4 minute read: Want to be a better small business finance manager / financial controller? Then I recommend you work on these 6 skills:
Before we launch into the detail just a word on technical skills. I not going to list the nitty-gritty of technical finance skills like ensuring profitability and cashflow in this blog because I trust that you've got that covered with the courses and certifications available in your local area. The tips and advice I write about relate to practical skills, everyday tasks and challenges that you will encounter as you work in and build your own small business finance function.
Also, a word on the order of these skills. They don’t fit neatly into a particular priority or stage in your career because the truth is you can start learning these long before you start your role as a finance manager, and you should always continue to improve on each of them.
It’s a lifelong learning process and I’m still try to improve on each one every day.
If you are a first time finance manager in a small business you are not going to be a small, specific cog in a huge corporate organisation. You are going to be involved in multiple aspects of the business and have a voice that genuinely contributes to decision making. It's one of the aspects that people love about working in them. If you read job specifications for small business managers you will often see phrases like 'fast paced', 'ability to get things done' and 'growing entrepreneurial company'. That's essentially code for "a lot of people are going to be asking you for things all at the same time!"
Being able to manage your time correctly is a real life skill that will help you navigate the speed and pace of a small business. The better you are at prioritising tasks, focusing on important activities and allocating appropriate time to each of them, the more likely you will be to get the right things done, on time, for the right people.
The good news is that there are loads of techniques, tools and work practices that help you with your time management. Not all methods work for everybody so find out about the different types and find the ones that work for you. Ultimately this will lead to less stress, improved decision making and help you stay organised and in control of your workload.
This is a sub-set of time management but one that is so important I think it deserves its own call out.
As mentioned earlier 'a lot of people are going to be asking you for things all at the same time!' For most small business the main point of communication will be in electronic form, usually email (but can be similar instant messaging channels). The challenge with email is that it's a constant stream of uncontrollable, inbound requests that if not handled correctly will dominate your working day and destroy your productivity.
Such days a going to happen - the key is reduce the activities that encourage those types of days. I personally find that when the email inbox gets out of control then feelings of anxiety and stress elevate and that impacts my ability to execute on the rest of my work.
Learn the best work practices for managing email or similar communications.
"Dealing with people is probably the biggest problem you face, especially if you are in business...even in such technical lines as engineering … about 15 percent of one's financial success is due to one's technical knowledge and about 85 percent is due to skill in human engineering – to personality and the ability to lead people."
Dale Carnegie
There is huge excitement about AI and technology in the workplace and rightly so, it's fantastic at improving productivity and augmenting existing skillsets. But I like the quote above from Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People because it was written in 1937 but still as relevant today as it was then. To be a real business partner and deliver real value a finance manager needs to work effectively with people.
In my experience, lots of finance managers tend to be naturally weaker in this area. That's because their dominant personality trait tends to be more introverted and less empathetic. Take the time to get to know your colleagues or team members on a personal level. Build strong relationships that foster trust and understanding, and place you in a position of trust within the business.
You need to understand how to collaborate and communicate with your colleagues, how to listen and how to get your point across when you need to. You need to understand your own personality along with your colleagues so that you can best resolve conflict, help them see your side, and manage expectations.
Don't be seen as the person who brings the drama! Be seen as the person who can help find the best solution for the business.
As a small business finance manager, you are going to be working across the company, with every department and will likely start building a wide knowledge of what is going on. As part of your role, you will start accumulating contracts, reports, product information, system knowledge, and an understanding of processes.
In no time at all people are going to be coming to you to understand these processes, to find out 'how did we do that', to find out 'how do I do this' and 'can we get more information on that'.
You can see how being able correctly document, locate and surface the right version of data and information at the right time will ensure you can do this in the most efficient way possible.
A first time finance manager needs to get to grips with the right way to store information and the best way to document and standardise processes.
The ability to embrace and get the best from the right technology will also lead to big gains. My advice to you on this is not to become the focal point where everything and everyone must flow through but to build these knowledge centres in a way that helps your colleagues 'self-serve' to get their own information.
In my opinion, small business owners aren't looking for their in-house accountant or financial controller to simply collate and report on numbers. They are looking for a business partner - someone who can understand the challenges in the wider context of the business and offer solutions to problems. Understanding your businesses data and what the numbers are telling the business is a crucial practical skill. Financial performance is the result of the amalgamation of this data and that's why the rest of the business will often go to you first for answers.
Being able to correctly present that data, in order to get your point across is also an important element of this skill. As mentioned above, not everyone in the business will be as comfortable with loads of numbers - you need to learn how to tell the story using the right chart, wording or report to match your audience.
Beware of the dangers of incorrect data. When I started out in training, I was always amazed at the speed at which my managers could review and pinpoint issues. I would spend hours preparing a 'wall of numbers' and my bosses where able to locate figures within that block that were an issue. That comes from experience, but that comes from really understanding the business and when something just 'doesn't look right'.
OK, so according to the internet curiosity is 'a basis element of our cognition .. the desire to know about something'. But in the context of this blog, it's a skill set that can be improved!
Some people are naturally more curious then others and if you are then that's great. But if you are not, you should spend those down moments exploring, investigating and learning something new about the company, systems, and processes that you work with.
It's easy to get caught in a rhythm of blindly following what someone told you to do, or what was previously done before. I encourage you to find out what that button does, why that product sells less, or why that sales person sells more than the others.
Be open to new ways of doing things and constantly look to make improvements.