Case Study:
Cloud CFO

CloudCFO is like a virtual Finance Director for your business. A co-pilot that’s sitting alongside you on your journey, giving you real-time insights, guidance and support you need to get to your destination more quickly and smoothly.

They’re on a mission to make their clients’ business and their life more awesome.

The Challenge

The main obstacle facing Cloud CFOs founder, Rich Sykes was how to utilise the existing the cash investment at a time when the business wasn’t making any money in its early days. The temptation was to hold onto the cash, rather than investing it to help support the planned growth.

In addition to wondering how to best use the investment funds, Rich had some ambitious growth plans for the business, as well as a life changing personal objective that he was aiming for but without a clear vision as to how to achieve these goals.

The Approach

We started a monthly coaching programme early in 2020, just as the UK headed into the first Covid lockdown period….hardly the best time to be thinking about business growth.

The initial session focused on the goals and ambitions both for the business and also personally for Rich, agreeing where he wanted to be, and by when, and then we started planning key milestones to achieve and the specific actions that could be taken to move the business step by step towards the longer term goals.

In each subsequent session we reviewed progress against the plan, held Rich accountable for completing the actions that he’d agreed to, provided advice and guidance on how to address specific issues as they arose and facilitated an effective decision-making process.

Pre-work completed prior to each coaching session forced the founder to write down his thoughts in a coherent way so that we could discuss issues in a structured way, resulting in decisions and agreed actions that that the founder readily admits would otherwise have been kicked down the road and ignored.

The Results

Rich now has clarity on his business and personal objectives and has created a business that’s enjoyable to work on, and in. As a result, the business is well ahead of the forecast income and profit projections for the year, is generating significantly more cash and has a far greater capital value.

On a personal level, the Rich now has the freedom to be able to work remotely, from anywhere around the world, secure in the knowledge that his team can continue the day to operations with minimal supervision.

Stress levels have been dramatically reduced as Rich feels comfortable that decisions that have been made over the past 12 months have been well thought through and made with the best information available at the time.

The Client’s View

“We made a huge early break through when Phil helped me work out how to retain a large referral fee for a previous client. That advice alone generated more revenue for me than the entire year’s coaching fees”

“Every business owner should work with someone external to the business, meeting regularly to discuss the business performance and prospects. Doing so unlocks the potential within the business that you as the owner don’t always see”.

“Phil’s help and support has been hugely helpful thus far. Onwards and upwards”

Rich Sykes Founder, Cloud CFO