What Is a CFO?
There are three levels of financial management in business: accountant/bookkeeper, controller and Chief Financial Officer or "CFO".
Accountants and bookkeepers are financial foundation layers for your business. Without them keeping accurate financial records for your business, nothing else could stand and no informed decisions could be made.
Controllers are inspectors who make sure your business is not getting stolen from, produce financial reports, look backward to review your business performance, and tell you if your business got it right or wrong. They also help you know when and why your performance isn’t “up to code.” Your business could collapse if not for their helpful checks, reports, warnings and reassuring approvals.
CFOs are visionary financial architects who design (typically co-work with you the owner/CEO to design) the plans and strategies that will get your business to the next level. Whether your business is just getting started, expanding, buying another business, reorganizing, or figuring out how to solve a problem; they know “building code” (what makes a business succeed financially) better than anyone - often from extensive experience - and combine that knowledge with creativity to help you dream up and design the plan to get your business to the top.
Accountants are Not CFO's
Though many CFOs are CPAs or have accounting backgrounds, an accountant is not a CFO any more than a foundation laying contractor is an architect. One takes great skill and pride in getting foundational financial details "just right," and is discontent when they're not perfect (which should describe your accountant or bookkeeper). The other takes creative strategic thinking and the ability to envision and engineer something beautiful out of nothing (which is what we do as your outsourced CFO).
Your accountant or bookkeeper is not your CFO - and in many cases has a different skill set than what is needed to be an effective strategy- and plan-setting CFO. Nevertheless, if they get your financial records set perfectly level, accountants and bookkeepers are tremendously-important members of your team!
We are CFO First, Controller (if needed) Second, Not Accountants
All our clients have an accountant or bookkeeper either on their staff or at their disposal (including through a CPA firm). PERFORMIDABLE does not perform accounting services because we are not accountants. Yet, we appreciate the foundational work done by the accountants and bookkeepers in the businesses we serve, and we enjoy working closely with them to help your business succeed.
For businesses with on-staff controllers, we need not provide controller-level services. However, we do as much “inspection” work as is necessary to get our job done well. If your controller clearly and regularly identifies what’s working well, what’s not and why for us and you… we’re fast-tracked to the exciting part - designing strategies and financial plans to "get it done" (aka serving as your CFO).
In businesses with no controller-level staffer or in need of thorough or ongoing financial inspection, we provide enough “controller” services to get our job done, and often do so.
In all cases though, the greatest value and difference-maker of our outsourced CFO services will come from our role as visionary financial architects of your business. This, of course, will always be in accord with and in support of your vision for your business. Likewise, it will involve us working with all other important players – from the foundation layers, to the inspectors, to the managers and influencers in all other non-financial functions of your business.
Just as an architect's proudest moment comes when their creative design turns into a built reality… our proudest moments occur when your business reaches the PERFORMIDABLE goal – a business that is a strong-profit performer that won’t be blown away by the winds of adversity.
Outsourced CFO
The significance of the "outsourced" part of outsourced CFO is this... most small business have significant need to have a CFO but insufficient cash flow to cover the cost of a full-time CFO. That's where we come in.
PERFORMIDABLE offers CFO services in three separate packages - effectively part-time CFO segments - that are custom-designed to fit the needs and financial abilities of the small businesses we serve.
Yes, if you have a business with $1-$20 million in annual revenues, you need a CFO. But, no, you don't have to pay a full-time CFO to get the job done. Go with an outsourced CFO instead.
If that’s what you’re after, that is what a good outsourced CFO can do… that’s what we can do for business! And we encourage you now to check out what we have to offer you through our outsourced CFO services...