Italy is an excellent destination because it has a broad market and multiple immigration options. In fact, you can obtain Italian dual citizenship by qualifying through the descent, marriage, or naturalisation routes. If you want to explore your options, get in touch with these Italian Citizenship experts for helpful guidance. Let us explain how Italian dual citizenship sets you up to fulfil your global business goals.

Learn about your alternatives

Start by learning about your citizenship alternatives so that you can pick the ideal one. The descent route works for people with ancestral connections in Italy, while the marriage alternative applies to people married to an Italian citizen. The citizenship by naturalisation process is apt for applicants residing in the country for more than a decade. Besides knowing the basics, you must dig deeper into the exceptions, requirements, and processes for each of these routes. 

Seek expert assistance

Although the Italian citizenship alternatives sound straightforward, they can actually get confusing. The steps can be long and daunting, and the paperwork may be tricky for most applicants. An error or omission can land you in trouble with delay or rejection. You may have a tough time choosing the route if you qualify for more than one of them. Seeking expert assistance lets you be stress-free as they handle the process, and you can focus on your business goals.

Unlock the citizenship benefits

Italian citizenship opens up several benefits, regardless of the route you choose to obtain it. You can live, work, and establish a business in Italy just like any other citizen. You also get the best healthcare facilities and quality education on a budget. Once you have a second passport, you can travel to hundreds of countries without stress and hassles. Setting up your business is a breeze, as you can expand globally with the travel opportunities that let you explore overseas markets. 

Create a legacy

Besides establishing your business in Italy, you can create a legacy for generations to come. Your dual citizenship rights pass on to your children and the next generations automatically. So they can carry your business and make it a successful multi-generational enterprise. An Italian passport is the best inheritance you can bequeath to your offspring and the next in line because it is among the most powerful ones.

Fulfilling global business goals takes more than passion and commitment. You need to take a strategic approach by choosing the right destination. Italian dual citizenship sets you up for success, provided you qualify for one of the routes. Consider their eligibility requirements and choose the best one. Even better, collaborate with an expert to show the way ahead.

While this compliance-based sword of Damocles is undoubtedly a powerful motivating force, it’s not necessarily one that encourages firms to see OR as more than a nuisance or threat – a chore to be carried out economically and begrudgingly for fear of substantial fines.

To put it another way: when acting purely on the basis of compliance, OR can feel motivated more by ‘stick’ than ‘carrot’.

Compare this to the project of achieving operational efficiency: a far more attractive proposition which animates many efforts to achieve cloud and digital transformation. We regularly work with clients who have spent seven- and eight-figure sums to proactively improve their efficiency, despite the challenges of outlay, implementation, and governance that such schemes invariably face.

At a glance, resilience and efficiency might seem like opposing poles in the quest for operational improvements, as grim-faced OR regulators demand audits, inquiries, and costly remediation plans – in stark contrast to the sunlit uplands we tend to associate with efficient practices capable of enabling business growth. In reality, however, OR and efficiency often go hand-in-hand – good resilience practices can improve efficiency, while moves towards greater efficiency can equally contribute to OR goals.

The dual benefits of an automated CMDB

The role played by a robust CMDB is a prime example of how resilience and efficiency are two sides of the same coin. CMDBs are databases that provide visibility over the different parts of your business processes; business applications and infrastructure, and the connections between them – including the various people, facilities, and technologies involved in each business process, not to mention the underlying cloud and legacy infrastructure underpinning it all.

Obviously, these tools – especially when automated to provide accurate, up-to-date information – can therefore play a big role in enhancing an organisation’s resilience: this level of visibility allows you to work out how a disruption to one part of the organisation might impact another – enhancing your ability to prevent, adapt to, and recover from operational disruptions.

CMDBs aren’t the be-all and end-all for OR, of course – like any tool, they require strong processes and governance – but it’s easy to see how well they fit into the landscape of resilience.

Crucially, however, CMDBs also have implications for the more obviously rewarding project of improved efficiency.

Gaining comprehensive visibility over your organisation’s infrastructure doesn’t just highlight vulnerabilities – it’s also an equally useful way to make better business decisions, spot opportunities for streamlining processes, and identify areas that would benefit from automation.

As such, while a robust CMDB might be an example of a tool acquired for the potentially unexciting reasons of compliance and business continuity, it also acts as a powerful springboard for new levels of efficiency and (by extension) growth.

Reporting, auditing, and ticketing

The subject of automation brings us to another example of the overlaps between OR practices and efficiency goals.

In the context of enterprise service management (ESM) platforms like ServiceNow, nobody needs to be persuaded that automation and artificial intelligence have huge utility – whether by eliminating tickets and allowing human workers to focus on more important issues or by quickly deploying applications without fear of human error. Obviously, these examples denote significant cost savings – but the same embrace of automation also has the potential to improve resilience.

We’ve leveraged automation in this context by, for example, using virtual agents to guide staff through potentially tricky compliance tasks, providing real-time reporting in ways that improve governance, and drive compliance audits through ServiceNow – helping organisations to manage the expectations of regulators. In other words, automation can sharpen up reporting and auditing to keep those all-important compliance standards up to scratch, while simultaneously enacting a host of cost-reducing measures.

