This is where Seán has been really helpful, giving us all of the options for staying or retiring from the business. This has included insurance to help each of us if one of the directors needs to be bought out due to serious illness or should the worst happen”

How did you benefit?

“We gave Seán a very wide brief as we didn’t know what we needed. He clearly explained all the processes for structuring the business and the insurances we needed.

Seán has also reviewed our personal pension schemes and put new ones in place where necessary.

Very importantly, working with Seán has caused us to think about our personal futures – to stop joking about it and take it seriously. If any of the directors decide to leave, the others will be financially secure, and we didn’t have that before.

We now have the belief and relief of knowing that we will be here in years to come; we won’t be destitute if it all goes wrong.

We find Seán to be very responsive and he gets things done. We’re very happy with his advice.”