At any time, the skills and experience of a talented Finance Director can deliver huge value to a small business, but never more so than during challenging times such as the Covid-19 crisis. Hiring an experienced FD is a significant investment, beyond the means of many small businesses. One possible solution, is to work with a part time Finance Director on a flexible basis. But why bother – how might a part time Finance Director really help your business?
There are many ways a Finance Director will add value to your business, but there are also ways in which a flexible part time FD will add additional value beyond that provided by an in-house full time FD.
An experienced Finance Director can:
- Deliver better management information and reporting, enabling more informed, strategic decision-making.
- Help you to understand your business costs more fully, to enable you to make cost savings where necessary.
- Help you to control cash flow and profitability more effectively, and understand exactly who your best customers and most profitable lines are.
- Help you identify the most important Key Performance Indicators for your business, and then put in place the necessary processes, checks and measures to track these KPIs.
- Build an objective overview of your business, including a thorough understanding of profitability levels and profit drivers, so you can make informed business decisions about the future direction of your business.
- Free you up to focus on leading and growing your business by taking the management of the finance function off your To Do list.
- Help you to expand and grow your business by finding and accessing the right type of funding.
- Help with exit planning, if this is an objective for you – to enable you to build value and exit at the right time, with the best returns.
In addition to all of the above, a part time FD can also:
- Act as a trusted independent business adviser with strong commercial acumen and strategic vision – offering strategic planning skills and advice, with the added benefit of a level of objectivity that your inhouse team would find difficult to achieve.
Flexible, affordable, strategic help
In our experience many highly skilled and experienced FDs have reached the stage in their career where they no longer want to work full time in a commercial environment, but are not looking to leave finance behind altogether. Instead they are looking to work on a part time, or project basis, helping small businesses to overcome challenges, grow and thrive. Working with an FD on a part time basis allows small businesses to access their high level strategic planning and financial skills at a fraction of the cost of hiring a full time FD – and this can be a short term or longer term arrangement, depending on the preferences of both parties.
And the current requirement for social distancing in place, means that even location is no barrier – your business could work with a part time FD located anywhere in the UK, so the pool of expertise available to you is even larger than before.
If you’re looking to expand your business, put more robust financial controls in place, reduce your costs or increase your profitability, it makes sense to work with an expert and a part time FD could be the answer your business is looking for.