Source: Brian Hamilton, co-founder and CEO of Sageworks. We live and we learn. In the time it’s taken me to build two companies, I have learned and more importantly, lived, these mistakes. I hope these pieces of advice can help both aspiring and existing entrepreneurs succeed in starting and running their own businesses. Here are […]
The 7 Biggest Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurial Businesses Make Read More »
Source: Catherine Clifford – Entrepeneur.com The credit crunch for small businesses is expected to ease this year, but entrepreneurs may still need to be creative in their search for financing. “The lending market for small business in 2012 is going to be much better — the best year after the recession,” according to Rohit Arora,
Top Sources of Small Business Financing Read More »
The possibility of an IRS audit worries many taxpayers. But if you know what the targets are, you have a better chance of avoiding an IRS examination. Of course, there’s no way to guarantee that your tax return won’t be examined since the IRS randomly chooses some returns to audit. So you should always keep
Red Flags That Can Trigger an IRS Audit Read More »
Source: Dan Shmalo, 360 Venture Law In the early stages, growth companies often sell shares of stock (or units, or membership interests, or…) too readily. Raising money is probably the most difficult task for an early stage company, and it often leads entrepreneurs to ask “friends and family” for money. But, as they become successful,
Be Careful With Those Shares! Read More »
All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club “Don’t you know that you are a shooting star, And all the world will love you just as long, As long as you are.” – Paul Rodgers, Shooting Star With the IPO market now blown wide-open, and the media completely infatuated with
All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club Read More »
Source: Zach Shulman – Shulman teaches courses on venture capital and law for high-growth businesses. Shulman is also currently a managing partner at Cayuga Venture Fund, a venture capital firm located in Ithaca, New York. “Should founders personally guaranty bank loans?” That is actually a funny question because for early startups, the founders cannot
Should Founders Personally Guarantee Bank Loans? Read More »
The creation of a $1,000,000 regional revolving loan fund to help provide gap financing to small and medium-sized businesses was announced recently by the Centralina Council of Governments (CCOG) and the Centralina Economic Development Commission Board of Directors (CEDC). Earlier in 2011, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded an $800,000 grant to
New Revolving Loan Fund Available for Charlotte Region Read More »
Source: Liz Ann Sonders, SVP, Chief Investment Strategist, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. Key Points The expectations bar has probably been set low enough to be easily hurdled as the big market rally may be indicating. Not only is recession risk fading in the near term, a very positive longer-term story is emerging, even though very
Macro Picture – “A Look at What Could Go Right” Read More »
Source: Nick Petri – Market Research ccounnalyst, OpenView Venture Partners, Wikipedia Less than six months ago, Groupon was cruising towards a monster initial public offering. Expected by analysts to value the company in the $20-25 billion range, it would place Groupon neck-and-neck with Google’s valuation when the search giant went public nearly a decade ago.
Accounting, Finance, and Groupon’s IPO Challenge Read More »
Source: Brian Zimmerman, OpenView Partners We’ve all heard Tom Cruise’s famous line from Jerry Maguire before. You know, the one where Cruise’s character, in an effort to keep one of his prized NFL clients, energetically repeats a specific phrase? Having trouble remembering? Maybe this will help. “Show me the money….” Yup, that one. So, why
Expansion Stage Sales Compensation: Are You Paying Too Much or Too Little? Read More »
Graf Research™ unleashes innovation by developing ideas into disruptive technologies. The Graf mission aims to perform research, provide services, apply analytics, and create products that enable secure, high-performance, embedded, and adaptive computing solutions.
When the Director of Finance for Graf was leaving the company, Graf needed an experienced financial team to get them through the transition. Managing Director Gary Hayes was introduced to Graf and determined that CFO Rendy Richards and Controller John Schefke would be an ideal combination. These two were particularly important because Graf is a U.S. Government contractor, and both Richards and Schefke have strong backgrounds and deep skill sets in this industry.
