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How A Strategic Plan Will Change Your Business

August 1, 2022 by lauramills

Strategic Planning is the key to the success of any business, no matter its size or age but it’s said that many small to medium-sized businesses don’t have a plan of any kind.

What is a Strategic Plan?

The strategic plan sets out:

the company’s direction and priorities;
its main operating and financial targets,
the actions it will take to achieve those objectives,
the new initiatives and investments planned, and
their impact on the company’s performance.

Nearly a fifth of SMEs say they prefer to keep plans in their head, according to research by Close Brothers Asset Finance. Mike Randall, CEO of Close Brothers Asset Finance, says, “It’s concerning that so many small and medium sized firms do not have a strategic business plan. Without clear direction, they may be missing out on opportunities for growth and not realising their full potential.”

A formal plan is an extremely valuable tool for managing and growing a business as it:

clearly communicates the company’s priorities
ensures all key staff are working towards common goals
sets the focus on key objectives
delegates actions and accountabilities amongst employees
ensures that decisions made will benefit the long-term company goals
allows a company to recognise its strengths and weaknesses.

Failing to plan is like planning to fail

Strategic Planning is an area SMEs should be focusing on. Furthermore, a plan is only useful if it is reviewed regularly to ensure it meets the current and future needs of the business. It’s vital business owners regularly review their financial strategy to ensure they have the right funding in place to meet the needs of their business, at its current stage of the business lifecycle.

Most CEOs and MDs simply don’t have the time to spend on quality strategic thinking and to document and communicate that thinking in a way which allows the whole business to buy into the vision. Harder still is managing and implementing the business plan. Significant strategic course corrections are commonplace in fast-growing companies. These should be embraced. The tricky part though is in managing regular change. That requires a combination of time and specialist knowledge.

There is an art and science to effective business planning. Getting it right brings a real sense of clarity and direction to a business. This is where an experienced part-time CFO can make a significant contribution.

There is an art and science to effective strategic planning. Getting it right brings a real sense of clarity and direction to a business.

Business Plan for Funding

It’s likely at some point in your business journey, that you need access to funding. Whether that be to scale faster, expand into other territories or buy other businesses.

External funding could be via banks, non-bank lenders, venture capitalists, and angel investors. None of these are unlikely to look at any funding request that isn’t accompanied by a very solid business plan. It defines exactly what you want to achieve, and how you plan to achieve it across a set time period. It’s a sure-fire way to ensure that growth targets and plans are being met.

However, business owners will struggle to formulate a concrete business plan without firstly ensuring that their strategic plan is solid and robust.

Our team can assist in creating and implementing a solid strategic plan and/or business plan that paves the journey for your business. Click here to find out more, or contact us on 1300 447 740.

What Is a CFO…And Why Do You Need One?

August 1, 2022 by lauramills

Many of my SME and NFP clients ask me “What is a CFO? …. And why do I need one?”

What they are really asking is, “what value can a CFO bring, and what can a CFO do that my finance/accounting/book-keeping team cannot do?”.

BREADTH & COMMERCIALITY

A CFO (Chief Financial Officer) has responsibility for ALL the financial affairs of an organisation. It normally takes around 10+ years of diverse finance experience before they get their FIRST CFO role. Being the top finance person in these sizeable organisations means that they normally acquire commercial, operational and strategic experience.

The finance/accounting team or accountant/book-keeper has responsibility for the accounting system. In this context this typically involves processing invoices and transactions, making payments to suppliers and staff, compiling budgets, facilitating any audits, preparing P&Ls and balance sheets, and compliance work such as filing tax returns. It is an important and critical part of the overall financial system. It is the engine room, or the lifeblood of the financial ship, giving the ship energy, information and the ability to move. But it is not the entire financial operation. There are other parts of the metaphorical ship,e.g. navigation, steering and radar rooms.

CFO’s financial role. In addition to the accounting system, CFO may focus on:

Need forward looking reporting. Accounting system is generally historic (past transactions). We don’t drive our cars with eyes fixed on rear view mirror!
Tax planning (not filing)
Increased focus on cashflows rather than P&Ls (profitable businesses can go bankrupt)
Reporting that gives information on how different parts of the business are performing (rather than the information that ATO or auditors require)
Medium term business plans with milestones and KPIs (not annual budgets)

CFO’s commercially and strategic role:

Partnering with, and advising, the CEO/owner to drive business performance
Manage and mitigate risks
Linking financial and operational strategies
Evaluating and advising on projects, products, customers, pricing strategies

In a nutshell, a good CFO will have breadth at all areas of finance and accounting, but in addition have commercial and strategic acumen.

DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOUR BUSINESS IS DOING?

As businesses grow and become more complex it is more difficult for owner/managers to have comfort that everything is under control. No longer can they do it all, and see it all, but they don’t know how to setup systems and structures to delegate.

This is currently made more difficult by pandemics, geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruption etc.

Many good businesses fail at this early growth stage. We often call it “the first brick wall”!

It’s a vicious downward spiral. The business suffers, or worse case, runs out of cash.

SO, DO YOU NEED A CFO?

An experienced CFO knows how to setup these systems, to better enable profitable, crisis free growth. They can act as advisors, partners and mentors.

So YES, you may very well need a CFO.

Your finance team can also benefit. By working with the CFO they can up-skill and broaden their experience.

Win, win!!

“But I don’t need and can’t afford a full-time CFO”.

ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, but you do need help, just not full-time help.

SOLUTION….a Part Time CFO model. You pay for the CFO only when you need them!! On demand CFOs.

Written by Gary Campbell. Gary is an experienced CFO, based in Victoria, working for the CFO Centre Australia. He is particularly successful at profit improvement, financial turnarounds, risk management and corporate governance for SMEs and NFP. He can be contacted here

17 Reasons Why You Need a CFO To Help You Exit

July 4, 2022 by lauramills

The CFO Centre will provide you with a highly experienced senior CFO (Chief Financial Officer) with ‘big business experience’ for a fraction of the cost of a full-time CFO.

This means you will have:

One of Australia’s leading CFOs, working with you on a part-time basis
A local support team of CFOs, plus
A national and international collaborative team of over 750 CFOs sharing best practice (the power of hundreds)
Access to our national and international network of clients and partners

With all that support and expertise at your fingertips, you will achieve better results, faster. It means you’ll have more confidence and clarity when it comes to decision-making. After all, you’ll have access to expert help and advice whenever you need it.

In particular, your part-time CFO will help you to ensure that your business has planned and prepared for an exit. The sale process would be managed efficiently to minimise challenges on price, and prevent advisors’ fees from absorbing too much of the sale price.

For example, your CFO will:

Help you to implement your strategy for growth and exit
Identify where value can be maximised and eliminate unprofitable or low profit activities
Ensure that shareholders’ interests are protected through a shareholders’ agreement
Explain what incentive arrangements are available for key management and introduce them. These could include bonus plans aligned to the business objectives or option plans
Ensure that property is held in the most appropriate manner for the business and any potential acquirer, freehold or leasehold, length of tenancy
Review pension arrangements to identify any funding or future liability issues
Review contracts and trading terms to ensure they are in place, up to date and enforced
Identify risks to the business from suppliers and customers on whom the business may have become reliant and plan to spread the risk
Improve the accuracy and timeliness of management information
Introduce systems and controls to increase confidence in the integrity of the accounting information
Improve and/or introduce forecasting processes and procedures so that budgets and forecasts can be used as dynamic planning tools
Identify means of improving margins and reducing overheads to improve profitability
Ensure compliance with PAYG, Superannuation, GST, Income Tax and Company Tax legislation while seeking ways to reduce the overall tax burden to you and your business
Introduce you to corporate finance, legal and other advisers to help with all aspects of the exit preparation and process
Project manage the exit process internally so that it minimises the disruption to other staff and their continuing responsibilities
Create confidence in the acquirer and their advisers so that they have limited opportunity to attempt to negotiate the price down or increase warranties from you
Help you achieve the freedom you want after the efforts that you have invested in growing business

How much better would you feel when you engage a top calibre CFO to work with you on your exit/succession? Get in touch with us today – 1300 447 740

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7 Ways To Increase Profit And Business Value

July 4, 2022 by lauramills

Have you ever wondered how your business is valued in the eyes of an external party? Then you need to know the seven (7) levers in your business.

With just a little additional focus on one or more of these 7 levers, you can directly improve the cash-flow, profitability and/or value of your business. There’s no smoke and mirrors, nor anything particularly difficult to undertake. However, many business owners do not take the time to appreciate how the financial performance of their business really works. So, let’s break it down.

