Corporate Financial Consulting
Corporate financial planning is the process of developing short and long term financial goals for your business.
Public companies do corporate financial planning regularly out of necessity. Established private companies almost NEVER do corporate financial planning. The direct and indirect problems and inefficiencies a lack of corporate financial planning creates within a company can be numerous. They include:
-
Lack of direction and focus from the bottom up -
Fatigue or lack of energy
-
Lack of accomplishment and metrics for management
and employees
-
Poor buy-in from employees
-
Spending too many resources on low value enhancing ideas
-
Incorrectly pricing your products or services
-
Missed growth or value creating opportunities
-
Lazy strategic thinking
-
NEVER REACHING OR EXCEEDING YOUR POTENTIAL
Corporate Financial Planning never seems to get done for two primary reasons:
-
1) Private companies are not required to do it. Think how much is spent on annual audits and reviews and compare that to how much is spent on proactive planning?
-
2) Corporate financial planning is seen as a cumbersome, labor intensive exercise, like budgeting, that is not going to produce any insight, change in direction, or results.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Companies that practice dynamic corporate financial planning get more focused, make better decisions, and gain the confidence and peace of mind to know they are on a path that creates the results they want. Most importantly, Dynamic Financial Planning also gives companies a financial baseline to make good decisions and find ways to exceed their current expectations.
To help companies implement this valuable management tool, Lantern Capital Advisors has developed a rapid two step financial planning process we call Dynamic Financial Planning. Unlike bottoms up budgeting or other tedious exercises, our dynamic financial planning approach is a fast and detailed approach to documenting and quantifying your company’s current growth plan, then working to make sure your plan meets your future financial goals or objectives (such as future company valuation). It’s a detailed financial plan that is both energizing and based on reality (that is-what you have done in the past and what you are committed to in the future). Equally important, as real life impacts your business, this plan can be adjusted to reflect changes, making your planning more accurate as time passes.
Once a financial plan for your current business is created, the second step is to have some fun and play ‘what-if.’ For example, many entrepreneurial companies are under capitalized, and that lack of funding can constrain a business from reaching its full potential. By having the discipline to first understand your current path and anticipated valuation, you now have a framework to make informed decisions about new growth or acquisition strategies, raising capital to accelerate growth, or buying out partners or co-owners.
