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-: My role for a start up team
can sort of vary across different businesses,
so, as a example, for one of the businesses,
I would sit on the board.
I would present the financials
to the board and the investors.
I would really be that financial soundboard for them,
so, like this morning, I was on a conference call
with one of the start-up businesses,
and we're having a conversation around cash flow.
And for them, it was really asking me advice around how
we should be managing cash flow,
what we should be doing around making decisions.
I'm really that sounding board for the,
I guess, the operating management team as well,
as well as the investors as well.
From their prospective, they're making sure
that there's proper diligence,
proper checks and balances processes in place
to help them have confidence
that the management of that start-up are actually doing
what they should be doing, and there's proper,
as I said, checks and balances, within the team.
Sort of the key role is that I was fillin' in as a CO.
A CFO of a start-up would be really around,
one would be the management and reporting side of things,
so that would be your monthly management reporting,
how the business is actually performing for that month,
and there you would look at your performance against
your budget, against your prior year.
So, the management and, I guess, the board
can actually see whether they are on track or off track,
and then from there, they can actually
make key decisions about the business.
Whether, if they're off track, then you know,
are there costs that we need to cut back?
Or, were our sales lagging?
If they're on track, how can we accelerate that growth,
and what do we need to do to accelerate the growth?
Maybe we need to put some more
money in and things like that,
so that's sort of conversation that sets in.
And then, the other side, I guess,
is the cash flow side of things.
Especially in the starter space where money is very sparse,
and the way these sort of businesses are, you know,
every penny counts; it's just making sure that
we can understand the clear runway
from the business perspective.
How much cash do they have?
How long does that cash actually last them?
What's their cash burn rates?
And then looking at methods and ways
that we can actually reduce cash,
so things like travel policies.
Are we travelling too much,
or can we maybe defer some salaries?
If there's management, and they're getting paid salaries,
they may wanna say, "Well, we won't get paid
"for a couple of months."
And just looking at different key variables
within their business and how that can potentially
withdraw cash or get paid faster
from customers and things like that.
So one of the things, I guess, I do with clients,
is around, especially in the starter space, where there's,
I mean, the government gives you a lot of incentives
when you're developing new products,
and one of those incentives is around
research development grants, and I would assist businesses
in that sort of side of things.
I'd help them prepare the relevant information
that they need, and then they'll go to their
expert around preparing their
research and development grants.
So, that's just one of the key services
that I would do for businesses.
And, then finally, I guess, just around contracts
and reviewing contracts.
If customers had large contracts
with suppliers or customers or whatever that is,
then I would help review those contracts,
make sure from the financial perspective
that everything seemed sound, and weigh their milestones.
Every action made, we should be tracking those milestones.
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