Congratulations to our long-time client, GMT, who was acquired by industry heavyweight Verint (also the acquirer of Atlanta technology stalwart Witness Systems back in 2007).  GMT provides workforce management software to some of the most recognizable financials institutions and contact centers in the world.   Great seeing a local Atlanta technology company grow and get acquired by a large public company!

There are just those days you ask yourself, “Why in the world did I ever become an entrepreneur?”  Everyone’s problems are worn as your own.  Best intentions don’t match end results.  Resources are FAR from plentiful.  Obstables look impassable versus overcomable.

Fortunately, motivation for entrepreneurialism abounds.  I have a spouse and other family members who are fellow business owners.  I work with a team committed to thinking as entreprenuers.  All of our clients are entrepreneurs.  Motivation ultimately should be internally driven, but having outside encouragers can be incredibly inspiring.  I love this video that David Hauser shared at StartupRiot this year and love playing it for the occasional motivational shot in the arm:

Where do you get your motivation?

I was recently preforming a phone screen of a candidate and asked them what interested them about our company and the job position that we had just posted.  The candidate responded “…can you remind me again what your company does?”  I was completely dumbfounded, to put it nicely.  Was this person actually that unprepared for an interview or am I just that horrible of a recruiter!?  Regardless of the answer, it’s times like these when I’m reminded of why hiring is one of my least favorite parts of being an entrepreneur.  The crazy thing is that one of my favorite parts of being an entrepreneur is building teams.  It’s a bit of a strange dichotomy, but I’m guessing other entrepreneurs experience this to. 

2 Reasons Why I Find Hiring Such a Challenge:

1. The sheer numbers of applicants are staggering these days.  A simple job posting will often yield hundreds of applicants and you, somehow, have to get through them.  You could hire a recruiter for this, but one way or another, you’re going to pay for it either in time or in cash.  I started using some basic tactics to get through the masses of applicants like using LinkedIn for our postings so that we can filter out candidates that are not connected by more than 2 degrees of separation (so note to you AcuityCFO job seekers reading this: you should use LinkedIn and find a way to connect to our company through a contact).  I know that we may lose good candidates this way, but I have a strong preference for someone coming through a referral.  Then you still have to go through phone screens and interviews.  Again, a very time consuming process.

2. We need a unique type of employee.  I know…so does every company that’s hiring.  But we need ENTREPRENEURIAL ACCOUNTANTS.  How many of those do you know?!  If you do, PLEASE contact us now!  Seriously though, finding a strong technical accounting resource who loves working in rapidly changing entrepreneurial environments is a daunting task.  Most accountants you know would prefer to work by themselves and follow a rigid protocol day in and day out.  An AcuityCFO team member needs to be able to build a strong yet flexible financial structure into a client’s organization that is often changing daily!  It’s a profile that has allowed our existing team members to be the rock stars that they are, but finding candidates with this profile is difficult!

2 Reasons Why Hiring Well Is Worth It:

1. New people bring new ideas, perspectives and energy.  I believe that impact is even magnified within a growing entrepreneurial organization like ours.  Every time a new person joins our team, I am amazed at how our business looks in front of a fresh set of eyes.  That is a perspective that is incredibly difficult to replicate as a founder or as a long-time employee.

2. New people allow us to serve more clients, which quite simply, is what we love to do.  All of us joined the AcuityCFO team because of a love for working with clients and helping them address their financial challenges.  The highlight of our team meetings is discussing new clients and successes that our clients achieve.  We grow more professionally and serve our clients more effectively when we can gain experience through a larger client portfolio. 

While the process is challenging and often frustrating, I obviously believe that the rewards of adding good team members are well worth it.  What I’d love to know, however, is how to make this process better.  So, what have you seen done during the hiring process that really helped determine whether you had a candidate that fit your culture and aligned with your existing team?

I just finished a project with a client where we analyzed a group of their key financial metrics against the same metrics of a group of other companies.  Some of these companies were competitors, some were industry stalwarts, and others were in tangential markets.  Once we crunched the data, we slid this benchmarking analysis into the client’s regular financial reporting package and an interesting thing occurred when we all met.  Often when more schedules are added to a company’s reporting package, eyes glaze over and more analysis paralysis ensues.  In this case, however, everyone in the meeting perked up and here’s the type of discussion that began:

“Look at how much Company A and Company B spends on sales and marketing as a percent of revenue.  Is that what’s driving their top-line growth?”

