Contract CFO

What’s a contract CFO?

• A trusted advisor and consultant;
• A certified accountant with strong technical skills;
• A hands-on CFO who quickly becomes part of your team; and
• A leader who helps strategize and execute.

A contract CFO offers small and medium-sized businesses a seasoned executive to increase the depth of their team when a full-time role is not required. We work with you and your team directly with a view to improving your firm’s long-term financial health.

Areas that we practice in:

Financial oversight: we start from the ground up with your financial statements and your team. We provide and implement best practices to augment the value of historical financial information and develop tools to increase the visibility of the business;

Cash flow: we identify internal and external sources of cash to help you achieve your targets;

Staff development: we provide one-on-one coaching for members of your team to help them grow in their roles;

Business planning: we help you create detailed financial models to support your growth strategies and implement accountability practices within your organization to ensure all team members are on the same page; and

Mergers and acquisitions planning: we help you develop your plan, whether on the buy side or the sell side, to achieve a successful outcome.

Capital Raise

The capital “dance floor” includes an infinite number of options beyond bank loans. With extensive corporate finance experience, we assist in identifying lenders and capital partners well beyond the reach of our clients.  We help owners and executives seeking to fuel growth, fund acquisitions, or recapitalize the business as necessary.

Business Start-ups: One of the biggest challenges for businesses is getting adequate financing. That’s why our start-up financing strategies and solutions are designed to provide a complete package to help you achieve your goals.

Business growth: Many businesses owners are hesitant to fuel business growth. However, businesses may find that operations stagnate without additional capital injection. For debt and loan options, reach out to us today to explore your strategies and solutions.

Capital equipment: Raising funds to acquire the equipment you need to run your business can be time-consuming and stressful. We will evaluate your situation, in detail, to provide you with the best options to suit your needs.

Purchase of a business: Buying a business is a great way to grow your client base, increase your productive capacity and build the value of your company. But do you have enough money to keep it working? Do you have enough working capital to fund its growth? Growing businesses can require expertise, and we are here to help.

Partner buy-outs: Whatever the reason is if you want to keep your business, but your partner must leave the business, we understand everything you need to know to successfully buy out your business partner.

Debt strategy: Even though certain business models require taking on debt to capitalize on growth opportunities, looming debt can squeeze the enjoyment out of being an entrepreneur. We cover strategies for optimizing your small business debt, so you can get back into the black and focus more on doing what you love.

Our typical process involves the following steps:

• Determine your needs
• Validate feasibility
• Build a business case
• Summarize historical financial statements and key operating data
• Review and summarize future financial information (budgets, forecasts)
• Corroborate using Industry data
• Source financing – debt and/or equity
• Select finalists and negotiate the best deal
• Assist/oversee legal and implementation

Gazelles’ Scaling Up

We have a series of tools that we work with based on 4 key decisions that companies must get right or risk leaving significant revenues, profit and time on the table: Cash, People, Strategy, and Execution.

We use these tools with leadership teams to work through improvement opportunities and to formalize and implement a process and a discipline to follow. We facilitate the discussion, provide input on some best practices, record the consensus and implement an accountability tool for the team to use.

Companies that follow the Gazelles’ Scaling Up methodology and coaching, have on average 2X more Cash Flow, 3X more Profit and a 10X greater Valuation.

Our process looks as follows:

• Work with the President/CEO to understand/define the growth opportunities;
• Review client and industry data to validate the current state;
• Work with the President/CEO and the Leadership Team to understand the current state and issues facing the business;
• Facilitate a 2-day annual retreat to develop and define Core items, Strategic Thinking, and Execution Planning;
• Includes a one-page Strategic Plan with specific actions for 3 Years, 1 Year, next Quarter to cascade to the rest of the firm;
• Facilitate a quarterly 1-day review of the past quarter and plan development for the next quarter;
• Facilitate a monthly half-day check-in and accountability sessions; and
• Provide for a monthly 1-2 hour President/CEO coaching 1-to-1.