Rent a CFO

Interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal by Ray Flandez on renting a chief financial officer. There are quite a few such companies out there that can provide these services, and for the smaller firm they can be much more cost effective than hiring out that position. One other thought in that area is to find a great CPA and use that person as your CFO. In my manufacturing business, that’s what I did. Our accountant, Pete Stefanou, was a fantastic guy who was great at thinking outside the box, so it was well worth the extra cost to use him as our CFO. But if you choose to go that route, you need to make sure to keep the CPA up to date on things going on in your organization. In my case, I liked using Pete as a sounding board on new ideas, personnel issues, costs, pricing, etc. He was invaluable in helping me to grow, and then eventually to sell the business.