In recognition of Women's History Month this March 2023, we had the pleasure of honoring women-owned businesses throughout the month during our Tuesday morning CFO Coffee Talks.

Each entrepreneur is an inspiration - sharing their success story and guidance as a speaker during our weekly LinkedIn Live show. If you missed a CFO Coffee Talk this March, you can catch up by clicking the links below. Here's the lineup of the female powerhouses we had the honor of speaking with:

Cathy Miron, President and CEO, eSilo

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Cathy Miron

• With their end-to-end view of how processes, data, and risk flows through an organization, Finance and IT is a powerful partnership.
• Cybersecurity is one of the only areas in business where redundancy is not a cost-cutting opportunity. Having layers of multiple controls protect you from being compromised.
• Go easy on yourself! Work-life balance is not a state of equilibrium but more of a work-life flow.

Maryann Kilgallon, Founder and CEO, POMM®

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Maryann Kilgallon

• Be selective and build a great team around you who have expertise, passion, and high integrity.
• Collaborating with the Florida CFO Group helped take us to the next level and the partnership has been critical in our journey.
• Follow your dreams and surround yourself with other dreamers! The first step is always the hardest but push through and go for it!

Randi Karpinia, Founder and CEO, Sagacity Legal, PLLC

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Randi Karpinia

• Build your own dreams instead of someone else's. You will be grateful you did.
• The most important competitive edge is YOU. Protect your distinct uniqueness.
• Fail forward to find success. Move beyond your setbacks and transform your failures into lessons learned.

Tonya Turrell, CEO and Chief Inspiration Officer, The Launchpad

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Tonya Turrell

• The world is hungry for a new model of leadership with a more empathic style. Building up people, your most valuable resource, is instrumental to success.

• Having a partner like the Florida CFO Group helped us navigate challenges and improved the health of our organization.

• The idea of life-work balance is a myth. Let go of this concept and instead look for harmony and reevaluate often.

Interested in being a guest speaker for one of our CFO Coffee Talks? They're only 15 min long and are held every Tuesday morning at 8:15 AM EST. Email Phil Nahajewski for more information.

We're adding even more variety and skill to our roster of Florida CFO Partners.

As we continue to expand our experts across the state of Florida, we organically broaden our knowledge base, being able to better serve a diverse range of clients and industries.

This is our Secret Sauce. Our partners have access to each other, which opens up the doors to a plethora of experiences, backgrounds, environments, specialties, and overall knowledge of financial strategies. The group works as a team with the ability to advise clients from all different perspectives - some that are critical depending on needs, and some perspectives that serve as a second round of assurance.

For these reasons, we are excited to welcome three more leaders to the Florida CFO Group:

Marylean Abney joins us from South Florida. She spent over three decades with Caterpillar Inc. where she drove a $3 billion improvement in economic profit thanks to her expertise in categorizing product offerings into four profit/loss quadrants, better allocating resources, and establishing clear metrics of success. She is decisive and efficient and focuses on results. Marylean's vast experience ranges from billion-dollar public companies to small and medium-sized businesses. Her knowledge of ERP systems, supply chain management, cost reduction strategies, and cashflow improvement strategies serves as a major asset to clients and to the group overall.

Tommy Sudderth joins us from Tampa Bay. He has over two decades of experience serving in the roles of CFO and COO. Tommy has managed financial growth from $45 million to over $100 million in a 5-year span. His negotiation skills, thorough due diligence processes, and knowledge of ERP system integration make him a valuable asset to clients and the group. Tommy's ability to lead companies from the financial and operational sectors has led to the building of well-rounded business platforms that add significantly to the bottom line.

Tim Fischer joins us from the Sarasota area. He has over three decades of experience leading profitable start-ups and operational turnarounds. Tim's expertise in raising capital, cost reduction strategies, negotiation, and leading financial policy and procedure makes him a critical player to clients and the group. His experience includes raising $5 million in new capital to help fund acquisitions, reducing operating costs by more than $2 million while improving bottom-line results by 25%, and negotiating a majority sale of a small business to private equity.

We are honored to call these three Florida CFO Group Partners. Welcome to the team, Marylean, Tommy, and Tim!

We were honored to celebrate black business owners in recognition of Black History Month this February 2023.

Check out the impressive lineup of guest speakers we had for CFO Coffee Talks below, hosted all month long by our very own CFO Partner, Marylean Abney.

