Sep 26, 20194 min read
Jul 16, 20192 min read
Not every business has a desire to grow at 24% year on year. Other strategic objectives are equally appropriate such as: consolidate cash position or, divest of redundant or under-utilised assets, or to improve operating processes and procedures to ensure you are scalable when you do put your foot down on rapid growth. Further, a more modest growth strategy could be far more palatable.
What is significant about these strategic objectives is that you have a clear strategy to ensure that your current business is not negatively impacted by the implementation of the strategy. All too often you hear about an aggressive sales or acquisition strategy that resulted in greater revenue but reduced profitability. A good strategic plan will ensure the business maintains focus on both the current business and the strategies.
It is entirely appropriate for a Managing Director to make a call to embark on a strategy. Perhaps what happens next is most critical. Instructing your senior manager to prepare the first few steps of the strategic plan or business plan could result in the plan not being implemented in a timely manner or the existing business suffering. What successful organisations do next is:
1. Plan the strategy and forecast,
2. What will be done by whom, by when,
3. What it will really cost even if it is internal costs and;
4. Who is tasked with covering that resources current deliverables.
As each business and industry is different, there is no simple pro-forma for creating a business strategy that will work. What does work is a tried and tested method of engaging an external, expert corporate advisor, with designing a robust business strategy that has measures, metrics, accountability and is forecast as part of your existing business to ensure you maintain focus on both.
By using an external corporate advisor to develop and implement your business strategy you will identify a number of core objectives that are achievable and will keep your business on track.
Having a business strategy is only part of the equation. Your CFO Evolve corporate advisor can guide you through a business strategy deployment, business restructure, acquisition or business exit. CFO Evolve will work with you to implement the strategies and evolve your business to the next level.
We work within your business and with your team to develop and deploy your strategy
Knowledge that you are providing your team the greatest opportunity for improvement
Business improvement as the strategic capability of your senior team through the external corporate advisor
Additional experience across a broad range of challenges and issues
Know that you have a robust business strategy tailored to your business growth requirements
Our highly strategic part-time and virtual CFOs have experience across a broad range of C-suite services. We are highly capable part-time and virtual CFOs that can guide your business through cash flow management and forecasting through to developing a budgets and forecasts or an acquisition strategy.
Below details some of our core services, but for a more in depth conversation about how we can help you, please contact us for a confidential conversation.
If you are looking for business growth and to maximise profits, our part-time CFOs could grow your business with process improvement, business efficiencies and focus on the areas of your business to maximise profits. A part-time CFO can approach business growth from a financial and strategic perspective to grow your business.
Cash flow is critical to your business' success and survival. If you don’t take care of your business' cash flow, you could end up not having enough to continue running the business.
A part-time CFO could guide you through a cash flow restriction to ensure your business remains cash flow positive.
If you need to provide robust forecasting for one-off funding purposes or wish to use a forecasting model in an ongoing manner that incorporates your profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow to have full understanding on where your business is going and its challenges, engaging a part-time CFO may assist evolve your business to the next level.
Having a clear strategy, strategic plan or business plan are fundamental building blocks to achieve growth. Your business plan needs to expressly state where the business is going, the strategies to achieve those outcomes, who is accountable for the strategy and the timeframes and measures to ensure they are on-track.
At CFO Evolve; our part-time CFOs build your company a strategic plan or business plan that works.
There are risks associated with many parts of business. Anticipating a business risk and uncertainties before they occur and ensuring the mitigation strategies are incorporated in the strategic plan goes a long way to taking the fluctuations out of your business and ensuring you are on a steady growth curve.
If your business requires a business risk review, a part-time CFO can begin the process much quicker than if you hire an internal CFO.
Whether through debt or equity, a bank, venture capitalist or private equity, it is important to make your organisation ready as a solid business with a strong profit & loss and balance sheet and as an attractive investment to optimise the result.
Our part-time CFO services prepare your company through 3-way forecasting, business planning and process improvement to enable your business is prepared for funding, investment and capital raising.
CFOs typically enjoy to teach and they love to help build team, skill sets and overall, the business. CFO Evolve offer their highly experienced team of part-time CFOs for CFO coaching and mentoring purposes to financial teams that have incurred rapid growth, undergoing inorganic growth such as via a merger, acquisition or strategic partnership and require extra assistance and guidance from a strategic financial perspective.
As the business grows and becomes more complex, even if you have the capability to effectively monitor your financial controller and accountant in particular, it becomes questionable whether you have the capacity or if this is taking you away from growing the business. A part-time CFO can provide this oversight of your accounting functions, providing guidance and an expert skill set to ensure the delivery of this department.
One of the milestone developments of your business will be the creation of an advisory board. It could be the next step in reporting and governance or a pre-cursor to a board of directors. Whilst it is important to have an industry specialist and someone strong in governance such as a lawyer, having a part-time CFO member to provide strategic financial advice in the team is key to the success of the advisory board.
Different from classic business planning, the strategic variety (incorporating acquisition, exit and other strategic activities) involves a long term horizon and out-of-the-box thinking. A strategic acquisition plan helps to provide direction and focus. It points to specific and rapid growth plans with results that are to be achieved and establishes a course of action for achieving them.