Oldham entrepreneur named as one of the UK's top 50 business advisers

An Oldham-born business mentor and volunteer for the Oldham Enterprise Fund has been named as one of Britain’s top 50 business advisers.

Gareth Buckley, who offers business advice to help local entrepreneurs, was picked from hundreds of advisers from around the UK for his work with businesses facing financial difficulties and supporting them to continue to trade.

Gareth, who runs The Insolvency Company, said: “I have great memories of growing up in Oldham and it was a thriving town.

"I enjoyed volunteering for the Oldham Enterprise Fund and seeing the next generation of Entrepreneurs coming through. 

"I only left Oldham in recent years and I still have friends, family and business networks in the area. 

"When Covid-19 started to impact the business community people started to reach out to me for advice.

"Having spent many years working in and with small businesses I understand the many challenges they face to maintain their existence, add in Covid-19 and the challenge is immense and so if by giving my time and experience SME‘s have a better chance of survival and can drive the wider economic recovery, then that’s a satisfying role.”

Gareth has 20 years of experience in insolvency and restructuring and has recently worked with several Oldham businesses, who are household names, helping them to continue trading when they were otherwise ready to close.

Gareth’s time and advice has set the firm on a clear path towards future growth.

He will now go through to the public vote to find the UK’s Top Ten Advisers.

The Top 50 Adviser Awards are run by small business network Enterprise Nation, the UK’s leading support network for small businesses – in association with Xero, Dell Technologies and Neat.

The list was compiled after the awards reached out to fledgling businesses to nominate an adviser that had helped them to build and grow a sustainable business.

The awards, which set out to highlight the work done behind the scenes by experts helping Britain’s army of small businesses to build and grow, revealed a rich vein of dedicated supporters for the UK’s expanding entrepreneurial culture, even during the pandemic.

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation, said: “Business advisers are the unsung heroes behind Britain’s booming small business culture and their insight and experience are needed now more than ever.

“The awards have uncovered some incredible work that has helped firms take steps towards sustainability and growth or managing the current situation by pivoting and by taking a strategic look at their business.

“Research shows that those firms that take advice do better than those that don’t – and it stands to reason that good advice can help avoid some of the damaging, early mistakes entrepreneurs can make that can often force them to give up.

“The awards were designed to show how important this work is in action, in order to help more start-ups and small firms find out about the benefits of taking advice.”

The 50 advisers were chosen from hundreds of entries from around the UK, with ten outstanding experts picked out as the top ten.

To vote for Gareth and to see the list of advisers, click here

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