When do I need an outsourced CFO?
The ability to slim down expenses while scaling up is something that every business evaluates often. How are business owners tackling that challenge in today’s market?
Utilizing third-party services for operations that used to be performed in-house is becoming an increasingly popular option. While your company needs the expertise but can’t afford an employee’s full-time salary and benefits, taking this route can help you get there and, more importantly, affordably.
If you own or operate a business, you know that understanding and managing the finances is vital to the overall success of your company. Still, you also know that building out your accounting team is not cheap.
In most cases, a business might have a bookkeeper or an accountant who works the day-to-day while the business owner is stuck functioning as a CEO, CFO, COO, and everything in between. Ultimately, while studies find that most business owners get satisfaction from completing the finance work when they do have a moment to think about it, they don’t enjoy the mundane work needed to get there, or have the expertise to fully analyze it when they get there, so why do it?
In the end, it usually falls by the wayside. Budgets aren’t completed or followed, projections are never analyzed, and decisions are made blindly. A week turns to a month and a month to a year. A CFO can help measure the success of your business in monetary terms helping you grow and scale into a profitable, efficient, and effective company.
Here are a few of the top benefits when you have an outsourced CFO on your team:
You’ll have a personal sounding board – let your expert help you in decision making and guide you through their lens. Utilize the knowledge they bring to the table to learn and grow your company with them
You’ll have an expert in financial data – data drives your company. Having someone with experience to break it down and make it digestible can help you make decisions appropriately and effectively using real-time statistics of your company and its performance
You’ll have time to do what you do best – work on your business, not it, to ultimately succeed. To work on your business, you need time, and by outsourcing the CFO work you have on your desk, you will have more time on your hands to focus on propelling forward.
While many businesses might have an accountant, adding a financial leader in an outsourced CFO can provide immense value, especially in the following areas:
Improving your financial awareness and understanding
Reaching solutions quickly and problem-solving in real-time
Creating cash flow forecasts and analyzing financial statements
Staying aligned with your finances and your company data
While CFO responsibilities are broad and will vary based on industry and specific company needs, an outsourced CFO will always help to provide an understanding of your company’s financial situation and help you make decisions based on your current state, the market, and other influential factors.
If you are experiencing any of the following, it might be time to consider engaging an outsourced CFO:
Rapid growth – a CFO can help you scale your business by focusing on capital, liquidity, and cash flow. Analyzing this allows your development to be sustainable, not just a rise and fall.
New product development – utilize a CFO for market assessment skills and their help to build strategic partnerships and create an ROI structure.
You need to boost profitability – If your company has become stagnant and you are unsure why an outsourced CFO can analyze and help you move the needle to higher profitability and get you on the track to long-term growth.
You need to create efficiencies – Are you wondering why your business is running you vs. you running your business? Is it difficult to hire anyone to help because all of the knowledge exists within your head? A CFO can help take the information in your brain and turn it to operational procedure and building out your company operations structure.
While your CFO seat sits empty, money is potentially left on the table (or unnecessarily walking out the door) as you build, scale, or maintain your business.
While your CFO seat sits empty, you are most likely not quantifying and reducing risk proactively, analyzing your costs to increase profitability and cash flow.
While your CFO seat sits empty, you might not be looking forward and taking steps to build a financially sustainable future and ensure your long-term growth and strategy are actively moving forward.
While your CFO seat sits empty, you are stealing time from yourself to work on your business. When you work on your business, you can gain strides towards being where you want to be instead of being overrun, overworked, and underpaid.