Earlier this week, I was in a meeting with a surveyor client of ours who recently signed up for our Virtual Finance Director (VFD) services.
VFD services, for those of you who are not familiar with this service, is where we meet with our clients on a monthly or quarterly basis to report and review their profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow which then leads into discussions about their business’ performance and we explore how our clients can improve their profitability, cashflow and take their business to the next level.
Typically, most clients usually only see their accountant once a year and the discussion are mainly focused on what has happened in the past year and how much tax they need to pay, rarely is the focus on the future.
This is the reason why I love our monthly or quarterly VFD meetings as I find them highly creative and rewarding since most of the focus is on the future and it’s all about making something happen rather than reviewing the past which you can’t do anything about.
This was our first meeting so our focus was to build a picture of what the revenue, expenses and profitability are likely to look like for 2022 so we can put in place a budget and set some goals for our client to work towards.
During our discussion, the client shared an idea of an additional revenue stream they wanted to create which if setup correctly could mean it’s a hands-off revenue stream and would work with minimal input from the client. They had been thinking about this for some time, but the challenge the client had was finding a software developer who could help them build the self-serve portal required for this revenue stream.
After understanding the client’s requirements in a bit more detail and the mechanics of how the self-serve portal would work, I suggested a couple of alternative options using existing off-the-shelf tools that I was aware existed, and which could be used by our client without having to create something from scratch.
It was fantastic seeing our client’s face instantly lighting up when I shared my suggestion as they could see exactly how my suggestion would work and the beauty about this was that the client could set this up themselves over the weekend, without having to recreate the wheel by employing a software developer!
So, if you’re not having regular meetings with your accountant, reviewing your business numbers, and bouncing ideas off them, then you really are missing out, as this is where the magic happens!
If you’re the CEO or MD of a business operating in the Construction and related Trades sector or you run an Architects or Surveyors practice and are looking to get a better handle on your business finances and would like the benefit of having regular touchpoints with an accountant to review your business and challenge you to achieve more, then get in touch, I’d love to help!
