Have you considered a Virtual Finance Director?
Have you considered a Virtual Finance Director?
As businesses grow, Directors start to find they need a different skill set around them and that they need a ‘board room’ of ‘helpers’ that they didn’t need at the start of their journey.
However, budgets may still be tight and as a business owner you need to always weigh up the cost of the support you may require as well as the assistance/ mentoring you need.
There are a number of ways to address how best to utilise your time and finances as your business grows, and a good place to start is by ensuring your accountants are a part of your ‘growth team’.
One way to start is with a ‘virtual finance director’ – lets explore how this might work!
A ‘virtual finance director’ or virtual FD, means that as a company you have a part-time, outsourced finance director, which allows your business to get the support provided by an FD, such as creating robust plans for long-term growth and providing insights and advice, as well as looking after the day-to-day financial health of the business, for a fraction of the cost of employing one full time.
Below are a number of reasons that clients benefit from employing a Virtual FD.
More cost effective than employing a full time FD
Using a virtual finance director is cheaper than employing one in-house. Furthermore, the recruitment process for a new financial director can be arduous and it is important to get the right person for the job, so outsourcing the role to a renowned professional who you can work with on your terms seems an excellent alternative.
Board level support
Having someone who can come in and provide financial help for company directors is invaluable for any business. A virtual finance director will be able to offer advice and insight and help with informed decision making across various areas in the business such as operations, technology and HR.
Detailed management and reporting
When your business is growing and you don’t as yet have a FD, it’s easy to lose track of the finances, especially when you are busy. Businesses that engage a virtual FD usually report that the level of detailed management and reporting can be revolutionary for a business’s financial health as detailed and better information, combined with robust advice, allows for better decision making which can lead to long term success for a business.
Planning and Implementing new systems
As your business becomes more established you may start to realise that various things need to change such as modernisation of equipment may be required but on your own you may not have the expertise to implement change. Having a virtual FD to overview the process could make any process much smoother. Implementing things like new software, cloud accounting, or other new processes, the business will benefit from having an experienced person with a good knowledge of the whole business’s activities and finances which will give you someone to discuss change with.
Planning for growth
If your business has reached the point where it has grown to be a robust operation that clearly has legs, a virtual finance director can help identify further potential areas of growth, establish the resources available and how to make the right investments to unlock that growth.
So….what next
Here at Kennedys Accounting we have experienced Finance Directors available to assist your business and can agree a variety of solutions to assist companies in their business journey.
Whether you are looking for ad-hoc assistance, a regular monthly board meeting or just someone to assist as a mentor as you grow, please get in touch, we would be pleased to assist and bespoke a programme to your individual requirements.