The Company
Not Just an FD was founded in early 2017 by Julie Bickerdyke and Debbie Whittaker. Its aim is to provide accountancy and finance director services to SMEs who cannot afford/do not need a full time FD. Both Julie and Debbie are CIMA qualified and have spent their working life in industry Debbie mainly in construction and Julie mainly in engineering.
The Issues
It was a new business with 2 friends working together, Debbie also has another business. They needed to develop a strategy for the business, decide on targets both internal targets and as potential clients.; and settle on what is the culture and what are the values of the business.
Springboard advice given
The Springboard mentoring session took place in Nov 2017 and was with Rachel Hannan a Connect Yorkshire Entrepreneur in Residence.
The overall discussion was around being clear on values and on what “Not Just an FD” could offer. Were they trying to sell a NED service at much less cost; competing with Vistage/ TAB or purely financial strategy advice. So the need was to get the pitch right- offer solutions, not just list what they do, should be the key message. They should include challenges from their previous careers showing the solutions they had achieved.
On pricing it would be better to get in front of the target before mentioning prices
They must step up their activity on social media to increase brand awareness
The Results
The result of the new strategy has been dramatic with new and bigger clients and people approaching us rather than us chasing them. Since our Springboard session our turnover has doubled.
Connect Yorkshire and their Accountancy Partner Garbutt & Elliott have been very helpful in referring clients to us.
We strongly recommend any business wishing to grow to become a member of Connect Yorkshire.
Not Just an FD
July 2018
