When to Hire a CFO
Over the last two years I’ve become completely convinced of the importance of financial statements.
Four of my clients had listed their business to sell with me. In all four cases, the business had to come off the market as the financial statements they had given me to share with buyers and represent the performance of their business were wrong.
The financial statements were not a “little wrong”; they were wrong by a lot. One client had a problem transitioning from one accounting program to a more complex accounting program.
One client was experiencing rapid growth and simply didn’t have the skills or processes and procedures in place.
One client had too many things happening in the business and didn’t have the time to check what was happening and talk to their CFO that put the financial statements together.
One client had a family member help with the accounting but instead of having one Profit and Loss statement with one bank account, had two profit and loss statements and two bank accounts; which made it more complex to manage.
Hire a CFO if your financial statements confuse you
What’s the lesson from all of this? If you do not understand your financial statements and how they are put together, hire an experienced CFO to help you.
Mark Denning was the guest on my radio show, 105.5FM and Money 2.0. Mark is a CFO and the author of a book “Drive your business to financial success.” It comes with a sub-title “The Real-time Cashflow Management System for Small Business.”
My conversation with Mark was thoroughly enjoyable as it was my chance to learn.
Mark is a CPA and specializes in advising small business owners, CEO’s, bankers, attorneys, tax CPAs and financial planners about the financial health and financial strategies to run a successful small business.
You are welcome to listen to my conversation with Mark. If you do, here’s some of the topics we spoke about.
- Is there such a thing as a ‘typical’ client that should read your book and if so, who would it be?
- The book at its core uses the analogy of driving a car and using your financial system to manage the company’s profit and just as importantly, its cash flow or its cash flow potential. Explain a little more about what that means and how your system helps do this?
- How do you help a business owner put a system together?
- How long does it take to learn the system?
- One of the chapters of the book talks about a road course or race course? What does that mean?
- A tool you talk about is a Real Time Financial Dashboard. How does a Real Time Financial Dashboard work?
- Can you give me an example of how you’ve applied what you wrote the book about to a company you’ve helped?
- Where can you buy the book and how much is it?
Although Mark’s location is in the Sacramento, CA, area, he’s available to talk and understand your goals and if he’s the right person to help.
One of the best things about using Mark and the service he’s put together is that it the benefits will always be with you as your business will be stronger because of it. However, the good news is that doing things properly will allow you to focus on other areas of your business but the best news is what happens when you decide to sell your business.
If you’re financial statements are accurate and present strongly, a potential buyer of a business will have additional confidence in what they are buying as opposed to walking away because they are not quite sure.
This benefit also shows up if the buyer has to get a loan from a third party such as a bank or other financial lender.
There were other topics covered during my conversation with Mark. If you would like to listen, simply click the following link: Hire a CFO if your financial statements confuse you.
