Does My Startup Need a Full-time CFO?

Full-time time executives are expensive, and CFOs are no different. And while your startup needs the guidance of a CFO, one individual is rarely well-suited for the broad range of your startup's financial, accounting and HR needs. You may find yourself choosing to hire someone at a lower level to take care of the startup's day-to-day operations, but all too soon discover an individual is in over their heads, trying to keep up with the company’s growth. This may result in the need to hire additional experts and staff to compensate for their lack of expertise and experience in a variety of crucial areas. Rarely is a single employee skilled in the tactical side of both finance and HR, plus able to provide CFO-level performance. Conversely, you might choose to hire someone at a high level to do lower level tasks, which means you are overpaying to get basic business tasks accomplished. The unnecessary costs begin to pile up, and that's the last thing a startup needs while finding its way to profitability.

The decision to hire a fractional CFO versus full-time is primarily based upon cost and the fact that there’s typically not enough work to keep a CFO busy full time, at the early stages. An outsourcing solution such as Countsy can help your startup business be more cost-efficient by providing an array of financial, accounting and HR services, plus the leadership of a CFO, on an as-needed, or fractional, basis. As the business is just starting up, there's no need to build out a department, hire multiple full-time employees nor incur their associated costs such as office space, equipment, benefits and other staffing expenses. In other words, take advantage of a fractional  CFO and a fractional back office, when it's convenient for you — all while, only paying for the individual services, when you require them. 

Be sure to allocate your precious business capital at the “right” time to the functions most critical. Let the flexible and effective team at Countsy take care of your financial, accounting and HR back office needs as they occur.