Pro Tip

Finance is Storytelling

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Finance is subjective. Yes, there are rules and regulations and some of that is black and white, but Finance is also storytelling. It is making sense of data and communicating that story to people to help them understand the cause and effect relationship of decisions and results. In any situation where outside funding is needed this truth is that much more important, but for internal, non-financial managers, it is also vital. The Finance leader has a job to do in helping the management team understand how their choices create financial results. It can be the difference maker.

Pro Tip: Questions to Plan 2026

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Sometimes planning for next year is best started by asking yourself and your management team questions, here are some suggestions:

– What available capacity do we have now that we should try to make the best use of?

– What have been the key barriers for growth in the last year?

– What service lines do we have that are most profitable?

– What geographic areas do we have more opportunity in?

– What are potential service lines that we can offer to our current clientele in our current area?

– Where are we efficient with staffing and where are we not?

– What do we need operationally to meet our goals?

Pro Tip: It’s Q4 – GO TIME

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It may feel like summer, but it’s actually Q4. Yes, I know that is not technically until Oct 1, but the reality is that if you want to be well positioned for Q1 2026, the time to act is now. What does that mean for us and our clients?

– Making decisions about strategic pathway

– Forecasting and budgeting related to those decisions and the options within them

– Planning for infrastructure that may need to evolve related to them

– Working with management teams to get buy-in on our path

– Empowering people to make it happen through accountability

What do you want from 2026? It’s Q4, that means GO TIME!

Pro Tip: Finance Team Effectiveness

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An effective Finance team is essential for any business, regardless of size. Sometimes that team is full of on staff people, other times it can be accomplished by using outsourced solutions. Without one though, a business is likely not reaching the lowest bar of finance team performance: accurate and timely financial reporting. This bar must be reached before any further evolution can happen, to then allow for:

– Strategic improvement in financial reporting

– Data driven decision making

– Readiness for the right deal when it comes along

Need to level up performance? Level up your Finance team!

Want some help learning how to do this? Happy to chat, or check out our recent LinkedIn post on the topic.

Pro Tip: Letting Go

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It can be hard, as a small business owner, to let go of control of essential tasks in your business. Trying to determine how to do this is a constant topic of conversation with clients. How can you begin to move forward with it?

1. Create documented processes for essential tasks you complete.

2. Develop standardized methods to keep a pulse on the tasks you’ve handed off.

3. Ensure your financial controls and reporting processes are set up well and timely.

4. Create a standard schedule for yourself to watch these things and meet with people that allows you to let go and be confident.

Best of luck!

Pro Tip: Accountability of the team

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An often overlooked area of value building for businesses is accountability of the team. Particularly in management, setting up the job descriptions, workflows and compensation structure to allow for transparent accountability that aligns with the company and its strategic trajectory is key for increasing margin. Holding team members accountable is not a negative thing, done right it can be an empowering experience, giving them the tools for growth both within the organization and in their skill set, and allowing them the agency to use them. Unsure how? Let’s talk!

Pro Tip: When to Start Planning for 2026

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When is the right time to start planning for 2026? Now! While 2025 is only halfway through, sometimes the legwork to make way for big returns next year takes longer than you might expect. This is particularly true if it involves an evolution in staffing and/or changes in how your data is recorded, either financial or operational, or both. Often, for metrics to be valuable, they need to be developed for at least a short historical period. So, whatever date you intended to start your 2026 planning, move that forward by at least 30-60 days. You can’t be too early, but you can be too late.

Pro Tip: Mid-year alignment

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Somehow it is already May, which means we are nearly halfway through the year. It also means that it is time to do a mid-year alignment. We need to evaluate whether or not our budget for 2025 is meeting the reality of our performance. If so, great! If not, why not? Are strategic initiatives taking longer than they should? Have some operational roadblocks arisen? Have economic factors changed our trajectory? What do we need to do now to make the second half of 2025 a success? Getting granular and honest on these topics is the point – confronting reality is the first hurdle.

Pro Tip: Get More Control Over Your Future

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What are three practical things business owners (regardless of industry) can do today to get more control over their future?

1. Begin an ongoing dialogue with significant suppliers to understand their economic risk exposure and how it is likely to pass through to their customers.

2. Plan out your cash runway. Attempt to do this based on some variables building in revenue and collection timeframe fluctuations as well as efficiency changes to extend runway.

3. Identify alternative offerings to reach new types of customers or meet new customer needs.

Be intentional and plan to win. Your CFO can help.

Pro Tip: Uncertainty Over Tariffs

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Tariffs are on everyone’s mind these days. Uncertainty is never the friend of business planning, but in the current climate what we can plan for is the need to act quickly and decisively. This means that we must be able to identify our plans B, C, D, etc. and the triggers in our metrics that would make us decide to take these actions. We need to plan the pivots we can use to allow our business to maintain its resiliency as best as it can in the face of an unpredictable future. Implementation of nimble strategic forecasting will determine who wins in this market!