What's the best way to find a finance director?

[fiddlefaff]

For a social enterprise. It's all getting to much for me and my current business partner with our start-up, we want to find someone else to share the load and a finance role is key. We're not yet a company but wheels are in motion. We have lots of support but have exhausted our current networks in looking with no luck, what do we do? Advertise? Any tips/advice if we do?

Hi fiddlefaff,

May I suggest using Upwork to advertise for some finance assistance. I came across this site just a few weeks ago and it has some great people available. It's an online community of freelaners offering various areas of expertise. You can search and contact individuals with your requirements. Work is done virtually though which may not be what you need.

I now offer my finance and admin services through them and have been impressed with some of the opportunities available to me, so this could be a good place to look for someone.

If you are immediately stuck I may be able to offer some assistance :-) but I'm not a Finance Director - I'm more a book-keeper / Finance Manager level (as I'm only a part qualified Accountant, but qualified by experience).

Good girls guide

Have you spoken to your accountant? They would be able to offer practical advice on recruiting. If you don't have your own accountant yet, look into getting one rather than an FD at this stage.

Very strange to need a finance director in what sounds to be quite a small start up. What exactly are your issues? Is it a lack of time to do the book-keeping, paying the bills, chasing income, etc - if so, you need a part time book-keeper or administrator. If it's the fundamental issues, such as raising finance, negotiating contracts, etc., then you could do that yourself with help/guidance from your external accountants (those who do your year end accounts etc). Very easy to confuse those roles and end up with someone far too qualified/experienced to cope with the higher level stuff ending up doing the book-keeping drudgery, or getting a lower skilled book-keeper and expecting them to do higher level stuff they're not trained/experienced enough to do.

What budget have you set aside to pay this finance director? Is it a part time or full time post?

I think you need to be absolutely crystal clear on why you need such a person, what work they'll be doing, what qualifications/experience you need, etc. I've seen far too many times that insufficient thought goes into a company's accounting/finance staff with sometimes quite horrendous consequences.

Do you just need ad hoc finance assistance? PM Me if you want