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Is This Essential Element Missing From Your Business Plan?

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Is This Essential Element Missing From Your Business Plan?

In building your business, do you ever:

  • Feel out of control – you’re getting by, dealing with one crisis after another, but just barely hanging on?
  • Find that your longstanding products and services just aren’t selling like they used to, but you can’t find time to develop new offerings?
  • Think about retiring after selling out to a group of your employees, but you know that they (and you) are nowhere near to making that possible? (see our post on exiting your business for more on that)

A big step towards resolving these issues, and many others, is to have a business plan – an effective business plan.

Many businesses get by without one. “It’s in my head,” you might say. Or, it could be a document you put together years ago, maybe because your bank required it to extend financing, and you haven’t looked at it since.

According to a survey by business and finance software provider Exact, companies that have a business plan in place were more than twice as successful at achieving their goals than those that did not (a 69% success rate versus 31%).

What’s wrong with many business plans?

If having a business plan is so important, how can your company get the best possible benefit out of the work that goes into preparing one?

Our work here at the CFO Centre has found that while having a business plan helps, there are some important elements to success (many of these are presented in more detail in the e-book).

One is that the plan must be a living document – it needs to be something that you review frequently, updating it as circumstances change, and using it to provide guidance on what your daily, monthly and yearly priorities should be.

Another aspect of success, believe it or not, involves packaging. You may be aware that a business plan that is used as a finance-obtaining tool will succeed more if it features attractive layout and design. But having a document that’s pleasant to look at – not just text on a page – will work better even if it’s just used internally. That’s because the people who read it, including you, will have a greater sense of confidence that the ideas in it can be made to happen.

How a timeline helps make it all happen

But the one important aspect, that many business plans miss, is the element of time. Without a clear picture of what is to happen by what time, a business plan is just a wish-list.

The best way to help make sure that the business plan stays alive – and more importantly so that what’s in it comes to pass – is through including a timeline.

A timeline (or timetable, if you prefer) sets out the milestones of your business plan – the number of employees, number of locations, sales targets, net revenue expected and other targets – and indicates what date they are expected to be reached.

For example, let’s say you have a winning retail concept that you want to turn into a franchise. Maybe even a national franchise.

To do that, you need to determine what processes need to be implemented in order to manage a store like yours effectively. That, in turn, leads to a set of written procedures –  such as the steps to be taken upon opening the store or on closing, how to make each of the products that are sold, and other aspects of success. Maybe then you need to establish a time by which you expect to have that first satellite operation running, maybe as a corporate-owned location, just to see what happens when you’re not on site to trouble-shoot all the time.

It could be that this sounds so complicated and intimidating that you never actually get your franchising idea off the ground.

Here’s how a timeline helps make your business plan happen:

  • It breaks down big, scary projects into smaller, bite-sized chunks you can actually do
  • It reassures you by pointing out that you don’t need to do everything right now
  • It moves you along because you see a deadline for one of those “chunks” coming up, so you can get working on it

Start with the end in mind, then work backward

This involves a  5  step process.

  1. Get a firm image of your goal. Established business wisdom says to consider first where you want to be (say, 20 franchise outlets across the country, ten years from now) and then spell out in detail what that will look like. Going into detail gives you a more clear idea of what needs to be in place for that to happen. Set a date for that to happen.

 

  1. Determine the big milestones along the way. This might include writing out the elements of success in your current business, creating written procedures, testing those procedures to see if they cover all reasonable contingencies, opening a second outlet to further test those procedures, selling your first franchise to someone you know already, and onwards.

 

  1. Think of the resources you’ll need. For example, at some point, you’ll need to engage a franchise lawyer to consult and help in the preparation of a franchise agreement. Think of the finance you’ll need to have in place, maybe from a bank or friend-or-family source, to make the rest happen (to learn more about how to avoid cash-flow problems that might drag you down, see our post here).

 

  1. Write out your timeline. It might be on paper, on a computerized document, on a calendar program that will remind you about deadlines, or whatever works for you. Maybe multiple formats will be a good way to keep you on track.

 

  1. Implement. The rest is up to you and your team. Delegate tasks, outsource, do it yourself – but be sure to stay with your timeline.

