CFO2Go Blog

With all the “down economy” financial advising our principals have been doing lately, we decided to pull together a Top 10 list of things your company should be doing to weather the storm:

CFO Tip #10 – Keep Talking
The truly amazing thing about business is the people you meet and how these connections come around to benefit everyone.  Don’t hole up in your office, NOW is the time to be out networking.  Meet people in your area, make friends, lend a hand to someone…be a good member of your business community.  As Richard Branson put it [I’m paraphrasing here] “Business opportunities are a dime-a-dozen, you need to be smart enough to filter out the bad ones, but there are enough good ones to keep us all busy.”  Go meet people.  Talk about your business.  Talk about your successes and especially your challenges.  You never know when you’re talking to someone with the power to help you or the idea that will completely change your business for the better.  But DON’T fall into the deadly pitfall of networking just for your own personal benefit, people can smell this from a mile away and nobody will want to lend you a hand.  Be a good member of your networks, be interested in other people’s businesses, ask questions, offer free advice, meet people for coffee…the more people enjoy your company and respect your expertise, the better the chances that they’ll offer up their help if you need it.

CFO Tip #9 – Renegotiate Your Contracts
Many larger, well established companies will have no problem re-negotiating your contract from a short-term to a long-term, especially if they’re really enjoying your product/service.  We had a client who offered a service to a major company in the Seattle area.  They re-negotiated a 1-year contract to a 3-year contract AND worked in a 15% price increase.  Even if you don’t get the price increase, a 3-year contract ensures long-term revenues and may just be enough to ensure your company’s survival.  Be creative and don’t be afraid to ASK.  The answer is always “No” until you ask.

Keep checking back for #8 & #7 next week!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 7:18 pm and is filed under CFO Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.