Big companies have an unending pipeline of work. They may have to hammer out quarterly earnings statements, which need to keep shareholders happy enough to buy more shares (invest) in the company. Beyond sales, it keeps a company afloat. In these cases, the Chief Financial Officer is at the helm of the financial future of the ship.
They are the brains behind the company, and can steer the company from slamming into a dangerous iceberg, downing the company, to instead finding smooth sailing and prosperity. That’s a poetic way of saying the Chief Financial Officer is an important member of the team. The people below them are the “doers”, while a CFO works with the executive team to prioritize what will make the company continue to grow and thrive into the future. They also known when to abandon projects and products or services that were not working out so well.
CFOs Are Necessary But Expensive
The issue is that many companies assume they have to have executives fully on board as permanent and full-time employees. Yet, there’s really no reason to limit the company, or its earnings potential by forking over all that money for someone who may be more effective and efficient a few hours per month.
Hiring a part time CFO is how many smaller companies who desperately rely on the financial brains of a CFO can afford one. After all, without a solid plan and well-researched, solid executive decision-making, companies end up wasting their venture capital instead of investing wisely in sales and marketing to make a profit.
Advantages Of Part-Time Virtual CFOs
The drawback of having a full-time CFO is not only that they are costly, but then the company might be forced to pay for relocation, and other big-ticket benefits that a salesperson or a project manager might not receive.
Instead, the advantage to turning to CFOs who offer up their services as a true service, meant to assist many companies in need, is that they may be inherently more affordable. It’s not that they are slashing the cost of their services, but instead dividing up their services to many different companies.
In that manner, they continue to challenge themselves, while doing the greatest good. Meanwhile, because they are aiming to serve more companies in more industries, they are more efficient if they are not in the office.
These days, technology is lean, mean, efficient, and fast. It means virtual workplaces are an everyday reality, where people can share work on the cloud, working only as much as is necessary for any one client. They can share work spaces virtually, collaborating without being side-by-side.
It is also a lot more efficient, as even workplace studies have estimated that most people top off at about 4 hours of good, solid work efforts per day. The virtual CFO also is aware of this, and that makes for a win-win-win for a company. Here’s how.
Because the CFO is working the same as the people below them, in management and the service portion of companies, they are aware of efficiency. They have realistic expectations of workers’ efforts and effectiveness. This means that a company can save money by hiring a part-time virtual CFO in more ways than one.
The CFO will probably inherently be something of a built-in efficiency expert and be able to advise on how to make the most of workers. In other words, the majority of the company may actually be more effective as part-timers who are virtual. This way the company saves a lot of money on overhead, instead keeping the focus on making money and honoring their employees’ natural effectiveness.
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