The Role of a Fractional CFO
Running a business is hard work. Marketing, selling, personnel, inventory (if you have that), IT and other aspects are not easy either. Finding the right mix of team members to properly take care of your business and customers can be a daunting task. Somehow, you must keep finding a way to move forward.
Ah, but then there’s financial management…and don’t forget about Cash management! There just never seems to be enough. Seems like you’re just getting by week-to-week, month-to-month.
But does it have to be that way?
Sure, you have a CPA/tax preparer on your team. Yet, financial and money management is still hard. What does an owner do?
Consider utilizing a Fractional CFO.
A Fractional CFO works for multiple companies at a time – I may be working with up to 10 companies at any given time. Sometimes you may hear the term CFO services, Outsourced CFO, Part-time CFO, CFO Consultant or even Virtual CFO (I assure you I am quite real).
One of the primary roles of a CFO is to mitigate risk. I will help analyze risk and develop plans and programs to help reduce and avoid it.
My commitment to you is to be your trusted business advisor providing value added services & advice along the way and help you take your business to a whole new level.
Strategy
Having the right strategy in place can mean the difference between success and failure. Determining where you want to go and how to get there is also critical.
Reducing your strategy and goals to paper and then sharing with your team, and even your family, helps involve more people in the process. There is evidence that this helps!
But, don’t do what I have seen some companies do – develop a strategy or business plan and then not follow it!
Budgeting & Forecasting
A Budget is often a key management tool for small business owners and sums up the businesses goals for the upcoming year. A Forecast uses historical data to project or predict what might happen, sometimes for multiple years. A Forecast is usually in a more summarized format as it typically focuses on major revenue & expense items.
After creating a Forecast, a business can apply that information to the Budget. So, budgeting and forecasting works together, but really are two different things!
KPI’s, Benchmarks & Dashboards
I recently read that if you want to be successful, you must have benchmarks.
Every business has certain items they can track (Benchmarks, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)) that show the business how well it is doing. Items typically considered for tracking include quality, time and cost. Dashboards give you a pictorial snapshot of the business results and KPIs – an at-a-glance view, if you will.
Best Practices
Processes & procedures – who needs them? Every business that wants to be successful! How difficult is it to manage 5 people doing the same job 5 different ways? How do you train new staff if you don’t have standard work flows and methods?
A Best Practice is defined as a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means. Many times you hear this called a benchmark (sound familiar?).
Working with staff & other professionals
You have staff that you hired to perform certain duties, right? By utilizing your staff, training them on any new procedures and delegating work to them that you’re already paying them to do saves you money and helps you ultimately have a better trained staff.
Utilizing other professionals to perform tasks that your staff don’t have expertise in (i.e. Human Resources, payroll) makes sense – your dollars are used more wisely and you get to leverage the other person’s experience.
Exit Transitions
I’ve heard it said that you should plan for your exit from your business when you start it. Do you have an Exit Strategy?
It takes time and a team of professionals from different disciplines to make a successful Exit Transition happen. A well prepared buyer and a well run company can get sold quicker and, usually, at a higher price. If you’re looking to transition ownership to family members, management or into an ESOP, those transactions also take time and planning so start early.