The point, here, is that efficiency and resilience shouldn’t be seen as the ‘carrot and stick’ of operational improvement – they can be deeply entwined and mutually beneficial.

As such, achieving resilience shouldn’t be perceived as a banal exercise in regulatory box-ticking, but as an opportunity to improve processes, systems, and technology. Moves like automation are a case in point, allowing organisations to reduce costs, stimulate growth, and remain robust and compliant in a single gesture.

About the author: Adrian Overall is CEO of CloudStratex.

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However, business growth can be achieved – some of the world’s biggest companies such as Activision, Seagate, and Virgin Books, an outgrowth of the Virgin Group, started amid 10%+ inflation during the end of the 1970s.

Here are some tips for financing business growth in 2022, even when it seems like a tough hill to climb.

What’s your growth plan?

Though your business may have ideas for growth, what is your plan? You need to create a plan that’s SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Time-Limited. That could mean beginning with a vision statement – “20% greater market cap within the next three years.” This contains every attribute of a SMART goal. 

The next step is formulating a strategy and tactics underneath – does the business need more room to operate? Expanding manufacturing? Additional workforce? Vertical integration? What does that look like? Sinking short term liabilities into long-term assets is usually a recipe for disaster. The funding for an asset must match the timeframe of the liability, e.g. a five-year loan for financing a car. 

Finance that optimises growth

Taking on asset finance – especially for real estate – is a sure-fire investment in business growth. After all, investing in land is a great asset as humourist Mark Twain said, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.”

Your business may not have to buy land – though it may be a strategy to cut costs and funnel your operations into one that’s more vertically integrated – but growth-oriented assets that not only perform (i.e., are responsible for making profits) but also appreciate in value. 

These are all examples of secured finance – finance that requires a security or collateral for approval. This is usually the asset being purchased, though some lenders may insist on other collateral to be staked instead. There are some non-traditional ways to obtain finance, as we’ve outlined here.

What if your business is lean, agile, or most of its holdings are intellectual property? Even if your business isn’t any of those, you can still fund business growth with unsecured business loans.

Cash flow management

One of the biggest reasons why businesses fail is that they lack proper cash flow management. Taking advantage of unsecured business loans can spur on business growth opportunities – buying inventory, freeing up capital, paying for leases or hiring equipment for specialist contracts, etc. In most cases, unsecured business finance can be accessed within a day – or sometimes a couple of hours.

Unsecured business loans don’t require collateral and can be used for any business purpose. Most unsecured business loans allow you to pay off the balance early – handy if you find your business experiencing rapid growth – which is the aim.

Disclaimer: Always ask your accountant or financial controller for advice before taking out business credit.

Finances are a vital part of any business, because without a positive cash flow, it’s difficult to stay afloat. In fact, finances are actually consistently voted the biggest concern for new businesses. Yet, companies that actively track their finances with modern tools report vastly less stress when it comes to money monitoring. Only around 22% of businesses disclose this issue, suggesting that there’s a link between confidence around finances and the active understanding of how they’re fairing.

Financial dashboards are catch-all tech tools that allow for monitoring, analysis, and integration of financial data into one singular platform. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the main reasons that your business should use a financial dashboard, as well as exploring exactly what they are. Let’s get right into it.

What Is A Financial Dashboard?

To put it simply, a financial dashboard is a business intelligence tool that pulls together all of the current statistics about finances within your business into one location. From managing cash flow to following sales figures and more, these dashboards hold all the information you need to get a comprehensive understanding of the financial part of your business with just a glance. Often balancing data visualisation, these aim to make understanding the financials as convenient as possible. They typically link directly to data warehouses, providing live data as new information is received.

Why Should Your Business Invest In Financial Dashboards?

As a central location where all financial data that your business generates can be placed, interacted with, analysed, and understood, financial dashboards are a vital part of creating a successful financial strategy. With 24/7 monitoring and interchangeable metrics, it acts as the architecture for complete financial understanding. Going beyond just analysing the data, there are three central reasons that you should rely on financial dashboards:

• Encourage Interaction and Investigation
• Boosts Accessibility
• Organise Priorities

Let’s break these down further.

Encourage Interaction And Investigation

Financial reporting is a common practice within any business, with statements typically being divided up into financial quarters. While this provides a location to find important information, the low frequency of these reports means that once one is released, many of the most important metrics are already researched, presented neatly, or explained away.

A 24/7 financial dashboard works to give people access at any time. Due to this, a team member can log into the system, notice something slightly off, and research that metric instantly. Instead of having to wait for quarterly financial summaries, a financial dashboard actively inspires interaction and investigation.

Equally, the fact that these dashboards can typically integrate into a range of cloud data warehouses, you can get continual data in a live format. Without any data lag or barriers, the connection between a data warehouse and a financial system ensures that data is more accessible than ever, inspiring people to dig into the data to a greater extent.

If you’re looking to connect your cloud data warehouse to your financial dashboard, be sure to look at comparisons between leading platforms like Clickhouse vs Druid, as these will give more information on compatibility and integration.

With this system link, users can find anomalies or inconsistencies, fix problems, and find the root causes long before a financial statement is released. This holistic approach to finances through a central dashboard, therefore, boosts longevity, allowing for micro corrections throughout the business year, rather than after each quarterly summary. 

