Gone West keeps growing

Gone West has always dreamt big. But like any business, in order to reach our goals we need to be constantly generating new ideas and projects, which means we need the free time and resources necessary to pursue them. You can’t grow without having solid finances in place, and just like the trees we plant, we have all the intention of growing long into the future.

 

Before you dive in, have you thought about offsetting your businesses’ products or services with solutions for sustainability? Visit Gone West’s Carbon Footprint Offsetting page to learn all you need to know about the services we offer.

 

So when James Hughes, our Managing Director here at GW, was pitching at an investment event in Edinburgh, and after being introduced by a mutual contact to Fact3, he saw a service that could not only offer the structured support needed to bolster our finance department, he saw what would become a milestone collaboration in our history, one that could make the dreams of our business a very near reality.

Who are Fact3? 

Fact3 is a Manchester based, long standing financial and operations co-sourcing business. For the last 20+ years they have been strengthening the accounting, HR and IT departments of countless businesses, giving them the confidence to pursue the financial and social goals of their future. 

As opposed to traditional outsourcing, Co-sourcing (or collaborative sourcing), is where the internal in-house staff of a business work with a team of external experts of diverse skill sets to complete tasks, blending the two parties together in the pursuit of achieving the same goals, with the help of its 30+ staff, Fact3 has provided support for over 150+ clients.

What our collaboration looks like

After giving Gone West a strategic review, sizing up its structure and objectives, but most importantly its culture and mindset, Fact3 went about providing finance management, finance modelling and business planning to our departments, future-proofing our near and far financial goals, and allowing us to have a bird’s eye view of our business.

As well as supporting accounting, Fact3 offers board level advisors to sit beside us at the leadership level. This came in the form of people like Fact3 Partner Laura Brogden who took on a part time Finance Director role. It also came in the form of people like Numbers Co-sourcer Chris Atkinson, who used his outside skills to support our internal finance team, taking ownership of the financial systems and management accounts, streamlining processes to give us time to focus on new projects.

“As well as a valued Fact3 client, Gone West are a welcome beacon of positivity and change in a difficult landscape.”— Fact3

 

How has Gone West benefited from the collaboration?

The bottom line is that in the many months since the start of our collaboration, Gone West has been able to do more of what it does best: plant trees. 

 
With Laura Brogden standing by James’ side at all investor meetings, GW was able to secure the biggest single order in its CSR offering since their inception, 10,000 trees to one business, the biggest transaction in our history. With Laura on all the calls, she was able to bring a level of professionalism and expertise that not just closed the deal, but helped strengthen our reputation.  

By encouraging the right type of ongoing investment we’ve seen successes in the shape of a programme with the Prince’s Trust, and forward thinking collaborations with many businesses. Check out some of our amazing campaigns and stories we have been able to tell, such as our collab with Hammer Brewery in Italy, and LOFT Furnishing in Manchester.

But our collaboration has not just been beneficial for us. To demonstrate their belief in our work and in the very word collaboration, Fact3 has committed to our plant and protect scheme, saying the following:

“It’s driven by more than just a renewed commitment to reducing our carbon footprint. It’s about community… Because blended works better.”