I’ve read most of the business strategy books. I have heard the most influential business strategists of our generation speak — Verne Harnish, Harvey Mackay, Gino Wickman, Simon Sinek, John Anderson, and Duane Marshal, just to name a few. But, do their techniques work under extreme pressure? What about when the goals are truly bold and fearless? What if going out of business means losing everything?
Luckily, that is not my situation.
However, we are pursuing bold goals and the risk of loss is high. In order to start your own business, you have to take on risk. When you hire your first employee, that’s even riskier. The bigger you get, the greater the rewards, but also, the greater the risks. Operating a business at these dangerous levels calls for fool-proof planning and rapid execution.
Raising funds is surreal. You must tell people you are raising money in order to raise money, but you need to be careful not to violate securities law by telling the wrong person the wrong stuff. You need to share secrets in order to attract attention, but what if they steal your ideas and try to compete? Patents and non-disclouse agreements are only as powerful as the attorneys you hire to enforce them.
Here is the new concept we are launching:
Not every CEO has financial savvy and expertise. According to www.businessinsider.com:
- 33 percent of the S&P 500 CEOs’ undergraduate degrees are in engineering
- Only 11 percent are in business administration
- Only 15 percent of CEOs came from a finance background
The CEOs of most small businesses only have a cursory understanding of finance and accounting. The CEOs who do understand finance rarely have the time to spend managing this aspect of the business. After all, aren’t sales and operations significantly more important? Therefore, the tasks of accounting and finance are often delegated or neglected.
When this need arises, there is at least one anwser: CFOask Solutions, a software-as-a-service, subscription-based online program designed to assist organizations answer complicated accounting questions and manage difficult financial issues. It offers strategic guidance to organizations for a low monthly fee.
- CFOask matches financial experts with CEOs in need of financial and accounting assistance.
- For companies that need more expertise than their internal CFO is able to provide or do not currently have a CFO, CFOask can also provide additional assistance on a when-needed, interim, or permanent basis.
- For companies with a reliable CFO, CFOask offers a way to maximize that investment by providing an additional financial advisory resource to companies and their CFOs.
Our strategy is simple:
1. Don’t worry about people stealing our ideas, share information when it feels right to do so.
2. Operate as if no one will ever invest. We are planning on launching before the end of the year, with or without funding.
3. Keep moving as fast as possible, without being reckless. By the time people catch up, we will be light-years ahead of them. We already have a five year plan …
Will it work? Will we raise the money we need, will we be required to bootstrap it, or will we crash and burn? Does conventional business wisdom work? Stay tuned …
