The Creative Business Value Engineer
You create the value. We make sure you realise it.
We are expert M&A advisors and value engineers to sub-£5m creative agencies and consultancies, marketing groups, media companies and marketing technology businesses.
We deliver value through a systematic approach to growth, operational improvements and transition-enabled leadership and help you achieve peak value through expert transaction advisory. Whether you're buying, merging, selling or planning a future exit - we're the experts in this space.
Meet our founder
Different experience.
I founded Hunter Hawes & Co because, when I was buying businesses myself, I was in the sub-£5m range too. I didn't find anyone who I thought served smaller businesses well.
While a transaction can be genuinely life-changing financially, for people like us, money is just one piece of the puzzle. What about the culture you built so carefully? What about the dreams and aspirations of your team members? How are the promises you made to them going to be kept? This is your legacy. How will it be protected?
I majored on these things when I was buying. Now, I’m committed full-time to helping owners solve the full puzzle too. People, culture, promises, clients and you.
Our Approach
We run our business on referrals.
Whether you are buying another business, selling your business or preparing to transact, who you appoint to advise you is a high-trust decision. It's high trust for us too because we're mainly paid on results. We generally only accept a brief if we're confident we can work well with a client to achieve the outcome. That's why referrals are golden - for both us and our clients. It's all about trust.
Creative Dealhunters
Be confident you're getting the very best deal for you, not just what's easily available. Our experience brings creativity to dealmaking and we like to think we can secure deals others can't see.
Beyond Numbers
Every deal is a human story, especially in creative businesses. In our sector, deals only succeed when human outcomes matter as much as EBITDA multiples, earn outs and spreadsheets.
Selective Focus
Our proven processes ensure no value is left on the table. We focus on EBITDA multiple optimisation, IP value realisation and rigorous due diligence for both buyers and sellers.
VALUE IS ENGINEERED YEARS BEFORE IT'S REALISED
Your business will be valued at adjusted EBITDA × a multiple. Most owners only ever work on EBITDA.
Growth System
Growth that depends on the founder's contacts, or one big client, is fragile and exhausting to sustain. Our systems help you build pipeline the business owns so growth rates hold, with or without you.
Operations System
Margin hides in how the work gets made. Systemise the operations behind your superpowers so quality stops depending on all-nighters and profit stops leaking.
Management System
A leadership team that runs the business without you is the difference between owning a company and being trapped in one. We'll help you codify the DNA that makes the business worth owning by you, or by someone else.
More EBITDA means more value but it's only half the equation. The multiple is built through systems, and systems take years, not months. Whether a sale is two years away, ten years away, or not on your mind at all, the work that raises your multiple is the same work that makes your business stronger to own right now. That's value engineering.
Start with a value diagnostic.
A conversation about what your agency is worth today, what would move that number, and whether we're the right people to help.
Achieving Peak Exit
A transaction is the outcome, not the starting point.
When you've built a business that runs without you, with revenue that's durable and EBITDA that survives adjustments, you control the timing and terms of any sale. That's a peak exit. We all know owners who exited at peak; we also know not everyone gets a peak exit. But the choice isn't peak or nothing. Every business is saleable. To whom? At what price? On what terms? That's where we really earn our spurs.
We see what others don't. We know which buyers want what. We get you as close to peak exit as your timeline allows.
In The Media
Podcast Appearances
Agency M&A mastery
Tom Hunt—Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur
In this interview, Tom wanted to talk through the M&A process start to finish and asked me to illustrate with some of the experiences from my journey.
£50M+
Cumulative deal value
16+
Transactions completed
100%
Principal-led advisory
15+
Years of experience