Boosts Accessibility 

Especially when running a larger business, which may have many voices on a singular board that need to come to a decision, it’s difficult to get all the required information out there. However, once a dashboard is incorporated into the business structure, you provide everyone at a C-suite level with a direct way of accessing all the information they need.

From revenue numbers to specific metrics related to certain departments, a financial dashboard allows leaders to rapidly make decisions based on data. Anyone can open your dashboard and move through the measures of success that they’d like to understand further, building up an accurate idea of what is going on behind the curtain.

Centralising this dashboard boosts accessibility, allowing people to log onto the system and trace the information they need at any time. This removes the need for continual financial update meetings, liberating the information by providing around-the-clock access.

Organise Priorities

No matter how vast or all-encompassing your centralised financial dashboard is, someone that’s interacting with these tools can only look at so many things at once. Having one location where all of your company’s financial data arrives ensures that you have a whole lot to look at. But, more than just collecting the data, it forces businesses to take stock of the metrics that are most important to them.

This act of prioritisation when it comes to setting up a financial dashboard can trigger a holistic exercise of looking inwards. By working out what you would like to see on the dashboard, you’re able to work out what is important to your business financially. Understanding these metrics can then help you actively work towards certain goals that you may not have previously considered.

For example, if a central metric that you want to track on your financial dashboard is the amount of total revenue from subscriptions, then you can trace this toward needing to build up your total active subscriber count. Following the money, so to speak, will allow you to organise your priorities, identify goals, and then build toward actually achieving them.

Final Thoughts

While financial dashboards were once considered difficult to construct, the smooth integration into cloud data warehouses has ensured that these platforms are now more popular than ever. By boosting accessibility, a centralised dashboard can help your business make faster decisions, distribute data, and provide a window for inquiry into finances.

Not only does this boost the speed with which financial decisions can be made, but they also act as a central location where investigation can be undertaken. Taking a more hands-on approach to finance through these platforms ensures that if anything is moving in the wrong direction, a solution can be encountered as quickly as possible.

For businesses that want to stay on top of their finance-related metrics, there are few strategies more effective than integrating a financial dashboard. 

A vital line of defence for businesses, CFOs are charged with optimising a company’s financial performance by directing and continually adapting its budgets, goals, and objectives. 

However, their responsibilities range far beyond the scope of just managing finances. The CFO’s expertise is not just confined to numbers: they take a key seat at the strategy planning table, helping to shape overall direction by aligning business and finance strategy to drive growth. As such, today’s CFOs now require broader business and commercial knowledge and operational experience as they lead C-suite collaboration on long-term, interdependent work.  

In a rapidly evolving landscape, any discussion of today’s CFO must address:

• The actions and skills required from Chief Finance Officers
• Their role in the development of effective business strategy through: 
  • working with a variety of teams 
  • providing crucial data insights throughout the business
  • facilitating greater interaction with the CTO and CHRO to generate positive outcomes

Evolving expectations of finance professionals

Traditionally, finance leaders may have operated in silo, seeing their role as being purely about managing cost and not considering the interplay with other areas of the business. Similarly, this is likely to be how others in the business also perceived their role, creating a sense of self-fulling prophecy for those in the finance team. This has led to essential skills, such as technical expertise and talent management, being underdeveloped and underrated as CFOs are pigeonholed as financial gatekeepers. 

However, in today’s digitised, interconnected world, the CFO is expected to inhabit a more dynamic and outward-facing role. The scope and influence of their responsibilities in areas such as strategic execution and performance insight are more prominent than before, meaning they must balance their traditional duties with their new role as agents of change. To succeed in this demanding climate, the CFO should be cross-functional, motivational, and willing to lead by example.     

To support business objectives thoroughly and drive the talent agenda, finance leaders have a responsibility to understand and develop HR intelligence. Therefore, a strategic alliance between the CFO and the CHRO must be nurtured. Building a more collaborative relationship between the two can elevate both functions to a more strategic position within the company. It will also enable CFOs to look beyond costs when considering employees, taking a deeper look into how profitability can be enhanced through human capital. They should be able to estimate the impact of salary increments and bonuses on the business’s profitability, thereby assisting HR teams in shaping policy.  

Finance leaders must also be technically savvy, having at least a moderate understanding of IT. They should be able to provide guidance and advice on issues pertaining to the systems and applications in use for finance, whether that’s understanding the underlying data and its context or how systems integration can support a more relevant digital process. These technical skills provide today’s CFOs with the information and confidence to challenge what is possible, manage risks, and play a key role in strategic decision-making around IT investments. 

Consequently, to gain a more well-rounded understanding of the HR and IT aspects of their role, and to set their business up for success, today’s finance leader should be working towards bridging silos and partnering with the CHRO and CTO. 

When the sum is greater than its parts

By joining forces and being able to rely on the expertise offered by the CHRO and CTO, it is not just finance leaders that stand to benefit. Improved communication, understanding and collaboration enable issues to be avoided, and where they do occur, novel solutions to be implemented.

It is not uncommon for HR or payroll projects to be led by the CFO in isolation from HR. But without collaboration between the CFO and HR, key messages and data insights can fail to be communicated effectively. It can also lead to a primarily functional use of HR and payroll systems which is a missed opportunity to take advantage of qualitative elements of contemporary solutions.  As CFOs work towards boosting their company’s competitive advantage, they can leverage data analytics to deliver a well-rounded financial picture that guides the wider organisation. If these valuable insights fail to reach the right teams, they will not resonate in the boardroom.  

