NetWorks Issue 17: The Design Issue

Building Investment

Talking with the Chapter Chair of Liverpool about his plans for the area, and how his business can help BITA members.

When a business has a healthy turnover, many choose to funnel some of that profit into different investment opportunities. This can be to create a revenue stream, diversify income, grow the business, or expand coverage.

Investment in the right area can help fuel your business growth in myriad ways. Research and Development (R&D) Investment can develop new products, processes, technologies, or to improve existing ones. All this can lead to driving innovation and gaining a competitive edge in the market.

Businesses can invest in stocks and bonds issued by other companies or governments. Stocks offer ownership in a company and the potential for capital appreciation, while bonds provide a fixed income stream through interest payments.

Machinery, equipment, and technology investments can lead to operational efficiency, increase productivity, and reduce costs for businesses across various industries.

Allocating funds towards marketing and advertising campaigns promotes products, services and can build brand awareness and attract customers: driving sales and revenue growth.

Investing in hiring, training, and development of employees is crucial for businesses to build a skilled and motivated work force. Human capital investments can lead to increased productivity, innovation, and employee retention.

Businesses may choose to invest in acquiring or merging with other companies as a strategic growth initiative. This can help expand market share, diversify product offerings, or enter new geographic markets.

These and many other options are available to profitable businesses looking to grow their profits, grow their market share and expand into new areas.

We have been talking with Adam Wood, the new Chair of the Liverpool Chapter, and MD of Advantage Investment, about another potential avenue that businesses can funnel their profits – property.

As things get tighter and people want to guard against future difficulties, it’s becoming increasingly popular to want to make your business profits work for you and generate income for years ahead – rather than lining the pockets of the tax man.

“We work with a lot of businesses that are looking to make good decisions and want to know more about how they can invest in property” says Adam.

March finds Advantage Investment busy, what with it being the end of the tax year. They can help businesses at any point, but it’s a lot easier to engage with businesses that get in touch and want to strategize early.

“We’ll be able to help out a business that approaches us and wants to invest at any point of the year” explains Adam. “However, when someone turns up in March wanting to invest in property before 4th April, it does limit options. Our ideal client will approach us in April and be interested in talking about investing for the next year. Businesses can expect around 8 – 15% ROI. It all depends on them, as it’s heavily based on length of investment and surrounding strategy.”

If given enough time, Adam can work with the business to consider strategic investments month on month to align with their business plan, save money, and (hopefully) generate more profit.

There are varied benefits to investing in property with profit, and Adam works with individuals as well as businesses. One benefit is that when you have purchased a property, you can then count on rental income being generated for the time you retain that property. So, with a large enough portfolio, the business can have a sizable income from rent. And instead of paying a large tax burden on your annual profit, you only pay tax on the income that the property generates, after fees and improvements are considered.

Advantage Investment specialise in off-plan developments. This is where a developer has land, planning permission and is building, and they are selling off units as they are building them, to fund the development. “This is why we get such good rates. We have excellent relationships with developers, who know that we are reliable, and so we get access to great properties at a brilliant rate, so that the developers can carry on building.”

Although they work with all sectors of the property market, Adam particularly likes property in the city centre, where they can procure high yield housing.

“We work with 65 developers across the UK, four of which we met at, or were introduced to, through BITA. These four developers alone, have a GDV (Gross Development Value) of developments of c.£60m.”

Considering their consistent growth in the UK, the Liverpool based business has now expanded into Ireland, and have offices in Spain and Dubai. They can assist businesses and individuals here, as well as purchase properties, where they can offer advice, or a full ‘handholding’ experience for the less practiced investor.

A community minded business, they also work a lot with universities, and train students in marketing and sales, making sure that they have the skills, experience and confidence to get a job. Following training, these students attend job fairs where they are snapped up by employees or retained by Advantage Investment. This is how they found their current Head of Marketing, Lucy Slater.

If you are interested in hearing more about property investment, Adam can help. He is also keen to meet developers and is a strong believer in the BITA ethos of being part of ‘People who know people that help people’.

“I have really enjoyed working as the Chapter Chair of BITA Liverpool so far. I like the feel of BITA, and I like sharing my connections, whilst making valuable connections for myself!” Says Adam.

His plans are to really bring the chapter and members together, hosting lots of events to really build on their friendly business community. Events are planned at the new Tag Heuer store opening in Liverpool One, which has an incredible golf simulator in the back opened by Rory McIlroy MBE where people can try and beat his score! June 28th will see them at Gaucho for a big networking lunch, with a few special guests, and Adam also has planned for golf and wellbeing days.

“I just want to do the best I can in my role here for the businesses in Liverpool. I want to attract people from outside so they can see what we have to offer, improve the networking scene, and hopefully even develop great new relationships with business people across the UK and Ireland.”

ADVANTAGE INVESTMENT CAN WORK WITH A BUSINESS TO CONSIDER STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS MONTH ON MONTH TO ALIGN WITH THEIR BUSINESS PLAN, SAVE MONEY, AND (HOPEFULLY) GENERATE MORE PROFIT.

Advantage Investment won ‘The Best Property Investment Company’ and ‘Best Real Estate Company in the UK,’ and Adam won ‘Property CEO of the Year Award’, at the 2023 Business Awards. They have a 5-star Rating on Trust Pilot and Google.