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5 key factors to help you sell your business

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5 key factors to help you sell your business

Any business owner will eventually be faced with the need to sell their business.

It could happen when a medical change or injury makes it impossible to continue, and you need to sell to secure your family’s future. Or maybe an offer comes along that’s just too good to refuse.

Regardless of the reason, it’s always a good idea to take steps to make your business ready for sale at any time. And as Chapter Seven of the CFO Centre’s book “Scale Up” points out, many of those steps will help make your business life easier, less complicated and with fewer unpleasant surprises, right now and ongoing.

To get the best possible offer for your business when the time comes – and make your life easier now as well, here are five key points on help you sell your business:

  1. Ownership

A potential purchaser will want clarity around the question of who currently owns the business. If you’re the sole decision-maker in the company, it may be best to have all the shares in your name.

But if you want to reward long-time employees, and support their continued loyalty, you may want to grant or sell some shares to them. If that’s the case, a potential buyer will want to see that there is an effective shareholder’s agreement in place. This reduces uncertainty for the buyer.

  1. Real property

If your business owns real estate, you need to understand that a buyer may view this as a problem – particularly if owning the land is not essential to the success of the business. Consider separating the property from the business, so that a potential owner has the option of avoiding a commitment to an asset that they may not want. One way to deal with this is to put the land into a holding company controlled by you, and then set up a lease agreement for the business to use the property.

  1. Intellectual property

Over the years your company has likely developed trademarks, patents, brands, and industrial processes that are important to the success of the business. You may not think of them as something that has value, however, anyone considering buying the company will want to be sure about the ownership of this intellectual property and its value. So, it may be good to have your company’s IP valued professionally – you may be able to increase the purchase price based on that valuation.

  1. Customer contracts

Many potential buyers will base their purchase decision on the expected ongoing cashflow of the business. So, they’ll want to know about how much of that cashflow comes through dependable contracts. But they’ll also need to know if those contracts will transfer to the new owner – and if a high proportion of the company’s income is due to the customer’s personal loyalty to the owner. Accordingly, it’s good to carry out an analysis of the company’s major customer contracts to see if the future business is sound. Because cashflow is so important in putting a value on a business, consider some of the points raised in our blog post “How your business can fly away from cash problems.”

  1. Financial records

Many owner-operated businesses are operated in a fairly ad-hoc way. If an idea sounds good, the owner relies on their intuition and experience to decide on the next steps.

Potential buyers need to know that there is a plan in place – including a budget each year that they can see closely matches what was actually spent. They need to know that there are not a lot of unnecessary expenses, such as a local softball team sponsorship that is due largely to the owner’s personal interest, rather than its marketing value.

This is one of the areas where an experienced financial professional from the CFO Centre can help. This person can work with you well ahead of time to build a business that is financially successful and therefore attractive to a potential buyer. You’ll also get help with finding out what potential problem areas might cause a potential buyer to lower their offer or just walk away, so you gain the most benefit from the hard work of building your company.

The difference between a CFO and a Controller

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The difference between a CFO and a Controller

If you’ve ever looked through a storage box holding clothes you wore as a child, you may have wondered, “How did I ever fit into something that small?”

Your company may be in the same situation. The equipment, personnel, and premises that fitted well when the company was starting out, may be constraining its growth as it matures.

One of the most pressing areas for change may not be your production system, office space or loading dock. If you find that cash shortages are constraining your business, if you don’t know if you can afford to expand your product offering, or you have no real idea which of your products are the most profitable, you may have outgrown your finance function.

Child-sized clothing might have fitted you well when you were small, and it could be that the financial system you had when your company was young, did what you needed it to do.  Most companies start out with the founder keeping track of everything, maybe with the help of a bookkeeper or accountant, later growing into a department with a controller at the head.

But there is a world of difference between the “controller” mindset and the benefits available through someone who is able to help you take your company to a higher level – a Chief Financial Officer, or CFO.

Having access to those skills is important. A CFO brings enormous practical financial and strategic skills and knowledge to your company.

A report by the International Federation of Accountants[1]  quotes James Riley, Group Finance Director and Executive Director, Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd.:

A good CFO should be at the elbow of the CEO, ready to support and challenge them in leading the business. The CFO should, above all, be a good communicator — to the board on the performance of the business and the issues it is facing; to his/her peers in getting across key information and concepts to facilitate discussion and decision making; and to subordinates so that they are both efficient and motivated.

