The climb of a financial and political operations consultant : Daryl La Fountain? In the early stages of a company, CEOs get involved in everything. As your growth ramps up, however, you must become strategic with your time. You need to put systems in place for building and scaling a financially viable business while preserving your attention for mission-critical items. As a fractional CFO for growth companies, I help clients navigate this shift on a daily basis, and I’ve found the following tips useful in nearly every situation. Every business leader understands they need a strategy for attracting and converting new leads into customers. But when you’re growing sales on a budget, you need to be creative. Instead of costly ad campaigns or branding strategies, I’d recommend you build strong, reciprocal partnerships first and that you do so as soon as possible. I’m not referring to simple networking. I’m talking about identifying companies with business models that complement your own and approaching them with a win-win proposition. The relationship can be formal or informal, but the key is to offer something valuable in exchange for inexpensive exposure to your target audience.
Daryl LaFountain‘s guides on improving your business financial situation: Keep Good Business Credit. When it comes to organizing your business finances, one of the best ways to do this is to purchase additional insurance policies, commercial real estate properties, and taking out more loans to ensure your company’s financial future. However, in order to accomplish all of these things, it’s important to have good business credit from start to finish. Typically, when you have poor credit, getting approved for all these acquisitions and applications may be difficult. Hence, if you want to keep your business finances organized, be sure to have a good credit score. If you have no credit or bad credit, you may apply for a credit builder loan from reputable providers to help you establish your credit history.
You’ll also want to protect your money from taxes—which is easy to do with a retirement account—and inflation, which you can do by making sure that all of your money is earning interest. There are a variety of vehicles in which you can invest your savings, such as high-interest savings accounts, money market funds, CDs, stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. The first three are relatively risk free, while the remaining three carry greater possibilities for financial setbacks, but also greater possibilities for monetary rewards. Learning about investing is an important skill for building up your savings and, eventually, building wealth. Remember, you don’t need any fancy degrees or special background to become an expert at managing your finances. If you use these eight financial rules and financial tips for your life, you can be as personally prosperous as someone with a hard-won MBA in finance.
If you are married or have a significant other, then you need to participate in your finances as a team. Discuss your budget and money goals and make financial decisions together. Understand where your money is going and how much money you have in savings and in investments. Having joint accounts is great, but I also believe in having your own personal savings accounts. As women, it’s important for us to build our own sense of security and have “our own” that we bring to the table. But don’t feel like you need to keep your personal accounts secret. Remember, marriage and committed relationships thrive on openness and honesty. Regardless of whether you team up with your partner or go it alone, the path to financial independence is not always a smooth, perfectly paved one. But don’t despair; it’s time to roll our sleeves up and get our hands dirty. That’s right—it’s time to learn how to create a solid financial plan.
About Daryl La Fountain: Daryl is an energetic professional CFO with a background in politics. Daryl has done fundraising, been a candidate, and worked in politically appointed positions in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. Daryl has worked for Democratic candidates and nominees in 18 additional states. Reach out to Daryl about Political work if you: Are running for local office and are having trouble with ballot access.