When Is It Time To Engage a Fractional CFO?
- tamzinweller
- Oct 23, 2024
- 2 min read
You have been in business for a while now and your results seem to have plateau. Margins are decreasing, cashflow is tight, and operational management is becoming complex and consuming.
You know there is growth potential but you can't pinpoint why progress has stalled or worst, you know what your want to achieve but don't have the bandwidth to plan and action what is required.
Perhaps you're on the flip side of this and your growing fast but your not sure if you have the right planning and processes in place to sustain the growth.
As your business grows, so do the challenges. Identifying when you have outgrown the ability as an owner or internal accountant to manage financial operations is one of those challenges and one that can have the most significant impacts on your business.
Here are some questions to help identify when you should be looking for external help:
How do you feel about your current cash flow management—does it meet your expectations, or do you think there's room for improvement?
When it comes to making key financial decisions, how confident are you that you're working with the best data and insights available?
As your business continues to grow, how have your financial processes evolved to support that growth?
What if you had access to an expert who could give you real-time insights into your finances— how would that change the way you manage your business day-to-day?
The risk if you leave it too long can be significant:
Cash Flow Issues: Missed profit targets, unexpected expenses, and budget overruns can cripple your ability to scale.
Resource Misalignment: Talent and capital go to waste, leaving you stuck in growth stagnation.
Leadership Gaps: Teams lose motivation, morale drops, and productivity suffers.
Inability to Scale: Lack of key metrics and processes needed to grow sustainably could put your business at risk.
During a discovery session with a new client, the topic of guilt was brought to the table. They felt guilty about not being able to prepare a budget themselves, about not being able to manage consistent cashflow, and lastly about investing in outside support to help address their business performance concerns. My client needed to understand that budgets and cashflow forecasting were not in their wheelhouse and that it was time to bring external support into the business.
Knowing your wheelhouse and where best to focus your value and energy is key to addressing business performance. As business owners your wheelhouse is knowing your product offering, identifying and serving your customer wants and needs, and building the culture of your business.
Feeling guilty is quite common in business and can lead to in-action if we don't step back to see the bigger picture at play. If you want to see a different result, then something has to change and it is at this point you bring in external help!
Ready to unlock your business’s full potential?
Book a Free Consultation with Tamzin Weller Today
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