The online business advisory service, beprofessional, set up by BLP and Deloitte in 2002, provides small businesses with legal, accounting and IT documents and software necessary to start and run a company. However, it is now rolling out its products to large corporates.
In the last two months it has signed agreements with BT and Loyalty Management Group, which owns and operates the Nectar and Nectar for Business loyalty programmes. Other clients of the company include Barclays and insurance giant Axa.
And in a deal struck last month with millionaire entrepreneur Peter Jones, the software will also be sold in all 160 branches of PC World.
One senior business adviser estimated BLP and Deloitte could raise as much as £10m from an investor wanting to penetrate the small business market. It is understood that beprofessional has already had expressions of interest from outside investors.
BLP managing partner Neville Eisenberg said that BLP had no plans to sell its stake, but would not rule it out in the future. The business has around 34,000 direct subscribers currently on its books. It is understood that annual turnover currently stands at around £350,000.
Eisenberg, who sits on the board of the company, said: “Beprofessional has been in a development phase — we have been testing the market and making sure that the product is robust and people find it useful — but we have reached a point where we are looking to expand the subscriber base.”