A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) manages your future financial success, whereas an accountant is largely reactive, advising on what happened, a CFO is proactive advising on what needs to happen. A CFO takes your business to the next level by planning and delivering opportunities to maximise profits and cash whilst limiting risk. Similar to a Finance Director but with a greater commercial role beyond pure finance.
Do you check your business performance? Do you know your available working capital? Do you have a robust commercial business plan and cash forecast? Are you protecting your profits by reviewing your costs and customer pricing?
You may not have the capabilities from your existing accountant or finance team, or you may need some additional support to turn current issues around whilst your team are busy with their ‘day job’. Taking on more staff at a lower experience grade is not the answer, this will lead to further inefficiencies as well as using up time for training and mentoring.
The answer is Pauline, for the price of an accounts assistant you could have a CFO on a retainer basis or deliver a business planning package to allow you to see the way forward. Pauline is very adaptable and focused on completing the activities accurately, training and mentoring others if required with her friendly, can-do attitude.
You get the clarity and oversight that you need to make changes and flourish going forward, paying for expertise as and when you need it.
Get in touch, there’s nothing to lose.
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If your company has grown over the years you could well have left your finance department behind.
Do your accounting personnel have access to the latest information, strategies and software?
Are they given time to find the best financial way forward strategically or do they spend every moment of the working day just trying to keep up?
If your financial department has been left behind then they cannot help plan the company’s strategic forward direction and you are missing key information.
Is your company working on a ‘average profitability’ across all your clients? Do you know the cost of goods and gross margin for each product and service? Do you know how much cash each client is contributing to the business?
If you’ve ever made decisions such as, ‘we’ll put costs up by 3% because that’s the rate of inflation this year’ then you do not have the necessary information to make good profit judgements for your company and you do not have concrete reasons for your prices. Such an approach often leads to inappropriate discounts later being offered to compete in the market which can hit your company hard.
If your company has grown organically and distribution isn’t core to your business, then often logistic supply lines have been made piecemeal and are not effective or cost efficient.
If you do not know whether your method of delivering goods to your clients is the best and most cost effective it can be, without reducing your customer service, then you are probably spending too much money.
This is just as true for small businesses as it is for larger ones.
Are you paying too much for storage? Are you doing things because that’s the way they’ve always been done? Are you sourcing your products, raw materials or overhead supplies in the best way you can?
More expensive methods might be worthy if improved quality, remember buy cheap, buy twice! However it is always wise to benchmark against your highest cost drivers each year.
Do you know what your cash balance will be at the end of the week, next week, two months out, six months out? Can you produce a cash model which you can adapt to with market changes?
Are you short of cash, asking your finance department to ring suppliers to ask for extended credit, to explain that you can’t pay until next week? Are you too generous customers who owe you money, do you have robust debtor management processes?
Have you signed up to contracts that are needlessly harsh? Are you serving some clients at a loss? Is your overtime bill too high or is there waste and inefficiency in your company overheads that is costing you dear?
Can you fund the new investment needed for further growth? Do you need additional money injection from a loan or through financing?
If you don’t know the answer to these questions then you will not maximise your cashflow opportunities. The majority of businesses failures are due to the lack of cash, leading to insolvency.
Chris possesses a broad range of strong technical expertise in the business intelligence sphere, across multitude of platforms, backed by industry recognised certifications. He led a team of business intelligence professionals here at Bespoke, creating customised data solutions for our clients. From garnering client requirements, building data platforms and visualisations, to client engagement, Chris is equally adept at them all. I would have no hesitation in recommending Chris.
I had the pleasure of working with Pauline at Promethean for 8 years. Pauline is one of the few talented individuals who can straddle both a finance and operations role. She took the time to build relationships and understand the function to facilitate provision of relevant management accounts, KPI’s and financial support to deliver initiatives for HR that had a wider crucial impact on the business. Pauline is extremely knowledgeable, efficient and due to her warm personality, I looked forward to my finance meetings with her. She would be an asset to any organisation.
Pauline is a commercially astute professional who has the ability to provide practical leadership across all functions to return cost and process efficiencies. Her attention to detail ,cash and budget forecasting , and accurate business planning , allow businesses strategy alignment. She is thoroughly professional, honest and well respected within her teams for her integrity and ability to complete complex tasks. She has also a great sense of humour. I particularly respect her robust business ethics and steadfastness, in the face of pressure from above her.
Pauline is a fantastic people person, great team work ethos and leadership skills. Her financial and commercial acumen are incredibly strong and she would be a high value asset for any company.
Chris is an excellent SQL and BI professional. He has great skills and knowledge in all areas of data management and business intelligence, he was a great asset in my team, Chris always showed a high level of commitment. I would certainly welcome the chance to work with Chris again in the future.
Pauline has developed our first set of accounts for our not for profit. Her expertise and support has been invaluable to us helping us to develop a set of management accounts that are easy to navigate and update as well as supporting our annual return and keeping our board completely up to date with the financial health of the organisation. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with and we couldn’t have managed it with out her support.
The latest news, articles and happenings from Chris and Pauline are here or can be read in full on our Blog Page. We update our website regularly therefore we recommend frequently returning to get the latest information to help your business thrive.
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