Did your know that there are 31.7 million small businesses in the United States, and about 13% are startups? While there’s an increase in businesses opening, there’s also an increase in business closure.
In reality, only two-thirds of businesses survive for at least two years. Of which, only 50% survive after five years of business operation.
To avoid the same fate, you need to strengthen your financial management. Read on to find out how a virtual CFO can benefit your business!
1. Hiring a Virtual CFO Is a Cost-Effective Decision
Businesses of all sizes can enjoy the lower cost of hiring virtual CFOs. For one, virtual CFOs work remotely and in their own space. Thus, you won’t need to rent a large office space for them as you would with an in-house CFO.
A virtual CFO also works part-time as opposed to an in-house CFO. This means that you’ll only pay them for the work done.
Let’s say that you want to hire a CFO to manage your business’ ongoing compliances. After consideration, you estimated that the task would take around 2-3 weeks.
In such cases, it’s not practical to hire a full-time employee. Instead, a part-time CFO allows you to get the work done without the need for a long-term contract.
What’s even better is that the cost of hiring CFOs, specifically virtual ones, is more affordable. Virtual CFOs don’t require social or medical benefits or even bonuses. As such, you can expect to save money from hiring virtual CFOs.
2. A Virtual CFO Is Flexible
When you work with a virtual CFO, you get full control over the nature of their work. You decide whether they’ll have a fixed or hourly retainer and how many hours they’ll work. You can opt to scale up or down as needed.
For instance, you hired a virtual CFO to work for you 30 hours per week for two months. Yet, as your business grows, you’ll need more of their services. In such a case, you can always have upscale and request that they render their services longer.
3. Diverse Experience
Virtual CFOs work part-time for multiple companies of all sizes and different industries. As a result, they likely encountered and solved problems of different scales than in-house CFOs. Thus, you can be sure that they have in-depth expertise in managing the financial matters of your business.
4. Wide Expertise and Skill Set
Aside from diverse experience, a virtual CFO also has a wide range of skill sets. As mentioned, virtual CFOs work in diverse industries, which challenges their skills. Thus, virtual CFOs are constantly upskilling to meet their virtual CFO responsibilities.
This is why most get certifications on skills inside and even outside of finance. Some virtual CFOs even go as far as seeking industry-specific skills.
For example, some candidates for CFOs may be certified engineers aside from being financial analysts. Others may also be certified and charted management accountants. Your business will gain a lot of value from employing such professionals.
5. Helps Enhance Cash Flow
Every decision you make must be well-thought as such a decision can cost you in the long run. The good news is that you don’t have to carry this burden alone.
Virtual CFOs can help with financial analysis and liquidity maximization. They can also offer tax planning services that can help optimize your profit.
With the help of a virtual CFO, you can make a more comprehensive financial decision for your business. This, in turn, can increase your business profit.
6. Quick Work Integration
Virtual CFOs constantly enter and exit teams of varying businesses. As a result, they work with plenty of employees of different personalities.
In most cases, they do so at the same time as most CFOs work with multiple companies at a time. This allows them to develop skills necessary for easy integration, such as teamwork.
In addition, they know how to bring their expertise without ruffling the feathers of existing members. Thus, you don’t have to worry about how you’ll integrate them with your existing team.
Further, virtual CFOs work on demand; thus, there’s no need to introduce them to the whole workforce. Instead, you can limit their interaction to only the key personnel they’ll work with.
Aside from seedy integration, a virtual CFO also has a shorter learning curve. New employees generally take at least six months to get up to seed with their new working environment.
However, as virtual CFOs consistently enter and leave organizations, they’re always on their toes. This means that they can quickly assess and cope with a new working environment. Thus, they can give your needed results faster than most in-house CFO can.
7. Allows You to Delegate Tasks
As you grow your business, more work will start piling up, which you may find hard to handle alone. From increasing clients, employees, and investors, there will be a lot of financial tasks to handle. Without a financial expert, your small business may not be able to take the upscaling.
It’s in cases like this that task delegation comes in handy. For example, you can delegate all finance-related tasks to a virtual CFO. This lessens your workload and allows you to focus on other matters besides finance.
8. Get Access to Their Vast Network
You can expect a virtual CFO to have a wide array of contact as a result of working with different companies. Such contact may include a network of previous clients. This means a wide range of resources that you can leverage for your business.
It can mean a list of potential customers or even investors. This is helpful if you’re looking to branch out to new markets, upscale your business, or engage new vendors.
Worry Less With Bennett Financials
Whether you’re looking to upscale your business or not, hiring a virtual CFO will benefit you nonetheless. Aside from being cost-effective, virtual CFOs can also bring value to your company with their diverse experience and wide skill set. Here’s more, a virtual CFO can help keep money within your business by optimizing your cash flow.
Don’t just take our word and experience the benefits of having a virtual CFO yourself! Instead, give us a call and allow our team of 35 years of experience to help with your finances.
