Every
business needs to prioritize its finance no matter its size or the field. if
you neglect them it can make it harder for the firm to make a decision and can
cause serious problems which can let your business go down. Although, managing
a business’ finances is a job in itself and can be hard for those without prior
experience or knowledge to manage it.
Enter the CFO – a fundamental part of numerous large
enterprises is to keep the financial side of the business running. They
allocate budgets, keep on top of incomings and outgoings, and generally make
sure that the business is making good financial decisions. The only snag?
They’re expensive, especially for small businesses.
This is where virtual CFOs come in beneficial. They’re
outsourced, often remote, part-time CFOs who work with several businesses,
helping them manage their money and exposing their knowledge. They’re a useful
resource for companies that can’t afford the overhead of a full-time CFO but
need their strategic knowledge and advice. They’ve become popular over the last
few years, especially with organizations like The FD Centre helping businesses
hire a part-time Financial Director or CFO.
It’s better to get virtual CFO services before you need one, as
long-term financial mismanagement can cause further problems down the line.
Here are some signs that your small business could benefit from the assistance
of a virtual CFO.
Company spending sometimes spikes
It can be hard to implement the right expenses policy for a
small business. You don’t want to make it too rigid, but equally, you don’t
want staff spending on anything and everything that they want. You need to
enable and trust them to make necessary purchases to do their jobs while making
sure that they spend within the guidelines.
A virtual CFO can help you manage your expenses policy. They
can recommend technology that helps you control your spending by setting limits
on debits cards and create an expense management guideline for you to use. Businesses
need to concentrate on money coming into the business, but also money going out
(i.e. spending), and a virtual CFO will help to make sure you strike the right
balance to stay cashflow-healthy.
Your budget, goals, and forecasting aren’t adding up
In order to gain the trust of potential investors, startups
need a thorough financial plan with a detailed budget, goals, and forecasting.
This is much more granular than the bigger picture business plan that CEOs tend
to manage. The expertise of a virtual CFO can help ensure money is allocated to
the most business-critical areas. Sales, marketing, and product development are
the departments that typically scale fastest in a startup, and are necessary
for continued innovation, increased customer acquisition, and, ultimately,
turning a profit. They, therefore, must be given the right budget to fuel their
activities – and the necessary means to spend it.
You’re struggling to make business decisions
Making decisions for your business is partly down to
intuition and experience. But without financial data, you’ll be missing out on
crucial insights that could help you to close that deal or avoid that activity
that doesn’t align with your overall strategy.
Start making informed, data-driven decisions with a virtual
CFO. They’ll give you expert insight into your financial health and will help
you make more informed decisions that support long-term goals.
Your processes haven’t changed
Having additional clients, employees and suppliers will
change the way you need to manage your finances, as they will naturally become
more complex. If your processes haven’t changed, they’re likely to be out of
date, they probably won’t scale, and simple tasks will be much more difficult.
Simply employing a bookkeeper might not help, either.
Additional processes need to be managed accordingly, and this is where a
virtual CFO comes in handy. They can advise on the right technology that you
can implement to make these processes easier and will suggest ways to scale
your efforts and resources.
All companies, no matter their size, need to prioritize
their finances. Working with a CFO will help you understand your current
financial position and give you a better idea of your growth trajectory.
They’ll also point out issues that needed to be taken care of before you take
the next step towards growing your company. If you can’t afford a full-time
CFO, a virtual CFO could be the perfect solution for your business.
We are offering the best Virtual CFO services in India we provide the best-outsourced CFO services.