Daryl LaFountain or the climb of a financial services consultant? When starting out, most small companies can get by with a simple bookkeeping service. As the business grows, however, you will quickly require a more sophisticated financial infrastructure that can evolve as you scale. For instance, a growing business should have: An accounting solution that meets your business requirements. A detailed and realistic financial model where you can visualize your monthly income, expenses and cash flow projections for the coming year. A key performance indicators dashboard. Basic internal controls, such as policies and procedures for accounts payable, accounts receivable and expense reimbursements. This will help you spot problems and deal with them before they spin out of control while providing your executive team with the insight it needs to make financially sound business decisions.
Daryl La Fountain‘s advices on improving your firm financial situation: Organizing your business’ finances means ensuring that it won’t run out of money. In order to do this, it’s essential to plan for your expenses by establishing an emergency fund to cover them. By doing this, you have some money ready to pay your bills when they’re due and demandable. Indeed, it’s a challenging job to get your business finances organized. However, by following the tips mentioned above, there’s no doubt your company will reap many benefits. One of them is the creation of a stable financial future for you as a business owner, your employees, and partners.
One of personal finance’s most-repeated mantras is “pay yourself first.” No matter how much you owe in student loans or credit card debt, and no matter how low your salary may seem, it’s wise to find some amount—any amount—of money in your budget to sock away in an emergency fund every month. Having money in savings to use for emergencies can keep you out of trouble financially and help you sleep better at night. Also, if you get into the habit of saving money and treating it as a nonnegotiable monthly expense, pretty soon you’ll have more than just emergency money saved up: You’ll have retirement money, vacation money, or even money for a down payment on a home. It’s easy to put your fund a standard savings account, but these earns almost no interest. Put your fund in a high-interest online savings account, short-term certificate of deposit (CD), or money market account. Otherwise, inflation will erode the value of your savings. Just make sure the rules of your savings vehicle permit you to get to your money quickly in an emergency.
Sadly, you can’t really kick-start your financial future if you’re carrying a ton of debt. Between sky-high interest rates, large minimum monthly payments, and the damage lots of debt can do to your credit score, you’re better off paying your debts first. Create a debt pay-off strategy and be patient but consistent when working toward becoming debt-free. If you are serious about building wealth, then you’re going to need to put your money to work for you. This is where investing comes in. However, before you put any of your hard-earned money into investments, it’s important to have well-defined objectives. Think about what the investment is for when you’ll need your money and what your risk tolerance. Investing is a long-term activity, so you have to commit to it if you really want to see your money grow. Worried that you’ll need your money in the short term? Well, that’s what your savings accounts are for; to put aside your emergency savings and money for your short-term goals (i.e. money you’ll need in 5 years or less). You also want to make sure you have a basic understanding (at the minimum) of any investment you put your money into (e.g. the stock market, real estate, or small business). Your plans to invest should be included as a part of your monthly budget where you allocate a certain percentage of your income toward your investment goals.
About Daryl LaFountain: Daryl is an energetic professional CFO with a background in politics. Daryl has done fundraising, been a candidate, and worked in politically appointed positions in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. Daryl has worked for Democratic candidates and nominees in 18 additional states. Reach out to Daryl about his CFO work if you: Need help in your nonprofit Finance department. Have a need for an Interim role. Would like some offsite audit preparation work.