What if

One of the main ways the finance function makes your company better? Systematisation. Especially as you grow.

If we know how much revenue one salesperson brings in, we know what we can expect if we hire 10 more of them. If we know that our entry level roles pay £25K per year, and we need to hire 15 entry-level people, we know the total annual budget for entry-level hires.

This systematisation is the cornerstone of forecasting, predictable growth, and your sanity as a founder – while you may be able to do the maths on each of these questions individually early on, once you’re hiring 1,000 entry-level roles, trying to figure out every single one of these salaries individually would probably leave little time to anything else.

Yet, our brains seem to resist systematisation. A lot of the time, when I suggest creating some structure to address the problem at hand, a client immediately goes to the unlikeliest example of something that won’t be quite addressed by the new framework.

I get it. I do this when I think of exercise. Committing three times a week? Sure, sounds great, but what if I am really ill, or my house is on fire?

The answer to this is simple. If the framework fits 95% of the cases, it’s good enough – let’s worry about the 5% when they happen and make reasonable exceptions if needed.

No Jana, of course you don’t have to go to the gym if your house is on fire. Until then, three times per week, shall we?

Love and cash flow,

Jana