CEO Wavelength
Boosting productivity is a critical topic for small-medium enterprises navigating the economy in 2024 and finance leaders play a central role in supporting SMEs navigating the challenges of this year.
In this issue of CEO Wavelength, we feature the founder of Aspire CFO, Nicole Ballestrin, who shares her insights on the problems she has enjoyed tackling as a CFO, key challenges facing small to medium businesses, and what defines a market-leading CFO.
Featuring Aspire CFO Founder Nicole Ballestrin, CPA, CA
What problems do you enjoy solving as a CFO?
I enjoy designing finance functions to fully support the strategic direction of companies. Often finance functions are poorly designed, data is inaccurate, reporting is unavailable, forecasts are unrealistic and incomplete, and this state disables CEOs from understanding and managing their financial performance which in turn often results in financial challenges or crises.
I also thoroughly enjoy turning company performance around – from losses to breakeven /profit, as well as scaling organizations – taking solid performance at a smaller scale and partnering with the CEO and management teams to scale the organization, implementing best practices and systems to enable this, and I also enjoy rapidly helping companies avoid bankruptcy, rapid performance turnarounds and enabling financing.
I thrive on the pressures and opportunities that come with delivering a top performing finance function – and driving companies to achieve sustainable and ultimately profitable business models.
What problems do small to medium business CEOs need help in solving but often remain unresolved ?
In a few words, they often lack a finance partner that can realize their vision. It’s hard to operate long-term without a partner to help optimize operations and strategize with to achieve the best possible future for the company.
Accessing financial expertise is a challenge. And, operating without financial expertise and oversight means a business pays for operating without financial expertise because of the financial issues that result from not having a good finance partner.
Issues can span from poor company financial performance, poor cash management, inadequate forecasts leading to a CEO making ill-informed decisions on the long-term strategic direction of the company, and of course additional issues that are also costly such as compliance issues, lack of financial controls, inadequate bookkeeping, and the list goes on.
It is virtually impossible to have a profitable business with staying power without finance expertise. To be a successful company in the long-term means having a company that is productive - with a fully optimized finance function led by a finance expert to help monitor and advance productivity.
This is why my firm specializes in elevating companies who have struggled for with the lack of finance expertise and, they are carrying the related burden that comes with a poorly optimized finance function. Our motivation is realizing the impact we can have on companies – improving companies as we move quickly to provide the relief that comes with setting a solid finance foundation. There’s nothing more we love doing.
A top CFO that serves small to medium businesses is defined by …?
Grit – tenacity – quick clock-rate in problem-solving, as well as the ability to establish trust and develop influence, company-wide, to shape the strategic direction for companies, are all essential.
Grit and tenacity are especially important because to build a strong finance function means getting into clean-up mode swiftly by assessing the range of issues and organizing many things – data, people systems – to fully meet the business needs of the small to medium companies. This kind of CFO work is certainly not for the faint of heart!
Experience & expertise also matter. A broad and diverse background allows the right kind of CFOs to partner well with small to medium businesses in a way that the results are tailored to the business’s needs, and that includes implementation in a swift and effective way.
Anyone can put up their shingle and say they’re a CFO. But, it’s these features that amount to market-leading CFOs. That’s what i love most about my firm, Aspire CFO – I am proud to see the market-leading work we do that makes a long-last impact for our clients.
