For many, the pandemic brought business impacts we’d rather forget. Lost revenue streams; shrinking teams; postponed projects and product launches and cancelled events, coupled with the reality of illness and loss, left permanent scars. However, as businesses start to reemerge, some more bruised than others, we need to pause and be honest about what we still need to and can fix. The cracks that presented themselves over the last few months point to near and long term areas of profitability improvement. Strong leaders will look across industries to identify strategies that can be applied to their own businesses. Luckily for you, we’ve done that leg work.

It's critical to have a financial lead and infrastructure that supports the size, goals, and challenges your business is facing.  Controller? Bookkeeper? Accounting Manager? Financial Analyst? CFO? What’s the difference? Should you hire internally or outsource externally? Full-time? Part-time?

To answer these questions, and because all organizations have different financial needs, it’s important to understand the differences among roles and match them to the needs of your business, currently, and in the future. Broadly speaking, financial roles can be separated into two simple categories: backward and forward looking.

For every story we hear about firms struggling to stay afloat during recessionary times, there’s a firm that is managing to survive and, in many cases, thrive. What’s their secret?

With most of the world still on lockdown, 2020 events cancelled and business travel at a near standstill, we are nearing unprecedented levels of video chats, webinars and podcasts.

There’s been a lot of debate around what’s differentiating companies that are faring well during the pandemic versus those that are struggling. Obviously products, offerings and the ability to pivot, if needed, play an important role in a company’s success, but commercial activities are critical too. We asked a few industry sales leaders to share what they’re doing to drive their teams’ success right now. Here’s what they’re up to:

A wave of new graduates and those affected by COVID layoffs, combined with companies in hiring freezes or slow playing their hiring cycles, equals a flooded talent market. Great news for companies who are still hiring, right? Maybe not.

While small businesses are especially vulnerable to the financial impact of the coronavirus, organizations of all sizes are trying to stay on top of the changing economic landscape. Whether you’re battling beyond pandemic paralysis, or you’re arming yourself with information “just in case," here are 3 financial tips to help you manage cash flow:

If you’re flummoxed by how to sell or market through COVID-19, you’re not alone. That said, it doesn’t mean we should stop trying to figure it out. As with any major disruption, “business as usual” is likely to result in tone deaf outreach. I find that companies are in 1 of 3 modes right now.

If you’re on the hunt for additional profit, your current product portfolio may hold more treasure than you realize. Whether it’s identifying new buyer segments, increasing margins, identifying areas to leverage technology or identifying products primed for divesting, there may be a number of spots marked with an X on your product map. Here are 4 ways to optimize your current product portfolio:

This month we’re pivoting our focus to help those of you who are suffering from what is clearly “pandemic paralysis.” We are collectively in a time of “business unusual” which is causing a lot of uncertainty and business volatility.

Having helmed businesses that survived the dot com crash of 2001, and the massive economic downturn from 2007 - 2009, here are my three best pieces of advice to help you weather this pandemic storm.