In this post, you’ll learn about the difference between a controller and a CFO, and why it may be time you made the change – and how you can do that without putting an undue cost burden on your company.

The controller mindset: accuracy, compliance, tactics

All companies need someone with a controller mindset, even if they don’t have that specific title on their business card. The controller watches the details, so you don’t have to. The controller focuses on making sure that financial records are accurate, prepares monthly financial reports, ensures payroll is made on time, invoices are issued and collected and ensures compliance with regulations.

Essentially, the controller manages the company’s books and records and is responsible for the transaction processing in a company and reporting on those transactions.  With the focus on recording and reporting on past events, the controller’s role is mainly backward-looking.

And just to repeat – you need someone who makes sure all of these issues are covered.

But your company, even if it’s small, also needs someone able to watch the big picture. And as it grows, that need becomes more acute.

By comparison, the role of the CFO is to provide forward-looking financial management.  It’s a proactive role since it is concerned with the company’s future financial success.

What are the signs that you may need more than what a controller mindset can provide? Maybe — if you need to understand the risks your company is facing, or you need to know which of several possible ways forward is best to improve performance or help you grow profitability, or it could be that you need to someone to help align the organization by establishing performance metrics and mindset throughout the organization, or perhaps you need to know how to finance your growth.

In short, you don’t just need someone to provide a utility function – you need a combination of coach/advisor regarding the resources you need to make your intended future happen.

The CFO mindset: big-picture, advisor, strategy

The role and responsibilities of a CFO have expanded in the past two decades, according to the International Federation of Accountants.  That expansion it says has been driven by complexity as a result of globalized capital and markets, regulatory and business drivers, a growth in information and communications, and changing expectations of the CFO’s role. Whereas the CFO was once seen as a company’s ‘gatekeeper’, he or she is now expected to participate in driving an organization towards its goals.

The CFO still has the responsibilities for overseeing the Controllers role in record keeping to safeguard the company’s assets and reporting on financial performance

By contrast with a controller, the CFO  expands that role to focus on improving the operating performance of a company, analyzing the numbers and presenting solutions on how to make those numbers better. This can include higher sales, lower costs or greater margins.

A CFO will focus on strategy, helping to shape the company’s overall strategy and direction, as well as a catalyst, instilling a financial approach and mindset throughout the organization to help other parts of the business perform better[2].

The controller looks to the short term, the CFO is long-term. The controller helps make sure your company is compliant with issues such as environmental reporting and taxes; the CFO helps you design and implement a strategy. The controller seeks to maintain what you have; the CFO helps you expand.

If your company is in a growth phase – or you want it to be in a growth phase, the controller has your back – and the CFO helps you move forward. It means together you can achieve better results, faster.

Feel free to reach out to us here at the CFO Centre. We’ll sit down and have a talk, even if it’s phone or video call, to get an idea of where you want to take your company, and what your options might be to support the growth you want.

Many of the issues in this post are covered in the CFO Centre’s e-book “Financial Reporting,” which goes into detail about the insights that you can gain from a CFO’s strategic view of your company’s financials.

[1] THE ROLE AND EXPECTATIONS OF A FD: A Global Debate on Preparing Accountants for Finance Leadership, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), October 2013, www.ifac.org

[2] ‘Four Faces of the FD’, Perspectives, Deloitte, http://www2.deloitte.com

Do These 6 Things Before You Plan For The Year Ahead

by charlottenoble
Do These 6 Things Before You Plan For The Year Ahead

Now is the perfect time to reflect on the year just gone and plan for the year ahead.  The last two years have thrown many of us challenges and/or opportunities never seen before.  So how can your business go further or do better in 2022?

Below is a checklist for businesses to help you when planning for the future:

  1. Know Where you Stand

Does your financial reporting provide you with an accurate and timely view of the financial performance of your business? These could contain:

  • Historic balance sheet, profit and loss and cash-flow together with a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that the management team use to run the business on a day to day basis.
  • Rolling forecast balance sheet, profit and loss and cash-flow driven by the same KPIs. Even a static annual budget is better than no target at all.

