What is a personal brand and why is it so important? 

A personal brand is the perception that others hold of you, due to your behaviours, characteristics and qualities shown in daily interactions. "An overwhelming 85 percent of hiring managers report that a job candidate’s personal brand influences their hiring decisions.”

We share in this article how to build one and promote it to strengthen your career development. 

During our latest Future CFO session, we were lucky enough to interview Matt Hann CFO of Festicket, who has about 15 years' worth of experience in investment and finance roles. Matt has worked with corporates, smaller startups and scaleups, so we took the opportunity to deep dive into his past experiences and the lessons he has learned throughout this unconventional journey. 

Taken from our event ‘Developing a scalable & forward looking finance function’, we share insights from experienced CFO, Jason Kirkbride, on how to choose the right finance system for your startup.

When should you hire a finance person? What type of function or person you should hire? These are just a couple of questions that spring to mind for Founders of early-stage start-ups, so we decided to share a simple checklist that can help provide you with some steer.

In our latest interview with Sabrina Castiglione, Tessian CFO, we get an insight into the growth and evolution of Tessian and her role in the company. Sabrina also shares her views on the importance of values and communication when scaling a company.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Hyperoptic CFO, Peter White, who shared his tips and advice with us, on how to become an impactful finance leader or CFO within a high-growth business. Learn about the challenges and lessons Peter has faced on his own journey to becoming a high-growth CFO.

There are perceived to be differences between a corporate and start-up, in terms of complexity of structure, amount of employees, bureaucracy, hierarchy, and salary + benefits offering. However, the biggest concern we have from founders is that a CFO from a corporate background will not be “hands on” enough and therefore will struggle to adapt to the “start-up” culture.

Therefore, if you are a CFO, desperate to work for a start-up and have no start-up experience, it’s worth considering the following to either reinforce your desire or reconsider your approach.

Guesses are that if you or your business is looking to hire currently you are likely to be doing so in unfamiliar circumstances. In fact, it is highly likely that you will be hiring remotely via Zoom or Teams for at least the next 6months and potentially forever!!

With this in mind, we wanted to highlight some simple tips to consider when remotely assessing someone for your next crucial role.

With the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon announcing Work From Home policies until the end of the year (and possibly beyond 2021), we look at how leaders can ensure teams remain united, productive and motivated when moving remotely.

I think it is safe to say that the vast majority were pleased with the introduction of the Furlough Scheme at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic. With the roll out, ongoing management, and subsequent extension of the scheme having been received positively. There are however many things for employers and employees to consider as this scheme evolves, and when combined with the work from home revolution I believe we could see a fundamental change to the traditional landscape of full-time permanent work.

Across both power houses, New York and London, we were seeing record levels of investment and new tech start-ups were appearing across the board.

Before COVID-19, everyone wanted to work for a start-up, with the offering of a broad role, potentially lucrative equity, a fast-paced environment and a great culture. So will that ever return and should you be put off applying to work for a start-up now, with potentially a large percentage having a short runway?

You are about to start a new CFO assignment and whether this is your first or tenth CFO role you are going to need a plan of attack. This will inevitably mean the requirement of a 30, 60 and 100-day plan and whilst this plan is highly likely to evolve, you still need to have focus on key tasks.

Our recent poll of CEO’s & CFO’s suggests that a lot more companies will utilise flexible working practices beyond COVID-19, and a high percentage will be prioritising their time by taking control of cash flow measures.

If only there was a tick box exercise to inform you as to when to hire a finance leader and at what level of seniority to bring someone into the business. The reality is, each CEO will encounter a situation that is individual to them and many factors need to be considered to ensure the best decision is made.

There are core elements that will come into play and I have highlighted some of these in this article.