How a Virtual CFO Can Help Improve Your Business Relationships

What does your business need to succeed? You might be surprised to learn that it’s not the best product or the most innovative service. It’s not offering the lowest price, nor is it breaking certain records. Your business’ continued health and longevity depend in large part on the health of its relationships. Those relationships might be with customers and clients, with investors and banks, and with vendors. If you aren’t sure how to go about strengthening your company’s relationships or what you can do to patch things up in the event of miscommunications or other issues, a virtual CFO can. They can introduce you to the people who can help your company grow and work with you to help your company improve the quality of its existing connections.

Working With Investors
If you have plans on growing your business, you’ll want to form relationships with investors at some point. Investors provide equity financing to your business. In exchange for an ownership stake in your company, they provide you with the funds you need to pursue the next phase of growth or to keep your business afloat.

Working with investors takes a bit of skill and finesse and involves more than simply approaching someone, giving them an elevator pitch and hoping for the best. A virtual CFO can direct you to investors who would be a good fit for your company. The virtual CFO can introduce you to investors who would be interested in purchasing a stake in your business and taking it to the next level.

If you do make a connection with an investor, your virtual CFO can help you determine if the relationship is worth pursuing and can give you advice on whether or not the partnership would benefit your company or not. your virtual CFO can also provide background information on investors to you so that you can impress them with a pitch and be more likely to get their interest and attention.

Working With Banks
When you own a business, banking involves much more than simply depositing money into an account and withdrawing it with needed. Business banking is all about relationships. Your virtual CFO can act as a guide to help you form strong connections with your current bank or to help you find a bank that better understands your needs and would be better able to serve your company.Forming a strong relationship with a bank is all about establishing trust. If your company is just starting out, most lenders and banks won’t know who you are. They might be hesitant to lend you money or might not offer you the best terms on an account. Your virtual CFO can act as an intermediary, using their existing connections with a particular bank to help your company get better terms on a loan or a better rate on a savings account.

Should your company run into financial difficulty at some point, your virtual CFO can offer you advice on communicating with your lender or bank, letting it know about the problems you are experiencing and working together to find a way to solve the issues so that both parties are
happy.

Working With Vendors
Your company needs its vendors for supplies and services. Your vendors also need you to help keep their businesses afloat. You might not be sure how to approach vendors to negotiate terms and to get the best possible rate on products or services. But a virtual CFO will. They can help your company maintain strong relationships with vendors so that it can get the best payment terms and prices. For example, a virtual CFO might help you negotiate a discount on invoices if you pay a vendor early. They might also be willing to serve as the point of contact with the vendor, reducing any confusion about invoices or orders placed.

Working With Clients
Losing a client or customer can feel like a big blow to your business, especially if that client accounted for a significant portion of your revenue. While partnering with a virtual CFO won’t guarantee that you never part ways with a client, the connection can help you improve your company’s customer service and can increase your customer retention rate. They can also help you determine if the benefits of parting ways with a client or customer outweigh the drawbacks. Relationships make the business world go round. If you’re hoping to take your company to the next stage of growth, working with a virtual CFO to help you improve your business relationships could be the next step. Hire your virtual CFO today.