There’s no doubt about it; running a business is demanding but rewarding. Seeing a company you started from scratch grow and thrive is such a satisfying experience. We have been lucky enough to partner with many new businesses of varying sectors and be part of that growth 💪

As your business grows, there will be a time when you need help reaching that next target and it may be another pair of hands to help you with the admin, or someone in the business helping you nail down those important processes. As you plan to expand your business and take on the next team member, why not consider a Financial Director?

What is a finance director?

A Finance Director is a vital person in your business who will oversee all accounting processes and can help you with;

1. Setting budgets and forecasts to get you in the right direction
2. Monitoring spending and expenses to help you achieve your targets
3. Reducing your financial risk and much more.

Many businesses’ now opt for an outsourced or virtual Finance Director rather than a full time FD who will help them achieve their business goals, in our article we’re going to walk through the benefits of taking on a virtual FD and what it could do for your business.

10 benefits of hiring a virtual finance director

Hiring a team of finance directors

Your current budget might now only limit you to one part-time or full-time in house Finance Director which may limit the advice and options you have to grow as a business. However, with an virtual Financial Director you will have a team of accountants working together with your FD to get you where you want to go.

At Gravitate Accounting, we readily accept that one person can’t know everything, which is why we employ people to fill our talent or knowledge gaps and bring unique experiences to the table. Why rely on one person to help manage your finances when you can have multiple?

The cost-benefits of a virtual FD

The average salary of a finance director is £99,000 per year, with individuals on the lower end of the scale expecting £63,000 and upwards. People at the highest end of the scale anticipating up to £155,000.

Investing in a virtual Financial Director at Gravitate means that you have access to a highly experienced, chartered accountant for a fraction of that cost. When you take onboard Team Gravitate, you have the opportunity to gain insights from multiple virtual FD’s with a variety of experience and specialisms from both practice and industry! ✨

Excellent short-term solution

Perhaps you do one day want to have an entire financial team in-house; a virtual FD allows you to reap the benefits over a monthly, quarterly, weekly or fortnightly session!

We tailor our services to what you need, and we work around you and your business 🤝

Virtual financial directors are scalable

You choose how involved we are, this means that when your business grows, the service we can provide grows with you. Alternatively, if your business went through a quieter period, we can scale down our services down to suit you – something that couldn’t be achievable with a full-time employee.

Less risky in more ways than one

Investing in a virtual Finance Director reduces the risk of a wrong hiring decision. An unsuccessful hire in your business could lead to further costs, including advertising for the full time position again and the cost of any damage the wrong hire could do to your business. When you hire Finance Director with Gravitate you have the team in your hands a group of qualified professionals that can help bounce ideas around.

You’ll also have access to years of collective experience providing knowledgeable risk management and aversion.

Access to valuable advice based on previous experience

When you invest with Team Gravitate, we have a breadth of experience that we can bring to the table; helping you make the decisions that will fuel your company.

If you have an idea that you need to bounce around before you put it into action; you can have that peace of mind that you are coming to experienced accountants that have previous experience in helping others action a similar plan and we can offer you advice and troubleshoot any potential issues that arise.

As a partner, you can expect an unbiased opinion

We act as an extension of your team; as a partner.

We will offer you unbiased options that you may not receive from an inhouse team, we won’t be “yes” people and we will only action a process in the best interest of your company.

If our collective opinion is that a strategy is not suitable for your business, we will communicate this openly and honestly.

We want to see your company succeed 💪

Allows you the freedom to play to your strengths

We love what we do as Finance Directors and when you partner with us, we do what we do best – allow you to do what you do best; run your business and make those all-important client relationships 👨‍💼

Virtual finance directors work to KPIs without distraction

As your team of virtual Finance Directors, we work from our Kelham Island office whilst we work on your KPIs (business targets) without being distracted by other aspects of the business; continuing to work on helping you achieve your company goals.

Another big aspect of our working relationship as your Finance Director would be to work on your personal professional goals. Perhaps your long-term goal is to sell your business for a profit eventually, add other ventures to your portfolio or retire early.

Whatever your hopes and dreams for the future, we will work tirelessly to help you achieve them.

Access to the latest finance management tools

Here at Gravitate Accounting we utilise Xero to our advantage and help you automate and manage your business finances remotely and with ease.
By managing your finance function from the cloud we can receive your receipts from you anywhere and whilst you’re on the go.

As your virtual Finance Director we will always continue to bring you the latest technology – even if you may not be ready to invest we will continue to keep you informed on how we can optimise and automate your business for the future.

So the question is… Why wait until you can afford a full-time, in-house financial director when you can reap the many benefits via a virtual FD?

If you would like to learn more about what a Virtual FD could do for you, please get in touch with one of the team

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