Even the best financial expertise can only take a business so far without the client’s involvement. To get the best results, both parties need to be involved, communicate openly and take responsibility for their part in the process.
At Creative CFO, doing good work and building genuine, collaborative relationships with our clients is non-negotiable. But there’s more to making these relationships successful than you might think. Good work doesn’t simply happen. It requires intention, effort and a shared commitment from everyone involved.
Good Work Requires Participation
For good work to happen, both parties need to be actively involved in the process. It’s not simply about completing work and handing over information. It’s about explaining what’s been done, discussing the findings and making sure the work leads to something valuable, and the next bold decision.
At Creative CFO, that means taking responsibility for the quality of our work, asking the right questions and making sure the information we provide is useful and relevant. In turn, we need our clients to engage with the process, respond to questions, provide feedback and actively participate in the decisions that follow.
Sometimes, that means having conversations that aren’t entirely comfortable. If the numbers point to a problem, we need to be able to discuss it honestly. If our analysis challenges an assumption, we need to be willing to explore it together.
You don’t have to agree with everything we say. In fact, asking questions and challenging our thinking can make the work better. What matters is that we’re working towards the same goal: a clearer understanding of your business and better decisions about its future.
We’ve also put structures in place to make collaboration easier and more effective. Through tools like Slack, email and video calls, alongside collaborative sessions and regular financial reviews, we establish communication and reporting schedules that suit each business. Whether that’s weekly, monthly or quarterly, these structures help keep everyone informed, accountable and involved in the decision-making process.
As Ian emphasises, “one of the greatest risks to a successful working relationship is a complete lack of communication. Even when there are challenges or difficult decisions to make, open and proactive communication is always better than none”.
Good Work Requires Both Expertise and Context
When we start working with a client, we bring our financial expertise, but we don’t yet have the same understanding of their business. We don’t know the ins and outs of their operations, their customers, the challenges they’re facing or the decisions they’re weighing up.
That’s where your knowledge becomes just as important as ours.
Financial information doesn’t exist by itself. The numbers tell us what’s happening, but understanding the business behind those numbers helps us determine why it’s happening and what can be done about it.
By combining our financial expertise with your knowledge of the business, we’re able to ask more relevant questions, interpret the information more accurately and provide advice that considers the bigger picture.
Ian Meaker references Bob Iger’s book The Ride of a Lifetime, which explores his experience as CEO of Disney, to illustrate this relationship. Even the biggest business decisions require a combination of thorough research, financial analysis, and an executive’s judgement call.
Outsourcing your finance function doesn’t mean stepping away from your finances or handing over every financial decision. It means having the right expertise alongside you, bringing a financial perspective to the decisions you’re already making and how to make even better ones.
Good Work Should Make Things Better Over Time
If we’re solving the same problems every month without improving the systems behind them, we’re not doing our job properly.
Our role isn’t simply to complete financial tasks or resolve issues as they arise. It’s to help businesses build better processes, improve how financial information flows through the organisation and develop a finance function that becomes more effective over time.
This brings us to an important distinction between problem solving and capacity building.
Problem solving focuses on addressing an immediate issue. A problem is identified, a solution is implemented, and the task is complete. While this is often necessary, it doesn’t always prevent the same problem from happening again or leave the business better equipped to handle similar challenges in the future.
Capacity building takes things further. It’s about using our expertise not only to solve problems but also to strengthen the client’s own knowledge, processes and capabilities. Rather than simply providing the answers, we want to help clients understand the thinking behind them and develop the skills and confidence to apply that knowledge themselves.
This is something we actively work towards. We don’t want our clients to simply receive financial reports without understanding what they’re telling them. We want them to know which numbers matter to their business, what those numbers mean and how they can use that information to make better decisions.
As Ian Meaker explains, the way we present financial information has evolved significantly. From traditional profit and loss statements to interactive dashboards and the way AI is changing financial management, there are now more ways than ever to make financial information accessible and useful.
But the purpose of that information hasn’t changed.
“The format of reporting will continue to evolve, but ultimately, the goal remains the same: helping clients make their next best decision.”
In many ways, it’s about helping business owners move away from the day-to-day demands of financial administration and towards financial management. With the right systems, processes and expertise in place, they can spend less time managing financial tasks and more time using financial information to guide the business.
Of course, building that capacity is also a shared responsibility. It requires our clients’ time, input and willingness to implement changes, as well as their teams taking ownership of new processes to ensure they continue working.
Ultimately, good work shouldn’t create a business that’s increasingly dependent on us to solve the same problems. It should create a stronger finance function, a more financially informed business owner and a business that’s better equipped to make decisions about its future.
Let’s Start Doing Good Work
Whether you’re considering hiring a CFO or using a fractional CFO service, it’s important to ask the right questions before making your decision.
Finding the right financial partner is about finding a team that’s willing to work alongside you, challenge your thinking and help your business become stronger over time.
If that sounds like the kind of relationship you’re looking for, get in touch to discuss how our team can support your business and its financial goals.
