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Driving growth in Professional Services Firms... - May 18, 2009

Posted by: David Kirkup in Articles

Small to mid-market professional services firms, such as engineers, IT consultants, architects and design shops, often have bookkeepers or accountants, but do not have the right kind of financial management expertise and tools needed to drive growth, and truly understand and improve their profitability and cash flow. Business owners should be asking themselves:

How does your firm stack up to other peer firms?
Do you know what's driving your profitability and cash flow?
Do you fully understand the relationships between staff utilization, overhead rates, billable hours, and cash flow?

In my experience owners of professional services companies don't know the answers to these questions and, as a result, are often faced with some serious management issues:

A feeling that profitability could be much stronger, and a concern that high staff salaries and pressure on billing rates are just making things worse.
A need to grow revenue so the company can reach the next level, but concern about spending marketing dollars and lack of time for marketing.
The knowledge that receivables are steadily growing with bank lines increasingly stretched, and seemingly no progress in improving long term cash flow and stability.
Lacking a strategy to build corporate value and to find a way to ultimately exit profitability.

At B2B CFO® we have studied these issues for many years. Our partners, each with over 25 years of experience, are trained to provide professional services firms with the solutions they need to raise their financial performance to the top of their industry. B2B CFO® has designed decision making and profitability tools specifically for professional services firms, and have many ideas get moving in the right direction.

A deep understanding of the components of your business will help you stop running in place. As the business starts to grow, you can now focus on long term strategy and ultimately a profitable exit.

B2B CFO ® is a trusted business advisor, creating financial and goal clarity to increase cash, profitability, sales and successful exit strategies. Every professional services firm, regardless of its size, needs a Chief Financial Officer. You can now afford a CFO with B2B CFO®. Contact David Kirkup, B2B CFO®, for a discussion about how to begin taking control of your firm.