This disjointed approach can lead to wasted time and resources. Instead, what is needed is a formidable triumvirate of success. Within this robust alliance, the CFO, CTO and CHRO should be able to feed off each other to constantly reinvent the workplace. It is only through this collaboration that they will be able to redefine themselves as collective digital stewards, driving value, improving efficiency, and setting the future direction of the business.  

Collaboration is the key to future success

The last few years have seen a fundamental shift in how people and businesses get work done. This highlights how quickly circumstances can change and the need for organisations to be agile enough to keep pace. As a result, finance leaders have rapidly moved to the fore as key players in determining how businesses adapt to these changes – particularly in those places where digital, HR, and finance intersect. 

The old silos are no longer fit for purpose and will simply put companies unwilling to change at a severe disadvantage. Creating a strategic alliance between the CFO, CTO and CHRO will allow these key individuals to work together to future-proof the organisation and set it up for continued success.  

About the author: Mark Jenkins is Chief Finance Officer at MHR. 

This sounds great in theory, but how can you make sure that your company is implementing sales enablement successfully? In this guide, we will answer all of your questions about sales enablement and show you how it can benefit your business. We will discuss what goes into a successful sales enablement strategy, and offer tips for getting started. So let’s get started!

What Is Sales Enablement? 

Simply put, sales enablement is the process of equipping and training sales reps to sell more products. It involves everything from providing the sales reps with the right information and tools to marketing materials that help them sell. In short, the role of sales enablement is to help your sales teams stay on top of their game and sell more effectively. By ensuring that everyone in the sales team is on the same page and working towards the same goal, you can close more deals and increase your company’s revenue. Depending on the size and needs of your company, sales enablement can be a stand-alone department or it can be integrated into other departments such as marketing or customer success.  

The Benefits Of Sales Enablement

There are many benefits to implementing a sales enablement strategy. Perhaps the most obvious benefit is that it can help your company sell more products. But sales enablement does more than just boost sales numbers. It can also improve the efficiency of your sales team, increase customer satisfaction, and reduce turnover. Some specific benefits of sales enablement include: 

1. Improved Sales Performance

When done correctly, sales enablement can help your company close more deals and increase revenue. One study found that companies with mature sales enablement practices experienced an 18% increase in deal sizes and a 20% increase in win rates. Also, if you give your sales reps the right tools and information, they will be able to sell more effectively and efficiently. This means that they can spend less time looking for information and more time selling. 

2. Increased Efficiency

Sales enablement can help your sales team work more efficiently by providing them with the tools and information they need to do their job. For instance,  having a centralised system for storing product information can save sales reps from having to search for information in different places. This can free up time that would otherwise be spent searching for data or materials. 

3. Improved Customer Satisfaction

Sales enablement can also lead to improved customer satisfaction. When sales reps are better equipped to sell, they are more likely to make accurate promises that they can keep. Additionally, if your sales reps have access to the right information, they will be better equipped to answer customer questions and resolve any issues. This can lead to happier customers who are more likely to stick around long-term. 

4. Reduced Turnover

Finally, sales enablement can help reduce turnover by making sure that new hires are properly trained and equipped to do their job. Instead of struggling to learn the ropes on their own, new hires can get up to speed quickly and more easily integrate into the team. This can save your company money in the long run by reducing the need to constantly train new employees. 

Creating A Successful Sales Enablement Strategy

The first step is to define your goals for sales enablement. What do you hope to achieve? Do you want to increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, or reduce turnover? Once you have a clear idea of your goals, you can begin to create a plan for achieving them. You will need to gather data that can help inform your sales enablement strategy. This includes things like customer feedback surveys, sales metrics, and other relevant data points. 

Once you’ve gathered your data, the next step is to analyse it to identify areas where you can improve. For example, if customers consistently report low levels of satisfaction with your product or service, this may be a sign that your sales reps are not properly equipped to sell effectively. You can make changes and implement the new strategies you develop based on your data analysis. The final step is to put your sales enablement plan into action by training your sales team, creating relevant content, and ensuring that all of the necessary tools are in place. 

If you are looking for a way to improve your company’s sales and marketing efforts, then sales enablement may be the solution you need. By providing your sales team with the tools and information they need to sell more effectively, you can improve sales performance, increase efficiency, and boost customer satisfaction. So start Implementing a sales enablement strategy today and see the benefits for yourself! 

When it comes to setting the right price point, the elasticity function is the notion to consider. It is about finding the given price point to help predict the number of products being sold. Such a method is directed at boosting revenue and sales volume. If a business is there to grow and prosper, establishing good price points and using price management software is a must. 

What is the price point concept all about?

The idea standing behind the price point is evaluating the current pricing strategy and determining its weak sides. Yet, if one wants to define the price point phenomenon, it is a special retail price allowing businesses to maintain a reasonably high demand for a specific product or service. Want to make the most of your pricing strategy? Setting a good price point is the way to do that. 

