FSE Digital was founded by Danny Hall in 2011 and has grown into a highly successful digital marketing agency specialising in integrated search campaigns.
The CFO Centre provided FSE’s first CFO and the business has experienced a transformation as a result.
FSE Digital has experienced strong organic growth in both turnover and team numbers since its inception but, like many entrepreneurial businesses, the necessary financial processes and reporting have not kept pace
This led to Founder, Danny Hall, reaching out to The CFO Centre to seek help in gaining clarity by implementing reporting and rigour to ensure amore sustainable future for the business.
With Danny’s focus on winning and delivering business, FSE Digital has always been a healthy business. However, by his own admission, Danny’s passion is not for numbers and when the increased turnover of the business wasn’t translating through to the bottom line, he found he wanted more visibility of costs and revenue performance.
The CFO Centre was the perfect solution for his first foray into financial leadership having only ever worked with a compliance-focused accountant before. He knew he needed a different perspective and more control over costs and forecasting.
Gary Caldon proved to be the perfect match for FSE Digital having also founded and grown his own businesses in the past.
The initial focus was on gaining a better understanding of the business’ performance and a closer view of what was happening financially.
We created a plan to work through the initial framework of a more rigorous approach to the company’s finances and then worked towards implementing a monthly rhythm. At the same time, we were focusing on specific areas that might need more follow up, such as assessing margins and ensuring payroll and staff rewards were consistent and appropriate.
With just a light touch approach, we quickly got to grips with the costs going through the business. There were a lot of areas where budgeting could be tightened and, as a result, more checks and balances were introduced for departmental spending.
Cash flow forecasting was introduced to the business, giving more visibility and management information for Danny to use when making decisions.
One area where costs and value were not clear was staffing. Gary has enabled Danny to be more aware of how staff can be better utilised to ensure better return on investment from his team.
After getting everything into great financial shape, the team scheduled regular management accounts meetings which also enables Danny to float any new ideas past Gary. He finds great value in having this sounding board and being able to discuss the performance and potential future of the business.
The business has seen its profit maximised since working with The CFO Centre and this puts it in a much stronger place for future growth.
Danny also feels more in touch with where he needs to invest in the business, and can make more strategic decisions because he has the right management information with which to do so.
Moving forward, Danny has plans for potential growth and acquisitions which make for an exciting future for FSE Digital and he is able to discuss all these things with Gary during their regular meetings. The best thing about working with a fractional CFO is that, should any special projects come to fruition, he can simply scale up his CFO hours to ensure he has the right experience to get the very best outcome.
It was important to have someone who has the right experience and Gary was that person. His experience is very valuable.”
Danny Hall, Founder – FSE Digital
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