  1. Analyse

Have you analysed all of your products or service offerings and identified those that should be invested in and those which should be scaled back to improve the performance of the business?

  1. Review Costs

Have you reviewed all of your costs and identified all of those costs where alternative suppliers can be identified and current deals can be renegotiated? This helps to minimise your cost base and refine your negotiation skills.  Are there possible savings from systems and/or process streamlining?

  1. Review Customers

Have you reviewed all your customers and identified the good ones form the bad ones i.e. those that take ages to pay and/or beat you down on price etc.? It may be time to let the bad ones go and focus on the ones you want.

  1. Assess Risk

Have you assessed all of the obvious risks in your business and made sure that you have a contingency plan in place to avoid those with the highest likelihood and most significant impact?

  1. Your Personal Goals

Take the time to really reflect on why you started the business, are those goals still the same today and are you getting closer to achieving them?

Plan:

Once you have considered the above, you are ready to start planning.  A clear operational plan for the future of the business, which shows you the steps required to implement that plan is the best road to success.  If you do not have this it will be impossible to identify opportunities that arise next year that fit your plan for the business.

Most of our clients have been through this process with our guidance and as a result many are now looking to exploit the opportunities, to expand their markets and recruit key staff to help drive their businesses forward in 2022.

To get your business in the best shape for 2022, contact the CFO Centre on 1- 800 – 918 – 1906.

The CFO Centre is dedicated to helping businesses meet their strategic objectives. Find out how it works by watching this short video on our website –  https://www.cfocentre.com/en-ca/how-it-works/

 

What Is The Most Important Number In The Universe?

by charlottenoble
What Is The Most Important Number In The Universe?

Numbers matter.

Our mathematical universe is constructed of numbers.

Some we can see. Most we can’t.

From the speed of light to the parabolic curve of a free-kick in soccer, maths underpins the laws of the universe.

We can also deconstruct our entire lives in numbers.

The average human lives for around 80 years – or 28,385 days.

Most of us will spend 33 years in bed. That’s 12,045 days. For those who hit snooze when the alarm goes off in the morning, it might be closer to 34 years…

You’ll likely spend around 13 years and 2 months (4,821 days) at work. Hopefully, doing something you love.

And 11 years and 4 months (4,731 days) staring at a screen.

That doesn’t leave a huge amount of time for the things that really matter in life…

Spending quality time with family is remarkably, although perhaps unsurprisingly, a very small part of our modern day lives. We’re down to just 38 minutes a week or 104 days in our life time.

That one makes you think.

When it comes to socialising, there’s a little improvement – we’re up to 1 year and 3 days. Again, it’s not a lot, is it?

In business, it seems like we focus constantly on the numbers…
…Leads, opportunities, wins.

Year on year growth.

Cash flow, profit, valuation.

But how often do we put these numbers into context?

How often do we ask ourselves ‘what is the number that really matters to me?’

When we ask entrepreneurs this question, they often find it hard to answer.

It’s an unusual question and causes an interruption in our conditioned daily thought pattern.

One entrepreneur said the number that really mattered to them was ‘6’ as it represented the number of weeks they spent each year skiing, because they had designed their business to support their lifestyle.

Another said ‘13’ to denote the $13m asking price for their business which meant they could retire early and never worry about money again.
The numbers that appear on your P&L and balance sheet matter, but when was the last time you stopped and asked yourself ‘what is the number that really matters to me?’

It’s a powerful question and invariably creates an energetic shift which can fuel a new trajectory for your business and indeed your life.

If you’re struggling to answer that question, we’d love to help: www.cfocentre.com 

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Don’t Call it Your Dream, Call it Your Plan

by bethfarnham
Don’t Call it Your Dream, Call it Your Plan

Life through a lens

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.

Because quite often, the day-to-day distractions and diversions that inevitably surround the running of a successful business – particularly when there’s a global pandemic pulling the rug from under everyone’s feet – get in the way of sensible, objective evaluation and strategic decision-making. Crucially, that can mean that really important opportunities to grow and develop go at best un-exploited and at worst, un-noticed.

This is where the role of Chief Financial Officer becomes so vital. And where the specific advantages of joining forces with a part time (and often virtual) CFO are brought sharply into focus.

