A friend of mine recently told me a funny story…
He was on a video call with his son one evening, when he noticed how late it was getting.
“Daniel, it’s 10.30 already – go to bed!” he told his son.
The son couldn’t believe his ears.
“Dad, I’m 32-years-old. I have my own baby. You can’t tell me to go to bed!”
It made me laugh, because I recognised this scenario – and I’m pretty sure every parent with grown children does, too.
On the one hand, you bring your kids up to be independent. You wave them off when they go to university, and watch proudly as they chart their own way and become their own person.
But at the same time…
…It can be hard to let go.
These are your babies. They once depended on you for their care. And part of you feels that they are still your complete responsibility…
A lot of business founders feel the same way about their companies.
When you’ve poured your heart and soul into building your business, it can be really difficult to take your hands off the reigns and allow parts of it to flourish without you.
Take your financial management.
Too often, I come across business owners who are knee-deep in accounts – constantly checking their bookkeeper’s work or even doing their accounts themselves…
They might insist on approving every invoice and every expense slip…
Perhaps they’re even filing their taxes themselves.
They often hate all this work, which is not their forte!
And often, they recognise that their accounts are a mess, and find managing the financial side of their business exhausting and frustrating.
Still, they’re reluctant to let it all go.
They’re convinced that they’re the only ones who can do this work correctly… No one knows the company’s finances like they do.
And no one cares as much as they do, either.
It’s hard to trust anyone else with your cash.
So in addition to their role as CEO, they work part-time in the finance function… Or at least that’s how it feels!
Perhaps you can relate…
The problem is, these companies are often turning over £1-2 million – or more!
In “human” terms, these aren’t babies any more – or even teenagers.
These are “young adults”, companies of considerable size…
And that means that parts of them, at least, need to start operating without the founder’s direct input or supervision. They need to find some independence!
A grown-up company doesn’t depend on the owner to personally double-check the accounts… to do credit control… or to approve every invoice.
(I mean, can you imagine Tesco’s functioning that way? Or Amazon?)
Your finance function has to learn to work to a high level by itself…
…Or it will be forever limited by your own skills and capacity.
Plus, instead of growing your company to its full potential, working on partnerships and product development and financing…
…You’ll waste your time with technical accounting work which someone else could – frankly – do better.
It’s a bit like moving in with your kid when they go to university, because you just can’t leave them alone.
Yes, they’ll be better supervised. But you’ll stunt their growth as well-rounded, responsible adults.
And is that really the best use of your time!? No way.
Now, I accept that this can be an emotional wrench. But it’s a necessary step in the lifecycle of your company.
So, as Disney put it…
LET IT GO
One way to make the process easier?
Make sure you’re handing over your finance function to people you really trust.
At Insight Associates, our mission is to help you upgrade your financial management from “teenager” to “adult”.
We have a full suite of turnkey financial processes which we can install in your business on Day 1 of working together.
These systems – including efficient credit control, double- and even triple-checking transactions, producing cashflow reports, budgets and monthly management accounts – are integral to a well-run, grown-up company.
And we’ve honed and perfected them during our work with dozens of other companies just like yours…
…so you can feel confident leaving the day-today financial management to us.
But the best part?
We’ll also show you how to use all the financial information we produce to maximise your profits and to make better, strategic decisions for your company’s future.
So when your finance function “grows up”, so does your own role as company owner.
And I promise that’s a lot more satisfying.
To find out more about how we can help you, just hit ‘reply’ to this email or call me today on 01279 647 447.
Warmly,
Garry
