The highest level financial executive of a company wears many hats. They’re the ones who watch the company’s bottom line, conduct due diligence, and develop relationships for all things financial. But the job of chief financial officer, or its equivalent, may also entail overseeing human resources, information technology, and other departments within the company. Not a small work load to juggle. In short, these men and women know their businesses inside and out. And, considering many have worked with a variety of companies in different industries, they can be a great source of wisdom. In order to tap some of that wisdom, SFVBJ asked some of the Top CFOs of the Valley nominees the following two questions: What is the most difficult part of being the highest level financial executive of your company? And what advice would you give small business owners looking to shore up their balance sheets? Caitlin Steel of Barry’s Tickets Service said the most difficult part of her job is not the financial side of the business; that’s the easy part. It’s the people stuff. Barry’s has approximately 50 employees and specializes in selling tickets to concerts and sporting events. “People never really act the way you expect; It’s never ending and a constant challenge,” said Steel, who had the tough task of eliminating 30 positions after she took the position of CFO a couple years back. “With something like information technology, you can pretty much turn on the switch and the system works,” she added. “But managing people It’s the best part of the job and the most difficult.” In terms of advice for businesses looking to shore up their balance sheets, Steel recommends focusing on what you can fix. “There’s a lot of stuff from a technical standpoint that you can rail against but never really change,” she said. “Fix what you can; show your warts; and move on.” Ashish Parikh of Systech Solutions said the toughest part of his job is keeping a smile on his face and maintaining composure in the face of everything happening around him. The current economy has made this especially challenging. “A lot of time people look to the CFO and senior management and gauge their mood accordingly,” said Parikh, adding he too has had to cut costs to make ends meet lately. He said there needs to be give and take. For example, Systech cut costs, but it also created an employee stock ownership plan. The latter resulted in better tax management and productivity for the company and decreased employee attrition. As for advice to other business owners, Parikh said the role of CFO has changed. No longer are they just bean counters. They might be spokesmen, manage human resources, and hold many other responsibilities within the organization. He personally meets every customer the company acquires, and attends sales meetings every Monday morning. The CFO needs to be deeply ingrained in the business strategy, he said, and constantly have a pulse on what’s happening in the company. And don’t cut costs blindly, said Parikh. “In cutting costs just for the sake of cutting costs, you may end up cutting off your limbs.” Gail Shaughnessy of The Signal newspaper said human resources is one of the toughest parts of her job. On the technical side, she has to keep up with all of the new laws and regulations that come out every year. On the people side, she often plays the role of therapist. “I have an open door policy,” said Shaughnessy, adding she doesn’t mind the interruptions but personnel issues can be very difficult to iron out. She admits she also struggles with delegating some of her work. As for advice, she jokingly said small business owners should take out advertisements in their local newspaper. But on a serious note, she recommends business owners not be afraid of cutting as many expenses as possible to ride out the financial turmoil. “It’s amazing what you can get by without,” she said. “Things will get better.” Liz Curran of Alexx, Inc. has a little different take on the challenges of being the highest level financial executive in her company. She went from being a personal bookkeeper and stay at home mom to controller of a multi-million dollar company in no time flat. “Honestly the hardest thing is probably learning what the position of CFO is all about,” said Curran, who established all of the company’s accounting policies and procedures from scratch. In addition to overseeing the financial side of the company, she oversees customer service, shipping and part of the product development and procurement team. Curran is also working closely with the company owner to launch a new business that caters to the Hispanic market.
