INSIGHTS & ARTICLES
Explore some of the most recent articles by our CFOs.
FEATURED ARTICLE
Are You Ready for the New 401(k) Law?
The SECURE 2.0 Act, effective starting in 2025, is a massive piece of legislation that makes over 90 changes to retirement plan and tax regulations. Among other things, the Secure 2.0 Act brings several important changes to 401(k) retirement plans. This new law...
RECENT INSIGHTS & ARTICLES
3 Keys to an Accurate Financial Forecast
Financial forecasting is partly an art and partly a science. The goal is--obviously--to be as accurate as possible as these numbers tend to guide key decisions, advise budgets, and to plan for and project growth. It also establishes trust and confidence in many key...
6 Tips for Sustainably Growing Your Business
Growth is the goal of virtually every organization. However, it takes more than a good market and a good product to sustain and support growth. When we partner with an organization, it’s typically to help them achieve, prepare for, or support growth in some way. This...
What is an Outsourced CFO?
What is an Outsourced CFO? An Outsourced CFO is a financial expert who provides financial strategy services on a part-time or project basis. An Outsourced CFO provides high-level financial strategy, systems analysis and design, and operational optimizations. An...
4 Important Questions to Ask When Hiring an Outsourced CFO
Many companies choose to hire an outsourced CFO to maximize the amount of financial expertise they can bring to their company without the cost of the salary of a comparably-experienced CFO. While it can be easy to don rose-colored glasses when reviewing the...
6 Reasons You Should Outsource Accounting for your Organization
Outsourcing as a whole has become a common means of rounding out an organization’s important business functions without compromising the core focus of the in-house team. Among the most frequently outsourced functions is accounting. Organizations typically...
Why Can a Consulting CFO Make More Strategic Cost Cuts?
You know you want to cut costs—you may even know the cost-reduction benchmarks you want to hit—but how do you define and implement this cost reduction in a strategic, sustainable way? Hiring an experienced Consulting CFO to examine your current costs and develop a...
Outside-In: A New Perspective on Customer Service
I recently found myself in a gift shop on a Caribbean island while taking a cruise, looking to rent snorkel equipment. Upon inquiring about what they offer and their prices, I was greeted with a short, mumbled response and no eye contact. I thought to myself, these...
5 Great Ways to Advertise On a Budget
While Preferred CFO isn’t an advertising agency, we work with many as clients and are used to working with non-agency clients to project ROI metrics on current and future advertising campaigns. A thoughtful approach to advertising can help increase the chances of...
5 Leadership Techniques to Help a Struggling Business
The real challenge to any business leader doesn’t appear when things are going well, but rather when things turn ugly. It doesn't do anyone any good if you the leader loses control, blames others, or even works excessive long hours to cover their uncertainty of what /...
Nail It, then Scale It
Nail It, then Scale It One of my acquaintances is a successful entrepreneur in Utah who struggled in one of his first businesses. The business was a networking platform. It was intended for use by businesses to connect with customers and suppliers. As the business...
The Importance of a Devil’s Advocate
The Importance of a Devil’s Advocate The 2013 movie World War Z starring Brad Pitt describes Israel as having something called the tenth man rule. An Israeli official explains to Pitt's character Gerry Lane that after the Yom Kippur War took Israeli leaders by...
3 Politically Economic Reasons to Hire a Financial Analyst
3 Politically Economic Reasons to Hire a Financial Analyst A recession can put anyone out of business. All business owners know that the broader economy in which they operate could betray them at any time. Understanding the direction and impact of potential economic...
4 Ways to Differentiate Your Product or Service
4 Ways to Differentiate Your Product or Service In 2004, the largest social media sites were MySpace (with 86 million users) and Friendster (with less then 10 million users). It seemed that the social media niche had been filled. MySpace was growing rapidly. So...
3 Economic Lessons from World Events
3 Economic Lessons from World Events Finance is useful in large part because of its ability to convert qualitative principles into quantitative dollar amounts. In a cost/benefit analysis a financial analyst converts both cost and benefit into a discounted cash flow...
Getting Funding for a Small Business Loan
Credit & Loan Options for Small Businesses Successful small businesses need credit to grow. Struggling small businesses need credit to survive. Here are five sources of funding that don’t require selling equity, pulling cash out of pocket, or begging from friends...
Debentures and Collateral
In Disney’s 1997 cartoon adaptation of the Greek legend of Hercules, the evil Hades says to his kindhearted-but-enslaved underling, “Meg, Meg, Meg, my sweet deluded little minion. Aren't we forgetting one teensy-weensy, but ever so crucial little, tiny detail?” At...
The First Principle of Investment
The term value is frequently misused. Dollar-store advertisers use it to mean that even though something is complete garbage, at least it’s cheap garbage. Portfolio managers use the term “value” to mean an underpriced-but-valuable asset. That’s better, but also...
Understanding Industry Rivalry
Michael Porter, a well-known strategy professor at Harvard identified five forces that shape the profit-making potential of the average firm in the industry. The five forces are: rivalry, buyer power, supplier power, threat of new entrants, and the threat of...
5 Lessons from The Big Short
In 2010, financial journalist Michael Lewis published a book telling the story of investors who made money in the 2007-2010 crash by betting against the mortgages we now know were doomed. He called it The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. On 11 December 2015,...
3 Ways to Think Like a Consultant
Consultants are third-party resources companies can use to fix problems within their organizations in all kinds of areas. Some specialize in advising on general strategy problems, while others focus on technology, marketing, finance, operations, or human resources....
Life Hacks from Clayton Christensen
In the business that so many of us are caught up in on a day to day basis, it’s difficult to regularly take a step back and remind ourselves what matters most and why we do everything that we do. Clayton Christensen insightfully discusses this need in his book How...
