It’s fairly apparent to most business owners that we are no longer in an economy where we can fly by the seat of our pants. The days of coasting are over (but really, never should have begun in the first place). There is simply too much volatility in the economy today, forcing business owners to take a new approach. Yet, financial uncertainty and doubt plague many of them.

We talked last month about the traditional functions of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO); namely, tracking revenue, profit, and cash flow, analyzing financial strengths and weaknesses, and proposing corrective actions. These functions allow the CEO to better understand how to increase revenue, decrease costs, and become more profitable overall.

We talked last month about the traditional functions of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO); namely, tracking revenue, profit, and cash flow, analyzing financial strengths and weaknesses, and proposing corrective actions. These functions allow the CEO to better understand how to increase revenue, decrease costs, and become more profitable overall.

Many people have a fairly good understanding of the traditional functions of a CFO. And those valuable functions remain the same whether we’re talking about the CFO of a Fortune 500 company or the CFO of a small business. Essentially, CFOs (1) track revenue, profit, and cash flow, (2) analyze financial strengths and weaknesses, and (3) propose corrective actions.