The holiday season is the perfect time to reflect upon all the things we’re thankful for — both personally and professionally. One thing that Scott and I are truly thankful for is our clients and the readers of our blog — so THANK YOU! We’re blessed to have all of you as part of our working network, and we truly cherish our relationship with you.
For those of you who are not clients, you may be wondering: Why do our clients hire us? There are many reasons for people to engage us and the scope of projects varies widely from client to client. Typically, there are three common reasons why people hire us — and here they are:
Greater transparency into financial performance: Many business owners start out by either hiring somebody to make sure that their debits equal their credits to account for every dollar that goes out the door. Eventually, all business owners who want to elevate and expand their presence in the marketplace need a true finance partner who is 100% dedicated to their finance and accounting functions. A finance partner will provide a dashboard that is regularly updated, identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your company’s results, and hold you accountable to your budgets and forecasts established at the start of the fiscal year. For individuals who “manage by the seat of his or her pants”, having specific financial and operational statistics to refer to helps a company make critical decisions that impact their cash flow and strategic mission.
Assistance on specific projects: Most owners have relatively lean departments and staff which just adequate enough to manage daily activities and operations. Given time constraints, devising changes in your company’s processes is often done on “down time”, which is certainly hard to come by. The reality is that improving your company’s policies, procedures, and employee skill set will have a significant impact on your long-term profitability and cash flow. Our clients view us as subject matter experts on finance departments, and we help lead them through transformative initiatives. Some examples include identifying needed roles, evaluating new technology solutions for invoicing and AR collections, and standardizing report calendars for key documents.
Strategic alternatives: Almost all business owners will encounter a fork in the road — grow or sell. These decisions could include selling a piece of your company to raise capital to launch a significant new business activity or to sell shares on a publicly traded exchange. Business owners who have big ideas need seasoned advisors who have experience with various financing strategies and pros and cons associated with the various options. With AcceleratingCFO, companies benefit from the support, knowledge, and experience of experts while navigating complex translations.
Take-away: If any of the reasons why clients hire AcceleratingCFO resonate with you, or if you feel that your financial performance is not what you expect, apply for a free diagnostic on your business with Scott or Brian at info@acceleratingcfo.com.
Co-founders & Managing Partners
AcceleratingCFO