My Business Needs Financial Help but Cannot Afford a Finance Team: What Can I Do?

Financial stability is the cornerstone of any successful business. However, not every organisation can afford to hire a dedicated finance team. If your business is in dire need of financial help, there are several alternative strategies you can employ. So, it’s our honour to take a quick look to offer some proactive steps to turning the situation around!

Here goes…

Step One: Consider a Virtual Finance Team: The Cost-Effective Solution

When the coffers are nearly empty, hiring a full-time, in-house finance team might seem like an impossibility. However, a Virtual Finance Team can provide a lifeline. Consisting of virtual finance directors and controllers, this model offers the expertise you need. Plus, it offers the oversight of qualified professionals at a fraction of the cost. Unlike traditional teams, a Virtual Finance Team is scalable according to your needs. So, it can be an affordable solution for businesses in financial strife.

Step Two: Conducting an Initial Assessment of your business situation

Things may not be as bad as they seem. Conversely, they may be worse! When a business is struggling, it is important to scope the problem as soon as possible. If you are able to bring a Virtual Finance Director in, they will immediately want to conduct an initial review of your financials, identifying areas of concern and opportunities for immediate improvement’s an important step because only once you know the exact situation, can you successfully craft a way out of it!

Step Three: Reviewing and Managing your Cash Flow

One of the most common reasons businesses seek financial help is poor cash flow. So, it’s important to assess your strategies and ensure they are playing to your full strength. Optimising operations and efficiencies falls into this category and looking at them objectively will often show room for cost reduction, improvement in methods or room for streamlining. If you have sourced a Virtual Finance Controller, they will be using this information to focus their efforts on how they can best help implement strategies to improve liquidity.

Step Four: Implementing Budget Revisions

Once your initial assessment is complete, it’s important to take practical steps to turn the business around. If you have a virtual finance team in place, at this point they will want to assist in revising budgets and forecasts, making sure they are realistic and achievable.

Step Five: Managing any debt

If your business is heavily indebted, these should have been highlighted in your initial assessment. Getting to grips with these and negotiating payment plans successfully will be critical to your business’s survival. When a Virtual Finance Team is involved, they will use forecasting techniques and financial modelling to assist you in your debt management. This means they will work out for you the affordability of debt management proposals and show you the route to get your debts under control.

Step Six: Ongoing Monitoring and Support:

Once the immediate concerns are addressed, it’s important that your business is carefully monitored. Lessons must be learnt so that the business can avoid its previous pitfalls and continue to grow. At this stage, a virtual finance team can be integral when it comes to providing ongoing support, helping to ensure long-term financial health and ensuring that a risk management profile is securely in place.

Leveraging Expertise for Business Turnaround

Turning a business around is never easy – but it is possible. As ever, it is important to act quickly if you find your business in difficulty – the longer the situation is left, the harder it will be to recover. Yet, with the right expertise and proactive steps, your business can shift from surviving to thriving. The use of Virtual Finance Teams provides an affordable, flexible option for businesses that require high-level financial oversight without the prohibitive costs of an in-house team. So, if you find your business is in a position where such intervention is needed, please know that we at Lewis Brownlee have a Virtual Finance Team standing ready to assist. Their support could prove invaluable in not just weathering the financial storm now, but in setting a course for long-term sustainability and success well into the future!

If you’d like to speak to one of our experts about your accounts, please call 01243 782 423, or email from our contact page and we will be in touch!

We also update our YouTube Channel regularly with new content, see here: Lewis Brownlee YouTube channel.