What's the Value of CFO to Small Business

Don’t believe you can afford the financial hit of a full time CFO! Let’s consider the value of the CFO and look to a practical option for small to medium size businesses (SME’s) to take advantage of the value that CFO’s can offer through considering the affordable strategy of part-time CFO .

Many SME’s believe CFO’s fall into a few select silos:

1. 1)Large companies have and can afford a CFO,
2. 2)CFO’s do offer value in complex situations,
3. 3)Good CFO’s are expensive, and
4. 4)Controllers can and do deal with the numbers.

Without being perceived as negative to any business owner or owners that have the above thoughts or beliefs I counter with the following.

A good CFO will immediately create value well beyond the associated cost through identifying immediate ways to improve cash flow, profitability and the balance sheet in almost any company. These benefits alone will more than cover the costs of the CFO. Further and to expand the positive multiple to the financial benefit for the SME a part-time CFO can provide these same benefits but at many times greater than the costs to the SME making the part-time CFO the best return on investment for any SME .

Still SME’s are always concerned with adding more overhead but in addition to the benefits and returns mentioned above the part-time CFO needs to be view as a specialist – turning the SME from its current streamlined operation into a high performance leader capable of competing and leading in global markets. Doing so will result from the part time CFO’s added value through identifying and correcting weakness across the business, providing operational oversight and identifying strategic views and plans. Combined all of these factors can led to explosive results for the SME.