Are you chasing growth in your business but worried it might cost you your profits, sanity, or both? In this episode, Danielle Hayden, reformed corporate CFO and CEO of Kickstart Accounting, Inc., pulls back the curtain on the real strategies CFOs use to grow companies intentionally and profitably.
These are the 5 CFO secrets you can and should start using today!
Key Takeaways:
- Secret #1: Use Your Financial Reports as Decision-Making Tools - Your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement aren't just paperwork, they're your roadmap to smart business decisions.
- Secret #2: Forecast for the Future, Not Just the Present - Strategic forecasting (including rolling and quarterly re-forecasts) helps you anticipate growth and plan for big investments like hiring or marketing.
- Secret #3: Align Spending with Your Goals - Every dollar you spend should support your vision. Focus on return-on-investment instead of random or feel-good expenses.
- Secret #4: Protect Your Profit - Set up multiple accounts, including a rainy-day fund, to safeguard your profit and prepare for future opportunities or challenges.
- Secret #5: Get Support from a Money Team - You don't have to be your own CFO. Surround yourself with financial pros who can guide you, hold you accountable, and cheer you on.
Topics Discussed:
Intro: The Risk of Growing on Hustle and Intuition Alone (00:00 – 02:00)
CFO Secret 1: How to Use Your Financial Reports to Make Better Decisions (02:06 – 03:59)
CFO Secret 2: Forecasting Strategies That Work (04:00 - 05:41)
CFO Secret 3: Budgeting with Purpose - Aligning Your Spending & Goals (05:42 - 06:23)
CFO Secret 4: Smart Savings Habits That Protect Profits (06:23 - 07:16)
CFO Secret 5: Who You Need on Your Money Team (07:17 - 09:08)
Resources:
Kickstart Accounting’s CFO Services | kickstartaccountinginc.com/cfo
Book a Call with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/book
Connect with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/Kickstartaccounting
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@businessbythebooks
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/kickstartaccountinginc
Episode Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;28;26
Danielle Hayden
Are you trying to grow your business but terrified of sacrificing your profit or sanity in the process? Today, I'm pulling back the curtain on how we help our clients grow with financial clarity, using real CFO strategies that any business owner can apply right now. Welcome back to Business by the Books, where we turn numbers into confidence and help entrepreneurs build healthy, sustainable and profitable businesses.
00;00;28;28 - 00;00;57;03
Danielle Hayden
I'm your host, Danielle Hayden, reformed corporate CFO and founder of Kickstart Accounting, Inc.. Let's dive in to the CFO strategy that I used during my corporate days that I am unveiling and delivering to you as a business owner so you can implement them right now. Now, first of all, I want to lay the groundwork. We have to have financial clarity as a foundation for our growth.
00;00;57;05 - 00;01;25;03
Danielle Hayden
We cannot grow a business without knowing where we have been. That is why bookkeeping is so important. Bookkeeping allows us as business owners to understand what our business is doing, what's working, what's not working. Where were we? Now, once we have that measurement of time, we can start to look to the future to grow our business and stay profitable.
00;01;25;04 - 00;01;57;02
Danielle Hayden
What I see the most common issue for business owners is that we scale based on intuition and hustle. I know, I see you. As a visionary, you have intuition and you can hustle. But you guys, that is not strategy and it's only going to take you so far. When we are scaling a business based on intuition, we end up with cash flow gaps, surprise tax bills, super expensive hiring mistakes, and sleepless nights.
00;01;57;05 - 00;02;23;00
Danielle Hayden
Growth should feel exciting, not scary. All right, so what are the secrets and how can you apply them in your business? Secret number one is to use your financial reports as a decision making tool. No matter if you're working with Kickstart as your money team or any other bookkeeping team, you should be receiving your financial reports every single month.
00;02;23;00 - 00;02;45;22
Danielle Hayden
And in those financial reports, you should be able to look at your income statement, your balance sheet, and your cash flow statement. Now, here at Kickstart Accounting, we take all of your financial statements and we pull the most important information out. We do the analysis for you so that you can focus on analyzing and assessing your financial health at a glance.
00;02;45;24 - 00;03;24;26
Danielle Hayden
If you are not a Kickstart Accounting client, I want you to focus on reading your income statement to look at your revenue trends., your cost of goods sold and your gross profit margin. Understand the difference between revenue and profit. There is a big difference. There is an even bigger difference between profit and cash flow. So compare your monthly, quarterly, and year-over-year numbers to identify your historical growth patterns so that you can really apply the lessons learned to the future.