“Those three companies are really making an investment in their development organization.  Think they’re revamping up their product line?”

“We’re well below the group average on number of salespeople/total headcount.  Are we staffed up enough on the sales side?”

Were these right questions to ask?  Were these even the right group of companies to be benchmarking against?  That’s debatable, but don’t let this hang you up.  What’s important here is that this team took time to be externally focused outside of their own business.  That’s a huge victory for companies and particularly entrepreneurs.  Going into “stealth mode” can often be an unhealthy exercise that really limits a company’s outlook and I see that happen on too regular of a basis.  With this particular client, every person in that meeting was more charged up when they viewed their performance against someone else’s.  They asked questions that put their company in perspective of a broader market.  They also set their sights on some real targets to aspire to and to compete with.  How can that not be beneficial?  So, take a few moments to view your company’s financial performance not just against last month, last year, or budget.  By measuring yourself against someone besides yourself, I promise that you and your team will ask some very challenging and motivating questions that will be valuable to your business.

A few weeks ago, the great folks at The Receivables Exchange asked me to sit on a panel as part of their Atlanta Cash Flow Forum.  This is the second time they’ve used me as a panelist, so either they’re desperate (which I doubt based on how fast they’re growing) or I actually fooled them into believing I know what I’m talking about.  Regardless, the panel gave me a chance to hear personally from other Atlanta business owners about both the opportunities and the challenges they were facing in their business.  I love that.  Talking with fellow entrepreneurs has to be one of the greatest joys I get out of what I do.

The question that came up and which was directed at me was:

“What tips can you give small business owners about how to better manage their cash flows?”

To be honest, I don’t think “tips” is probably the right way to think about managing cash.  It has a connotation of magic or some form of trick.  We’d all love the goose that laid the golden egg or King Midas’ touch, but when it comes to cold hard cash, being realistic and fact-based will always rule the day.  So when I stated my very pragmatic non-magical answer, I’m sure that some in the room were disappointed.  I simply stated that “Every business should forecast their cash”.  That may be the very accountant-oriented answer, but it’s the absolute truth.

Financially, is there anything more important than cash to an entrepreneur’s business?  No.  Churchill said “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”.  So why would a business not perform planning around their most critical financial resource?  I’m amazed by how often I find that a business owner does not have a clear expectation of how much cash they should have next week, next month, and next quarter.  Forecasts and proformas are not magic, they’re merely a well-documented financial expectation that you have for your business.  Your forecast doesn’t have to be overly complex or elaborate, but you have to have the discipline to update and use it regularly.  If you don’t, you’re flying blind, plain and simple.  Often you may need help in setting up this forecast, but you may be able to maintain it going forward.  No matter how you come to it, a cash forecast isn’t something that you and your business can go without.

“For AcuityCFO, 2011 is a mile marker year”, said Stewart Brooks, AcuityCFO Partner. “Our new brand has been built to better evidence the commitment we’ve always had to building real, strong and lasting partnerships with our clients and the Atlanta community.”

The new AcuityCFO brand communication is designed not only to represent the company image, but also to be a useful tool for small and mid-sized businesses. The company logo shows an image that blends a path with a pinnacle. This image represents the AcuityCFO belief that, with the right tools and counsel, all companies can find themselves somewhere on the path to sustainable business success. The newly designed company Web site (http://www.acuitycfo.com) illustrates this concept, labeled the PATH, providing a visual that businesses can use to categorize their stage of growth, and to identify clearly and simply the needs and opportunities unique to their phase.

“The efforts that we have made to create a new brand for AcuityCFO is a reflection of our commitment to move away from being seen as a group of part-time CFOs and controllers, to being understood for what AcuityCFO really is, a real, functional partnership that provides our clients with actionable strategies for their long term business success”, said Partner Kenji Kuramoto. “We’ve worked hard on the PATH concept. It reveals how we work with our own clients, but it is also designed to be helpful for anyone seeking to clarify where they are, where they’re going and how they can reach their goals.”

