Your first FD - full time or part time?

Smaller businesses looking to hire their first Finance Director have a number of options to consider, especially when they are likely to have less budget available than larger organisations. We take a look at the benefits of engaging with a senior Finance Director on a part time basis.

Small and medium sized businesses now have the option of engaging a senior finance director on a part time basis which gives all of the value of their experience at a fraction of their full time cost:   

1. A senior part time FD will provide you with the strategic and commercial value and experience to help you to grow, as well as providing robust MI reports through solid finances and systems, while a bookkeeper would support with general accounting activities. In contrast, a less experienced full-time finance director works solely on the finances, systems and reporting. 
2. A highly experienced, senior part time FD can straightaway demonstrate capability beyond the current and likely future requirements of a growing business. This provides prospective longevity of a senior part time FD compared to a full time, less experienced one. 
3. The time requirement from a part time finance director starts at only 3-4 days per month keeping the costs manageable. Their time is expandable, so if the business needs more time as it grows then this is available. 
4. The part time role also enables the leadership team to learn what value an FD brings to the business and shapes the role specifically to the business strategy and stage in the lifecycle. This means that as the business grows and becomes more complex, eventually a full time finance director is the right solution, and the leadership has already developed the knowledge and experience with the part time FD to select the full time replacement as they will know the business, technical requirements, plans and personality fit.