Our small business CFO services can help you to not only improve your finances, but to gain a more strategic view. In short, it’s a service that can make your business more focused, more efficient and more profitable.
Here’s a guide to how a virtual CFO can help your business thrive:
What is a CFO?
A CFO stands for Chief Financial Officer or Finance Director and is the most senior person within a business that is responsible for the finances of the business.
What are virtual CFO services?
‘Virtual CFOs’ are simply outsourced CFO services often employed by small or medium-sized businesses which do not have a full-time requirement for an in-house CFO.
The beauty of the arrangement is you’re not taking on this position full-time on your payroll, which is often a positive move for the financial health of the business in itself.
What is the role of a CFO in a small business?
The role of the CFO/FD is to ensure the business has implemented a strong financial accounting system that accurately records all underlying financial transactions to provide the basis for informed decision making.
The CFO/FD will also help to manage the financial risk of the business and work with the MD or business owner to help them develop and build a successful business.
Key considerations include ensuring the business is well-funded to allow it to capitalise on all existing opportunities, whilst remaining alert to the financial risks and challenges facing the business.
A CFO will often be the first person to advise when corrective action needs to be taken based on monitoring key performance indicators and compiling financial statements. Left unchanged and unchecked, small businesses that are ripe for scaling risk losing opportunities or profitability by simply doing things as they always have.
A partner in your business success
At Butt Miller, we’d invite you to see a CFO as a partner in your success. Experienced in financial planning and financial forecasting, they can be part of a step-change for your company.
It’s an exciting chance to move beyond merely assuring compliance of your financial data, tracking annual revenue, cash flow management and accounting to a more holistic, future-focused approach to your business finances.
A CFO will provide strategic planning to help your business move in the right direction. And whether you have a finance function in-house or not, they can make you more confident in your financial decisions and financial position.
How will Butt Miller act as your chief financial officer?
Butt Miller provides a part-time CFO/FD service to owner-managed businesses, which ensures that there is a senior person within the business that fully understands the finances. The CFO/FD will discuss the opportunities and challenges with the company owner and other members of the leadership team.
An efficient, flexible resource
It’s a flexible resourcing model that avoids the expense of hiring a full-time CFO/FD, certainly where there is not a full-time need for such an appointment, and the resource can flex according to your business needs at any point in time.
It’s also a very cost-effective solution where the benefits to the business far outweigh the cost.
Giving you a broader perspective
Just as crucially, an outsourced CFO brings a wide variety of experience and insight, allowing cross-industry benefits and improvements to be raised and considered.
As an external CFO, we bring impartial perspective, challenging the norm and the rationale for strategy and decision making. This external sounding board plays a key part in the value of the service, taking you from reacting to anticipating and giving you a greater sense of control and momentum.
NEED MORE INFORMATION?
Check if our frequently asked questions can shed more light
When should a company hire a CFO?
As a company grows and starts to hire more staff it may well be an apt time to consider a part-time CFO/FD appointment. Sales will be growing (and will be typically at least £500,000) and overheads will also be increasing.
The risk profile of the business starts to increase as it grows along with presenting more opportunities for success. During this period, strong financial management is really important to make sure risks are minimised and opportunities are realised.
Get this wrong at the outset and the business will be built on very weak foundations. Get this right and the business will thrive.
Is a CFO an accountant?
CFOs are normally qualified accountants or certified public accountants. They should, in our opinion, have first-hand experience of working in many previous businesses. This gives you the benefit of their combined experience and ensures they have a working knowledge of industry standards that impact your business.
Why choose Butt Miller as your outsourced CFO/FD?
Butt Miller has over 25 years of experience in providing part-time CFO/FD services to many different businesses. Working with various clients, we have seen their sales grow from £500k to £4m plus. We have also been instrumental in ensuring that this growth has been very profitable.
How does it work?
Initially, we will review the current state of the finance systems and enhance them where this is needed.  We will also benchmark how the business is currently performing and identify the opportunities where improvement can be made.
We’ll work closely with you
We work with business owners to develop a finance report that tells the business owner exactly what is and isn’t working. This allows us to develop an improvement action plan to drive better performance.
We also ensure the client’s pricing system is robust to ensure the business is fully rewarded for the service they provide and the risks they take, making sure the business makes a true profit.
We’re risk management experts
We manage the risk by producing a rolling 12 monthly profit and cash flow forecast. Any challenges are identified and a plan can be prepared to ensure they are overcome. This is one of the key reasons clients we started providing this service to 25 years ago, are still clients of ours today.
Being in business is not always plain sailing. We can help you weather a storm and provide you with the numbers to ensure your new business decision is a wise one based on sound financial management, cash flow forecasting and past financial performance where relevant.
We can give you a broader perspective
We bring the contacts of various tried and tested experts where the situation calls for it. VCs, investors, and strong banking relationships allow access to finance to take the business to the next stage.
Butt Miller provides a qualified, numerate business leader. Having seen many businesses develop, we can give you a broader view – providing insight into the typical growing pains and pitfalls a business goes through, along with the experience of dealing with countless challenging scenarios.
Get in touch today
If you’d like to discuss how we can help you via our virtual CFO services, please get in touch, we’d be happy to chat about your requirements.
