Andrew Ritson & Co. Clear counsel for growing UK businesses

Andrew Ritson & Co.

Clear counsel for growing UK businesses

Latest Articles

The Decision Waiting Room: Written Approval Limits for Founder-Led UK Firms
Operations & Technology

The Decision Waiting Room: Written Approval Limits for Founder-Led UK Firms

In growing UK owner-managed firms, the founder often remains the unwritten approver for everything. A practical delegation authority matrix sets clear limits for spend, contracts, hiring, pricing and client commitments — so decisions keep moving without control drifting away.
Before the Administrator Calls: A Credit-Control Playbook for UK Professional Firms
Finance & Cash Flow

Before the Administrator Calls: A Credit-Control Playbook for UK Professional Firms

Bad debt rarely arrives without warning. This playbook sets out how UK professional firms can read the public signals of counterparty distress, structure retainers and deposits to cap exposure, and act decisively in the days after a client enters administration — illustrated by two fictional firms facing the same insolvency.
The Rate Card You Never Revisited: A Fee-Review Discipline for UK Professional Firms
Finance & Cash Flow

The Rate Card You Never Revisited: A Fee-Review Discipline for UK Professional Firms

Margin rarely disappears in a single bad decision; it erodes quietly through fees left unraised and long-standing clients kept on terms that no longer reflect the work. This is a five-step annual fee-review ritual, with a worked example from a 20-person firm that repriced 60 per cent of its book and kept every one of its top ten clients.
The Unbilled Hour: Making Scope Creep Visible in UK Professional Firms
Finance & Cash Flow

The Unbilled Hour: Making Scope Creep Visible in UK Professional Firms

Small extras rarely arrive as a single request; they accumulate quietly until the invoice no longer reflects the work. This article sets out a lightweight scope-creep ledger, five patterns UK professional firms should watch, and a plain-English script for resetting the brief without damaging the client relationship.
Automate Less, Automate Well: A Five-Step Audit for UK Firms Weighing AI Admin Tools
Operations & Technology

Automate Less, Automate Well: A Five-Step Audit for UK Firms Weighing AI Admin Tools

Vendors promise that AI will take the paperwork off your desk. Some of the gains are real, but they are usually smaller and slower than the pitch — and they are routinely erased by data-protection exposure, integration costs and staff who quietly keep the old spreadsheet. A disciplined five-step audit is the antidote.
Handshakes Don't Scale: A Co-Founder's Pre-Disagreement Checklist
Employment & People

Handshakes Don't Scale: A Co-Founder's Pre-Disagreement Checklist

Most UK founding teams begin with a shared vision and nothing on paper. The document that matters is not the one written for the good years, but the one that decides what happens when roles, money or ambition stop aligning. Here is a practical checklist a growing firm can adapt in an afternoon.
The Ledger That Remembers: A Director’s Loan Account Health Check for 2026
Finance & Cash Flow

The Ledger That Remembers: A Director’s Loan Account Health Check for 2026

A director’s loan account is rarely dramatic until it is. This practical review explains how an overdrawn account builds up, where tax and company law risks sit, and how owner-managers can put the ledger on a cleaner footing before the next accounts cycle.
The Renewal Trap: Seven Questions UK Firms Should Ask Before Another SaaS Contract
Operations & Technology

The Renewal Trap: Seven Questions UK Firms Should Ask Before Another SaaS Contract

Software renewals rarely fail loudly; they quietly renew. This seven-question audit gives growing UK businesses a practical way to test usage, pricing, security and exit terms before another annual or three-year SaaS contract is signed.
The Clauses That Outlast the Handshake: Managing Commercial Lease Risk in 2026
Finance & Cash Flow

The Clauses That Outlast the Handshake: Managing Commercial Lease Risk in 2026

A commercial lease is often signed in a hurry and paid for over years. This guide examines break clauses, service-charge caps, rent reviews, dilapidations and personal guarantees, with a negotiation checklist and a five-year worked example for UK owner-managers.
The Player-Coach Decision: How UK Firms Should Vet a Sales Leadership Promotion
Employment & People

The Player-Coach Decision: How UK Firms Should Vet a Sales Leadership Promotion

Promoting the best salesperson into leadership is a common answer to a common problem, but it can remove a strong biller and create a weak manager. This five-question test helps UK owner-managers judge readiness before the title changes.
The Ninety-Day Warning: A Weekly Cash Routine for Owner-Managers Growing Faster Than Their Bank Balance
Finance & Cash Flow

The Ninety-Day Warning: A Weekly Cash Routine for Owner-Managers Growing Faster Than Their Bank Balance

Profit and cash rarely move in step, and expansion is precisely when the gap widens. This piece sets out a short weekly discipline that gives owner-managers sight of a squeeze roughly ninety days before it bites, together with the UK pressure points that most often trigger it.
One Contract, One Fate: How UK Firms Measure and Reduce Client Concentration
Client Stories

One Contract, One Fate: How UK Firms Measure and Reduce Client Concentration

A single anchor customer can fund a decade of growth and quietly remove the firm's ability to choose its own future. This guide explains how to measure concentration honestly, read the contract as a risk document, and build a diversification plan that does not destabilise the core account — illustrated by an anonymised client case.
The Chair's Chair: How a Family Manufacturer Handed the Reins to an Outside MD — and Stayed
Client Stories

The Chair's Chair: How a Family Manufacturer Handed the Reins to an Outside MD — and Stayed

A second-generation precision engineering firm near Huddersfield spent eighteen months moving from founder-led management to an external managing director, with the founder remaining as chair. It was not a smooth process. This is an account of the governance, the money and the family politics — and the four things the family would do differently.
Five Employment Reforms Landing in 2026 — and a 90-Day Plan for Firms Without an HR Team
Employment & People

Five Employment Reforms Landing in 2026 — and a 90-Day Plan for Firms Without an HR Team

April 2026 brings the densest cluster of employment reforms in a generation, and most of the operational risk sits with firms that have no HR department to absorb it. This is a working checklist: the five changes most likely to catch an owner-managed business off guard, a realistic 90-day plan, and a case study from a 40-person manufacturer that got its preparation in with weeks to spare.