Running a business is a complex and demanding task at the best of times.And when your services range from the provision of temporary nurses to the production of technical publications, this is a massive understatement.
Yet this is what Paul Hanks and the management team at Bristol-based County Group Services (CGS) Ltd. have been doing successfully for several years.
The company, which employs 120 people on a turnover of around 2.5 million at its base in Soundwell, has three specialisms:
-providing temporary nurses to the NHS and other care providers
-providing engineers on an interim or full-time basis to the engineering sector
-producing a range of technical publications
ìI was purely an engineer for around 30 years but all that changed when we took on the nursing side after my eldest daughter, Sarah, launched a nursing agency,î says Paul, whose other daughter Frances also works for CGS.
ìWe have never had a proper financial director and the accounts and payroll part of the business had always been looked after by my sister, Julie. But the growth of our nursing division increasingly made me realise that I needed a financial director on a part-time basis who could help me to keep on top of that side of the operation.î
Paul found the solution after reading an article about FDUK, which provides experienced part-time finance directors to fast-growing businesses, and signed up a Bristol-based member of their team, Ian Colquhoun.
ìIanís first job was to organise and identify the various costs in our three divisions,î said Paul. ìHe looked at ways the organisation could be streamlined and carried out a financial exercise looking at their viability ñ something which Iíd always done instinctively.
ìOne immediate result has been that one company has become a sub-contractor to ourselves, supplying nurses to the NHS, which is earning up to 7,000 per week.î
CGS was so impressed with Ian Colquhounís work that it decided to retain FDUKís services after his initial six-month period at the firm had ended.
ìIt is good to know that Ian will be available to us for two days a month, but also that we can call on him if we need his input for a specific project,î says Paul. ìWhat we needed above all was a strong character who is not afraid to make unpopular suggestions - and Ian fitted the bill.î
ìCounty Group Services is a good example of a business which probably did not need a full-time financial director, but could nevertheless derive great benefit from the sort of contribution a part-time finance director can make,î says Ian Colquhoun, who has experience as an FD across a number of companies, as well as being a former consultant specialising in profit improvement.
ìWhat was immediately apparent when I first spoke to the management at CGS was that overheads were too high and there were insufficient reporting mechanisms in place. Therefore one of my first tasks was to rectify that by introducing a more scientific method of allocating overheads to the three divisions, to enable Paul and his team to better understand how they can reduce them.
ìIn addition we needed to set easily measurable targets and to monitor some key performance indicators on a weekly basis.
ìFor the nursing division this was the number of shifts worked per week for each CGS office, together with the gross margin and the percentage profit per shift, and for the engineering division, the number of man weeks placed and the gross margin per placement.
ìBy using weekly targets and monthly divisional management accounts, we have begun trying to increase the level of business at CGS, in addition to reducing overheads by increasing the accountability of divisional heads.
With CGSí financial operations now on a much firmer footing, Ian Colquhoun has now begun concentrating on the companyís longer-term objectives.
ìThe first six months was principally about operational issues and identifying where savings could be made,î he said.
ìWe achieved all that we set out to achieve and now the focus will move onto the strategic issues ñ how to get the best out of a business with very diverse requirements.î
FDUK helps prepare Bristol-based CGS for long term profitable growth
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