When the business needs someone who has done this before.
A business in difficulty normally knows where the problem lies. It needs an experienced operator with authority to act.
The pressures on a business in trouble
It is seldom one thing. Usually several at once:
Cash visible only days ahead
The owners cannot say what the bank balance will look like in a month.
Lenders and landlords losing patience
A facility under review, a lease under strain and a conversation that is going the wrong way.
Tax arrears building
VAT and payroll taxes outstanding, with the tax authority paid before many other creditors should the business fail.
A formal process on the horizon
Formal options are being discussed, and the board needs someone who can keep the business running while they are weighed.
An interim operator with real authority is embedded. The operator secures cash, takes on the discussions with lenders and drafts a plan that owners and the board will support. They act with your solicitors and any insolvency practitioner, not instead of them. Only licensed insolvency practitioners can be appointed administrator or liquidator.
Who this is for, and who it is not
Best for
- A cash crisis that needs visibility and control now
- A business in operational or financial distress
- Lender or investor pressure that needs a credible plan
- A leadership vacuum that has stalled key decisions
- Stabilising the business before planning recovery
Not for
- A business that only needs advice or a written report
- A situation whose primary need is a formal insolvency practitioner
- A stable business planning improvements at its own pace
- A one-off review with no mandate to act
What a business in difficulty gets
Interim leadership in a hard year is familiar to Scottish lenders and boards. We choose an operator with the standing the situation needs, and governance stays around the work.
Close governance
Board meetings get an honest read on cash against plan, and we flag a widening gap at once.
Others who have been there
Lenders, landlords or a restructuring plan: the operator can call on operators in the collective who have faced the same.
Continuity if the operator leaves
If the operator steps aside, the brief stays with us and the next search starts from it.
Matched for authority
Lenders and staff both test a new operator early. We match people who hold their ground calmly.
The turnaround engagement
Each engagement moves from crisis to recovery with structured urgency.
Rapid assessment (week 1)
Financial position, operational status, commercial pipeline and team capability, mapped with a structured diagnostic framework.
Priority triage (week 2)
The 3–5 interventions that will have the most impact on stabilisation are identified and begun. Ruthless prioritisation.
Stabilisation (weeks 3–8)
Cash flow is visible and managed. Acute operational failures resolved. Lenders or investors briefed with a credible recovery narrative.
Recovery (month 2 onwards)
Processes rebuilt. Commercial momentum recovered. Financial infrastructure strengthened. Business guided from crisis to sustainable operation.
Turnaround triage
The leadership a situation calls for depends on where the business is breaking.
The roles a turnaround usually calls for.
For a complex turnaround, we can deploy more than one operator at once and layer in further specialists as recovery progresses.
Restructuring experience from
The questions buyers ask first
Fractional Edinburgh provides operational and executive leadership support. Where a situation requires insolvency, legal, restructuring or regulated financial advice, we work alongside the appropriate specialist advisers.