Here are some of the insights shared by these amazingly accomplished business leaders:

Joseph Simmons, Founder and CEO for The Center for Micro-Entrepreneurial Training

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Joseph Simmons

• Part of our DNA is to get businesses off to a strong start on their entrepreneurial journey and to create a better world for aspiring women, black, and brown entrepreneurs.
• My success has been ignited by the people I've worked with including Florida CFO Group's, Phil Nahajewski.
• The essence of CMET is to build solid businesses that can grow and be passed down from one generation to the next.

Regine Bonneau, CTPRP, Founder and CEO for RB Advisory

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Regine Bonneau

• Take your passion and turn it into something that is impactful for yourself and your community. Learn how to pivot when your journey takes you on good and bad curves.

Kim C. Shaw, MAML, Founder and CEO for InspiringYOU!

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Kim Shaw

• Businesses that take care of their employees will continue to thrive. People are your greatest assets, so make sure you continue to cheer them on and they will become your biggest fans.

Roda Ward Carter, MBA, Founder and CEO for Carter-Health Disposables and Pet Nabor

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Roda Ward Carter

• If you aren't uncomfortable, you aren't learning and progressing. Get outside your comfort zone and BELIEVE in YOURSELF!

• Even as a startup, having and understanding your financial numbers is key. Surround yourself with people like the Florida CFO Group that can provide the expertise that you may not have.

• A blend of agility, resourcefulness, and responsiveness is a winning combination.

Sheryl Mays, Chief Experience Officer for Rise and Shine CF

Watch the CFO Coffee Talk with Sheryl Mays

• Help ALL employees understand the impact they have on the bottom line and that everyone at the company is part of something bigger.
• If you don't know what your customers are experiencing, take the customer journey yourself.
• There is one sole purpose in business and that is to create customers that create customers.

Interested in being a guest speaker for one of our CFO Coffee Talks? They're only 15 min long and are held every Tuesday morning at 8:15 AM EST. Email Phil Nahajewski for more information.

Whether you are seeking funds from Venture Capital, Private Equity, Lenders, or the Public Markets, raising capital starts with (1) telling a compelling story about your business and (2) building strong relationships.

1. Start the story by explaining how you fit with industry and market trends. 
2. Describe the key customers or customer groups and how your value proposition satisfies their needs. 
3. Identify why your business will maintain and grow market share over time. 
4. Show how you stack up against your key competitors and their current initiatives.

Competing in segments of the market that are growing faster than the market overall can lend excitement to the story. 

Describe the revenue model in as simple terms as possible. Investors like to hear about volume in units multiplied by price to explain revenue. This applies to both product and service businesses. Then the story can be about how you will sell the number of units over time coupled with pricing plans over the same period.

Recurring revenue is often valued more highly by investors. This can be from subscriptions that extend over time, and from maintenance agreements. These revenues are perceived as stickier, and less likely to be lost to competitive forces. So, break these out in your revenue plan.

Use metrics that are useful in running the business. Focus on Gross Margins, and % Gross Margin, and show how the costs of sales and margins will change over time. Identify your most important vendors in the supply chain to show there are low risks in that part of the business.

Investors will want to understand investments in fixed assets and in research and development. Show how those investments increase capacity to support business growth, and how the launch of new products and services impacts revenue over time. Explain how you will manage those programs to minimize risks.

Show off your executive team and the experience they have in the industry. Identify previous employers, roles, and accomplishments to give confidence to investors in the capability to deliver on your plan. Many investors will only move forward when they are convinced about the team’s capability to manage unexpected events based on their experience.

In developing financial projections, start with audited financial statements. Then, base the forecast on recent actual results. Use cash flow metrics like days receivables outstanding and days payables for forecasts of working capital. Investors want to understand what it takes to get to positive cash flow from operations.

It’s important to pick investors that best fit your business. Pick a financier that has experience in your industry if you can. That way you won’t have to spend as much effort in educating them about your business. 

Also, consider their capacity to provide more financing beyond the initial request. When you are successful in delivering on the plan, you may need additional funding, and working with a current investor can be easier.

It’s important to build relationships with investors. Provide reports on the business on a regular basis, and periodically meet in person and over video. Show the progress against the plan that was originally provided to them. 

Answer questions that the investor provides in a timely basis, and don’t hesitate to pick up the phone to explain something. 

When the unexpected happens, communicate early. It is important that they hear it from you rather than someone else. Trust is earned over time and strong relationships are key.

In summary, raising capital is facilitated by a compelling story. It is essential to build strong relationships with all involved in providing capital to the business.

Get more advice on Raising Capital from Deane Baron.