When a private equity firm needed an interim CFO for a rapidly growing commercial construction company, they turned to CSuite. With extensive experience in private equity, CSuite’s CFO Partner quickly established strong relationships with both the company’s management and its private equity sponsor. His leadership helped transform the company’s financial structure, positioning it for long-term success.
Challenges
Upon stepping into the role our Partner identified several pressing challenges that required immediate attention to prevent stagnation and ensure continued growth:
- The company’s credit line was outdated and overly restrictive, no longer accommodating its current growth rate.
- Reporting and infrastructure were insufficient for management to make informed decisions.
- Weak treasury management created cash flow issues, jeopardizing financial stability.
- Poor event anticipation and result projections caused significant operational inefficiencies.
- The company was considering future financial and strategic transactions but lacked the necessary structure to support them.
Solutions
Leveraging a background in Fortune 500 companies and private equity, our Partner quickly implemented strategies to resolve these challenges and drive the company forward. His solutions included:
- Refinanced the business and secured a more flexible credit line to avoid a potential cash crisis.
- Developed the company’s first comprehensive annual operating and capital plan.
- Restructured the reporting and chart of accounts to enable better analysis of business drivers.
- Enhanced the company’s 13-week cash flow projections, aligning them with billing, expenses, and staffing.
- Accelerated approximately $3MM in revenue and $1MM in EBITDA recognition by implementing real-time activity reporting.
- Developed a new management incentive program that tied personal, team, and company performance objectives together.
- Recruited a highly qualified controller to elevate the company’s accounting and reporting systems, preparing for future growth.
Outcome
CSuite’s strategic leadership transformed the company’s financial practices and prepared it for the next phase of growth. By addressing outdated accounting methods, we helped the company realize profits where there were none before. Our ability to implement best practices from Fortune 500 companies and educate the founding shareholders allowed the business to capitalize on its tribal knowledge and set the stage for success in the competitive construction industry.