Are You Ready For A CFO?

What sort of help does your business need?

Many business owners are time poor and can’t always see the potential pitfalls and improvements within their business. Cashflow, financing and profitability are common contributors to the everyday strain and stress in a business. But there are also some major risks in not getting the right people in to do the right job. And without the right skills, foresight or experience, you might be missing out on great opportunities and even creating bigger headaches.

So where are the skills gap in your business?

Most businesses have an in-house accounts team to manage the day to day transactional work like paying bills and collecting money from customers. However much fewer businesses have a senior finance resource they can rely on to provide management reporting, financial analysis and strategic advice to the directors and management. If it seems like your financial reporting is too slow, not making sense or out of synch with operations then maybe you do need to consider a CFO. If your budget can’t handle the cost of a full time CFO, then an outsourced or contract CFO may be the right solution for you.

A CFO will use robust planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting tools. And will be able to pull timely information that is reliable and meaningful. Then be able to overlay and comment on how the numbers make sense with what is actually going in in your business day to day. As well as make suggestions on alternatives and strategies for improvement such as modelling a price increase or running a business case on a new capital investment.

If you are planning for innovation or rapid growth in your business, then you will need new partners to support you in implementing more complex changes in your business. A CFO is a key driving force in in moving your business forward and the CEO’s ‘right hand’ and sounding board, who can bring valuable networks to strengthen and implement these changes.