Eventually a small business owner must face the fact that they can no longer handle every aspect of their business. This inevitability means that they will have to begin hiring employees and building up teams that can help them maintain and grow their business. This point in time usually arrives quickly for business owners who handle all of their business accounting themselves. Unlike some other teams however, an accounting team should be made up of only the very best and most qualified professionals. Business owners need to ensure they hire only the highest quality people for their accounting team because an accounting team can make or break a business.
With a good team of accounting professionals in place a business owner can make good and informed decisions that will help them maximize profitability, handle cash flow, and provide competitive benchmarks. Most small business owners initially want to hire an accountant or accounting team simply because they no longer want to deal with things like payroll or don’t want to keep track of the ever growing and larger numbers within the company. Once a team has been put together however business owners quickly realize how much they were missing, didn’t know about, didn’t understand, and werent doing.
Not every small business operates on the same budget so it only makes sense that different companies will need to hire different types of accounting professionals. The smallest and newest companies will most likely want to start with a bookkeeper. A bookkeeper will help keep good financial records, handle all transactions, and produce financial statements. An experienced bookkeeper should be able to keep all financial aspect of a business in order for a long time, long enough for a business to hire an accountant.
When a business reaches the point where it becomes necessary to hire employees, it’s time to hire an accountant. An accountant handles much more than simple bookkeeping and can help with things like complicated payroll issues, the changing of a business’ structure/ownership, bank loans, and complex billing issues. Unfortunately successful businesses will eventually outgrow the need for an accountant and will then need to hire a controller.
Once a small business becomes a mid or large sized business, business owners must seriously consider hiring a CFO to handle and oversee all financial aspects of a business. Fortunately many CFO’s can be hired on a per project basis and on a part time basis in addition to full time making their services more affordable and accessible to all businesses. A CFO will be needed when a company begins to consider expansion as they can provide specific strategies for making a complex business stage a success.
Whatever a small business might need in terms of financial assistance, it’s important to remember that at some point all businesses will need it. Some businesses will hire an all in one type of bookkeeper or accountant while others will assemble a team. It’s important to remember however that in order for a small business to succeed and grow their owners must eventually hire someone to handle their finances.