You run a new business, maybe a startup, tight on finances? Always!
Most new businesses run out of cash before they reach profitable safety.
But creating an accounting & finance discipline and function within your company is the last thing on your mind.
You’re considering a number of options:
–dedicating your time to establishing and running the finance function, or
–dedicating someone in your team to double hat as the finance function. or
–dedicating the time to hire a qualified accountant/finance team member.
Whichever option you choose, this is just the start. Next up, a bunch of decisions require attention.
What systems?
How to integrate?
How to leverage?
How to minimize costs?
Who to hire?
How to set finance objectives
How to manage them?
… and more …
What if there was a way of ensuring that you leveraged yourself and your team to the maximum?
There is.
Strat-e-gym.
Let us know where you are in your Finance function journey, and we'll meet you there with Finance Force Multipliers.
But isn't that just another name for consultancy?
Good question.
No.
You don't need more advice; you need more action!
You don’t need more spreadsheets; you need operating systems!
We give you the operating system to build financial self-competence from founders in the early days through to their post-revenue finance team.
We'll guide you through constructing your financial narrative, not just financial numbers.
When you clarify your financial narrative, your growth ambitions become measurable and achievable realities that investors will understand.
But why not build this accounting and finance specialisation in-house from day one?
The Ask – Job Description
The Reality – Job Requirements
Breaking down the requirements into the required skill sets we can see the numerous niche skill requirements:
Lead on company-wide budgeting, forecasting and planning process [FP&A skills]
Analyzing critical metrics including unit economics, CAC, LTV, ACV, CHURN, ARR, MRR [cutting edge SaaS finance skills]
Partner with the CEO on future investment rounds [managing upwards skills]
Create business cases to support commercial decision making, including geographical expansion and potential new product launches [MBA business strategy skills]
Managing finance team consisting of a Finance Manager and Accounts Assistant [leadership skills]
Oversee the day to the day finance function, including preparation of consolidated monthly management and annual statutory reporting [financial reporting and systems skills]
as well as:
– Experience in leading sizeable VC funding rounds [pretty rare]
– Strong IT and financial modelling skills [strong systems, technology background]
Chasm 1 - Startups need Finance leaders to be multi-faceted experts, yet very few accountants have that breadth of experience at the stated price. The gap is 5 years and £50k.
The role of the Finance function is to Collect, Control & Communicate financial information.
The many roles within the Finance umbrella fit within these walls. Like many other finance people, I have grown up using a myriad of names to segment the finance discipline.
I have been called an Audit Trainee, ACA PQE, Product Controller, Financial Controller, Accounts Manager, Financial Reporting Manager, Financial Controller, Finance Director, Systems Accountant, Management Accountant, Finance Executive, Business CFO, and Finance Consultant throughout my career.
Given that I've only worked in 5 companies over a 25-year career, you can see the problems startups encounter when building a finance function.
What do I need, and what are they called?
Whatever the title, all finance roles boil down to collecting, controlling, and communicating financial information and data.
The collection of core data types will change per role, e.g. balance sheet data for financial reporting, market trends data for FP&A, pricing data for pricing functions, cost data for management accountants, and many more variations.
After the collection is the requirement to sift, reconcile and mould the data into an agreed control framework. Accuracy is the fundamental goal aligned with assurance into the integrity of the numbers.
Lastly, communication requires that the numbers weave into a cohesive story narrative that explains the numbers to a broader audience. Shareholders, regulators, future investors, tax authorities, board executive management and any other interested parties.
But in a world of information and data overload, the collecting and control tend to represent 90% of the resource effort within most finance functions.
Yet, the communication element drives 90% of the alpha; therefore, the Pareto principle works against most traditional finance functions.
Ok, so what does this mean for your startup?
As most of your survival depends on financial narrative, nine out of ten potentials will have specialised in the collecting and control, not the communication.
How does this translate to your search?
You'll find very few takers by reducing finance folk into collectors, controllers and communicators of financial information, so let's convert and expand into more exciting terminology.
Here we can split the role of the finance function into three core disciplines:
Accounting [p&l, balance sheet, reporting, audit]
Allocation [capital, cash & resource planning and analysis]
Asymmetry [pricing, strategy, leverage]
All three of these require collecting, controlling, and communicating financial results, data, and other signals.
Again, these aren't the official titles of the recruits that will offer their services. But it is the Jobs To Be Done in a startup, or any other company for that matter.
But, there’s another problem. Finance is rarely involved in front-end pricing & monetization decision making.
Breaking it down, your revenue results from two core inputs;
the amount you sell [volume/quantity/units] and;
the amount you sell it for [price/monetization]
Chasm 2 - Startups need Finance leaders to be pricing experts, yet very few accountants have pricing experience.
Therefore - Startups need Finance leaders to be multi-faceted experts, with knowledge of financing, monetization, pricing and strategy.
What startups need is a new type of archetype ‘A Growth Accountant’.
But even where these resources exist, this expertise is 5 years and £50k beyond the reach of many, if not all seed to Series B startups.
Strat-e-gym gets you across the chasm with Finance Assisted Intelligence.
We’ll enable you and your finance team to scale with success with our innovative finance force multiplier offering.
Whether you’re just starting or growth scaling, gain maximum leverage for your startup with finance force multipliers.