The significance of price point thresholds 

Making a psychological connection between a price and a product to attract consumers is considered to be the price point threshold. It is important because it creates a favourable environment for both sellers and buyers. First, consumers pay the highest price. Second, they remain loyal to the brand. Some even argue that the price point threshold is the best strategy for maximising revenue through a pricing strategy. 

What is the core of price point functionality? 

Price points should be constantly adjusted. When doing this, always consider factors like your company’s vision, prices offered by competitors, volumes of supply, degree of demand, and the customer’s perception of the product.

Considering all these elements can be problematic. Luckily, there is advanced price management software available. It can help companies manage price points sustainably. Yet, to get the most out of the price point phenomenon, you can use several approaches. 

Approach 1: Use testing for price points

Reasonable price points are achieved through trial and error. As with many approaches, knowing what customers expect to rely on is running a bunch of tests. For the price point phenomenon, consider A/B testing.  

Approach 2: Integrate advanced solutions

It is hard to underestimate the importance of using advanced solutions to analyse the market and find grounds for adequate price points. To save time and resources, consider price management software. Such software is a massive digital aid capable of analysing and monitoring amounts of data that the human brain cannot handle. Price management software is a scalable and impactful strategy within all the stages of establishing price points.

Approach 3: Engage in price point analysis

Improving the quality of price directly depends on analysis. This strategy requires analysing data and optimising it while engaging in a phase-by-phase strategy. Along with optimisation, one should think about price perception at the same time. 

Here’s how the system works. You have a product with a price of $20. You want to sell the product to a limited pool of clients. When selling such a small batch, you can both use the basic price or set a higher one. Such a leap value approach offers a price strategy that a business can use at any given moment. 

Why does the system work? First and foremost, it serves as a great strategy for companies entering a new market. Second, it offers insights into what consumers expect for a particular price. Third, the system is there to create a feeling of urgency and limited demand. All these aspects create an impression that consumers get a good deal. 

Approach 4: Using a skimming model to find an entry for a price point

The skimming model is utilised to set a price favourable for companies entering a new market. It helps set an optimal price. What type of price is it? It is the price that leads to profit maximisation in the most time-effective manner. The skimming model often results in a higher price when a new product enters the market with a subsequent lowering of a price. 

Approach 5: Consider price perception

The factor of price perception is important for understanding how loyal the customers are to your brand. It works through price points and the perception of such. When making a purchasing decision, a consumer should have a feeling that one is getting a good deal. Remember, customers perceive your products in a subjective manner. The same is true with their shopping experiences. Yet, setting an appealing price boosts the shopping experience, thus having a positive impact on your brand’s perception. 

Approach 6: Putting price points into a bundle

Selling goods in bundles for a more appealing price is a reasonable price point strategy. When offering consumers several similar products for a decreased price, you both create the impression of a good deal and increase the sales volume. In the end, it will boost the revenue and increase customers’ loyalty. 

Approach 7: It is all about monitoring

Being a step ahead of your competitor is vital for reaching business objectives. It can be achieved through constant monitoring of price points established by rival companies. By tracking the market, you learn about the mistakes of others. In such a context, you can both avoid those mistakes and ensure that your business will be the one at the top. It is often worth having a market analyst on board. The professional will provide some valuable insights that can be easily turned into profitable price points. 

Considering the above, the maximisation of revenues through price points is not only possible but much needed. There are various approaches to getting adequate price points. Be it extensive market analysis or price management software, the more time and effort you put into understanding and setting a price point, the greater the likelihood that you will receive additional revenues, sales volumes, and customer loyalty. Simply put, price points are the strategy business cannot afford to avoid. 

The importance of accounting

The reason accounting is important, it is a pivotal aspect of the business that essentially allows it to function. It does this by keeping tabs on the influx of money coming in and out of the business. Tracking income and expenses, and verifying compliance while providing all parties involved with the necessary information to make the correct business decisions.

What type of accounting do new businesses use?

Generally, small businesses can use either cash or accrual accounting methods. A small business accountant is responsible for recording, analysing and reporting the business's financial transactions. The numbers which are collected are converted into an understandable statement for the business owner to decipher.

Tips for choosing an accountant

Working with reliable individuals is paramount to the success of your new business, this is why you need to do the required research to find the perfect fit for you. The following tips should help you find the right accountant. 

1. Make sure you know what you need

When handpicking your accountant, you will have to identify what type of tasks and responsibilities you expect the accountant to perform for your business. Whether that entails bookkeeping tasks, or if you require monthly financial statements to be completed, a bookkeeper can be recruited rather than a start-up accountant.

If you require advice regarding your tax, preparing tax returns, and auditing financials, you will need a certified public accountant (CPA).

2. Look for small business experience

When in search of financial expertise for your new business, steer clear of the big accounting firms, because you will need an accountant which has experience with working with new businesses preferably in the same or similar industry.

The knowledge and expertise they have gathered will be important in helping your business avoid possible mistakes and mishaps they have come across in the past, being proactive and identifying issues before they escalate into larger problems. These decisions essentially fast track the growth of your business by making the right financial decisions.

3. Ask for recommendations

When purchasing a product, consumers often seek out product reviews to get an understanding of the performance of that particular product. Speaking to other trusted business owners and receiving recommendations about who to approach and use, your peers will always give your trustworthy advice as well as recommendations.

