Date: March 9, 2021
Overview
New Jersey-based Alden Consulting Group, Inc is a professional service firm that helps financial advisors, lawyers, and accountants to increase their revenue and grow their firms. The CEO, charismatic founder, and owner of Alden Consulting Group was struggling to find a trusted advisor to handle the financial aspects of her business so that she could focus on doing what she loved to do – running her business. As many entrepreneurs do, she felt overwhelmed and frustrated trying to handle the finances and operations on her own. She wanted to follow her entrepreneurial passion and grow her business and knew that her success hinged on getting her finances in order and aligned with her business goals. She knew she needed a partner she could trust who could take over this aspect of the business, freeing her time up to create, innovate, and orchestrate.
Challenge
As a business owner, you’re pulled in many directions. Too often, part of the business goes ignored, while the owner’s focus is pulled to other areas of the business. For many, this can be both overwhelming and frustrating. A misalignment between the company finances and its operations generally results in cash flow crunches and unintended financial consequences.
That’s exactly what Alden Consulting Group was experiencing. She was passionate about growing her business but didn’t have the knowledge, time, or energy to devote the needed attention to the organization’s finances. As a result, her firm was wasting thousands of dollars on subscriptions they were not using, overpaying workman’s comp insurance and self-employment taxes, and consistently running into financial speed bumps. Even the idea of handling the finances and properly tracking everything was overwhelming for her.
The owner didn’t enjoy spending time on the financial aspects of her business but knew continuing, in the same manner, would only result in limiting long-term growth. That is when she contacted CP&A for professional guidance and support.
Taking Action
CP&A performed an initial business assessment and developed a road map to success, complete with the specific action steps needed to bridge the gap between the owner’s current frustrations and future objectives. We then set up the entire financial department, streamlining the invoicing and bill payment processes, monthly accounting, strategizing, and business management. We implemented a profit-first methodology to eliminate all debt and developed a plan to maximize tax savings. Within weeks, we started delivering weekly CFO reports on the business’s financial health and opportunities for improvement and served as a strategic partner to offer guidance and support.
Results
With CP&A’s help, Alden Consulting Group grew cash reserves from zero to 12+ months of operational liquidity. Today, CP&A acts as an outsourced VP of Operations and CFO, managing and maintaining internal processes and systems to ensure that operations are profitable and that existing infrastructure is stable and scalable. We have successfully implemented a comprehensive financial strategy, restructuring the business, performing monthly accounting, and regularly reviewing the financial statements.
As a result of CP&A taking on this larger role, the owner no longer feels overwhelmed. In fact, she’s now empowered to make smarter business decisions while following her entrepreneurial passion. Ultimately, her business is operating more effectively and efficiently than ever before, providing the owner with the time she needs to continue to scale her business, develop new products, and serve her existing and future clients. Since engaging CP&A, she is now positioned to succeed without having to worry about her finances, the biggest source of any entrepreneur’s worries.
CP&A has played a crucial role in ensuring our business is heading in the right direction. With their support and guidance, I’m not able to not only set more realistic and attainable business goals, but I have the resources to achieve them. I know the CP&A team is always looking out for my business. I can’t even imagine running my business without Vanessa and her team’s expertise now.
–– The CEO of Alden Consulting Group, Inc.