Good to Great: How to Scale With an Outsourced CFO

Outsourcing CFO services provide an efficient, scalable way to access high-end financial capabilities for your business. According to a Deloitte survey, the top reason for outsourcing is cost reduction, but speed-to-market and access to leading tools are other critical factors.

Business owners often feel the need for laser focus on finances, but they’re simply too busy with other priorities. Managing employees, marketing, improving products and services, meeting compliance requirements, filing taxes and watching the cash flow can consume you.

Our CFO services can unburden you from time-consuming financial duties and allow you to focus on the activities that will grow your business. But how will the transition go? And what can you do to prepare for the changes? 

Establish Your Goals

You’ll have a more successful transition if you understand and can articulate your goals. Why do you want to bring on an outsourced CFO? Would you like to grow your organisation? Take advantage of more opportunities? Update your accounting and IT systems? 

You might consider performing a business audit, separating your business functions into core and non-core activities. Pay special attention to business functions that give you a significant market advantage or directly impact your bottom line and growth prospects. Functions that directly impact the health of your business are deemed critical. Your identification will help you understand which aspects of your business need your best attention during transitions and growth phases. 

A sharp focus on your chosen goals will help you to achieve them more effectively. If you’re not sure where to start, talk with one of our Business Advisers.

Create a Master Plan

Joint initiation and planning activities will help everyone understand tasks, roles and responsibilities. A master plan helps everyone involved to feel aligned and assured that nothing falls through the cracks.

Cultivate a Feeling of Partnership

Businesses find the most success with outsourcing when they cultivate a spirit of teamwork and collaboration with the vendor. You, your employees and your outsourced CFO will all have the same mission: to reach your business goals. Together, you can accentuate your strengths and take advantage of tools and expert advice you have needed in the past.

Consider How You Like to Work

Your business already has a unique culture, and you don’t want to upset anything working well. Talk with your Business Adviser about how you prefer to operate. Questions to consider:

• Do you like lots of face time?
  
• Do you like virtual collaboration?
  
• Do you want regular or sporadic meetings?
  
• Do you want specialised reports?
  

These and other preferences should be discussed right from the start to establish a productive working relationship that fits into the way that you operate.

Plan a Successful Transition

When prepared with goals, a master plan, a sense of partnership and firm ideas about how you like to work, you’re ready to plan a successful launch.

Be open and transparent with your workers about how outsourcing will affect each person. When employees sense a change in the air, they might feel nervous about what’s ahead. Keep your lines of communication open, and give everyone time to make adjustments.

Involve Leadership

Your leadership will act as an ambassador for the outsourcing relationship. All leaders should be involved with the planning and transition details. Your transition to an outsourced CFO will be an exciting time of new opportunities and possibilities. 

When you get the transition team involved early in the process, they have a greater sense of ownership.

Take Advantage of the Experience

Not many business owners have CFO experience, and that’s okay. You have the knowledge and vision to run your organisation; you just need the acumen of an experienced financial executive to highlight the interplay between operations and finance.

Here at Altus, we’ve taken care of CFO services for businesses in many different industries. With our experience, which is deep and wide, you can leverage insights and information to help you reach your goals. 

If you’re contemplating a transition to an outsourced CFO, reach out to us for a consultation. We can answer questions, help you refine your plans and put together a common-sense approach for the future. Talk soon!