The unique PATH visual walks the user through the key phases of business evolution, beginning with the Start-Up phase and clarifying every step through the pinnacle, the Established organization. AcuityCFO has taken the rebrand of the company deeper than logo, Website and collateral; and has expanded its team of professionals at every level of service. The team brings experience in virtually every major industry category, and at every level in the accounting and finance organization. Additionally, the company has employed Kurt Schneider to lead business development efforts. Mr. Schneider will utilize his entrepreneurial and high-growth company experience to speak with senior executives with a level of understanding about their opportunities and needs so that the AcuityCFO team can provide the highest level of partnership.

The final component of the AcuityCFO evolution is the establishment of new offices. The company has opened doors in the The Park at Perimeter Center East located at 41 Perimeter Center East, Suite 600, Dunwoody, GA 30346. This office is centrally located to many company clients, in addition to being easily accessible to organizations throughout the Atlanta area. The space is designed to be workable, flexible and welcoming, in order to facilitate focused, productive work with clients and prospects. Just as the new logo represents the focus on relationships with clients, and the PATH concept represents an expertise applied to accomplishing the goal of sustainable business success for clients, the office models how AcuityCFO is about entrepreneurs helping other entrepreneurs to reach their highest goals.

ATLANTA, GA, January 20, 2011 AcuityCFO, a professional services firm that provides broad financial expertise and guidance to companies seeking a solid foundation for growth, has made another strategic addition to its rapidly expanding team. Kurt Schneider joins AcuityCFO as the Vice President of Business Development, a new role designed to facilitate accelerated growth for the company.

Kurt is a seasoned finance and accounting professional with an enthusiasm for business development. Prior to joining AcuityCFO, he was the CFO for Sundrop Systems, a mobile marketing and loyalty SaaS based solutions provider. His 23 years of experience with entrepreneurial and high-growth companies also include roles as Vice President of Finance for Silverpop Systems, a leading provider of SaaS permission-based e-mail marketing solutions, Vice President of Finance with Coloplast, a medical products manufacturer and distributor and as Corporate Controller for Harbinger Corporation, an E-Commerce software and network service provider. He began his career with Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Kurt graduated with a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Florida and received his MBA from the University of Tampa. Kurt is also a CPA and has held several board of director roles.

“With his strong finance and accounting skills as well as his experience with entrepreneurial and high-growth companies, Kurt has a deep understanding of the problems that AcuityCFO solves for our clients,” said Stewart Brooks, managing partner and founder of AcuityCFO. “He has been in various executive roles, and can speak with our client CEO’s and senior executives with a level of understanding about their opportunities and needs so that we can serve them better. We are thrilled to have Kurt on our team and look forward to seeing the value he will bring to our clients and to AcuityCFO.”

ATLANTA, GA, January 13, 2010 AcuityCFO, a professional services firm that provides broad financial expertise and guidance to companies seeking a solid foundation for growth, has added experienced financial professional Douglas Hale to the team. The addition of Mr. Hale as a CFO level principal marks another significant step for AcuityCFO, which is strategically expanding the team to provide sound, expert counsel to its clients.

Mr. Hale comes to the AcuityCFO team with more than 30 years of broad industry experience that spans software, real estate and engineering. Through AcuityCFO, Mr. Hale will serve as Chief Financial Officer for firm clients, advising them in all aspects of financial and operational strategy. His expertise includes managing fundraising and capital management, development of financial models and controls, market analysis and due diligence.

Prior to joining AcuityCFO, Mr. Hale was the CFO of software start-up, Emergency Visions. While there, he oversaw all financial functions, managed equity, including securing capital during the Great Recession, and developed financial models used by the accounting team. Mr. Hale has worked with start-ups as well as finance and investment groups such as Martin Capital. His experience includes two years working with the nationally recognized technology business incubator, Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), where he designed equity investments for early-stage technology companies, coordinated investment activities and handling seed capital for start-up companies.

“Doug is an ideal combination of skills for our AcuityCFO clients,” said Kenji Kuramoto, partner and co-founder of AcuityCFO. “He is an electrical engineer with an MBA and high-level financial experience focused on the start-up phase. That combination is a winner for many of our current clients, and most of the young technology companies that need someone who understands both sides of the desk.”