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Writer's pictureShane Glavin

A New Year Resolution That You Can Keep: Finding the Right Strategic Partner


A notebook with a 2025 New Years Resolutions list on a wood background.

It’s November, so you’ve probably started the process of popping extra pumpkin spice-flavored foods in your mouth while promising to add a diet to your list of 2025 resolutions. Easy.


Or maybe this is the year you’ll finally get your phone use under control and stop cursing that fun little notification about your weekly screen time. Suuuure. 


Perhaps you’re among the highly self-controlled who don’t have trouble putting down your fork or your phone so you’re making resolutions to read and volunteer more. We admire you, even as we roll our eyes just a bit at all of you overachievers.


But what about your business? Have you considered the resolutions you should be including for 2025? If you need help getting started, there’s one resolution that will be easy to keep: choosing a strategic partner for your CFO services. Read on, and you’ll find out why.


Count the Benefits

Unlike trying to force yourself to stick with a gym membership or a diet app, working with a strategic partner fits naturally into your business.


Battle Fear with Expertise: Many small business owners don’t capitalize on an opportunity or expand their offerings because they are afraid. They use business-appropriate wording, like “risk” and “concern,” but the real problem is that they have fears that things won’t go as planned or their business isn’t ready for a big next step.

Working with a qualified CFO helps you look at the right factors for moving forward. With solid financial reporting and a disciplined approach to managing risk, you’ll recognize the right opportunities and be ready to take advantage of them.


Increase Your Expertise Without a Big Investment: Expanding your in-house staff requires a lot of planning and analysis to determine if it’s the right step. Outsourcing to a strategic partner for financial reporting, tax planning and business insights doesn’t require the same level of risk.


With a CFO services provider, you have the flexibility to pay only for what you need. Maybe you want to try outsourcing your financial reporting, and then you are considering a major expansion. You can scale up to include your strategic partner in your planning process to expand your expertise and insights. Once your expansion is complete, you can scale back down.


Comparing a CFO service to an in-house CFO, the benefits of a strategic partner are clear. You are not locked into paying a full salary and benefits, plus the soft costs associated with hiring, like onboarding, training and equipment.


Gain Objective Expertise: A CFO services provider introduces a level of objectivity that can be a challenge for in-house employees. A service provider will have worked with many companies across a variety of industries, giving them a unique perspective on your business.


Objectivity will help ensure that your financial reports and risk management are being held to a higher standard, which is valuable when you are considering applying for a loan, pursuing a merger or seeking out additional investors for your business.


Expanding Your Awareness: A CFO services provider can bring invaluable perspective to your analysis of your business. They will be aware of trends happening across the market and how changes may affect your business. They may also have other strategic partners that would be a good match for your business needs and complement your in-house expertise.


Identify Areas of Improvement: Maybe it’s a change on your cash flow statement that indicates an area of inefficiency in your production line. It might be a better way of financing an upcoming equipment purchase. Or it could be reconsidering hiring a new sales manager when your longtime employee retires.


A CFO will be able to identify areas where your business is incurring unnecessary expenses. Whether it’s negotiating reduced bank fees or better practices that result in tax savings, your CFO services provider will be a strategic partner that propels your business forward.


Spotlight Catalysts for Growth: Likewise, a CFO can tell you which part of your business is prime for expansion or how an investment in your manufacturing equipment could drive better growth.


The Ability to Focus on Your Core Business: As a small business owner, you probably anticipated some late nights in the beginning as you invested all your blood, sweat and tears into your new venture. But now, years down the road, you’re surprised at how often you’re forced to give up sleep. You may not be working, but your brain won’t quit.


Working with a CFO services provider helps you put financial concerns to rest. You’ll have the tools and insights you need to better understand how decisions will impact the bottom line. You’ll have peace of mind and more time and energy to put toward your business.


Your business will become more predictable. And when opportunities come up, you will have already considered the scenario with your CFO and you’ll know whether it’s one you should pursue.


It Benefits Your Customers: A CFO helps you identify ways in which your customers could be having a better experience, whether that’s involving a price reduction, a higher level of quality or a speedier delivery. Their analysis equips you to better understand the costs of your business and where you can achieve savings or pass a benefit on to your customers.


You also have more time to spend on tasks like reading and responding to customer reviews, taking the opportunity to consider how customers are responding to particular products, services or branding strategies.


Back to Resolutions…

At The Power CFO, we hope you keep all of your resolutions. We hope you finally reach your fitness goals, enjoy a peaceful life where screens fail to entice you away from more important events and that you read and volunteer with joy.

We can’t help but point out that every one of these resolutions gets a bump with your decision to outsource services to The Power CFO. It’s one resolution that’s easy to keep and it makes all others a little more achievable, as well. Contact us to get started!

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