What is a part-time CFO?


Oct
24
2013

 

The answer may seem obvious. CFOs build structure to your company’s financial reporting and provide you with the confidence that your numbers accurately reflect what’s going on in your business. And they deliver senior-level talent and experience in all areas of your business for a fraction of the price of what it would cost to employ a CFO full time.

No matter the stage of your business, in many ways this is exactly what you need. 

Before exploring how a part-time CFO can fit into your company, regardless of it’s size, let’s note four critical ways that CFOs can (or already do) enhance your business and strengthen the value of your financials.

1. Discover cost savings in your business, or additional revenue options, that you’ve not yet realized.

2. Develop a monthly reporting package that helps you learn from past decisions or outcomes.

3. Establish the discipline of cash flow and profit & loss forecasting.

4. Build a stronger accounting team to support your business’s needs as you transition into your business’s next stage.

This three-part series will examine how part-time CFOs can enhance any business, regardless of its size. Our first post takes a look at small businesses.

Part-time CFOs and the small business

To set the stage, let’s define a small business as one that produces no more than $250,000 in revenue, and you haven’t hired an employee yet. As the CEO, you aren’t sure which next step to take. You understand managing your customers and your product, but you have run out of time to know what’s next. You are working too much in your business instead of on your business. There is never enough time, and you don’t have the right advisor to help.  And you know you want help handling the areas that detract you from non-revenue-generating resources such as accounting, banking and compliance. You could use an extra hand.

A part-time CFO with more than 15 years of experience working with companies five times your size is a resource to consider. In addition to moving you to an accounting system that will make your life easier, a CFO serves as an objective advisor ready to roll up their sleeves, and help build a story with your financial statements.  And with that support, you will find the time to build the business you are ready for.

Next we’ll look at how a medium-sized business could benefit from working with a part-time CFO. 




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