Financeheads Blog

We are all very much aware of all the benefits of working through one’s own company versus working in the corporate life. However one of the drawbacks is that we all plough our separate furrows. Whilst we are all members of networking groups, the immediate benefits of joining FinanceHeads is that is a peer group of like-minded associates, to bounce ideas off and to clarify issues.

Other benefits include

• Share experiences and learn from others
• Continuity partnership arrangement
• Relevant discussion topics at meetings, and a chance to gain objective feedback from other member’s clients and other third parties
• Ability to approach multi-locational clients as a network, that would be denied to individual companies
• Joint marketing and social media networking
• Adds “weight” to own offer
• Able to refer clients to other members that have the relevant expertise or location
• Referrals from other members

and I am sure more will come to light in time – perhaps others have already spotted them.

FinanceHeads recently celebrated the completion of its first year of memberships. This lead to a celebration, and the establishment of a meeting format for members that really seems to work – this will sometimes be varied but its good to know that its helping people get to know each other, learn about new topics and discuss some meaty subjects.

In addition, we have regular Directors meetings and these continually move FinanceHeads forward in a positive direction. We learn lessons as a result of where we have come from and occasionally are able to acknowledge evidence of what we are getting right. With this in mind we were delighted to welcome 100% of our ‘old’ members to continue the journey with us in the coming year.   

To maximise the benefits we offer to members and SMEs alike we will continue to take on board direct and indirect feedback and hope to have even more, more satisfied, members at the end of this membership year.

It was great to see so many FinanceHeads together under one roof at our members meeting this week. We are finding that having a reasonably controlled discussion format to share ideas, together with some time for ‘mingling’ seems to be working. Location is always a challenge as a group becomes more geographically spread and so the efforts made by some of the more far flung members to come and share their views was much appreciated – and of course we will continue to try and move around to be fair to all.

Interestingly enough one of the discussions was around how to get the most out of peer groups and it looks like some local FinanceHeads meetings or remote conference calls may be part of our future. The whole evening certainly reinforced for me the benefits of pooling our ideas, and cooperating/collaborating so that we can all maximise the benefits of the services we offer to SMEs.

If others have set up membership organisations with a similar remit to FinanceHeads it would be interesting to understand what works well or any lessons learned.

Lloyds bank recently held an event at Newbury Racecourse entitled ‘Get ahead of the upturn’ aimed at supporting small businesses. FinanceHeads had a table at the event so that attendees could come and discuss concerns they might have in respect of managing the finances of their business – planning, reporting, managing or controlling.

However, one of the most interesting conversations of the morning was with a part time Finance Director working locally with a single key employer……at the moment. We were discussing the pros and cons of developing a wider portfolio and the benefits of having the support of other like minded professionals and it all just seemed so obvious.

As an individual no one would be aware of the good work she could undoubtedly do but as part of a group not only would a wider range of businesses be aware of the benefits of employing a part time Finance Director but also she would have the support of like minded individuals and we would all get her alternative perspective on the challenges we face.

Cooperation rather than competition has to be the way forward and it felt good to know that I may have an ally locally. If you are, or know, a part time finance director who would like to find out more at our next members meeting then please contact us.

The directors of FinanceHeads are always reflecting on the feedback that we receive and considering how we can evolve to better meet our aims, those of our members and the SMEs that we all serve.

When deciding the membership rules; we wanted any member to be able to recommend a fellow member to a potential client, safe in the knowledge that that client would get a professional and competent service. So our Membership requirements were set high, and aside from the requisite qualification, Body membership, insurance etc, we included the need to have had at least 2 years experience providing part time support to SMEs, and a quality reference from at least one of them.

Recently however we have met professional and competent accountants who are starting down the PT/FD route, but have not yet had that 2 years under their belt. We therefore decided to create a new Associate category of membership for those people, with less visibility on the web-site, but an offer of some support and guidance on their journey – and we have already admitted our first two Associate members.

So, we continue to operate best practice for any business and urge members and others to get involved, share your experiences and problems and then together we can then help improve the chance of success for more SMEs.