Fractional CFO Solutions
Your Strategic Partner in Financial Strategy and CFO Consulting
Financial Strategy that Fuels Success – Learn About Our Fractional CFO Solutions
The Purpose: Objectives & Targets
You have to know where you are going.
Our fractional CFO solutions start by ensuring you have clear objectives and targets. There’s a silent killer that makes its way into businesses as they grow and focus on doing the work. Businesses allow this to creep in, and they don’t even realize it; we see it all the time. This silent killer comes in the form of poor goals or objectives. Many business owners have overly broad goals, or worse, they don’t have any goals! Having top-level overarching objectives is necessary for any company looking to expand. For instance, one owner’s goal may be to meet the next payroll, while another aims for a particular revenue target for the coming year. However, they often need to consider how these goals align with their family, income, lifestyle, and community aspirations and what their business needs to achieve to fulfill those goals.
Let’s confront the uncertainties shadowing your business journey. What uncertainties linger in your thoughts, disrupting your peace? What assurances do key stakeholders require to endorse your vision fully? Our initial focus is to construct goals that alleviate these anxieties.
Imagine the milestones you’ll celebrate as the year turns. What achievements do you envision raising a glass to at your New Year’s Eve celebration? Let’s define these aspirations.
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Proper Foundation
Setting Proper Objectives and Goals
Our strategy involves meticulously crafting these goals, committing them to paper, and then methodically breaking them into manageable quarterly and monthly financial objectives. Each step is a calculated move towards turning these goals from aspirations into realities.
Objectives for companies must pass the S.M.A.R.T. test.
Specific
Goals need to be specific enough so that you can know whether they were met or not. For example, growing the company needs to be more specific. Grow? By how much? How will you grow? However, growing sales revenue from new clients by 30% is specific. You will know whether your team met their objectives.
Measurable
Your objectives have to be quantified somehow. These apply to any goal or objective you set for your team. Quantifiable data is the best tool for coaching, too. Whether your team meets its objectives or not, having quantifiable data will help you coach them so that they can grow, learn, and improve performance over time.
Achievable
How achievable are your goals? Your team members should be able to achieve the goal with a little bit of effort and challenge. You will set them up for failure if it’s too out of reach for current resources or capabilities. However, if you set objectives that are not challenging, you lose out on growth, and your team will feel less fulfilled.
Relevant
Are your objectives relevant to your business and its overall mission? They should help you reach your desired outcomes and support the larger picture. Setting your team’s goals and objectives is a skill that is often overlooked. Objectives must waterfall down. Your company’s overall mission and purpose will drive the objectives set for the rest of the leaders and managers.
Time-Bound
Setting deadlines is important if you want your objectives to be met on time. Having an end date helps keep everyone motivated and accountable. It also allows staff to plan their workdays better and prioritize tasks accordingly. It’s easier for employees to create a work/life balance when they know what’s expected and by when.
Strategic Financial Road Map
Once goals are crystallized, we embark on sculpting an annual financial panorama, focusing on pivotal metrics such as Cash, Net Profit, Gross Profit, and Revenue. This stage is about aligning these numbers with your aspirations. Whether your aspirations are more personal, for instance, envisioning a dream home and calculating the exact earnings needed to make it a reality, Or corporate, like doubling our presence in a new market. No matter your aspirations, we’ll create a strategic financial roadmap to get you there.
Delving into specifics:
Achieving Heightened Revenue
You won’t have to wonder if the plan will work. We delve into the specifics: if heightened revenue is the target, we explore the necessary steps — from team expansion to equipment investments.
Financial Blueprint:
Assessing Alignment and Collaboration
These discussions evolve into a monthly financial blueprint, offering a lens to assess alignment with your objectives. This is a collaborative process where you have the liberty to scrutinize and question, be it a misaligned assumption or an overlooked detail.
Through this comprehensive approach, we lay down a quarterly and monthly milestones roadmap, encompassing financial targets and the tangible actions required to reach them.
Accountability
The journey from planning to achievement is paved with steadfast accountability. Once the goals are set, and the strategic plan is established, we ensure quarterly and monthly milestones are followed. This is achieved through regular communication and detailed financial reporting, fostering a culture of accountability crucial for success.
Executive Decision Making
At the heart of our service lies the support for executive-level decision-making. For business owners and corporate leaders, each decision can have far-reaching implications. We guide you through these critical choices by revisiting your goals and evaluating the impact on your overall business strategy. Consider a scenario where an opportunity arises to purchase equipment at a discounted rate but requires a loan. We don’t just look at the numbers; we analyze how this decision aligns with your goals, affects your financials, and influences your long-term strategy, leading you to an informed and strategic decision.
Repeat and Refine
This process is not a one-time event but a continuous cycle of strategizing, executing, and refining.
Technical Financial Expertise
Throughout this journey, our role encompasses various technical tasks critical to financial management:
- Financial Analysis: Deep-diving into your financials to extract insights that drive better business decisions.
- Financial Reporting: Providing comprehensive reports that offer clarity and drive action.
- Financial Process Guidance: Acting as a resource for your internal finance team, enhancing their capabilities without overstepping into management.
- Cash Flow Forecasting: Predicting future cash flows to ensure liquidity and operational efficiency.
- Budgets & Projections: Crafting detailed budgets and projections that align with both short-term actions and long-term objectives.
Our role is to provide the financial acumen and support that enables you to focus on leading and growing your business, whether you’re a passionate entrepreneur or a seasoned corporate executive.
Look At The Benefits From Strata Cloud's CFO Service
Fractiona CFO service is about 50% more cost-effective than hiring an in-house controller
Provides the same high-quality work as an in-house controller
Helps hold you accountable to your business's financial goals
Takes a leadership role in your company, working towards your business goals with the rest of your team
Helps you understand whether or not your ideas will turn a profit
Can prevent you from making decisions that could lead to profit loss
Plans strategically how to use your money to grow the business
Has an entire team of Strata Cloud Accountants experts behind every effort
Supporting Accounting Services:
- Bookkeeping
- Accounts Receivable
- Accounts Payable
- Month End Close
- Clean Ups
- Audit & Due Diligence Support
- Reporting