Consulting firm
+34%
Gross profit in three months
One underperforming product line. Pulled the numbers apart, restructured the pricing model based on actual margin data, relaunched — 34% more gross profit within a quarter.
Finance that thinks forward. For SMEs that have outgrown their accountant.
I'm the senior finance partner for UK SMEs that need more than a bookkeeper — but aren't ready for a £130k in-house finance director. Think of me as the strategic finance person inside the business. Not filing the past. Planning the future.
Know if you can afford to hire Spot cash problems before they hit Walk into investor meetings with numbers that hold up See which customers actually make you money Price with confidence, not guesswork
£0m+
Raised for C8 clients through investor-ready models
0%
Gross profit lift after one pricing restructure
0%
Cost base cut in three months, no layoffs
0+ yrs
Senior finance across FTSE-listed and high-growth businesses
A decade running budgets, forecasts and business cases inside
Volkswagen
Mercedes-Benz
VW Financial Services
Virgin Active
Avon
If any of this sounds familiar
The questions most SME owners can't answer with confidence.
Every one of these is a sign your finance setup has run out of road. Not a crisis — just the point where an accountant alone isn't enough anymore.
01
"How long do I actually have before I run out of cash?"
Your bookkeeper can tell you what's in the bank today. Not what it looks like in six months under a bad quarter.
I build a live 13-week cash forecast so you see the cliff before you fall off it.
02
"Can I afford to hire this person?"
A salary isn't a salary — it's national insurance, pension, equipment, ramp-up time. Without a model, you're guessing with other people's wages.
I model the true cost of the hire and tell you exactly what it does to your runway.
03
"Which customers or products are actually making me money?"
Your accounts show one gross margin. Real life has five. Most SMEs discover their biggest customer is their worst margin once someone actually looks.
I break the business down by product, customer and channel so you see where the profit actually lives.
04
"Will a bank or investor take my numbers seriously?"
Investors and lenders can tell in 30 seconds whether your model was built by a founder or a finance pro. They act accordingly.
I build the model and the narrative the way I built them for boards at VW and Mercedes — so when it's in front of someone sceptical, it holds up.
How I help
Three ways C8 works inside your business.
Layer any one on top of your existing accountant, or combine all three. What you get is the strategic finance brain a full-time FD would bring — sized for where you are now.
01
Like a senior finance lead, on tap.
The person inside the business thinking about the money — not just filing it. Monthly reviews where we step back from the day-to-day and look at where you're going. Someone to call before you make a big decision.
- Monthly strategic review meetings
- Ad-hoc support on big decisions
- Translating the numbers into the next move
02
Numbers you can actually trust.
Real forecasts and management accounts that tell you what's coming — not just what happened. Built around how YOUR business works, not a generic template. Updated monthly so you're never making decisions on last year's information.
- Rolling 12-month forecast with scenarios
- Monthly management accounts and variance analysis
- KPI dashboard — one screen, the whole business
03
Ready when growth calls.
When a bank, investor, or board starts asking questions, your numbers need to survive real scrutiny. I build models the way I built them at VW and Mercedes — so when someone pokes, they hold up.
- Investor-grade pitch models and narrative
- Bank-loan applications with proper forecasts
- Due diligence support and board-ready reporting
Three stages of growing up financially
Pick the tier that fits where you are.
Each tier is built around the outcomes you need at that stage — not a shopping list of deliverables. Move up as the business grows.
Clarity
// For SMEs that want to stop flying blind
You've got a bookkeeper. The accounts get filed. But you can't confidently answer "am I making money this month?" or "will I have enough cash in Q4?" — and that's costing you sleep.
- Know where the money's going every month
- Spot cash-flow trouble months before it hits
- See if the hiring/spending plan actually works
- One simple dashboard that tells you if the business is healthy
- A monthly hour to talk through what the numbers mean
Most chosen
Momentum
// For SMEs raising, borrowing or scaling deliberately
You've got traction. Now you want to raise, borrow, or put the foot down — and you need the numbers to survive scrutiny from someone who'll test them.
- Walk into investor or bank meetings knowing your model holds up
- See which products, customers and channels actually make money
- Test pricing and scenarios before committing to them
- Board-ready monthly reporting — not spreadsheets you're embarrassed to send
- Quarterly strategy workshop to plan ahead, not react
Infrastructure
// For established SMEs ready for a proper finance function
You've been running a while. You're doing well. Finance is now a real bottleneck — you need something closer to an in-house finance team, without the £130k hire.
- Build the finance setup you'd have at 3x your current size
- Board-grade reporting your leadership team can act on
- Know exactly where to invest next based on data, not gut
- Plan and advise on hiring your first in-house finance staff
- Monthly exec-level review with ad-hoc strategic support
Why me
I learned finance where the numbers matter.
