Hire a CFO Call us 1300 447 740
Hire a CFO Call us 1300 447 740

Tag: business challenges

The CFO Operator – Increasing your Profits

by lauramills
The CFO Operator – Increasing your Profits

Cash vs Profit

If cash used to be King, in today’s new landscape it’s now Emperor. The Operator frees up the Business Owner from having to worry about the day to day financial operations. Cash has always been critical to every business, however, now more so than ever. Your CFO will help (re)structure your business to maximise your cash position. This involves balancing supply and demand while cutting back unnecessary costs and improving productivity, efficiencies and ultimately profit.

4 areas of focus are:

  • Maximisation of Profits and Profitability
  • Ownership of Cash flow
  • Reduce Costs
  • Increase Productivity & Efficiency

The CFO as an Operator

Being thought of as the Operator may not be the first role that a small business owner would think of for their CFO. In his blog, my colleague from The CFO Centre – Dr. Andre Van Zyl set out The Strategist role that a CFO often fills Under The Spotlight – The Strategist. While that role is critical for any organisation’s long-term existence, CFOs also have vast tactical experience in an Operator role. We are obviously not referring to operating a factory floor machine. We mean that the CFO has the ability and experience to oversee and operate a number of critical functions. A calm and reassuring Operator may be key to a company’s future.

In a more benign operating environment, the maximisation of profit may be central to a company’s strategy. In the current environment keeping a tight control of cash and costs will increase organisational efficiency.

Time

Time, or the lack of it, is so often cited by small business owners as one of their biggest frustrations. Our clients often comment that they are spending so much time working IN-the-business that they can’t spend enough time ON-the-business. A Part-time CFO who works closely with a small business owner can free up time for the owner by sharing the load. As a result, this ensures the owner is fully focused on those very roles that were the initial catalyst for creating the business. This can be a significant ‘value add’ aspect of the Operator role of a CFO.

Our CFOs have either worked their way up through, or had executive responsibility for, the Finance functions in various organisations. They deeply understand the importance of running a tightly controlled organisation. This includes specific focus on cash flow management, profitability, and productivity.  Andre wrote about developing three-way financial forecasting models which are critical for banks and financiers. It is just as important to deliver against those models.

Making Critical Decisions

Many businesses need to consider whether current business models can survive in the longer term. Critical decisions may need to be made on products or business lines to either scale-up, maintain status quo, scale-down or even shut-down completely. A part-time CFO can help small business owners as they work through that exercise.

A new or refined operating rhythm may therefore need to be designed. This could mean minor tweaking or more major restructuring. Consideration of this may be critical for survival. The Operator who has extensive business experience will greatly assist with a rapid transition to a new business model. Central to this will be the robust and disciplined forecasting exercise.

At The CFO Centre we have the relevant experience required to assist business owners in navigating and operating during the current and future challenges. The objective must be to future proof your business, and The CFO Centre is here to support you.

 

Written by John Paterson, Principal (NSW) – The CFO Centre.

4 Little Changes That’ll Make a Big Difference on your Stress Levels

by lauramills
4 Little Changes That’ll Make a Big Difference on your Stress Levels

Your best chance of succeeding in the fight against stress is to aim for prevention. Use these three methods to prevent stress on the individual and organizational level.

The following excerpt is from Dr. Nadine Greiner’s book Stress-Less Leadership.

Too many people wait until stress has progressed too far before taking action. But unlike other afflictions, like alcohol abuse or cancer, that only affect certain individuals, stress affects all of us — stress is not an “if” but a “when.” So, it makes sense to take preventive measures against stress.

Following are a number of methods you can use to prevent stress on the individual and organizational level. You should select the ones that feel right to you.

1. Time management

As an executive, you know there are never enough hours in the day. From streams of emails to floods of meeting requests, your time is under constant attack. Time management becomes more difficult as workloads increase, but it’s crucial to effective leadership and stress prevention.

The first step toward understanding how effective you are at time management is to do a time audit assessing how much time you spend on the activities that consume your day. Then, to-do lists, calendar apps, and time-tracking software can all help you remain on task and better understand how effectively you are dividing your time.