00;03;25;00 - 00;03;55;04
Danielle Hayden
CFOs don't make decisions based on gut. They make decisions based on data. When I was working with the management team, the financial investors, and the CEOs when I was working in mid-sized business, we didn't talk about our intuition and feelings. We looked at the data, what happened, the economy, and where we're going in the future. We can then gut check that, but we are not focused solely on intuition.
00;03;55;09 - 00;04;22;20
Danielle Hayden
We used financial reports to create data driven decisions. Our CFO secret number two: Number two is to forecast for the future, not just the present. I love the forecasting tool. Now there's several different ways of forecasting. There's your traditional budget where you are planning a static timeframe, right? You're planning the next 12 months. It doesn't have to be at year-end.
00;04;22;20 - 00;04;56;19
Danielle Hayden
It could be at any time of the year. But you are planning for the next 12 months. But there's other ways of forecasting throughout the year. You can do a rolling forecast. You can also do a re-forecast on a quarterly basis throughout the year. Now this is one of my favorite tools as a CFO to make business decisions, to see year-to-date how I compared to the budget, how I compare to what I thought I would do, and then make an estimated guess of where I think that I'm going.
00;04;56;21 - 00;05;23;29
Danielle Hayden
So that when I'm making business decisions, I am looking at the whole year with actuals and the forecast. This will allow us to anticipate those big growth milestones. When you are growing, we need to plan on hiring. You're going to need a team to help you grow. You're going to need technology, systems, software and marketing. Our growth isn’t going to come from magic.
00;05;24;02 - 00;05;54;27
Danielle Hayden
We have to put intentionality, and so create the CFO mindset to anticipate growth milestones along your growth strategy. Don't forget to build in your buffers and reserves so you don't run on fumes. Forecast for your future. All right, CFO secret number three is to align your spending with your goals. You guys, not all expenses are equal. Some expenses fuel growth and others just feel good.
00;05;54;29 - 00;06;23;17
Danielle Hayden
Some we just forget about. I want you to align every dollar you spend with your growth intention. Use a goal-based budget instead of the cutting and then eliminating budgeting traditional styles. By spending these dollars, by making this investment, what will be the return on the investment in the next 6 to 12 months? Spend with an alignment of your goals and where you're going in the future, not where you're at today.
00;06;23;23 - 00;06;48;16
Danielle Hayden
CFO secret number four is to protect your profit. We have to have a savings account for future investments and rainy day funds. I always want every business owner to have three accounts: an operating account, a tax reserve account, and then a rainy day fund. The rainy day fund might also include some additional dollars for reinvestment in the future.
00;06;48;16 - 00;07;17;14
Danielle Hayden
If you know that you have a large growth strategy that you want to invest in the next three, six, or 12 months, start saving now. I call this the profit-first style habits that are going to allow you to start to save for the future without worrying about all those crazy profit-first percentages. Start taking what you can each month and set those dollars aside so that you have dollars for the rainy day or investments.
00;07;17;15 - 00;07;46;24
Danielle Hayden
CFO secret number five is to get support. You guys, we are meant to do this together. We are not meant to do things alone. Humans are driven by community and support. You don't have to be the CFO of your business. As a CEO, as a business owner, you need to have a money team, and your money team includes bookkeeper, tax accountant, your chief financial officer, and your financial advisor.
00;07;47;00 - 00;08;11;04
Danielle Hayden
Don't worry, you don't need to have any of those positions as internal team members. Those can all be fractional team members like we have here at Kickstart Accounting. Get a money team that can serve as your guide, your partner, and your accountability mirror. We love working alongside our clients. We love celebrating their wins and being there for them when things aren't going well.
00;08;11;11 - 00;08;36;11
Danielle Hayden
Our CFO team gets so excited to build you a budget and to help you create a rolling forecast or re-forecast throughout the year as your businesses growing and your smashing your goals. Now, I know you probably chuckled when I said they love to budget, but you guys, there's people out there who love QuickBooks. They love spreadsheets and they're here to support you.
00;08;36;14 - 00;09;10;24
Danielle Hayden
You don't have to be the one in QuickBooks. You don't have to be the one navigating those scary Excel files anymore. Own your role as CEO. Million dollar businesses aren't built on $10 tasks. Get things off of your plate and do the things only you can do. If you need support with bookkeeping or CFO services, you can go to KickstartAccountingInc.com/cfo and learn more about how our money team can help you.
00;09;10;27 - 00;09;55;24
Danielle Hayden
I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Business by the Books. Don't forget to hit like and subscribe! This is the number one way we can help other entrepreneurs find this podcast cause here at Kickstart Accounting, Inc., it is our mission to help entrepreneurs understand their numbers, get access to this information, and grow and thrive in their business. So please help me, help other entrepreneurs understand their numbers so they can finally grow and thrive.