4. Compare fees

Before making a decision it is important to make sure how your shortlisted accountant plans to bill you.  Different accountants charge different rates, whether it be a fixed monthly fee to complete all your bookkeeping, but may add an additional fee for completing and submitting compliance documents. The fee for each service varies based on what services are provided and the qualifications of the person providing the services. Not all accountants and accounting firms charge the same fee for their services.

The three most important things your accountant should do

Along with having numeric skills, being computer literate and having business awareness, your accountant will need to complete important tasks for your business. Maintaining major financial reports. Preparing taxes and monitoring payments. Analysing the operations of an organisation’s finances and recommending best practices, identifying problems, and strategising solutions.

Importance of learning and understanding accounting as a business owner

Having an understanding of accounting and being aware of what needs to be done eliminates the risk of your accountant falling behind on their work. Being able to hold them accountable helps maintain their performance. As a new business, the managers are now also able to make future projections and do so by making predictions using accounting practices. In addition to being necessary for a business's immediate financial health, being familiar with accounting is also an important strategic tool to utilise and understand to grow your business.

Conclusion

While not being a straightforward recruitment process, with the help of the tips your search will be simplified if you follow the steps provided.

As stated, accountants play an integral role in your business's success and growth, with the right accountant the sky's the limit. Placing all the responsibility on the accountant though will not ensure your success, you will be required to bring your end of the bargain by providing a suitable environment for your business to succeed.

While investing in such technology has been vital to helping many businesses survive and thrive in the pandemic, one department that is often overlooked is finance. Rob Israch, General Manager Europe and CMO at Tipalti, explains why this needs to change.

Despite advances in technology and the adoption of cloud accounting software over the last decade, it is still common for businesses to complete many finance processes manually. In fact, we know from our recent research that nearly a third (29%) of CFOs in the UK are dealing with more manual financial operations than ever before. Not only is this wasteful in time and money, but it is also holding finance leaders back from working on important strategic initiatives. We know that driving international expansion, incorporating environment, social and governance (ESG) and sustainability, and dealing with changes brought about by the global pandemic and Brexit – are all causes of complexity for already-busy CFOs.

In order for finance teams to evolve and become the strategic heart of a business, instead of being siloed and viewed as only fulfilling statutory requirements, adoption of automation technology is vital. Any resistance around adopting such technology, which is often that the perception that manual operations is good enough, can be squashed when we look at the benefit it brings businesses. Applying new tools to automate everyday tasks such as payroll, accounts payable, purchase order management, invoice management, group consolidation, and expense management will increase the efficiency of finance teams, allowing them to produce fast and high-quality information. In turn, stakeholders can benefit from increased agility to act on timely management information. Below are the specific benefits businesses that modernise their finance department will see.

Payroll

Payroll is a critical finance task. Employees are one of the most important assets within any business, so it's important to keep them happy by paying them accurately and on time. However, it is easy to get wrong by failing to submit up-to-date information about leavers and joiners, and not providing accurate employee tax codes. Its completion also has added pressure due to being time-sensitive and needing to be performed within a precise and tight deadline each month.

Payroll systems usually are not connected, meaning finance teams have to manually key in or export data to core accounting software and banking providers. However, many payroll processes can now be automated using solutions connecting accounting software and banking providers to provide an all-in-one workflow - saving time and reducing the chance of human error by overcoming the need to move data into different systems, either manually or by exporting and importing CSV files. A particular benefit is not having to recreate payroll journals, which is a notoriously fiddly task.

Accounts payable

Similar to payroll, accounts payable is an essential and regular task for finance teams. Ordinarily completed once a week or fortnight, it takes significant time to collate all invoices, enter payment details onto banking platforms and attain the necessary approvals for payment.

Incorporating vendors that leverage automation to facilitate multiple approvals and pull payment data from accounting software to a banking and payments interface, removes the friction associated with payment runs so they can be completed seamlessly, while also reducing the risk of manual payment errors and fraud.

Many accounts payable solutions reconcile payments automatically, saving further time, which can be used to complete higher-value tasks. A further benefit is better supplier relationships, providing visibility of payment status and enabling proactive communication to suppliers, while also helping reduce the likelihood of invoices being paid late, removing the risk of late payment penalty fees.

As CFOs’ roles and responsibilities grow, an increasing amount of pressure is put on the finance team to focus on tasks that help grow businesses – it’s essential more importance is placed on adopting finance automation as part of businesses’ wider digital transformation plans.

Purchase Orders (POs)

POs play a key role in financial control, with many companies insisting on their use for spend above a particular threshold. The creation and approval of POs are commonly a pain point for companies. There can be a disconnect between budget owners and suppliers, resulting in invoices being raised with incorrect or fully utilised PO numbers.

Using an automated PO tool that integrates to the core accounting platform streamlines processes so they can be created on the fly or from within forecasts. Additionally, they can auto-match invoices to PO numbers when received, eliminating the risk of being assigned incorrectly and delaying payment to critical suppliers.

Group consolidation

A number of core accounting software providers don't include functionality to consolidate at a group level. Finance professionals can get around this by exporting figures for individual companies into spreadsheets and manually making adjustments to consolidate group companies. Alongside the risk of entering data incorrectly and a potential delay to month-end close, this approach requires judgment due to often needing to consider which exchange rates to use and making adjustments based on the accounting standards under which the parent company is prepared. For example, this may include whether to recognise unreleased foreign currency gains/losses in the balance sheet or profit and loss, or revenue recognition treatment.

