First Something Free!

If you are not ready to pay for the personal support of an expert, why not subscribe to the Creative Finance & Management eZine? It is absolutely free. Short tips and advice on managing the finances in small business, straightforward and easy to read, straight to your inbox every two weeks.

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The Creative Finance & Management blog contains all previous newsletter articles, as well as other bits of advice, thoughts and learnings. Click on the links to have a look in a new window.

Partnering with Charis FD

The Charis FD core service involves a commitment to a “partnership”, involving a combination of regular onsite face to face contact and email/phone support, coupled with access to tools, tips and techniques as these are developed and made available.

Onsite face to face contact is where the most proactive work is involved, and you can expect us to review and challenge what you have been doing as well as your plans for the future. Email and phone support is for you to ask us for advice and guidance on particular issues that arise in between our site visits.

The amount that you need us onsite will vary depending on the size and complexity of your business. We can spend anything from one day per month right up to two days a week with you. However, before deciding what service intensity is right for your business we would take you through a no-obligation complimentary Financial Management Review session. In that session we would seek to find out more about your business and highlight where we believe that particular attention is required. We would also explain in more detail how we may be able to help you.

Project Support

In addition to the core service, Charis FD can also offer bespoke expert support for change projects within your business. This could be a potential acquisition, the integration of an acquisition, the sale of a part of the business, the implementation of a new system or a restructuring programme. Finance experts can help in these projects in the following ways:

Helping you to develop the business case to show whether it is worthwhile doing the project;
Helping you to set targets for realising benefits of the project;
Pulling together information for an Information Memorandum or for Due Diligence;
Programme management;
Project reviews.

Larger businesses

If your business is reaching more than £20m turnover and you don’t already have one, you should consider employing a full-time Finance Director, who will help you to realise all the benefits we strive to achieve with our service. However, there are circumstances in which we may be able to tailor a helpful service:

We may be able to help you recruit a full-time Finance Director through our network, and could help you by getting involved in interviewing candidates and/or writing a job description.
If your FD position is temporarily vacant for any reason (long term sickness, in the midst of recruiting someone permanent, maternity leave, etc) then we could step in with someone for an interim period;
If your FD is relatively inexperienced we could develop a mentoring programme with you, helping them to grow with the business and helping them to help you achieve your business vision;
If your FD needs an extra pair of hands to cover a particular aspect of the business, again we could potentially tailor some support to augment your existing internal Finance team, so that they can give you the support you need to achieve your business vision;
Project Support - see above.

We can also tailor training courses and workshops for both Finance and non-Finance staff.

If you want to discuss any of this, please complete our contact form, and we will give you a call to discuss further.

Service Overview

The information below outlines in more detail what our core service involves, and the framework we work to in delivering it. We’re not trying to blind you with science. We don’t want you to say, “well that all looks very good for big business, but it’s all a bit complex for my small business!” The reason we have included all this information is that we want you to know that we have a framework that is thought-out and is geared to helping your business where it needs help.

So if the detail looks overwhelming, don’t click away from the website without getting the FREE STUFF!. In particular, we really want to stay in touch with you through the Creative Finance & Management eZine.

But most of all, we would love to hear from you directly. Don’t be shy! Just get in touch and we can have a good chat about your business.

The Business Performance Management Wheel

Stating the obvious, “Business Performance Management” is all about managing the performance of your business. Up until now you may have got good performance out of your business by simply doing what you do and doing it very well. However, as your business gets bigger and more complex, and especially if you want to keep on getting bigger and more successful, you have to think more carefully about how you deliver better and better performance. That’s the reason for the diagrams below. It’s just like an athlete may get pretty good by just running a lot, but if he wants to become world-class and get even better he’s going to have to think carefully about how to do that. He’ll have to break his performance down into elements such as diet, fitness, sleep, technique, psychology, and so on.

So we’ve developed a framework that we believe can help you to do that careful thinking with our help, and therefore get better and better performance out of your business.

Charis FD Service Wheel

In the diagram you’ll see the elements of business performance management, and where the elements of our service touch on them.

The essential thing to understand in the diagram is that business performance management is all about a loop, or a wheel, starting with strategy and planning, putting the strategies into action and changing things if necessary, and monitoring and reviewing performance in such a way that decisions can be fed into strategy and planning for improved performance. Finance is at the centre, or the hub, making sure that the wheel keeps turning, by providing information and analysis and control. Around the outside, managing risk and ensuring that stakeholders are well-managed are activities that ensure that the right environment exists for optimum business performance.

To be clear, though, we’re not saying this is a one-size-fits-all model that we come in and implement in your business. It’s simply a framework we use to ensure that we are delivering what you need in all the important areas. For smaller businesses, it can be an informal healthcheck to make sure we focus on the key areas that will help the most. For larger businesses, it can become a conscious and formal reference point to ensure that we are covering all bases.

Charis FD Service Elements

The Charis FD service incorporates the above elements, which all aim to make your business management stronger and tighter, and thereby increase your profitability and cashflow, and help you to achieve your vision for your business.

What you can expect under each service heading is described elsewhere on this website, and you can find out more by clicking on the following links:

Click here to contact us to request a call back to discuss our services further.

Charis FD

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