Stakeholder Interfacing & Outsourced CFOs: Setting Up Your Tech Startup for Success | Global Shared Services

December 7, 2018

A single tech startup can have a wide variety of stakeholders. There are many people – from your employees, to investors, to outside organizations – who could be impacted by your startup and have an interest in your success.

Because of the wide variety of stakeholders who need to know varying aspects of the financial status of your company, it can be difficult to communicate the state of your finances clearly. After all, your employees and investors have very different backgrounds and would like to see different outcomes. Your content creators probably have a different financial education than your investors.

How do you communicate relevant information in a way that gets through to everyone clearly?

Part of the service offered by Global Shared Services’s solutions includes stakeholder interfacing—a core feature of our strategic CFO services. When it comes to difficult financial data, we’ll help your stakeholders develop a clear understanding of your company’s financial status.

Here’s how.

Communicate Financial Reports

When it comes to communicating financial reports, you may be at a loss. Especially if you’re a one-man band who’s running the entire company himself, communicating with your stakeholders may be at the bottom of your priority list. But without clear communication, your stakeholders can worry about the lack of financial transparency in the organization, what the future of your startup will be, and how it will impact them.

When you work with an outsourced CFO, not only do you have someone who can take the burden of your company’s finances off your shoulders, but you also have someone who can prioritize communicating with your stakeholders.

Do your managers need a financial report? Just sending a report off to them in an email can lead to misinterpretations and misunderstandings. An outsourced CFO can take the time to interpret the reports for them and answer any questions that may come up. Investors are wondering how their money is being handled? Your outsourced CFO can sit down with their team and walk them through the finances.

Clear communication with stakeholders is important. Work with someone who can make it a priority.

Mitigate Financial Issues

It happens to the best of us. Sometimes issues appear with your finances as your tech startup goes through a period of rapid growth or an unpredictable decline. But how you communicate those issues to your staff can either make a mountain out of a molehill or provide a balm for any worries. The last thing you want is for your staff to worry about the futures of their jobs over a small decline or dip in profits, or for investors to develop the impression that you aren’t handling their money properly.

An outsourced CFO can mitigate the communication trouble of financial issues. Clear communication of reports can help your employees understand when a decline in profits is worrisome. Communication of a strategy for the future can ease your investors’ worries about the handling of their money.

Describe financial realities clearly and your business will be better off. An outsourced CFO can communicate financial risks and downturns appropriately.

Help Stakeholders Understand Financial Planning

What are your company’s plans for the future? Do you see your startup selling in a few years? Or are you going to hold onto it? Are you investing any company money? Are you able to offer employees raises on a yearly schedule? Benefits? Retirement programs?

When you’re planning your company’s future, you’re planning out your finances right alongside it. An outsourced CFO can help you develop a sustainable plan for the future of your company- but they can also communicate that financial plan to your stakeholders. Oftentimes, tough questions are asked about the future of a company; what happens to your employees if you’re acquired?

Leave the tough financial questions to an outsourced CFO. They’ll be able to answer the hard questions about your organization’s financial future and help investors, employees, and all other stakeholders understand what the future of your company’s finances looks like.

Develop Financial Strategies for Stakeholders

Each stakeholder has their own motives for what they’d like to see your tech startup become and what they expect in return for their work or investment. An outsourced CFO can help you to balance the interests of your stakeholders as they help you plan out the financial future of your company. After all, stakeholders are crucial to your company’s success.

When an outsourced CFO develops a plan that includes your stakeholders in the future of your company, you’re developing a startup that will benefit everyone it impacts as the years go on.

An Outsourced CFO Helps You Become Successful

When you develop a tech startup that engages with your stakeholders, you’ll be one step closer to success. Clearly, there are plenty of other factors that can define the success of your company, but don’t let employees with low morale and uncertain investors be one of them.

The road to success can only be traveled with a cohesive team. Communicating transparency in your finances only improves your relationship with your stakeholders and brings your team closer together. Let an outsourced CFO improve the communication of your finances between you and your stakeholders. Together, we can help your startup along the path to success. Give us a call today.

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