Burkland’s Chief Financial Officers are the face of the company with clients. In your role as a Consulting CFO, you may be the sole finance member or you may lead a team of internal and external finance professionals, depending on the stage of the company.
Burkland Consulting CFO
Mission: Working largely independently, apply knowledge, experience, insight, and competence to partner with clients on forward-looking finance. Become a trusted ally to CEOs and management teams through efficient, intelligent and accurate work, and the effective communication thereof. Be a finance thought leader to clients internally and externally, and help them see around corners as they build their businesses.
Outcomes:
- Develop financial models which are understandable, insightful and adaptable
- Prepare and present the finance section of client Board meetings. For some clients fallback is to attend Board meetings and answer finance-related questions.
- Be an integral part of client fundraising processes – help size round, model cap table scenarios/dilution, assist with pitch deck preparation, make investor introductions, participate in investor pitches
- Have happy clients as demonstrated by periodic CEO feedback and no NPS detractor scores
- Identify cross-sell opportunities for Burkland bookkeeping and tax services, then make introductions
- Overhead tasks (Replicon timesheets, invoice approvals, client reporting updates) done on time, accurately, without reminding
- Identify 1 potential Burkland CFO/quarter, one of whom is hired/yr
- Lead or organize 1 CFO knowledge share presentation per year
- Author at least 1 content piece per year
Role Competencies:
- Efficiency – Both clients and Burkland wonders how you accomplish so much so quickly
- Honesty/integrity – Be impeccable with your word and client numbers. Push back then escalate if needed at fudging of numbers. The finance buck stops with us.
- Organization and planning – Prioritize, plan, stay on track. See efficiency above.
- Aggressiveness – Don’t be afraid to push, respectfully.
- Follow-through on commitments – If you commit to a deadline, meet it (or beat it) without needing to be reminded.
- Intelligence – Be viewed as a finance thought leader with your clients and the Burkland finance team.
- Analytical skills – Be an Excel/Google Sheet guru. Learn new tools (rev rec, visualization, data analytics).
- Attention to detail – Accuracy in our work is key. Check, recheck numbers to have confidence in reports and presentations.
- Persistence – We are not always top of mind with clients. Hear “no” as “not now” and push on.
- Proactivity – Take the initiative. Your client will appreciate you for it. Push to calendar meetings/check-ins.
- Listening skills – Listen 80%/talk 20%. Ask questions. Your clients will tell you what’s on their mind. Then act.
- Core values – Demonstrate Burkland core values of Empathy, Fresh Perspectives, Exponential Value, Trusted Partner (to clients and peers)