Most of the damage is done before anyone realises there is a problem.
A structured consultation with a US expansion specialist that stress-tests your plan, validates your strategy, and identifies the gaps before they cost you.
The outcome is a business that is better prepared, less exposed, faster to revenue, and more attractive to investors.
Book a Health Check discovery callThe founder spends the first three to six months doing the things that feel productive. Flying to the US, taking meetings, signing up a couple of early customers, maybe hiring a local salesperson or engaging a contractor to represent them. Revenue trickles in. Confidence builds. They assume the hard part is behind them. Then the problems start arriving. Usually not all at once. Usually at the worst possible moment.
Contractor reclassified as employee
The contractor they had been paying for eight months gets reclassified by the state. Backdated payroll taxes, penalties, and potential personal liability for the directors follow. The contractor did not know. The founder certainly did not.
Sales tax nexus triggered unknowingly
A letter arrives from a state tax authority. Selling into California or New York above the economic nexus threshold without collecting sales tax. The liability is retrospective. Voluntary disclosure would have limited it significantly. They did not know it existed.
US sales hire fails after nine months
Made too early before the proposition was validated for the US market. The fully loaded cost ran sixty percent higher than the UK equivalent. The correction costs another six months of runway and management attention.
Brand name registered by someone else
Trading in the US for two years but never filed with the USPTO. US trademark rights go to the first filer, not the first user. The legal bill to challenge it, if it can be challenged at all, runs to six figures.
Permanent establishment created unknowingly
The UK parent invoiced US customers directly because nobody set up the entity properly. The IRS determines this constitutes permanent establishment. Three years of back taxes assessed. No protective filings. No statute of limitations defence.
Transfer pricing never documented
The arrangement between UK parent and US subsidiary was never put in writing. HMRC and the IRS both take an interest. The intercompany charges that were assumed to be fine are not fine.
Product liability claim not covered
Exposure that did not exist in any meaningful way in the UK becomes existential in the US. One claim results in a damages award the UK insurance policy does not cover because nobody checked whether it extended to US operations.
Structural separation never maintained
The US entity was formed but the separation between it and the UK parent was never properly upheld. Every liability flows straight through to the UK parent and its directors personally.
The cumulative effect is not usually one catastrophic event. It is a series of expensive, avoidable corrections that consume the capital that was meant to build the business, distract the founder from the commercial work, and in a significant number of cases result in a retreat from the market entirely.
None of this is inevitable.
A structured consultation with a US expansion specialist that stress-tests your plan, validates your strategy, and identifies the gaps before they cost you.
You leave with a sharper commercial approach, a more robust strategy, and a clearer understanding of the structural, legal, tax, and compliance factors that will shape your US operation. Acted on early, these are the difference between an expansion that builds with confidence and one that spends the first two years unwinding avoidable mistakes.
The outcome is a business that is better prepared, less exposed, faster to revenue, and more attractive to investors.
Built across hundreds of UK and European engagements, covering more than 400 factors across eight domains. Every one of them capable of making or breaking a US expansion. The Health Check works through what is most material for your business, prioritised by where the risks and gains sit.
Within seventy-two hours you receive a written report covering your specific situation across eight domains. Risks identified, gaps closed, strategy validated, and a clear set of prioritised next steps.
Where specialist support is needed, we make the introductions.
Better prepared
Strategy validated, gaps identified, plan stress-tested before capital is committed. You go to America knowing what you are walking into.
Less exposed
Tax positions, compliance gaps, and liability exposures identified and addressed before they accumulate silently into expensive problems.
Faster to revenue
Commercial approach refined, channel chosen, hiring sequenced correctly. The detours that cost most companies twelve months are avoided from the start.
More investable
A business built on foundations that survive due diligence and signal to investors that the work has been done properly.
A thirty-minute call to understand your current position, answer any questions about the Health Check, and agree whether it is the right next step for your business at this stage.
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