A virtual Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is an individual who is based in ‘the cloud’ who works with your team remotely.
When it comes to successfully running a business, three important questions must be asked.
- What are some financial issues that could be holding your company back?
- What is a Chief Financial Officer, and how can they help my business?
- How can you have expert advice for a fraction of the cost of hiring an internal, full-time resource?
Without a clear long term strategy (including forecasts), your business cannot grow or expand – that’s where a qualified and experienced VCFO can assist.
Let’s say you are operating as ‘business as normal’. If you have accurate and timely financial information – along with practical interpretation and guidance on how best to leverage it – you can position your business in the best possible stead to grow, experience success, and growth.
This is important because without financial accuracy you and your team could be making business decisions in the dark. A misinformed strategy will impact your business operations now and into the future.
The second financial structure issue holding your company back is accountability.
The main thing to understand here is that as your business has grown, so has the complexity of the financial situation and sheer volume of transactions and information held by your team.
This means there needs to be adequate financial information security, division of responsibilities amongst your team, with clear job performance standards.
The third financial structure issue that could be holding your company back is raising capital for future growth. This is something that needs to be planned for.
Banks and investors are only going to come on board if you can present a compelling, substantive financial picture.
This is key because having a complete and accurate financial history and projections – coupled with a credible financial story – is vital to secure the capital your business needs to grow.
One of the biggest benefits of hiring a VCFO comes with their affordable cost.
The cost of a virtual CFO is a fraction of the price of hiring an internal full-time CFO.
A virtual services model offers you expert CFO consultancy services which can streamline your business operations, help you plan for future growth and gain the executive level support your team needs.
Hiring a virtual CFO Service offers you the best opportunity to achieve your growth goals, and to do so quickly and more economically. Is it time you considered engaging a virtual CFO?
This article was written by Rachael Turner, who is a member of the Virtual CFO Association.
The Virtual CFO Association is an elite peer network, advocating and promoting the emerging VCFO sector within the accounting profession. Collectively the association currently has over 500 years of industry experience, with highly qualified and experienced specialists spread across more than 20 industry verticals.