Often business owners will primarily focus on sales volume, in other words trying to sell more. However, whilst sales volume is important, it’s only one of the 7 levers available to you.

What are the 7 levers in a business that control your cash, profit and business valuation?

The first four levers are focused on your Profit and Loss and therefore directly impact the profitability (and cash-flow) of your business. As most, businesses are valued at a multiple of cash earnings. These levers also have a huge impact on the value of your business (along with other aspects such as Brand, customer base / income streams, and internal expertise / “keyman” dependence).

Volume

Selling more – although increasing sales can grow your business, don’t forget to focus on the other levers below! How much of every extra $1 in revenue turns into profit and into cash in your bank account, and when?

Tip – formulate a sales & marketing plan, with a budget, which is aligned back to your overall Strategy. Review and tweak the plan regularly. This will help keep you focused on the right way to grow your top line. Any growth needs to be sustainable!

Pricing

can you increase your prices? Even a 1% increase can have a big impact. There can be a fear of losing customers by putting up your prices, which can often be unfounded.

Tip – review your margins by product / service stream / customer to ascertain which sales are making you money and which are not. You need to know your break-even points! Your part- time CFO can help – they love this stuff!

Tip – the results of your pricing analysis need to dovetail into the sales & marketing plan. It’s possible to make more profit from less turn-over!

Cost of Goods Sold – reduction in % terms

This lever is most relevant to those businesses with direct costs such as manufacturers, construction, etc and places the focus on your gross margin.

Tip – revisit your direct purchasing arrangements and negotiate better terms and pricing. For example, bulk purchase discounts, early payment discounts, reduced freight. Maintaining strong supply chain relationships is important but that doesn’t mean you can’t ask the question (or find potential alternatives).

Tip – review your direct labour-force using metrics such as labour utilisation, overtime levels, re-work, customer complaints, and down-time. You may be able to re-deploy staff or reduce casual labour / overtime once you have this data. Again, your part-time CFO can make this happen for you.

Reducing Overheads

This may sound like an obvious one, but we always find at least some unnecessary “fat” in our client’s overhead expenditure.

Tip – someone needs to review the overheads line by line. Indirect / office wages, communications, insurance, utilities, freight, and advertising are the common ones where savings can be achieved. Even small reductions in certain areas can all add up over time!

These last three levers are focused on your Balance Sheet and are collectively called Working Capital. They have a significant impact on your cash-flow and therefore also on your funding requirements. Many businesses can avoid additional debt borrowings, or pay their existing debt faster by shortening their cash-conversion cycle.

Reducing debtor days

This means improving the ageing profile of your Accounts Receivable function (i.e. getting your customers to pay you faster).

Tip – review your credit control policy and your payment terms as customers with poor payment histories should be carefully managed. Review your collections process in terms of who chases the debt and when. The introduction of direct debit may be an excellent solution for some businesses.

Reducing stock days

This means a faster conversion of your inventory (if you carry it) into sold product, thereby reducing the amount of stock you hold.

Tip – introduce a stock-take process if you don’t have one. This can ensure that your financial records mirror what you actually have on the shop-floor. Then review the results of the stock-take for slow-moving or obsolete stock items – these may need to be discounted in order to convert them into cash. Your purchasing policies may also need review if you are over-stocked with certain inventory lines.

Increasing creditor days

This means taking longer to pay suppliers (without hurting the relationship or cutting off supply).

Tip – contact your suppliers to re-negotiate your settlement terms. It’s just a matter of asking the question – they may say “no” but then again, they may really value your business.

Now you know the what the 7 levers are, it’s time to do something tangible with them in order to make a real impact on your business. If you don’t have the internal expertise or time to make it happen, we would be happy to talk to you about how a part-time CFO can bring this to life. After all, as CFOs it’s what we do!

Photo by Monstera

Who is Working for Whom?

July 2, 2022 by lauramills

A rhetorical question for you – “Is the business working for me or am I working for the business?”

Before you answer, perhaps it may be opportune to really reflect on where things stand for you and your business, and what you would like to achieve this year for both.

The thought of taking some time out for reflection may sound like a “nice thing to do”, however it can be a very powerful exercise. Since Covid hit, have you made time (with no distractions) to REALLY reflect? Or have you been swept into the new financial year with hardly time to a take a breath?