The two Scale Finance professionals quickly responded to Graf’s time-sensitive need, logically split up the work, learned the DELTEK version used by Graf, introduced more efficient processes and techniques, and helped meet their financial reporting needs. Our professionals also determined that the Senior Staff Accountant was underutilized and helped her grow into a permanent, cost-effective Controller role.
FX HedgePool (FXHP)
FX HedgePool (FXHP) is a New York and London-based highly innovative fintech company. FXHP is an award-winning peer-to-peer matching platform that optimizes the FX swaps market. The Company eliminates market impact and minimizes the effects of volatility – significantly improving outcomes for all investors.
FXHP’s unique credit model separates liquidity from credit, creating a new source of safe and dependable liquidity for the swaps market. The Company exists for the community, guided by the community with a “win-win-win” commitment that helps members, underlying investors, and banks yield safer and better results.
Scale Finance began serving FXHP years ago, providing annual business valuations to support 409A compliance for the Company’s management incentive equity plan. During this period, Scale Finance Managing Director Dave Gilroy advised FXHP about potential strategic corporate transactions. In 2022, the Company decided to raise institutional venture capital. Scale Finance managed this process from end to end, resulting in a highly successful closing of an $8 million Series A equity financing led by Information Venture Partners with participation from Fidelity International Strategic Ventures and NAventures (National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture capital arm).
Scale Finance continues to provide periodic business valuation support.
Heritage Trust
As the first independent trust company in New Mexico, established in 1994, Heritage Trust (HT) uses innovation, experience, and flexibility to meet clients’ needs. HT provides a full range of trust services, e.g., acting as their client fiduciary for their Trust assets, being an executor or personal representative related to the distribution of estate assets, managing and growing financial assets, and preparing annual tax returns for trusted clients.
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Scale Finance Gary Hayes has been providing CFO and managing Controller support since February 2021. We have streamlined their monthly and year-end close process and established budget/forecast capability to support management. Their business has grown over 40% since Scale Finance has been involved with the company’s financial management. Gary has also participated in Board Meetings as and when needed.
Southland Transportation Company
Southland Transportation provides transport, supply chain, and campus management services on a local, regional, and nationwide basis. When Southland contacted Scale Finance, they had a strong accounting staff but no Controller or CFO. After an unsuccessful search for a full-time CFO, Southland engaged CFO and Partner Rendy Richards as their fractional CFO.
Over 18 months, Richards helped integrate a new acquisition, made improvements in accounting and finance processes, developed the company’s first-ever annual budget, helped with the onboarding of a new Controller, and provided business valuations in conjunction with Scale Finance’s Managing Director, Dave Gilroy.
For over six decades, Cooper Electrical has served a wide range of industrial, commercial, and municipal customers across the Southeast, providing best-in-class Electrical Design/Build, BIM, Prefabrication, Instrumentation & Controls, and Calibration services. Cooper’s expertise spans multiple major markets, including bio-pharmaceutical, chemical, water & wastewater, power generation, manufacturing, gas production & transmission, and food & beverage.
When Cooper’s CFO left the company for another opportunity, the owners engaged Rendy Richards as interim CFO while they searched for a full-time replacement. On a half-time basis over eight months, Richards kept the company’s financial organization humming, made improvements in several business processes, initiated a detailed financial forecast, and met with the owners to share his observations and recommendations on the most feasible way to staff their finance and accounting department cost-effectively.
SymmetryRX, LLC
SymmetryRX is a leading provider of eSampling services allowing Pharma Manufacturing companies to access physician practices for the ordering and distribution of drug samples across the US. The Company was acquired in November 2018 from Aptus Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck. Since then, the company has expanded its robust suite of services that provides pharma manufacturing executives, brand managers, sales managers, product managers, and launch managers the ability to help more patients have greater access to samples, improving medication adherence and healthcare outcomes.
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Scale Finance Gary Hayes has been providing CFO Services to the Company since 2018 and was integral in the acquisition process, facilitated initial financing to support the company with a 7A SBA loan package of $600 thousand and an SBA-backed $300 thousand LOC. Since then, Gary has been actively providing CFO support across financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, cash planning, and strategic planning.
