FD Capital's Podcast. - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

FD Recruit May 05, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence one of the FD's with FD Capital Recruitment talks about the benefits of recruiting an FD on a Part-Time Basis or as a Portfolio FD (an FD who works for more than one company at the same time). Increasingly we are seeing interest in the market for these part time roles as there are many benefits for companies looking for their FD Recruit.

Lower cost due to the fractional nature of the model
A more experienced Finance Director available than would be possible with a full-time role
Flexibility
The same levels of commitment.
Access to a network of professional contacts including PE houses and VC funds
Specialised knowledge which might include ERP, SEO and bilingual skills
Mentor and leader for finance team
A useful addition to the senior management team
Industry or sector knowledge.

As can be seen there are very many benefits to having an experienced senior financial professional on your team. I learn more get in touch today.

If you are an employer or a CEO/MD looking to recruit an FD, then reach out to us today on 020 3287 9501 or visit our website which can be found at https://www.fdcapital.co.uk/part-time-fd

Why Hire a Finance Director May 02, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about why companies hire a Finance Director and what the benefits are. Having the right experience at the top of an organisation makes a significant difference. Time and time again we have seen the positive transformation an FD makes. The improvements include:-

Greatly improved communications with external parties including banks
A focus on profitability by customer and by product
Knowledge shared from other industries or elsewhere in the industry
Complimentary skills to match with the CEO/MD and sales director.

Bringing good people into an organisation always works and recruiting a senior finance professional is no difference. What is unique about FD Capital is that we are a network of FD's CFO's and professional recruiters all working together as a team to find you the perfect candidate for your business. We also share new opportunities with our network first, so you can be sure we put forward a trusted and known candidate, only when there is no one available do we then go out to market to find fresh talent.

FD Capital Recruitment are a London based FD/CFO Recruitment specialist with a presence in the West Midlands also. To learn about our business visit https://www.fdcapital.co.uk

Podcasting with FD Capital Recruitment Apr 28, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about the experience of the FD Capital Recruitment Team with podcasting. We are new to this area but are really finding it a great experience to share knowledge and updates using this media and channel. We have already had feedback in that enquiries have come through and mentioned hearing about us from one of our episodes. So it clearly is a value adding way to get our message out.

What is great about podcasting is that it offers listeners the chance to get to know the team in a natural way, videos are often prepared and produced, whilst audio is more free flowing. Our team talk naturally about topical issues and really enjoy getting our message across in this way.

We appear on popular platforms such as Amazon's Audible but also other big names on the internet such as Apple, Google and then many podcasting niche site as as pod chaser and many more besides.

Our team are also experimenting with other media including twitter, Facebook and You tube videos, we see all of these media as great ways to interact with new audiences and help to reach out to people.

To learn more about how FD Capital Recruitment can help you find the perfect FD or CFO for your business please visit our website at https://www.fdcapital.co.uk

Working as a UK FD or CFO whilst living overseas Apr 25, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about an increase in Finance Directors and CFO's working in the UK but living overseas. As a result of the pandemic employers are now more open minded with the location their FD's choose to work from. We have one FD who moved to Cyprus before the Brexit Deadline and has been able to continue working remotely from there. His employers are aware of his location and provided he is able to attend periodic team meetings are OK with it.

Being flexible in this way, means employers can retain the skills of senior Financial professionals who may be starting into their retirement phase, there are also very skilled individuals who make a lifestyle choice to spend time abroad, and in something like the Digital Nomad approach, a company with a flexible approach, can find very loyal and highly driven individuals willing and able to undertake task remotely in this way.

Candidates need to be open with their employers due to the complex tax implications of working remotely in this way. It also partly depends if you are working via a UK personal service company or via an offshore company. HMRC are becoming increasingly focussed on these structures, and indeed IR35 was introduce to level the playing feel and to ensure everyone pays their fair amount of tax. That said typical offshore workers are abroad for lifestyle reasons rather than tax ones.

To learn more about FD Capital Recruitment and how we can help with your FD and CFO recruitment visit our website at https://www.fdcapital.co.uk

FD Capital Recruitment Overview Apr 20, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about how FD Capital has evolved since starting in 2018, initially based in London, then with an office in Shropshire, we now have a presence in Manchester, Oxford and Bristol giving us a significant ability to service recruitment across the Country. Our specialism remains part-time and full-time Finance Director and CFO recruitment. We are increasingly offering niche specialists including Turnarounds, fund raising, distress situations and E-Commerce expertise.

FD Capital focusses on three main areas of work, Part-Time, Interim and Full time roles, as we started out as a Part-Time FD Specialist more of our work is currently part-time, around 50% of all activity, with Interim and Full-time making up the rest. Interim and Full Time roles are growing much fast than Part-Time so this is reducing as a proportion of our workload now.

We also offer specialist roles, such as E-Commerce, Turnaround and Bilingual FD's and CFO' visit our website where you can see all of these options from our main navigation.

From time to time we also pick up Non-Executive and Chairmanship roles, plus international ones, though rare, these are really interesting opportunities.

To learn more about FD Capital visit our website at https://www.fdcapital.co.uk

Internationalisation Grants for UK SME's Apr 19, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence one of our CFO's discusses the new Department for International Trade grant to boost SME's exports, its a match funded grant of between £1,000 and £9,000 being 40% or 50% of eligible spend depending on the location of your business. What it supports are things such as attending international trade shows, Geo-targeted SEO, professional fees and related areas such as Intellectual property and translation services.

The process is to first speak with an advisor who acts as a filter, typically they let you know after the first meeting if your application or project is eligible. If it is then over a couple of subsequent meetings they work with you to build up your application, sometimes drawing in specialists from within the Department of International trade to assist, such as SEO experts, or translators.