Using core accounting software that has consolidation features, or a third-party consolidation package, will ensure consistent treatment across all group companies and save finance employees from the hassle of exporting and manipulating accounts data.

Expense management

Managing employee expenses has historically been a chore for finance teams due to having to chase colleagues for their reports at month-end, alongside also needing sign-off from managers for approval. Additionally, the quality of submitted reports is often patchy, with receipts missing and spend being taken to the wrong accounting category. Embracing an automated expense management solution results in more accurate expense reports, allowing for easy upload of supporting receipts, OCR data extraction, and easy imports into accounting software.

As CFOs’ roles and responsibilities grow, an increasing amount of pressure is put on the finance team to focus on tasks that help grow businesses – it’s essential more importance is placed on adopting finance automation as part of businesses’ wider digital transformation plans. Embracing automation for all of the above tasks will benefit finance teams and the wider business. Finance team members will be able to use their time to produce up-to-date reports, providing financial and operational insights into company performance to grow sales, optimise KPIs and finetune acquisition channels.

There comes a time in the life of many businesses when owners cast around for ways to borrow money for growth. But those intending to use venture capital and private equity should plan particularly carefully before committing. Many don’t, and the result can be catastrophic.

Whilst the challenge is simple enough: to get the best deal whilst surrendering the least amount of control and equity. How to achieve that is less straightforward.

What goes wrong is poor attention put into the three basics: business plan, motivation, and due diligence.

Usually, the fractures start to appear because the borrowing enterprise has just not prepared itself. Unfortunately, the thought of ‘free’ cash in return for a slice of equity can tempt owners to make growth predictions that overreach reality. But the wise tread carefully and take advice. Without careful execution, the deals turn sour, with original management teams seduced into arrangements that end up with them losing both money and control.

There are horror stores out there. One UK business originally worth £5 million saw a £7.5 million private equity investment turn rapidly from a lifeline to a millstone, as it failed to meet challenging targets to which its owner had originally agreed. The software company now owes its backers £22.5 million in unpaid interest and redemption charges. Only one of the original management team is still in place and their stakes are now worth little.

This particular nightmare is neither the rule, nor the exception, but illustrates what can go wrong.

Private equity and venture capital can positively transform the fortunes of a business, injecting expertise as well as cash to help it grow. When it works, everyone benefits from a deal between risk and reward. But when it fails, the biggest loser often turns out to be the original management team.

In the end, the siren call of ceding absolute control for someone else’s financial support is not for everyone. Clients of mine stepped back from the brink, despite a willing lender. The reason was unease that the lender’s need for a return on their cash over a fixed term was at odds with the more relaxed instincts of the management team to let things in their restaurant chain grow organically.

The business plan is crucial and more than just a calling card. It is the basis on which the institutional equity investor decides how much to lend and what to demand in return. Firms that overstate likely growth to get investment are doing themselves no favours.

This is because valuations, upon which the entire deal will be based, are dependent on cash flow forecasts. Get them right, or better still, set them lower than they subsequently turn out, and everyone is happy.

But if the business has to keep going back to the investor, the lender will gradually wrest away control in exchange for their cash. They will insist, for example, on new agreements that may keep notional share ownership intact, but take control of decisions over fund raising and board membership.

In simple terms, the more a business falls short of an agreed business plan, the more it ends up giving away.

Which brings us to the next important area: motivation. A management team must ask itself what kind of life it wants. Once private equity is on board, a roller coaster ride starts. Demands are made, targets need to be met. The lender’s need to recover cost and secure a return requires growth at an agreed rate. This can be incompatible with watching your children play sports on a Wednesday afternoon, say. Do the soul-searching.

Nothing will be a problem if your business is growing, of course. But if it isn’t, expect a tough life. The management team must be wholly committed or problems start, particularly when targets in the all-important business plan fail to be met.

The final key component to borrowing money is to carry out due diligence on any lender. Examine the portfolio that every equity house lists. Speak to the firms involved and find out their experience.

Borrowing money from a bank is a far more removed, transactional experience than taking it from a venture capitalist or private equity lender. Their loans come with an expectation of involvement, so personal and professional chemistry is important. The process is effectively inviting a new member on to your key team.

Sometimes organic growth is best - not only because it allows more control to be kept by the original owners, but it can also be better as a fit. The culture of a business can be rudely disrupted by the keenly focused financial demands of an agreement with venture capital and private equity funders.

And choose wisely. The ideal lender will treat your enterprise as more than just a risk to be shared amongst many other. But remember: Private equity wants to have your cake. The trick is to avoid being eaten entirely.

Based in South West England, with offices in Exeter, Yeovil, Wells and Melksham, Old Mill Accountants and Financial Planners are passionate about helping clients to become more successful. Working proactively as an integrated team, Old Mill helps individuals and businesses to achieve their financial goals, which include growing their businesses, retirement planning and long-term investment strategies.

As part of Finance Monthly’s Ask the Expert feature, earlier this month we caught up with Tony Hawes - a Chartered Financial Planner and Fellow of the Personal Finance Society (PFS) whose main focus is working with and advising owner managed and family businesses as part of Old Mill’s Commercial team. 

