In order to successfully grow an organization, today’s entrepreneurs and company founders must implement measures that allow them to strategically overcome obstacles, adapt to a quick-changing market and make informed decisions about how to bring their innovative ideas to fruition.
Oftentimes, it can be beneficial to turn to outside expertise in order to ensure that any decision you make will bolster the growth of your organization instead of putting you further away from reaching your goals.
As experts in helping businesses develop and integrate sustainable and scalable growth strategies, we’ve outlined everything you need to know about emerging growth consultants.
Things to know about Emerging Growth consultants:
- What is an Emerging Growth business?
- What does an Emerging Growth consultant do?
- What are the benefits of hiring an Emerging Growth consultant?
- When should you hire an Emerging Growth consultant?
What is an Emerging Growth business?
The Securities and Exchange Commission defines an emerging growth business as an organization with less than $1.07 billion in revenue. However, the term is commonly used to describe a company that is still in the early stages of development but has a high potential for growth.
These types of businesses often have less stringent reporting requirements and exemptions from certain laws and regulations, allowing them to focus their time and efforts on measures that lead directly to the expansion of their organization.
Common activities of Emerging Growth businesses:
- Successfully getting the business up and running and setting a strong foundation for growth by integrating measures for accounting, financial statements, cap table management, payroll and working capital management.
- Strategizing the best path forward by developing roadmaps and integrating measures that make processes more efficient, such as implementing business modeling and forecasting, management reporting, board and investor reporting, employee benefits and developing bank relationships.
- Accelerating and scaling the organization through business transactions while overcoming obstacles, preparing for the future and driving innovation, such as setting up fundraising rounds, identifying financial sourcing solutions, continuing to optimize business processes, managing balance sheets, conducting acquisition due diligence or preparing for an IPO.
What does an Emerging Growth consultant do?
Emerging growth consultants are there to help organizations understand what they need to do to grow their business from point A to point B – and thus, the exact ways in which they will step in to provide support can vary quite greatly depending on your industry, business model and unique company needs.
Essentially, they are there to act as an extension of your team by assessing your current business state to identify goals, needs and areas of improvement before establishing a plan of action to execute on key initiatives that drive growth.
Skills and duties of Emerging Growth consultants:
- Financial Reporting: Developing financial reports, such as balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements.
- Budgeting & Forecasting: Creating budgets, providing financial forecasts and reworking processes as needed to form the backbone of a healthy finance function.
- Transactions & Operations Support: Ensuring the accuracy and availability of financial transactions, including accounts payable, receivable and general ledger maintenance.
- Payroll Processing: Managing the payroll process by calculating and paying employee salaries, benefits and taxes.
- Financial Analysis: Providing in-depth financial analysis to drive informed business decisions for new projects or investments.
- Treasury and Working Capital: Managing cash flow, including bank account management, setting up wire transfers and monitoring cash balances to prepare funding rounds from planning to execution.
- Diligence & Audit Support: Providing guidance during due diligence reviews and audits, including preparing financial statements and other documents, answering questions and ensuring compliance with relevant accounting standards and best practices.
What are the benefits of hiring an Emerging Growth consultant?
- More time for business leaders to focus on strategy and goal development.
- A healthy, sustainable finance function that provides accurate and timely information to inform business decisions and strategies.
- More efficient processes and systems that fit individual business needs and growth goals, leading to a reduction in overhead spend and saved time.
- Less potential for risk as the business is analyzed for vulnerabilities and areas of improvement and a corrective course of action is established.
- Access to unparalleled industry expertise and a team of experts ready to step in and provide strategic decision-making support where it’s most needed.
- Ensured compliance with laws, regulations and best practices.
When should you hire an Emerging Growth consultant?
There are many challenges that come alongside successfully growing your business: navigating leadership responsibilities, raising capital, managing inventory, and ensuring your employees have what they need to succeed, to name but a few.
In order to make strategic decisions about which measures you need to integrate to bolster company growth, foster efficiency and foresee potential issues before they arise, it’s best to leave it up to the experts by hiring a skilled emerging growth consultant.
Five signs it’s time to hire an emerging growth consultant:
- You’re experiencing resource shortages or having difficulty navigating a competitive market.
- It’s confusing or too time-consuming to manage stakeholder relationships and requests
- You don’t have a clear overview of business risks or the measures you need to take to mitigate them.
- You’re having trouble ensuring compliance with complex financial and accounting regulations, standards or best practices.
- You aren’t sure which technology solutions or services are the best fit for your unique company needs.
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