Then once your application is ready for submission they generate a link which your then use to submit the application with. Because each application is pre-screened in this way, the actual approval process is really fast, typically just one or two days to get approved. Funding is paid only at the end, when all tasks are completed, which can be a couple of years ahead.

The benefit of this approach is that only companies with realistic export plans, and companies that are robust in the first place, so not small scale companies or start-ups, get approved. This makes sense for all parties concerned, companies can be reasonably sure of success if they spend the time to work with the advisor, and HM Government only funds viable projects. It is a win win for all concerned.

Its a great scheme and the team at FD Capital have already gotten our first client application approved. To learn more about our team and how we seek to be a leader in Chief Financial Officer / CFO and Finance Director / FD recruitment please visit our website at https://www.fdcapital.co.uk

SME Brexit Support Fund Apr 17, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence one of the CFO's from FD Capital's team talks about a grant which is available to support SME businesses that are facing challenges with the new Brexit rules and regime. The grant covers training and or professional fees, which if you are an FD or CFO with a personal services company and registered with your institute as a firm means you can offer the service directly to your client and potentially be eligible for the grant. The maximum grant is £2,000 which whilst modest is easy to apply for and is administered by PWC.

To learn more about the SME Brexit Support fund read our blog post on the topic here https://www.fdcapital.co.uk/sme-brexit-support-fund

Whilst the headline story of Brexit is that of a free trade agreement with the EU, the reality is more complex, if the goods you import have a country of Origin outside of the Europe then you not only pay duty on bringing them into the UK, but again on exporting them from the UK to EU, this means double duties which if the % involved is high, can wipe out your profit margin. This Brexit support grant allows you to get advice on how to adapt your business and trade arrangements to adjust to this new reality

It's a great example of how HM Government is attempting to ease some of the challenges that Brexit has brought with it. To learn more about FD Capital and how we can help you recruit an FD or CFO visit our website at https://www.fdcapital.co.uk

Become a successful FD Apr 15, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence himself a successful Finance Director talks about how to become an FD and to become a successful one. The key steps being to get qualified and build up experience with running a finance department. Improving your people skills is very important, and having a mentor along the way is great also.

Becoming a master or a whizz at Excel and always being up to date and other key considerations.

You can read our blog post on this topic here How to become a successful Finance Director.

There are many steps you can take to develop yourself, these include amongst others:-

Building a network of contacts across a range of disciplines which you can draw upon to support your clients / employers
Develop your team building skills so you can encourage and improve the performance of your team.
Keep up to date with Accounting standards
Improve your data handling skills particularly with Excel.
Take time to develop relationships with senior managers.

To learn more about FD Capital and how we can help you find your first role as an FD or help you recruit an FD, visit our website at https://www.fdcapital.co.uk.

Using Linkedin to find FD and CFO Opportunities Apr 11, 2021

Show notes

In today's episode Adrian Lawrence talks about how useful Linkedin has become to find new Finance Director and Chief Financial Officer opportunities. The good news is that the market is now recovering following the recent Pandemic and here at FD Capital we are seeing more opportunities coming forward than at any time since early 2020.

Linkedin has become the social media platform for choice for senior finance professionals to find new roles, and increasingly Private Equity Houses and Venture Capitalists are reaching out to specialist Finance Director recruitment services such as ours to find roles.

To make the most out of Linkedin you need to invest time into each day, cultivating new connections, posting interesting content that catches your followers attention, then reaching out to your contacts and engaging them. Once you have met it becomes so much easier to turn your contacts into a source of opportunities.

A good approach is to spend a small amount of time each day building your network, its a numbers game so unless and until your have more than 1,000 suitable contacts you won't get much traction, but if you persevere if will and does work. Visit our FD Capital page on Linkedin to learn more about FD Capital and to explore our current opportunities. Our main base is in Great Portland Street London, but we also have a presence in Shropshire which supports the West Midlands.

The FD / CFO Recruitment world returns from lockdown Apr 11, 2021

Show notes

Here at FD Capital we are seeing a return to normality in the senior financial recruitment niche, 2020 was a busy year for us, but the last lockdown was very a slow time, but on a positive note we have seen more enquiries in the period from 1st April until 11th April than we did in the period November 2020 to March 2020, that does show how slow the market has become, and there seems to be something of pent up demand, now being released.

Vacancies in all our operating areas are significantly up, Part-Time, Interim and Full-Time roles. Geographically there is a big increase in new roles in London and the West Midlands, and so far less dramatic but an increase in all other locations too. Not surprisingly we are seeing a lot more requests for turnaround specialists and E-Commerce roles, as these skills match closely to what has been happening on the ground.

During the lockdowns we have started work on our new website, which is expected to be ready for launch around the end of June 2021. We will also soon be starting work on a range of Android Apps, make sure to keep an eye on our blog for news and updates on progress with all of these projects.

In March 2021 we formed a new team, which we are calling Executive Capital it will be focused on C-Suite roles, so CEO, COO and more. We will move our Non-Executive team into this later in the year, as we have a steady stream of non-exec and chair roles and they best fit with the rest of the Exec team.

We really hope that these lockdowns end soon as it really is making life difficult for our customers, staff and of course our network of FD's and CFO's. It will pass in time, but that doesn't make it any easier meanwhile. If you are going through a period of distress, make sure to reach out to us, as we have turnaround specialists on hand that maybe able to support your business during this challenging time.

If you are a Portfolio FD or CFO and are looking for new opportunities, then reach out to us via https://www.fdcapital.co.uk, if you are a business, PE house or Venture capitalist looking for Part-time FD's or Part-time CFO's then would be delighted to hear from you. We are based in Great Portland Street London, and with an office in Shropshire that covers the West Midlands.

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