Time to reflect

The practice of Reflection can be an excellent way to provide you with a sense of calm and clarity, allowing you to get clearer on:

What is most important to me personally? (ie what do I value most?)
Am I living the life I choose? If not, what is stopping me?
Why did I start or buy the business?
Are those reasons still valid and aligned with what I want now and for the future?
What does the business need to look like to support my vision and goals?

When you are clear on what is most important to you and the life you would like to live, you can then look at your business through a different lens. It allows you to honestly question whether the business, in its current state, is an enabler or distractor from achieving your personal goals.

Reflection paves the way for truly effective business planning. This starts with YOU and PURPOSE rather than the business itself. With renewed clarity you gain from personal reflection, your plans for the business may start to look very different. For example:

Reducing business dependency on you (or “key people”). This frees you up to spend more time with family or more time to pursue the things that make you truly happy.
Exit or succession planning to facilitate your retirement or next project. And we know this often takes longer to successfully implement than you think!
Realign the business to better reflect your personal values (such as ethical, social, or environmental considerations).

What’s next?

If “more of the same” doesn’t sound appealing to you, take time to reflect on your Why and personal goals. You can then consider and plan how your business will support you in achieving the life you desire.

CFO Centre is a worldwide group, united by the common Purpose: “To help you live the life you choose by defining and delivering on the numbers that REALLY matter”. Click here if you’d like to find out more about how it all works.

4 Signs That My Business Might Need CFO Services

June 28, 2022 by lauramills

I have recently been talking to business owners and executives who want to build more resilience into their business. They are considering adding a part-time Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to their team. During these discussions, two questions usually come up. “How do I know if my business needs a CFO?” and “what does a CFO do that my Accountant can’t?”. I would like to share some thoughts on these questions.

The primary responsibility of a CFO is to optimize the financial performance of a company. This includes its reporting and accountability, liquidity, return on investment and long-term value creation.

A CFO has a forward-looking perspective. They look at interactions of the business with outsiders, acting as a diplomat and negotiator with third parties. Often the strategies put in place by a CFO are not short-term fixes. Some may take months or years to be fully realised.

How do I know when my business needs a CFO?

As to the question of when a business needs a CFO, the following indicators may be helpful.

Internal – When information that helps in making important decisions is not timely or reliable.
External – When improved respect must be gained outside the business. eg from investors, customers, suppliers, labour markets, regulators etc.
Rapid Growth – Growth requires an expansion of systems, and usually additional capital to finance the growth.
Exit – When a business is preparing for a merger, acquisition, or business sale.

So, when the business is at the stage of increased external engagement and growth, a CFO can add significant value.

What does a CFO do that my Accountant can’t?

A CFO always works closely with the external Accountant. Having an accounting background, the CFO is well placed to understand the role of the external Accountant. The external Accountant’s role is mostly concerned with compliance and transactional advice. They work from their own offices and will normally attend the client’s business premises periodically. External Accountants often have the skill sets to provide additional services. However, they are usually not involved closely enough in the running of the business to make this a sensible use of their time.

Functions such as the below will either fall to the CFO or some other suitably qualified resource will need to be allocated:

Budgeting and forecasting
Cash flow management
Financial reporting
Scenario planning
Internal controls
Insurance
Bench-marking and key performance indicators
Incentive schemes
Management of key suppliers
Accounting policies

If the business doesn’t have a CFO, the CEO or one of the Directors have to take ownership of these functions. This means they are taken away from other important leadership and governance roles. They also may not have the depth of experience in the technicalities of financial transactions to handle these things well.

Some of the common misconceptions about a CFO

There are some common misconceptions about a CFO that are worth discussing.

The first misconception is that a CFO may have an excessive focus on short-term financial results ie this year’s profit. Financial success of the business is undoubtedly the objective of any CFO. This, however, does not mean sacrificing long-term value creation for short-term results. A CFO is interested in the success of all business stakeholders. This includes owners, employees, customers, suppliers, financiers etc. All stakeholders must be rewarded to ensure the long-term health of the business.

CFOs are therefore, likely to be just as interested in the business strategy as they are in the profit and loss statement. In addition, culture, reputation, governance, and risk management will be on their radar. A good CFO recognises that sustainable financial success is only achieved when all aspects of a business are working well.