Allow yourself to dream…

What does your CFO do for you as the owner of an SME? Hopefully, they’ll make sure that everyone gets paid the right amount at the right time; sort out your internal reporting, compliance and tax planning, and probably run your relationship with your bank.

While that (along with a few other bits and pieces) is probably enough to keep a business ticking over, it’s not a reasonable platform on which to base a sound growth strategy.

Of course, things look even worse if you don’t have a CFO on your team. Whatever your business and whatever your own specific talent, it’s almost certain that you didn’t get into business to spend your life doing cashflow projections or dealing with taxes! No dreaming for you – you’re more likely to be waking up at 3 am in cold sweats.

A CFO Centre CFO can help make your dreams come true

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.

The CFO Centre team provides CFO expertise of a very high caliber – the top 1% of talent in the marketplace. These are people who know their stuff – the operational finance stuff, which keeps the wheels in motion and the strategic finance stuff, which brings the dream to life.

In many cases they’re able to draw on their own business success to guide others.

A CFO Centre CFO will help decode the dream and turn it into a plan and be the one to hold you to account to make it happen. He or she will bring forward the target by showing you how to come at it from a different angle. Great CFOs are catalysts and can help you break the pattern of linear growth and get you what you really want on an expedited timetable. And that’s essential if the dream is still to come true.

The CFO Centre ‘Entrepreneur Journey’: our ‘secret sauce’

All CFO Centre CFOs operate within an environment that provides comprehensive support and expertise. The CFO Centre has a global network – a Collective Intelligence Engine – of more than 700 individuals, each of whom has achieved success as a CFO and often as an MD or CEO, themselves. What’s more, they are uniquely able to access and deploy the limitless potential locked up in your business model. And they talk to each other, share expertise, experiences, and contacts.

In brief, a CFO Centre CFO will guide the entrepreneur on a three-stage journey to achieve clarity about what it is they really want from their business. To take them from where they are now, to where they want to be.

And to be clear: ‘where they want to be’ is an individual choice for the business owner. It might involve scaling up significantly; it could mean launching new products in new markets around the world; perhaps it means ratcheting up your multiple as you prepare for exit. Whatever form it takes, it’s invariably about making that dream a reality by refashioning the plan and making sure it actually happens.

Stage One on the journey covers the process of achieving operational excellence. In other words enabling an organisation to do what it does best, to the best extent possible.

Stage Two, strategic opportunity, involves preparing the springboard. This is where the strategy to achieve those dreams is forged. Perhaps it’s a question of entering new markets; evaluating risk, raising new funds. Whatever the strategy, it’s based on sound experience and, yes, that ‘secret sauce’ that blends the logic with a little magic and know how.

Stage Three, game-changing performance is, simply, what happens when stages one and two are complete.

The dream is achieved by developing a concise roadmap based on what the business owner wants to achieve. The role of the CFO Centre CFO  is to identify and unlock that potential – thus freeing the dream and making it a reality.

Fly like a bird

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; why many business owners end up working late nights on mundane tasks.

So, one of the first conversations a CFO Centre CFO will have with a client is to understand what it is that motivates them to be in business, and what they want to achieve from it. What really matters to them. There are numbers, many numbers, in the life of a CFO, but it’s identifying and understanding the numbers that really matter in the client’s life that is crucial.

A CFO Centre CFO aims to unlock that potential and give wings to the dream.

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Client Story: Fiera Private Debt

by annbeldia
Client Story: Fiera Private Debt

Client Profile

Fiera Private Debt, a subsidiary of Fiera Capital Corporation, is a leading pan-Canadian private debt firm. It specializes in providing financing to developers, property owners, and mid-market businesses, as well as securing corporate and infrastructure debt financing.

Headquartered in Laval, Quebec, with offices in Montreal and Toronto, Fiera is renowned for its highly disciplined, credit-driven approach to investments that creates significant returns for their investors through collaborative, proactive financial strategies.

The Client’s Need
When Dino Fracassi, Managing Director, Business Finance at Fiera, started working with his new client, a leading supplier of custom products to brick-and-mortar retail locations, he knew that they needed to go in a new financial direction.

