Page 22 - 10 Most Promising Virtual CFO Service Providers 2020

Good Chief Financial
Officers Focus on Much
More Than Finance
Here are some key attributes
normally associated with the CFO
position that will maximize CFO’s
value now and in the future.
1. Every startup role requires
managing to financial realities:
In a corporate environment, you
can leave financials to someone
else, but not in a startup. Every
team member, from engineer to
CEO, lives or dies based on cash
flow, so the more they can tune
their activities to revenue and
expenses, the more valuable they
become.
2. Finding creative ways to fund
activities:
While the CFO usually takes
the lead in finding professional
investors, everyone needs to look
for ways to reduce the burn rate
and maximize alternative funding
sources, including bartering for
services, finding partners willing
to accept deferred payments and
talking to friends and family.
3. Creating operational processes
and procedures:
As startups grow from
development organizations to
a sustainable and repeatable
business, processes must be
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documented, employees hired
and trained and customer-support
organizations built. The best
entrepreneurs take the initiative on
these rather than wait for a CFO to
drive them.
4. Be a good mentor and advisor to
others:
The swiftest way to win a
leadership position in a new
company is to communicate
value to other team members and
executives from your insights.
Do not count on the CFO or the
CEO as the source of all your
business knowledge and direction.
Leadership is earned instead of
being appointed.
5.Communicate the range of your
talents:
A good CFO has to be able and
willing to tackle many challenges
outside the financial realm,
usually including creating legal
documents, evaluating and signing
vendor contracts and even human
resources activities. With the
advent of the Internet, you too can
show expertise in any discipline.
6. Capitalize on your past industry
experience.
As a CFO carries real value
from past financial experience
and training, each entrepreneur
will strive to highlight and link
previous business or technological
experiences to the task at hand.
Good businesspersons are experts
at adapting lessons learned from a
growing one to a current context.
7. Clearly demonstrate your
passion, your commitment and
your work ethic:
Investors know that the startup
road is long and challenging.
Thus, they look across the team
of entrepreneurs for the ones who
show confidence, resilience and
dedication to efforts at hand. They
expect to find it in all C-level
executives but are always looking
for the next executive team.
8. Able to focus on strategic issues
and long-term outlook.
Aspiring entrepreneurs seeking
to position themselves as C-level
executives must do more than
perform day-to-day jobs well.
They must immerse themselves
in strategic and financial issues,
just like a CFO. They also must
sharpen leadership, collaboration
and communication skills.
February 2020