What are the typical challenges that clients approach you with in relation to the management of their finances?

Clients rightly expect high standards of knowledge and professionalism when it comes to the management of their affairs. They want a trusted adviser who understands their needs and will support them in the long term. Of course, the firm must offer a competitive product range but in my experience, this is of secondary importance to the quality of the adviser/client relationship

What are the challenges presented by the ever changing regulatory environment of the financial planning sector?

Regulatory change is inevitable and ‘part and parcel’ of the financial services world. The real challenge is ‘how can we use these challenges to improve the way we look after our clients?’

Recent GDPR and MIFID 2 regulations highlight the need for increased transparency and we need to examine the way we use personal information about our clients. The introduction of online ‘portals’ allow our clients to access valuable information about their finances at the touch of a button.

Another recent innovation is the introduction of a new document management system which is helping to streamline processes in our journey towards the paperless office.

Having a robust process in place helps ensure that high standards of compliance are achieved and we were particularly pleased to be recognised in this respect in being awarded BS8577 by Standard International for the third consecutive year for the quality of our financial planning practice.

It is however, important not to allow compliance with regulation to drive your business strategy. The healthiest approach is always to focus on building a process which works in the best interest of your client and then overlay this with current regulatory compliance requirements.

What are the most common tax planning solutions that you offer to clients?

It’s important to look at the bigger picture when it comes to tax planning. A good example of this is taking time to consider which business structure is most suitable for the client as incorporated and unincorporated businesses each have different operating requirements, risks and tax treatment.

Common solutions would also include ‘remuneration engineering’ or in other words, how to extract profit in the most tax efficient way using a combination of salary, dividend and pension planning.

Company Directors and key employees can become members of a company sponsored pension scheme such as a SSAS (Small Self-Administered Scheme) which allows them the flexibility to make wide ranging investments such as acquisition of commercial property whilst enjoying valuable tax breaks on contributions and growth.

Of course, there are a number of opportunities available for the individual too such as:

• The ability to reclaim income tax paid and/or defer Capital Gains by investing into EIS/BPR qualifying schemes despite Government proposals to make changes in this area.
• This type of investment remains an important tax planning ‘tool’ for the right client and can be very useful as a part of wider restructuring exercises which could give rise to taxable gains. Of course, advice is important to properly assess the risks involved.

What are the most important aspects that need to be ironed out in order to achieve satisfactory result and a well organised financial plan for your clients?

My methodology is always to ‘start with the end in mind’ and focus on the outcome when it comes to creation of the client’s financial plan and this means establishing clear personal objectives from the outset.

This means asking the right questions: ‘At what age does the client want to achieve financial freedom from the business? And indeed: ‘What does financial freedom mean to the client?’

I also need to understand what resources are currently available in order to help organise these resources and give the client the best chance of success.

By Zak Goldberg

Much like any new venture with a business, it’s a smart idea to first fully assess a number of key financial considerations with your international expansion, to make sure it’s the right move for your company.

International expansion can bring a wealth of benefits including: increased sales, more exposure for your brand, opportunities to work in other niches and much more. So, before you start making your first steps abroad, think about some of the following to get your finances in order:

The Cost of your Expansion

The first place to look is at the possible expenses incurred from your expansion. This might cover a variety of areas like:

• Time and staffing dedicated to researching and scouting overseas locations and markets
• The costs of purchasing a new headquarters
• Travel time between your current and new location
• General staff recruitment, training and provisions
• Machinery, tech and facilities for your new site(s)
• A new fleet of vehicles for your logistics

The next step here is simply be realistic about whether or not a full-scale overseas expansion is something your business can afford.

Potential Sales Revenue

When researching the location for your expansion, you will have probably looked at aspects like how receptive the markets are to your products or services. As well as this, you should use this information to inform the potential revenue you could expect from successfully working in this new country. Having a clearer idea of the possible ROI at stake could also help you determine how quickly you could recover financially from your expansion investment.

Extra Overseas Operational Costs

You’ll already appreciate just how much you need to manage and think about for your overall domestic operations and ultimately the same will apply for any locations you set up and start running overseas. You can’t simply double the typical costs of this though as you might also need to pay for local staffing or external support in areas like:

• Translation work on your company’s website, products, branding
• Networking and understanding the cultural nuances of the country
• International supply chains to support your company
• Sourcing materials and goods for any manufacturing
• The general work carried-out on and off-site

Additional Support

After you’ve done some initial planning, you may also want to look into how you can source additional funds to support this. The bigger your cash reserves the better placed you’ll be to facilitate your growth and there are several different ways you could go about this.

You might want to look at securing a business loan from a bank or lender, or pitch your expansion ideas to your investors to see if they put forward more capital for this. Anything you can gain financially, whether large or small, can be incredibly valuable.Final Thoughts

Once you have taken the above into consideration you should then be in a better place to go ahead with your expansion. A final piece of advice here would be to make sure you regularly report and reassess your financial situation, as there might be instances or circumstances where you need to spend more than you first thought. This way you can move money around to support the different areas of your company that may need it.

About the Author:

Zak Goldberg is a Law & Business Graduate from the University of Leeds who has chosen to follow his aspirations of becoming a full-time published writer, offering his expertise on FinTech and business economics.