How Nathan found his niche

WHEN Nathan Atkinson left Ripon Grammar School in 2012, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life and initially spent two years working in bars and hotels in Corfu.

It wasn’t until he returned to the UK that he set his sights on a long-term career.

He landed a job as a trainee with a mergers and acquisitions company specialising in financial services, accountancy and healthcare and, after six years, worked his way up to director level.

But, satisfying a growing urge to create something of his own, he soon branched out to set up his own business.

That was three years ago. Today, Nathan runs Prospect Estates, a successful healthcare specialist mergers and acquisitions consultancy firm.

His message to current RGS students is: “There’s no substitute for hard work and perseverance.

“I wish I’d known back then that what you are and what you achieve in school won’t define what you achieve in the future if you’re prepared to work hard and take risks.”

He advises: “Don’t give up. Corporate advisory and mergers and acquisitions are cut-throat industries which require 100 per cent commitment and a lot of resilience.

“Don’t quit before it gets good. When you’re feeling like you’re getting nowhere, you’re probably somewhere near succeeding, the moment that you stop trying is the moment that you start failing.”

Although he had no plans when he left school before his final A-level year, he vaguely knew he eventually wanted to do something that would allow him to be creative.

“I took PE, psychology and economics at AS level but ultimately, I’d checked out after GCSEs and had already started working evenings and weekends.

“Finding something that I wanted to pursue as a career was difficult. Lots of my friends knew broadly what they wanted to do, so took the relevant A-levels and planned for what university they wanted to go to. I didn’t have that vision, so I put myself out there, went travelling and spent time trying different things before I found something I wanted to pursue."

He had always admired independent business owners and had a vision he’d build his own business one day: “I don’t quite know how I ended up in mergers and acquisitions, but I think it suits my natural abilities and personality,” he says.

It was once he got to director level he felt the only way he could progress was to take that leap: “I was introduced to an established business owner, who was looking to invest in a new business, and we found that there was a lot of synergy between their existing business and what I wanted to build.”

They co-founded Prospect Estates to help healthcare business owners sell their business: “And on the flip side, we help anyone from first-time buyers to private equity firms, scale their businesses by providing advice and deal flow,” he explains.

No two days are ever the same: “On the client side, I spend hours each day speaking and meeting with clients, mostly negotiating transactional terms, managing third parties like solicitors and accounts, providing business valuations and growth/retirement planning advice.”

He also spends time coaching and mentoring each member of his team: “On top of that, there’s a lot of critical thinking across things like financial management of the business, recruitment, marketing and growth strategy.”

There have been many highlights: “I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked on some really interesting and sizeable deals throughout my career. I once brokered a flagship multi-million-pound acquisition for a private equity house that had just entered the UK market, who now have over 150 sites nationally, so seeing the impact of my work long term is really satisfying.

“The first successful business sale we completed after starting my own business was the most rewarding sale I’ve ever completed by far and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the first invoice I raised with my own company name on it.

“And there’s lots of perks to having your own business. I would say that the freedom that it gives me to manage my own time and balance my lifestyle is the best.”

But he warns that there are downsides too: “Finding the right people who can share in your vision and help you scale the business long term is very difficult. I’ve had some recruitment disasters, hiring the wrong people and wasting a lot of time and money!

He currently employs two other full-time consultants and shares a marketing and business support team with his sister company: “When it comes to employing people who are reliant on you paying their wages there’s a lot of pressure and responsibility. You’ve always got to be looking down the line to make sure that the wheels stay on the train. Whilst it’s tough, I feel that it’s the highest privilege.”

Looking back on his time at school, he says his fellow pupils were his inspiration: “RGS has such a diverse group of students. There were a lot of people around me doing amazing things, so there was always someone to inspire you to push harder.”

He was always keen on sports at school, playing rugby and cricket plus football and fishing out of school: “I think sports at a competitive level is a great way of learning, even though you don’t know you’re learning at the time.

“You learn how to work towards a goal as part of a team, and part of that is being able to understand others and being able to communicate effectively. I think competitive sports help teach you the value of perseverance and resilience too,” he says.

His favourite teacher was biology teacher Keith Miller: “We have a shared passion for fishing, and both now sit on the committee of our local angling club.”

Nathan, who’s bought his own house in Ripon, is happily settled in his hometown: “I’m not planning on going anywhere anytime soon. But what I do miss about my time at RGS is the time you get to spend each day with your friendship group. I met some fantastic people, who I keep in touch with now.”

He has big plans for the future: “We’re planning to scale our business internationally, across the US and Canadian healthcare markets, so I’m really hoping to make a success of that. Longer term, I’m trying to develop the team around me so that the business is self-sufficient to an extent and ultimately less reliant on me, so that I can work on the business, rather than in the business.”

Nathan pictured, top, outside a local pharmacy with some of his clients

Middle: with RGS friends, James, Patrick and Angus, at a school ball