Southern Enterprise Awards 2021

107 | Southern Enterprise Awards 2021 A small, friendly team committed to delivering great value, detailed and exceptional work, Greengate Business Associates is a highly specialised consultancy providing a range of advisory services. We speak to the Founders to find out more about the company and the work it does. Greengate Business Associates (GGBA) is a Brighton and London- based business consultancy that offers high-value business plans, feasibility studies, market research and financial modelling solutions primarily for immigrant investors, entrepreneurs, overseas corporations and High Net Worth individuals who are seeking residency-led investment options in both the UK and the USA. “Unlike many other practitioners in the field, we actually care about our clients,” explains Operations Director and Co-Founder, Alan Busby. “Often where they are in life, or their situation, can be a very pivotal and supremely important time for them and the services we provide essentially facilitate their next desired step of moving on.” As a small team of business professionals, GGBA was launched by Alan and his brother, Matthew Jarman, back in 2016, having both worked in and around the industry for more than 10 years, mainly focused on the US market. After assisting many hundreds of foreign investors in successfully starting their ventures in the US, delivering over $600 million of inward investment across 100s of projects, mainly under the E-2, L-1, and EB-5 visa programmes, the brothers saw an opportunity for harnessing their expertise in promoting the UK as a prime destination for global business investment, and launched into the UK market in 2017. Since then, they have developed hundreds of business plans for entrepreneurs and sole representatives. Managing Director, Matthew Jarman, explains “Over the past five years we have grown into being recognised as one of the leading experts in our field and have built up close and long-standing relationships with many Immigration Firms and Advisers whom we deal with on a daily basis. Enjoying what you do is also a key concept to our working life - if you are able to enjoy yourself whilst you are working - that is a win/win.” Best Global Strategic Corporate Consultancy 2021 Aug21504 Every service that GGBA provides is personally tailored to each individual and is not merely a tick box exercise, from the properly drafted business plans to critically important documents and business tools, everything is geared towards supporting the clients as their new business grows. It is this that is a key differentiator when it comes to staying ahead of the competition. “Combining attention to detail and unrivalled expertise across a number of sectors, with exceptional market analysis, feasibility studies and high-level financial and economic analyses, we present uniquely insightful and personalised business plans that strive to provide the necessary market data, information, confidence and strategies to help clients achieve their goals and objectives.” The last few years have brought challenges for GGBA; obviously the Covid-19 crisis of the past 18 months played a huge part, with travel restrictions greatly impacting global mobility, however, there have also been significant changes across the UK immigration landscape – some of it driven by post-Brexit political ideology – with long-standing visa routes being replaced by the Innovator and Start-Up routes. “There was little or no consultation with any sector practitioners large or small, so the changes caught many by surprise,” says Alan. “The introduction of the Endorsing Body element, whilst conceptually sound, was poorly planned and implemented, taking almost 12 months to actually start to work. Even now we find huge disparities across the level of value endorsing bodies are offering.” “Despite this, we have still managed to help well over 100 UK applicants and entrepreneurial teams achieve their visas with our bespoke services over the past two years.” GGBA was also not immune to the effects of the pandemic, however, following a frustrating 2019 and the unprecedented events of 2020, the firm is now seeing a marked increase in both Innovator and Start-Up applications and an almost quadrupling of Sole Rep visa applications. “The best news is that despite all of these challenges, our partners are gladly confirming our joint Start-Up and Innovator visa successes by way of endorsement, which is some small triumph over great adversity. Additionally, our newly incorporated Business Development and Incubation Service is proving exceptionally useful to potential visa clients who are struggling with codifying their dreams and ambitions into an effective, viable business model. Our aims are to attract and nurture the best domestic and global talent and provide them with the support and resources needed to thrive.” “Ultimately, in this post-COVID world, we are committed to supporting the recovery of the UK economy and remain hugely passionate about promoting the UK as a great place to do business, working closely with international businesses, investors and entrepreneurs to help them realise their commercial dreams and, in the process, reinforcing the position of the UK as a global innovator and helping bring transformative opportunities to our regional economies and labour markets,” enthuses Matthew. Most recently, GGBA was rewarded for its hard work by being bestowed with the prestigious title of Best Global Strategic Corporate Consultancy 2021 in the Southern Enterprise Awards – an accolade which is testament to the dedication put in by the brothers and their committed team. Contact: Alan Busby Company: Greengate Business Associates Ltd Web Address: https://ggba.uk