CFO in a week?
May 10, 2018 9:17 AM   Subscribe

Recommend me some training options for a small biz CEO to develop a high level of understanding of managing the finance side of her business. Are there 2-3 day seminars for this? Several-month trainings that only require online attendance? If I could wave a wand for the optimal solution, I'd get her in to a mixed online/in-person workshop with 6-10 other young professionals like her. If physical presence is necessary, Seattle for the win, or maybe SFO, but open to any for the perfect fit.

She is young and smart and driven and the owner of a small 3-year-old US marketing company with five employees and 20 consultants who live all over the country. She wants CFO training. She enjoys that side of the business and wants a deeper understanding of it. Google Fu nets all sorts of options for this kind of training, and nothing looks exactly right.

Naturally she's tapped time-wise, and location is a challenge. If it requires physical attendance, it needs to be crammed into a few days where she'd be based in a hotel. This would be ok, but I think she'd get more from something that spanned a longer time and gave her the opportunity to engage, ask questions and participate in conversations with others like her. Nothing that's 100% DIY. Open to hearing about great options, but I imagine something like a 3-month certificate course where she's required to engage in videoconference one night a week and be present once a month, with a bit of homework along the way. Maybe a few podcasts mixed in for required listening.

Looking at a fall start. Seattle could be an option for a long weekend, or for a couple of days a month. She also visits SFO about once a quarter and could potentially plan meetings around a workshop of some kind. A single trip to any other city is not out of the question, but the program would really have to be worth it. Cool added bonus if it involved the opportunity to network with other young professional women.
posted by AnOrigamiLife to Work & Money (5 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: (It might be helpful to add that she has under contract both a bookkeeper and another company that helps with S-corp compliance and various other federal and state filings, and she's not looking to take over these tasks or bring them in house; she just wants a much greater understanding of CFO World).
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 9:32 AM on May 10, 2018


Best answer: Accounting oversight is a large part of the function of a CFO. A basic accountancy course might make this more accessible for her, as most CFO training courses are aimed at senior finance professionals. This online Financial Decision Making course might be a good place to start.

Accounting, however, is a means to an end: in addition to overseeing the books, as a CFO she needs to be able to share that information with decision-makers (if there are any other than herself) as well as make calls on pricing and lifetime value of customers.

She might do well to establish a mentor in the field, check out MicroMentor (it's free)
posted by ananci at 1:20 PM on May 10, 2018


Best answer: Another resource is SCORE, which is also free. Armed with specific questions I imagine she could make a lot of headway.
posted by 6thsense at 2:23 PM on May 10, 2018


Best answer: Sounds like a mini-MBA is what she's looking for. I know someone who did the BU mini-MBA for in-house counsel (they also offer one for tech folks) and found it very helpful.
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 3:44 PM on May 10, 2018


Response by poster: Really great so far, thanks. I imagine this is so far down the green that I'll get no more responses, but I do welcome them. Thought I'd add for anyone else seeking same that I found this course at UW Foster School of Business called Finance and Accounting for Non-financial Executives. Three days in Seattle next December: $3,300. Pretty steep but the content seems on point.
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 9:05 AM on May 11, 2018


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