His client had already extended their credit beyond their means, and had been put into the “special loans” category at their bank. Needing additional working capital to stay afloat, they approached Fiera for assistance.

Dino reviewed their organizational structure and determined that for the company to transition back to traditional lending from their bank, they needed a significant adjustment to their current financial and operational stewardship. To accomplish this, Dino turned to The CFO Centre.

“Paul Nagpal, COO at The CFO Centre, was already part of my professional network, and our two organizations had successfully partnered on previous occasions. I offered him the chance to help with my new client, and gave him an idea of the perfect CFO for this file: someone with retail and B2B manufacturing experience who had a proven track record of successfully navigating companies through rough financial patches. Right away, he told me about Barbara Palmegiani, one of his company’s principals. After learning about her credentials and speaking with her directly, we knew we had found the right person to help get my client where I needed them to be.” – Dino Fracassi, Managing Director, Business Financing, Fiera Private Debt

The CFO Centre Solution

Barbara went into Dino’s client as the full-time, interim CEO with a mandate to restructure the company by assessing and resolving the cash burn, and work collaboratively with the executive team to make the necessary changes to return the company back to profitability. Her previous executive financial and operational roles gave her the experience to identify immediate insights into what needed to be done in order to improve their strategic direction and implement the appropriate operational and financial processes and controls for a company of their size, including:

  • Prioritize cash management best practices
  • Identify and fix challenges to Cost of Sales
  • Take control over expense management optimization
  • Create financial, forecasting, and budgeting tools and processes
  • Coordinate cross business collaboration to efficiently align with corporate goals, objectives, and strategic direction
  • Replace their dated technology with current, cost effective financial and operational systems to enable the executive team to formulate insights that enhance strategic decision-making
  • Identifying, monitoring, and reviewing key performance indicators (KPIs) and adjusting where necessary to help maximize growth
  • Strategically reallocate human capital to help increase cash flow
  • Improve procurement and inventory management processes

Two other critical issues needed to be addressed in order to return the company to profitability:

  • The company owned a subsidiary in China created to directly serve the growing East Asian market. The location was proving unsustainable, lacking growth potential, and costing too much money to continue operating profitably.
  • Their domestic operation was currently working out of a 150,000 sq. ft. space. It was determined that they could operate more efficiently and at a significantly lower cost with less than half this space.

“Barbara’s commitment to helping my client succeed was impressive. She took a deep dive into every aspect of their business, and quickly identified the roadblocks that were causing cash flow and growth issues. Barbara continues to work transparently with Fiera and the executive team, having earned and built our trust.” – Dino Fracassi, Managing Director, Business Financing, Fiera Private Debt

The Results

Barbara put her plan into action, which continues to yield positive results for Dino’s client.  They are now able to focus from top to bottom on fixing the smaller problems, having developed a strategy to tackle the bigger ones, including:

  • An improved workplace culture driven by collaboration
  • Streamlined internal processes with minimal waste and duplication
  • Increase in cash flow due to better financial processes and controls, as well as a reorganized workforce
  • Better financial accountability and strategic decision making through monthly financial meetings and reviews
  • Additional financial support from government-sponsored pandemic relief programs

Thanks to The CFO Centre’s vast professional network, Barbara was able to connect with overseas legal and real estate professionals who could help transition the client’s operations in China, which resulted in immediate savings.

Barbara’s extensive background negotiating with landlords enabled her to identify and execute a win-win solution for both Dino’s client and their landlord, which will significantly improve their bottom line going forward.

In less than one year, Barbara’s involvement with Dino’s client has already set them on the path to better long-term financial health and sustainable organic growth.

“Working with Barb has been fantastic. We asked The CFO Centre for what we needed in a theoretical sense, and they connected us with a perfect match. We wouldn’t have been able to do that on our own. I’m excited for the future of my client’s business as they once again become able to maintain profitability, and ultimately be able to return to working with the bank. Thanks to Barb and The CFO Centre, it’ll happen sooner rather than later.” – Dino Fracassi, Managing Director, Business Financing, Fiera Private Debt

Find out more about our CFOs.

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Client Story: Walker Homes Ltd.

by annbeldia
Client Story: Walker Homes Ltd.

