Action for Financial Freedom!

Published: 7th December, 2020

Is Finance Director Flo the ‘Orphan Annie’ of business? Asks Hywel Griffiths Finance Lead @YourBigPic.

I only ask because in panel discussions with Big Pic of late, Finance seems to have been an afterthought in some of the discussions. This really makes it difficult to have Financial Freedom.

Again, this is just an observation, not a complaint. So, would there be any reason for Flo to feel forgotten?

No business owner sets out to ignore any part of the business, but inadvertently the finance function can easily become forgotten. With increased regulations and global, national and local competition aligned with economic uncertainty; it is imperative that the business owners and managers take Finance as an integral role in order for the business to succeed. This will become apparent as we move on from this current financial situation.

There are certain areas in running the business, I feel, that compounds an already difficult situation –

Not understanding the numbers;
Not enough time on hand;
Not having the right resources available.

“YOU are the root of your financial SUCCESS.

If you work on the ROOTS; the FRUITS will take care of themselves.“

NUMBERS

I have found that the majority of businesses have started as a result of a passion for the product or service provided. This passion does NOT include managing the numbers. Traditionally, finance was about book-keeping; implementing finance controls and protecting company assets and as a result takes a back seat in the mind of the owner. Finance, however, is a lot more than that, which Big Pic covers in its offer.

TIME

Owner-management businesses are often struggling with Finance as they cannot warrant management teams and hierarchies to deal with the concern. This leads to spending more time on the area they are passionate about to the detriment of finance. Business owners in such cases feel that by concentrating on the business they will secure sales and the finance side will sort itself out.

RESOURCES

Finance is lowly ranked within business, and as a result the organisation is far more likely to direct resources towards efforts in sales, production or marketing; using the same thought process as previously mentioned. The result of this, in some cases when needing a finance source becomes inevitable, is hiring a resource for a critical role on price rather than experience.

So, is Flo really a forgotten employee? Is Finance unimportant? There are reasons why this part of the business struggles to be successful and Financial Freedom is strived for.

With Big Pic we tackle these issues head on by having the conversation aligned to the digital board so that we can determine how Flo can be at the forefront of business thoughts moving forward and the business can really have FINANCIAL FREEDOM.

This and other finance issues re what we address in the Finance offer for Big Pic.

TAKE AWAYS

Maximising Engagement, Active Participation and Independent Thinking are essential elements to achieve a Return on Investment (ROI) on your learning and training effort. Getting people in the room for the right content is just the start but not enough to gain the outcomes you require. The session demonstrated, with evidence, that by giving peopl the right prompts and place to express themselves then they will readily create the connections to help them become more successful.

Alongside that, as bonus, a list of 15 Opportunities that will have a huge impact on your business. This was a mini-insight into what you can achieve if you use the right approach which is focused but natural, time-friendly and incrediby engaging. Colleague all have a voice, they do sit in one silo and everything is indeed connected together.

Let’s have the conversation ..

WATCH IT!

The ‘webinar’ word doesn’t really describe what it is we do with our time in sessions. We love a conversation where everyone has the chance to contribute.

Participants are provided with the means to make connections thus drawing attention to the conversation that is going on around.

It’s how we roll!

WHAT NEXT ?

Please do ask us to help you achieve this same impact in your organisation. We can deliver this activity for you and at the same time upskill your team to take over the delivery. You can weave this into your Change and Performance activities which means you’re paying once for resources and deploying them many times across your organisation.

Find out more about our approach for Financial Freedom. You can have a go yourself by printing and writing on the resource within the brochure you can download. The stuff we care about is all over our YouTube channel @YourBigPic. I would love to take you through a taster of BIG PICTURE® in a Webinar you can sign-up for here.

Thanks for reading!