Hire a Part Time Finance Director to Help Grow Your Business

Imagine having the fully qualified, experienced resource you need, when you need it, but not having to pay the cost of a full-time Finance Director.

Perhaps like many SMEs, you need the support of an experienced FD, but at this stage in your growth, you don’t want or need the full cost – or indeed risk – of hiring one on a full time basis? So, what are the benefits of a part-time Finance Director?

Cost Savings And Flexibility

If you have some significant extra project work, more often than not the relatively short term requirements for this can be met by our part time FDs. With our service you don’t pay the extra cost of a full time employee’s NI, holidays and sick leave. You can turn off the resource when you want to, albeit with a notice period, at far less cost than moving (or removing) an employee. With some tasks, a standard accountant might be able to do the work, so we’d always advise you when this was the case.

Scaleability – Increase or Decrease our Service Level over Time

In effect, this allows you to ‘try before you buy’ – again avoiding the risk of selecting the wrong candidate at interview. Many of our clients try out an FD initially for a few days per month, then increase this as the business grows, once it can be demonstrated how well the key managers work together with us. You’ll always deal with a single individual at Business Growth Services, fully briefed and familiar with your business and its requirements.

Ability To ‘Hit The Ground Running’

With our part-time FD Service you reap the benefits of highly experienced financial management skills much earlier than you would waiting until a new employee is ‘up to speed’. In addition, delaying the appointment until you can afford a full time employee at this level means that it could take several more years before you can afford them – which of course, can have a serious impact on your business.

An example we constantly see is an SME starting to grow quickly, only to find that their growth is severely limited by fragmented or poorly designed systems that don’t interact with each other. In this case, the new business growth multiplies work and headcount far more than it impacts upon profit. Getting Finance Director expertise earlier in the growth cycle can mean a business is able to scale much more quickly.

Additional Capability from a Broader Base of Experience

Our FDs have very broad experience gained from working in a multitude of different companies and industries. Our professionals often come with large accountancy practice or consulting firm backgrounds, where they have acquired excellent professional and analytical skills. Exposing your team and business to best practice from a wide variety of industries and businesses of many different sizes can be a great way of building capability into your team.

Motivation

Part-time Finance Directors do not have the safety net of an employment contract and therefore have to constantly deliver value in order to keep the contract! Our team are happy to back themselves in this regard without the benefit of a full-time employment contract.

Focus – Project Specific

We are often given responsibility for specific projects – perhaps raising finance, strategic planning or financial control. The fact that they are not always in the business and only have limited time often means they more clearly maintain focus on the important tasks you have given them. As you know, this is one of the most critical components of building business growth.

Full Time FDs: Also Available

Whilst we highlight the benefits of part-time resource above, we can introduce full-time and interim professionals if that is what is needed by your business.

Whatever your requirements are, please give us a call for an initial consultation. It could be the best decision you make this year.

Author: Shaun, Finance Director and Founder of Business Growth Services.