Comments for Financeheads Blog

Comment on Flexibility can be a great asset by Another Title

Another Title — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 18:44:41 +0000

tv online…

Comment on Don’t leave it too long by Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:53:11 +0000

A very good point raised here Caroline, and others agree with us. “A financial director is fundamental: if you can’t afford a good FD, then perhaps you shouldn’t be in business“Source: William Kendall, CEO of Green & Black’s, referred to and quoted in “A-Z of business”, Director November 2002 p19
“As businesses grow, they have to professionalise the management team and give it freedom to make changes. In recruiting for key roles, a company needs a finance director. Most growing businesses leave the recruitment of a finance director until far too late. A good one will easily pay for himself in a year. Entrepreneurs understand sales and often understand cash but rarely understand margin. Entrepreneurs should remember that turnover is vanity, but it is only out of the sanity of margin and the reality of cashflow that sustainable growth will be secured. A seasoned finance director is the key to the company’s future.”

Comment on Reserves can be handy by Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:34:44 +0000

Great analogy Caroline. Every Business needs to plan for those dry spells.

Comment on Are your trees in the right place? by Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 16:30:57 +0000

Topical topic Caroline! A lot of businesses don’t have the right information that is needed to drive them forward, and a #FinanceHead can fix this

Comment on FinanceHeads New Members by Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Wed, 25 May 2011 10:47:38 +0000

It is great to be part of such a thriving support and marketing network for FD’s working for a portfolio of SME’s. Hopefully more SME’s will benefit from what a FinanceHead can bring to the table.

Comment on What to do with the early costs by Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:59:16 +0000

Good advice Stephen. Also the sooner that expenses are recorded properly the better, and good habits will literally pay dividends in the future. Too many people fail to record their expanses correctly and only catch up on the “admin” when they are short of cash.

Comment on Cash is King? by Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:40:02 +0000

Thanks Edward, that’s exactly the point that I am making. SME’s often blame cashflow for causing the business problems, when in reality they haven’t tackled the underlying cause, which is is lack of profitability. There is a limit to the amount of credit that can be taken and the promptness of clients/customers paying. Well managed businesses have strict control of profit as well as cash, and this is one of the areas that a FinanceHead has a lot to offer business leaders.

Comment on Cash is King? by Edward Tudor

Edward Tudor — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:26:39 +0000

Cash is very importnat but you do need to have the balance between profit and cash. After all it’s the profit which generates the cash.

The underlying business has to be sustainable. With a recent client I found that the business had last money cosistently over 3 years and therefore it had to be closed. We have now recostituted the business as an LLP which will be a much better business model.

Comment on Expanding horizons by Alan Jones

Alan Jones — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:29:51 +0000

A wonderful benefit of being a member of Financeheads is that we all have slightly different skills and experience. If one of us comes across a situation or topic that we haven’t dealt with for some time we can quickly confer with our fellow members and confirm the current best practice.

Comment on Cost or Value add? by Caroline Billington

Caroline Billington — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:35:00 +0000

Jason
Nice to meet you
It would be interesting to see an example of your work and to understand more about what you are aiming to achieve by contributing to our site.