Sleek recommends these top 10 tips for excellent financial management for small businesses. We think it’s really important that you dedicate time to implementing every one of these, or get support if you don’t have time to.

Ask yourself these 10 questions and reach out for help if you think Sleek CFO Services can support you to build a sustainable business:

• Do you put aside time each month to fully update, review and understand your financial performance? 
• Do you fully understand your financial statements and know how to use them to review your financial performance and position? 
• Do you make the most of financial analysis software to really bring your numbers to life, and help you manage budgeting and forecasting? 
• Do you have a grip on your current and future cash inflows and outflows, to ensure you’re never caught short, and to ensure you’ve got enough cash to fuel your business plans? 
• Is your business expenditure fully separated from your personal expenditure, so you’re clear on your businesses distinct financial position?
• Do you have a financial target/Budget framework in place that aligns with your business goals and defines your plan to grow? 
• Do you have a financial forecast in place to anticipate and plan for challenges, and to ensure your cash position is sufficient to support your short-term plans? 
• Do you routinely scrutinise your expenses and pricing, to ensure you are maximising your profitability? 
• Are you spending too much time on activities that aren’t core to your business, like bookkeeping and financial analysis, distracting you from the activities that will bring in the most money? 
• Do you think you need help to improve your financial literacy and financial management, to confidently engage with your stakeholders and safeguard the future success of your business?

For a growing business, the cost of a full-time CFO is considerable, and won’t make a good investment. The average CFO salary in Singapore is S$220k per year! Accessing dedicated finance support on a monthly or quarterly basis is an affordable way to bring financial expertise into your business, at a price tag that suits your budget. Sleek’s CFO Services packages start at just S$600 a month.

Depending on your package, you’ll have an hour’s consultation with your CFO on a monthly or quarterly basis. The agenda will be mutually agreed based on what support you need, and what your CFO deems important focus areas. You can always increase the frequency of engagements too, or pay for a one-off additional engagement when the need arises. Additionally, you’ll have 2 hours’ of associated work/emails included each month/quarter, which covers small one-off requests or questions.

You’ll discuss an agenda mutually agreed upon by yourself and your dedicated CFO. Usually, you’ll review your monthly/quarterly performance report together and discuss key insights and actions. Beyond that, the agenda can include anything from decisions you need support on, performance optimisation opportunities identified by your finance partner, building a target framework together or discussing how to close a gap to target.

CFO Services uses Sleek Analytics, which pulls your financial data directly from your accounting software to: 

• Visualise performance in insightful and interactive charts
• Report on performance using an intuitive and modern report-building tool
• Manage the creation & maintenance of budgets & forecasts

CFO Services is for all types of businesses, from brand new businesses looking to get clarity over their financial performance to high growth start-ups looking to implement a strategy to scale and grow sustainably. As long as your business uses Xero, Quickbooks or MYOB as your accounting software, CFO Services is ready to support you

You’ll pay for CFO Services in blocks of 6 months (in advance). In those first 6 months especially, your dedicated CFO will spend a lot of time reviewing your business, building your financial process recommendations, creating report structures and supporting you to create a target framework that aligns with your business goals.

The monthly cost of CFO services is an investment you make in your business, it shouldn’t be considered an expense. It’s an investment you make in: 

• Supporting revenue & profit growth through creating a tangible target framework and growth strategy
• Identifying performance optimisation opportunities, with the help of your dedicated finance business partner
• Your own peace of mind, that someone is keeping an eye on your finances and you are supporting your business to grow and operate sustainably
• Freeing up your time to focus on growing your business
• Empowering yourself to understand your finances, manage your business excellently, and confidently engage with stakeholders like the bank and potential investors