Another commonly held misconception is that CFOs think in “black and white”. That therefore, they may not be comfortable with the various shades of grey that business and life deal up. Whilst that may be true for some aspects of a CFO’s decision-making, good CFOs will look closely at the underlying issue. For example, CFOs are often involved in analysing the performance of a business or even individuals. In understanding performance, a CFO will often consider a range of underlying factors. This can include; roles and responsibilities, resources, delegated authorities, remuneration and incentive systems, behavioural assessments, management approach, and organisational structure and culture. CFOs are first and foremost experienced corporate managers. They understand that people are usually the most critical resource in businesses. From experience, most CFOs are skilled at dealing with people issues sensitively.

If you’d like a confidential discussion about whether a part-time CFO could be right for your business, please contact us.

Allan Robb, CFO at the CFO Centre

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

May 17, 2022 by lauramills

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:

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.
Prepare.Leaders must map out exactly what’s required. They should include clear and comprehensive information about timing, budget, milestones, communication frequency, and resources.
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.
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.
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/

How to Outsmart Your Competitors with a Business Plan

May 17, 2022 by lauramills

Most business owners know that without a comprehensive, up-to-date business plan and an implementation timetable, they may be missing out on opportunities for growth and not realising their full potential. However, around 30% of SMEs don’t have one. To ensure you’re ahead of your competitors, it’s imperative to find the time and/or resources to create and implement a plan for the start of the new financial year.

A formal plan can be an extremely valuable tool for managing and growing a business. It allows a company to recognize its strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, research has shown that SMEs that have a business plan in place are consistently more profitable than those who don’t.

A Formal Plan

Planning is the key to the success of any business, no matter its size or age. Yet many SMEs don’t have a plan. The majority of those without such a plan say they don’t believe it’s necessary or that they keep their plans in their head.

It’s concerning that so many small and medium-sized businesses don’t have a formal business plan. Without clear direction, they may be missing out on opportunities for growth and not realizing their full potential. A plan is invaluable and should see out the company’s:

Strategic direction
Main operating and financial targets;
Actions it will take to achieve those targets,
New initiatives and investments planned;
And their impact on the company’s performance

Creation and Implementation

Creating a well thought-through, comprehensive business plan is an arduous task. Thinking through objectives and likely outcomes which may occur many years down the line is challenging. But it is the hard work up front which makes for lighter work down the road as all of our team of part-time CFOs will attest to.

Most CEOs and business owners simply don’t have the time to spend on quality strategic thinking or to document and communicate that thinking in a way which allows the whole business to buy into the vision.

Harder still is managing and implementing the business plan. Significant strategic course corrections are commonplace in fast-growing companies. These should be embraced. The tricky part though is in managing regular change. That requires a combination of time and specialist knowledge.

There is an art and science to effective business planning and getting it right brings a real sense of clarity and direction to business – this is where an experienced part-time CFO can make a significant contribution.

Not spending quality time on strategic planning usually leads to a chaotic working environment. Our clients often talk about ‘not feeling in control’ and ‘not really knowing what is coming around the next corner’.

Proper business planning is very liberating for the business owner, whatever their objective might be. A well-constructed and regularly reviewed business plan will instil real confidence that the goal is indeed achievable.

Key Benefits

Writing a business plan has many benefits for businesses of any size and in any industry. It can help owners and senior managers to:

Clarify objectives and develop suitable strategies.
Understand the market.
Identify and overcome internal and external threats
Organise the company
Access external funding

Key Elements

The most important part of your business plan is its financial information. Your financial forecasts should include your cash flow predictions for the next 12 months or more. You’ll also need to include sales estimates and costs to ensure the business has enough working capital or to ensure you understand any needs to arrange additional financing.

You need to explain all assumptions in the business plan, with best and worst case scenarios. Detail the risks you’re likely to face and how they will be dealt with.

Conclusion

An up-to-date business plan or ‘roadmap’ in your business will allow you to experience a sense of control, which may have been absent since the day you started your company.
The business plan will remove a significant amount of confusion from your operating procedures. There will always be challenges contained within new projects but you will have a proper framework against which all decision-making can take place.
The plan provides the blueprint for delegating responsibility to your team and allows you to create some space in your own environment to work on growing your business.
You will move out of the chaos and into a more serene working environment where each of the gears, which make up the bigger system, is able to move in harmony.
Potential hazards will have been identified in advance and dealt with before they become unmanageable. You will be able to move from a culture of fire-fighting to a culture of fire-prevention and the benefits will be felt by each member of your team and most probably by your customers too.
A part-time CFO can assist with creating, implementing and reviewing your Business Plan, as well as be a constant guide and sounding board for you.