2. Delegating

Managers frequently struggle with delegating. Do you enjoy delegating, or does it give you anxiety? Effective delegating doesn’t just prevent stress and burnout among leaders, but it also enhances team capacity. When leaders delegate work thoughtfully, they empower their team members to take on new responsibilities and expand their skill sets. Effective delegation involves five key steps:

  1. Evaluate.Leaders must first determine whether a task should be delegated. If it’s critical for long-term success and mission-critical to the company, they may not want to delegate it. Leaders must also evaluate whether they have enough time to effectively delegate the job. Delegating shouldn’t be a rapid-fire handoff. They’ll need to spend time training, checking on progress, and engaging in constant communica­tion.
  2. Prepare.Leaders must map out exactly what’s required. They should include clear and comprehensive information about timing, budget, milestones, communication frequency, and resources.
  3. Assign. Leaders must determine which team members have the required skill set or expertise to complete the task. Ideally, it should help employees grow and expand their capabilities.
  4. Confirm understanding and commitment.Leaders often make false assumptions about whether employees under­stand what’s being asked of them. They should confirm understanding by asking their employees to summarize the request and what’s required. Managers must also get explicit commitment from their employees, who must commit to the expected results, milestones, resource requirements, and pro­posed budget.
  5. Avoid micromanaging.Once leaders hand off the baton, it’s critical to avoid micromanaging. If an employee hits a roadblock, leaders should treat this as a learning opportu­nity and not take the reins. Effective coaching will help employees understand where they’ve gone wrong and help empower them to succeed in the future.

If you struggle with delegation, consider blocking off time each day to create a plan of action. With careful planning, you and your team can succeed. Once you start delegating effectively, your team will dare to come forward more often and more vigorously.

3. Avoiding over-commitment

Do you find yourself biting off more than you can chew? Over-commitment is common among executives and leaders as they agree to take on tasks without considering whether they have enough bandwidth. But as requests and tasks pile up on each other and deadlines draw near, leaders can become overwhelmed and stressed.

Overcommitment can be crippling and lead to a kind of paralysis. The most effective antidote against over-commitment is to be firm and set boundaries. You must be vigilant about protecting your time and learn how to say “no.”

We hope you enjoyed this article courtesy of https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/337726.  Before you go, we’d like to add another tip to this list!

4. Hire a part-time CFO

The CFO Centre offers SMEs the expertise of a highly experienced CFO (Chief Financial Officer), for a fraction of the cost of a full timer, via our part-time/as needed model.  For as little as 1 day a month, our CFOs can take away your stress and help you sleep better at night.  We give our clients confidence in their numbers, confidence in their decisions, and piece of mind, knowing that they have not just our CFO, but the whole CFO Centre team on their side.

See How It Works or contact us today for a chat – 1300 447 740

 

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-showing-distress-3777572/

Step Back and Allow Yourself to Dream

by lauramills
Step Back and Allow Yourself to Dream

The Challenge

One of the toughest challenges for owners of SMEs is to be able to stand back. To look at their business through a wide-angle lens and identify what it is they really have.

When you started your company, you almost certainly allowed yourself to dream. Every successful business operator needs ambition. But as we’ve seen, all too often those aspirations become bogged down in the everyday grind of keeping a business afloat.

Because quite often, the day-to-day distractions and diversions that inevitably surround the running of a successful business get in the way. This affects sensible, objective evaluation and strategic decision-making. Crucially, important opportunities can go at best un-exploited and at worst, un-noticed.

If this resonates with you, what can you do to change the status quo? Ultimately you need an extra pair of hands at a senior level to free up your time and allow you the time to dream.

The Solution

The key could be a CFO (Chief Financial Officer).  Whether that is promoting from within, hiring a full timer for a large business, or using a part-time CFO making it affordable for SMEs.

A CFO can be that extra pair of hands to free up your time by ensuring the smooth running of the finance function. They will also being a senior sounding board, taking on some of your worries as well as:

  • help decode your dream
  • turn your dream into a plan
  • be the one to hold you to account to make it happen.

Great CFOs are catalysts. They can help you break the pattern of linear growth and get you what you really want on an expedited timetable.

Your dream is achieved by developing a concise roadmap based on what you want to achieve. The role of the CFO is to help you identify and unlock that potential. Thus, freeing the dream and making it a reality.

Of course this is not to suggest that success comes easily. Business challenges are usually complicated and risky. That’s another reason why potential isn’t always realised.

If you’d like to learn more about how our part-time/as needed CFOs can help you unlock and realise the true potential in your business, please contact us

Photo by carolyn christine on Unsplash