Does Your Small Business Need A Virtual CFO (Chief Financial Officer)?

As a small business owner, you may feel as though you have limited options that are both affordable and effective when it comes to accessing professional advice from a financial expert. However, virtual CFOs fit the bill and are changing the landscape of small business strategic management. Hiring a virtual CFO, also known as an outsourced CFO, allows you to unlock invaluable financial insight as you seek to streamline your operations, improve cash flow management or scale your business — at a much more affordable price point than bringing on a full-time CFO.

Five Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Virtual CFO

Is your business experiencing cash flow management issues?
Do you wish to streamline your business operations by creating proper budgets and forecasts?
Is your business revenue growing rapidly? For example, are you expecting to land a big contract or client?
Is your industry uber competitive and dynamic, requiring you to move quickly on business deals?
Do you wish to scale your business but aren’t sure whether your decisions would help or hinder your financial future?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you need the services of a virtual CFO.

What are the Benefits of a Virtual CFO?

There are several benefits to hiring a virtual CFO:

More profitable real-time decision-making.

The CFO’s primary role is to conduct financial analysis and interpret key business metrics. In short, they exist to explain the meaning behind your financial reports. This is critical to ensuring that you are as informed as possible when it comes your business’ current financial health as well as your financial future.

If you’re like most small business owners, financial modeling and forecasting may not be in your skill set. However, a well-trained CFO will be able to conduct scenario analysis to help identify new ways for your business to exploit market opportunities. This can help you to gain a competitive edge in your industry and scale your business in the future.

Another key benefit of contracting a CFO is that they provide an unbiased, independent assessment of your business. Your virtual CFO can also offer a fresh perspective when it comes to analyzing your next financial move since they are much less likely to be impacted by internal influences. In general, the virtual CFO role is regarded as a top-notch, high-quality, objective professional.

It is also important to note that virtual CFOs implement cloud-based bookkeeping software, meaning you can access your data at any time, from anywhere and on any device. Leveraging cloud technology also means you no longer have to worry about making decisions based on out-of-date information. Furthermore, full charge bookkeeping companies like RQB, have multiple layers of data protection, security cameras to monitor access to files and the ability to do constant testing for disaster recovery and connectivity.

Overall, your virtual CFO will ensure that you have access to accurate and timely reporting which means you can make the most effective decisions to boost long-term profitability.

Related: Cloud Bookkeeping is Safe

Assessing and mitigating business risk.

All businesses face risk which can take many forms. Hiring a remote CFO can help you to identify business risks and come up with a plan to address them in a timely manner. A virtual CFO can undertake a risk assessment and ensure you are:

Making sound capital investments and other business decisions.
Complying with all legal and regulatory requirements within your industry.
Maintaining adequate insurance coverage.
Implementing sufficient internal financial safeguards to prevent employee misconduct.
Protecting your sensitive data, equipment and inventory.

Not sure whether you should hire a virtual CFO? Consider the burden and time spent performing all these functions on your own. Can your business withstand any shortcomings in these areas?

Improving Cash Flow Management.

Cash flow management is arguably one of the most common stumbling blocks for business owners – regardless of the size of their organization. A virtual CFO can help you to identify whether your business is in a good cash flow position for the next six months. If it isn’t – he or she can help you to implement contingencies to address any shortfalls such as improving your receivables or managing your payables more efficiently.

Hiring a professional advisor such as Remote Quality Bookkeeping will help provide you with the peace of mind of knowing that your business has sufficient liquidity to meet current expenses, pay down debt, reinvest in the business and prepare for milestone events.

Help with fundraising.

If you’re looking to grow operations, launch a new product or service or even acquire another small business, then you can call upon your virtual CFO. He or she can also help you to identify and evaluate different options as well as provide scenario analysis that can prove invaluable when it comes to making your final decision. Your virtual CFO can also help you to interface with financial institutions in order to save you time.

Expert advice without the in-house price tag.

Bringing on a full-time CFO doesn’t come cheap — and will likely cost you six figures. However, by hiring a part-time, remote CFO, you can reap the benefits of an in-house CFO, at a fraction of the cost. You won’t have to worry about paying for travel time, benefits, insurance, or payroll taxes.

At Remote Quality Bookkeeping, we offer virtual CFO services to review key metrics and ratios per month or per quarter. Our plans are customizable, which means you only pay for the CFO services you need. Outsourcing this function offers a cost-effective solution for businesses that only need part time support.

For a fraction of the cost of hiring a full-time CFO, a virtual CFO will provide you with the financial expertise you need to strategically manage your business growth. Contact the team at Remote Quality Bookkeeping today to find out more about our virtual CFO services. You can also see what our current clients have to say about our outsourced bookkeeping services.