Business strategy and finance expert Frank Williamson has launched a consulting firm in Chattanooga to help businesses use financial data to navigate their future in response to purchase offers or the need for growth funding.
Williamson, a 20-year financial veteran who served as one of four principals for the past three years at Four Bridges Capital Advisors, said his new venture will focus on the financial side of a business, versus the marketing or operational approach of the typical consulting firm. The new business, which Williamson has named Oaklyn Consulting from the name of the family tobacco farm in South Carolina where he grew up, will be based in Chattanooga and serve businesses with up to $500 million in sales across the Southeast.
Williamson said he developed the concept of the consulting business after talking with many businesses who were prospects or clients of Four Bridges but which were still trying to assess the best path forward. Four Bridges primarily prepares and helps sell or secure new investors for businesses.
"As we talk with business owners, and the lawyers, bankers, wealth managers, accountants and investment bankers who support them, we hear that people are struggling with business strategy and financial questions that they don't have the time, staff or context to dig into," said Williamson, who came to Chattanooga to help run the investment portfolio of Unum Group, the world's biggest disability insurer. "Oaklyn Consulting was formed to meet this need."
Williamson and other staffers he plans to hire or partner with in the Southeast will offer businesses the expertise needed to anticipate investors' questions, recast financial planning and analysis, and understand industry trends. As a consultant and financial advisor, the company will be paid consulting fees similar to how attorneys are paid, rather than the commission income based upon a business sale or merger which compensates Four Bridges and most private equity firms.
The consulting firm will help business owners reach strong decisions they are comfortable with and communicate effectively with capital providers, Williamson said.
Oaklyn Consulting is already serving a half dozen clients across the country facing a variety of financial issues. Oaklyn is advising a healthcare company seeking growth funding, helping a physicians' practice respond to a private equity group's offer to buy the practice, providing "á la carte" chief financial officer services to a venture-funded transportation company, helping a family-owned manufacturing business understand its options for transitioning management, connecting a financial advisory firm with strategic partners that might share its vision for growth and helping an insurance services company evaluate potential acquisition targets.
"In these cases, there is sometimes a clear opportunity to seek competitive proposals from banks or investors, but often there is not," Williamson said. "Instead, the best course might be to make operating changes, build a long-term financing relationship or even 'do nothing, but with new conviction."
Williamson said most business owners are sales- and marketing-driven, but they are thrown into financial decision-making by default of their title - "even if it's not how they can best serve their companies," Williamson said. "Moreover, most CEOs are so close to their business that it's hard for them to be fully objective when important strategy questions arise - not to mention that they are up to their eyeballs with daily priorities and don't have the staff or time to handle things like investor relations or capital-raising work."
Through his career, Williamson has closed more than $7 billion in mergers, acquisitions and financing transactions, ranging from $500,000 to $1 billion, and has held leadership positions in corporate development, strategy, merger integration, finance, sales, marketing, underwriting and investments.
Before serving as managing partner of Four Bridges, Williamson was an executive at Unum Group during a time when the company grew from $2.5 billion to $10 billion in annual revenue, serving among other roles as chief investment officer and head of capital management. The Harvard Business School graduate also served as interim COO for Vets First Choice, which was, at the time, the fastest growing business services company on the Inc. 500 list. Williamson currently sits on the board of LaunchTN, a public-private partnership focused on supporting the development of high-growth companies in Tennessee.