Turning Chaos into Calm

April 29, 2018

Special Feature

Brought to you by: Community Partner Accounting for Profits

Turning Chaos into Calm: A CFO for Hire Helps Growing & Struggling Businesses

Is your small or mid- size business having trouble? Do you lay away at night wondering if you will receive enough money tomorrow to make payroll? Is there something not quite right and you just can cannot determine where the bottleneck begins?

One Saturday evening I was working at my desk and an email suddenly popped up. A business owner was writing that he felt he was going to lose his business if something did not happen soon. He had found my website on-line concerning “Financial Turnarounds” and truly sounded desperate. We chatted via email a few times. I learned he was critically short of cash and more than 300 miles from my office. I checked my schedule and saw an opening. I suggested he “relax” and I would visit with him on Wednesday for a consultation.

Arriving early on Wednesday, the owner provided me with their records for the nine years they had owned the business and I set to work. Within an hour, I could see the problems and we met to discuss. He had no idea he had never made money, no idea his profit margins were too low, etc. We talked about his current budget. We discussed a number of changes he might consider making. One major change we discussed and he immediately made led his business to a profitable year. After that first free consultation, I offered to take him and his wife to lunch that day but he needed to get back to work. He suggested his wife and I go alone. She opened up that the business was affecting their family life and marriage. She and I prayed together and I drove back to Birmingham. That was nine years ago and they are still one of my favorite clients! Since then, profits continue each year, they have diversified into different markets, purchased a building and begun two new businesses. They will tell you their part-time CFO is just part of the “family.”

-Joanie Gable