I'm Ish. I'm an ACCA-qualified finance leader with 13+ years inside FTSE-listed and high-growth businesses. I spent six years inside Volkswagen Financial Services running £600m of annual budgets and 5-year forecasts — cutting £14m of costs, halving our forecasting cycle, and writing a £60m business case that got adopted across European markets.
Before that, I ran financial planning for IT and HR at Mercedes-Benz Financial Services — owning the variance analysis on a £120m budget.
I started C8 because SME owners kept asking me the same finance questions their accountants couldn't answer. Now I do for UK SMEs what I used to do for blue-chips — just on a budget that makes sense for a growing business.
Ish Mukit — ACCAFounder, C8
£600m
Annual budgets directed at Volkswagen Financial Services
£60m
Business case I led to German HQ — adopted Europe-wide
£14m
Cost savings delivered at VWFS through cost analysis
13+ yrs
Senior finance across blue-chips and high-growth businesses
What clients have seen
Real outcomes. Real businesses.
Names anonymised where the client prefers it. The point isn't the logo — it's what changed after I got hold of the numbers.
High-growth startup
£750k raised
Seed round, closed with confidence
Built the driver-based model, wrote the pitch narrative, and led investor calls alongside the founders. Every question got a real answer — not "let me come back to you on that".
Growing consultancy
-20%
Cost base, three months in
No layoffs, no cuts to anything customer-facing. Just three months of "where does this £ actually go" and a few structural changes. Costs down 20%, profit up, same team.
How we'd work together
Four stages. No surprises.
From first call to working with me as your embedded finance lead — here's what it actually looks like.
01
Intro call
20 minutes. You explain where you're at. I tell you honestly if I can help — and if I can't, I'll point you at someone who can.
02
Scope & fit
I write a short scope and a fixed monthly fee. You know exactly what you're getting and what you're paying before we start.
03
Setup sprint
First two to four weeks. I build your forecast, reporting and model from scratch — shaped around your business, not a template.
04
Monthly rhythm
Monthly review meeting, live model updates, email and Slack access between times. You focus on the business. I focus on the numbers.
Free resource
The cash-flow model I actually use with clients.
A 13-week rolling cash-flow template in Excel. Same structure I set up for a new client in week one. Scenarios, sensitivities, visual warnings when you're heading for trouble. Yours free.
No spam. One-click unsubscribe. Occasional short emails on SME finance that you'll actually want to read.
Common questions
Questions I get on almost every intro call.
What is a fractional finance director?
+
A fractional finance director provides senior finance leadership on a part-time or outsourced basis, typically monthly, instead of being hired full-time. It gives small and medium-sized businesses access to the strategic finance thinking of an experienced FD — forecasting, management reporting, investor-ready modelling — at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire (which in the UK typically runs £100,000–£130,000+).
How is C8 different from an accountant?
+
C8 works alongside your existing accountant, not instead of them. Your accountant handles compliance work — bookkeeping, VAT, year-end accounts, tax. C8 provides the forward-looking commercial finance layer: forecasting, management reporting, modelling for fundraising, pricing and margin analysis, and strategic decision support. Most SMEs benefit from having both.
What size businesses does C8 work with?
+
C8 works primarily with UK SMEs in the £200,000 to £5 million turnover range, across both owner-led smaller businesses and growth-stage scale-ups. Engagement tiers are structured around where the business is in its financial maturity — from foundational visibility (Clarity) through to finance function build-out (Infrastructure).
Does C8 do bookkeeping, tax or M&A?
+
No. C8 deliberately focuses on commercial finance and FP&A work — forecasting, modelling, management reporting, strategic advisory. Bookkeeping and statutory accounts are handled by your existing accountant. Tax planning and VAT are handled by a tax specialist. M&A advisory is handled by specialist deal advisors. C8 will prepare the financial models and numbers but does not execute deals.
How much does C8 cost?
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C8 offers bespoke monthly fees per engagement, scaled to the tier (Clarity, Momentum, or Infrastructure) and the specifics of the business. The first step is a free 20-minute intro call to scope the engagement, after which a written scope and fixed monthly fee is proposed — and agreed — before any work starts. No surprises.
How quickly can we get started?
+
From intro call to first engagement week is typically two to three weeks. First fortnight on any new engagement is the setup sprint: building your forecast, management reporting and any initial models from scratch. After that, we move into the monthly rhythm — review meeting, live model updates, ongoing access.
Let's talk
Book a 20-minute intro. See if we click.
No pitch, no pressure. Twenty minutes to hear where you're at and share how I'd help. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so — and point you at someone who is.