Client Profile

Located in Port Elgin, Ontario, Walker Homes Ltd. specializes in constructing beautiful new homes that stand the test of time. Co-owners Ryan and Brooke Walker carry on three generations of family homebuilding tradition, helping to develop thriving communities with each new build.

Walker Homes goes the extra mile for its customers by guiding them through each step of the home-buying process, all the way to closing day. Your family can then enjoy the 9-foot ceilings, Napoleon Gas fireplaces, luxurious Canadian-made kitchen cabinetry, and brick exteriors that come standard with each Walker home.

The Client’s Need

Walker Homes had been steadily busy for a number of years in a strong housing market. However, the company was quickly outgrowing their financial system, which consisted of manually entering projects, revenue, costs, and other important data into Excel spreadsheets. They also handled procurement verbally without a purchase order management system, and tracked hired contractors by cheque stub.

This system offered no way to generate financial reports, budgets, or forecasts hampering business growth.

In January 2019, the Walkers discussed their concerns with their accountant, who suggested they contact The CFO Centre for assistance in getting their financial management under control.

“Brooke and I wanted our time back from working with a system that no longer met our needs, so we were intrigued by what The CFO Centre had to offer. When we were introduced to Byron Dyck, we were thrilled to learn that not only was he intimately familiar with the Port Elgin area, but that he also used to run his own construction company before joining the firm. We couldn’t wait to get started.” – Ryan Walker, Co-owner, Walker Homes Ltd.

The CFO Centre Solution

Byron drove out to the Walkers’ location for a fact-finding visit to learn more about their business, listen to their pain points, and pull from his experience as a construction business owner and a CPA to discuss possible solutions that would be part of their overall action plan.

“Byron paid close attention to where the business was now and where we wanted to take it. It was refreshing to speak to someone who knew our business, understood what we were facing, and could offer the advice we needed to succeed. We felt so confident that he was the one who could help us that we signed the engagement letter that same afternoon.” – Ryan Walker, Co-owner, Walker Homes Ltd.

Byron reviewed his clients’ goals and created scenarios in order to put together an ambitious financial strategy to move their business forward. The highlights of the plan included:

  • Decommission the use of Excel for financial recordkeeping
  • Install specialized integrated construction software
  • Fully revamp their estimating, invoicing, cost reporting processes system to better track projects
  • Increase financial report frequency to once per month
  • Put budget and forecasting processes in place
  • Hold monthly financial review meetings to discuss results, make changes where necessary, and track progress
  • Negotiate better payment terms with creditors

Walker Homes also enabled Byron to work remotely from his location, granting him network access to their system so he can mentor them through the implementation and use of their new software in real time.

Byron set this remote system up because The CFO Centre focuses on collaboration, and fosters strong working relationships with their clients to implement strategies completely customized to their needs. The ultimate goal is to keep CFO Centre clients competitive and well-positioned for long-term sustainable growth.

The Results

After working with Byron to implement the plan, Walker Homes has seen an increase of 300% in sales volume. In addition, by the end of 2019 they had pre-sold their entire 2020 inventory, and as of November 2020 they’ve sold a vast amount of their 2021 inventory, even under the current year’s challenging economic climate.

Behind the scenes, the clients saw results that improved the overall operation and financial health of their business, including:

  • Significantly improved financial management across the board
  • Improved scalability for increased volume of projects
  • Monthly review of financial statements to report on individual projects
  • Seamless record keeping and retrieval
  • Favourable payment terms from their biggest creditor, improving cash flow to stimulate growth
  • Additional funding secured in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Hiring of additional staff to support data entry work

Byron continues to work with Ryan and Brooke one day per week, on call to answer questions about their new systems and provide oversight to their entire financial structure. For almost two years, the strategic partnership between Walker Homes and The CFO Centre has solidified into a professional relationship built on trust and experience, something that the Walkers are quick to recognize.

“Byron is always there when we need him. All it takes is to send him a quick text and he’ll get on the phone or Facetime to answer a question or help us solve a problem. We’re happy with the results and the ongoing support from Byron and The CFO Centre as we keep moving our business forward. In fact, we think of Byron as more than part of the team – we consider him family.” – Ryan Walker, Co-owner, Walker Homes Ltd.

For more information about Byron Dyck.

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