89 Ways a Fractional CFO Can Help Your Business - Fahrenheit
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89 Ways a Fractional CFO Can Help Your Business

Fractional CFO | Finance | Fahrenheit Advisors

When you need financial expertise beyond your current team, a fractional CFO is the ace up your sleeve to help you conquer your goals. You get valuable insight and focus without making a full-time hire — and that’s definitely a win for your business.

Whether you’re looking for an expert to take on a special project or you need an experienced professional to fully immerse themselves in your day-to-day business, a fractional CFO delivers exactly what you need. Our seasoned Fahrenheit CFOs have addressed dozens of unique challenges of varying levels of complexity across a wide range of industries, always customizing our focus to our client’s specific business needs.

To give you some ideas about all the things a fractional CFO can do for you, we’ve put together a list of 89 ways a fractional CFO can help your business.

To make it even easier to find what’s most helpful for you, we’ve sorted our list into 7 specific areas of business impact:

  1. Growth & Change
  2. Processes & Systems
  3. Analysis & Management
  4. Strategy
  5. Special Projects
  6. Finance & Executive Team
  7. Board & Investor Relations

 

89 WAYS A FRACTIONAL CFO CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS

I. GROWTH & CHANGE

In business today, “growth and change” is the name of the game. Amp up your ability and your agility with a fractional CFO focused on minimizing obstacles and maximizing opportunities — to deliver results.

  • Raise capital to grow the business
  • Scale the business
  • Determine whether to expand to new markets
  • Enter new markets
  • Evaluate and prepare for a potential sale, merger, or acquisition
  • Tap into different revenue streams
  • Manage equity and debt fundraising, including preparing financial and due diligence materials
  • Get financials ready to launch a crowdfunding campaign
  • Prepare and coordinate an IPO
  • Analyze future products, services, markets, customer segments, territories, or locations
  • Plan for and manage adoption of new currencies
  • Prepare for a fundraising round
  • Budget for capital investment
  • Generate forecasting models
  • Create financial modeling and projections
  • Plan for geographical expansion

II. PROCESSES & SYSTEMS

When your processes and systems are firing on all cylinders, you get the advantages of efficiency and effectiveness — plus speed, productivity, visibility, and control. A fractional CFO can help you get there faster.

  • Evaluate existing processes and systems to identify areas for improvement
  • Design and establish new processes
  • Build and manage robust, actionable KPI reporting
  • Strengthen budget, policy, and regulatory compliance
  • Restructure company finances
  • Leverage business process automation for sales orders, purchase-to-pay processes, and financial statement close and reporting
  • Select and set up a new accounting system to increase insights, visibility, and ease of access to information
  • Manage audit preparation
  • Implement technical accounting rules
  • Improve accounts payable and receivable
  • Optimize bookkeeping, general ledger, and payroll functions
  • Improve budgeting and expense management
  • Initiate detailed budget-to-actual reporting
  • Provide oversight in closing the monthly books and managing financial reporting
  • Manage budgets and tactical operational recommendations
  • Restructure and reduce administrative costs
  • Make strategic operational decisions

III. ANALYSIS & MANAGEMENT

A fractional CFO leverages their expertise to do a deep dive where you need it most, addressing everything from costs to pricing to profitability in order to empower your business to maximize its performance — and its potential.

  • Improve profitability
  • Create smoother transitions during periods of high growth or downturn, including:
    • Significant organic growth
    • Acquisitions
    • Business contraction
    • Divestitures
  • Price products and services appropriately
  • Improve inventory control
  • Analyze and separate “good” customers from “bad” customers
  • Examine manufacturing costs and sales cycles to calculate an accurate ROI
  • Strengthen cash flow projections and management
  • Complete financial and market analyses
  • Identify areas of risk
  • Analyze cash management, fees, and costs
  • Create financial forecasts
  • Manage cash burn rate

IV. STRATEGY

When you and your team are overwhelmed in the trenches, a fractional CFO can rise above to bring critical strategic focus and clarity to both your short- and long-term futures, keeping the business on track and guiding informed decisions about what’s around the corner.

