You made it to the other side of this crisis. Congratulations!
Even better, if you can get things right in these next six months as the economy continues to expand, you’re on the path towards record growth.
I have been talking to restaurant owners just like you, and as they prepare for this growth, they are asking a seemingly reasonable question:
“Should I hire a CFO internally or outsource?”
My answer? Both.
It’s About the Timing
Hire too Early: Hire before you are ready (either financially or structurally), and you are setting them up for failure. How are they supposed to increase profit margin without a budget? How can they guide decision-making without financial analysis tools in place?
[STOP] Not sure who you can trust your franchise accounting and finances to? See why you should choose GSS
Hire too Late: Decide not to hire them at all, and you are missing out on a key that can get you to the next stage of growth. You will miss financing opportunities, be unable to provide the financial information your investors are asking for, and have a fraction of the profit margin you could otherwise have.
Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. You need the skills of a CFO before you have the systems and structures in place to support them.
Luckily, there is a solution.
Build the Cockpit
Hiring a CFO is a considerable risk if you don’t set them up for success.
There are many things that you need for a successful transition, but there are two essentials I want to emphasize – a functional budget and the tools for financial analysis.
Not having these in place before hiring a CFO is like asking a pilot to fly a plane without any of the gauges to tell them current performance and without a HUD (head-up display) to tell them what lies ahead.
Get these in place, and you will have an actual position for the CFO to step into with the resources they need to make a difference on day one.
How to Get Ready
Bear with me; I am about to talk about GSS for a little bit.
I don’t do this frequently in these newsletters because I don’t want them to be a big sales pitch, but we have recently established a new partnership with Jedox that solves the challenges we are discussing.
[STOP] Having trouble meeting franchisor requirements due to accounting or finance? -> Let's Talk
>> Check out the recent press release to learn more about Jedox
Want to Bring Clarity to Your Financial Planning Process?
Big picture, Jedox provides a leading financial planning tool with which we configured specifically for the needs of the restaurant industry.
What this means to you is that you can get fortune-100-level financial planning and budgeting tools all integrated without the enterprise price tag.
With this system set up, we can enable your new CFO to do what they are paid to do – think strategically about growth.
This is something that other outsourced financial partners simply can’t offer.
If you want to learn more about what this can mean for your business and what you have to gain, let’s talk.