  • Update and enhance the company’s strategic plan
  • Create short-term, annual, and long-term views of the business
  • Provide strategic goal-oriented financial planning and advocacy
  • Maximize cash
  • Evaluate the use of bank and other kinds of debt
  • Manage cash forecasts, debt covenants, receivables, and payables
  • Develop an exit strategy for the business
  • Link financials to business strategy
  • Develop tax strategies
  • Provide financial forecasts to empower the strategic use of capital
  • Refinance debt
  • Execute covenant negotiations
  • Develop collateral strategy
  • Plan for future capital needs
  • Develop detailed business plans
  • Tackle specific financial challenges, including:
    • Low or declining gross margins
    • Cash flow issues
    • High expenses
    • Revenue leakage
    • Cost overruns

V. SPECIAL PROJECTS

When you already have all hands on deck it can be challenging to carve out time to successfully manage special projects. A fractional CFO can take the lead on new initiatives, emerging opportunities, regulatory and market curveballs, and more.

  • Lead special projects and new initiatives, especially those with complex or deadline-sensitive requirements
  • Manage budgeting and forecasting
  • Execute financial modeling
  • Negotiate bank financing
  • Prepare for capital raise
  • Manage M&A transactions
  • Lead a government compliance special project
  • Prepare for and manage regulatory changes
  • Coordinate external audits
  • Advocate for better banking relationships
  • Conduct contract negotiations and evaluations with customers, vendors, and banks
  • Secure and manage outside finance vendors, including banks, leasing companies, insurance, and CPAs

VI. FINANCE & EXECUTIVE TEAM

Every business benefits from having an experienced CFO at the table. When that’s not in the cards — because of budgets, timing, or a departure — a fractional CFO can check all the boxes, and even help make a full-time hire to fill the seat.

  • Free the CEO to focus on being the CEO
  • Serve as a trusted advisor to the CEO and the executive team
  • Provide interim stability if the full-time CFO departs the company
  • Assist with finding a permanent full-time CFO, including:
    • Determine level of need
    • Develop an accurate job description
    • Hire the position
    • Get the newly hired CFO up to speed
  • Offer mentoring and staff development to boost team members’ individual skillsets and help advance their careers
  • Coach the management team in specific areas
  • Introduce processes and methodologies to improve task performance and create a higher-functioning financial team
  • Restructure the finance team to maximize efficiency and effectiveness
  • Identify operational or skillset gaps
  • Train or recruit employees to fill gaps
  • Develop or adjust incentive plans to improve recruitment and retention
  • Shift the volume of work to prevent employee burnout

VII. BOARD & INVESTOR RELATIONS

The senior-level capabilities and insights of a fractional CFO take your team to the next level. You’ll boost board member and investor confidence with a dedicated expert advisor on your team and in your corner.

  • Build credibility with board members and investors
  • Interact with investors to build and strengthen relationships
  • Serve as the primary point person for financial questions, concerns, and ideas
  • Develop board member and investor presentations and packages

Chances are you found more than one opportunity on our list of 89 ways a fractional CFO can help your business. So let’s get started! Our seasoned Fahrenheit team of experts is at-the-ready to focus on delivering the results you need now.

From strategizing to streamlining to problem-solving — and more — a fractional CFO can be the game-changer your business needs to sustain and accelerate growth, adapt to change, and ultimately impact your bottom line.

To read more about the benefits of a fractional CFO, check out Fahrenheit CEO Keith Middleton’s blog post: 5 Ways a Fractional CFO Helps Accelerate Your Growth.

Or learn about one CEO’s experience with Fahrenheit’s fractional CFO service and when to hire a fractional CEO in this blog post: “CEOs of Growing Businesses Find Relief When Engaging an Experienced Fractional CFO.”

To find out how a fractional CFO can help your business grow, adapt, and succeed, contact us today. Our team of seasoned executives is here to accelerate your progress and help you find the straightest path forward.

 

About the Author

Keith Middleton | Finance & Accounting | Fahrenheit AdvisorsKeith Middleton is a co-managing partner and co-founder of Fahrenheit Advisors. He oversees the firm’s consulting and fractional services, as well as risk management and operations. He is a member of Fahrenheit’s Leadership Team. A seasoned corporate finance executive, Keith’s expertise in organizational strategy and a newfound passion for entrepreneurism has helped Fahrenheit expand across multiple service lines and geographies.

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