Hints and tips for those aspiring to be a Portfolio FD.

It’s been three years since I started as a Portfolio FD myself and we get asked for advice on a regular basis by those new to this area.   We are always happy to share our own experiences and a chat is often a great way to find out if someone is interested to join our network.   FD Capital Recruitment is based in Great Portland Street, London so we can easily arrange a meeting if you are in the city centre.

So here are some of the questions we get asked.

Is it easy to find Portfolio FD work?

Finding work can be a challenge, whilst there are lots of full time FD jobs, the concept of hiring a part time FD or Portfolio FD is still new to many companies, though its becoming more popular.

The traditional recruitment agencies are not that helpful for this type of role, occassionally an opportunity will come through this channel but its not often, in the last 3 years I’ve had one role via a midlands agency and one from a London agency, for that reason I don’t invest much time in reaching out to recruiters.

A good source of work are the private equity houses and corporate finance specialists, it’s a numbers game with these, a private equity house will have their own list of FD’s to draw from and while they have interesting transactions they don’t have that many that often.  I use Linkedin a lot, a tip I share is to build 20 new contacts a week and aim to expand your network by around 1,000 new connections each year.  That way when you need a role you have a large network to reach out to, and statistically a much better chance of success.  You need to cultivate a short list of private equity people and keep in more regular touch with those.

In general there is a growing interest in the Part-Time model as more and more companies are seeing the advantages a fractional Portfolio FD ownership type offers, not solely the savings on cost but also access to a strong skill set which a smaller company would not usually be able to attract.

How many days per week can I expect to work?

Four days is “full time” I know that sounds a little counter intuitive but you need spare capacity to support clients who have extra demands, and they always do.. Year ends, budgets, fund raising and so on.

Plus you need to keep a day free for marketing, its important to keep reaching out to your contacts each week, making time for coffee meetups and to attend networking events, that way when an opportunity drops out, and that happens all to often also, you have some opportunities in the pipeline.

My own work load has varied from three days per week to as high as 6 days, I’ve found that working 4 days is a great balance having time for my interests outside of work, such as family and travel, time for networking for PE houses and other professionals which really interests me, and time available to prospect for new Portfolio FD opportunities on linkedin and other job boards.

Is it easy to find work as a Part-Time Portfolio FD?

This is a growth area but opportunities are not anything like as common as for full-time roles.  Once you pick up your first Portfolio FD role, you can often find it takes a while to get another role that fits around it.   It takes time and effort and therefore patience and perseverence are important attributes in the initial period.  Working with a network of Portfolio FD’s such as FD Capital Recruitment hugely improves your chances of successfully finding opportunities.

Are there networks I can join?

There certainly are, FD Capital Recruitment are a group of FD’s and we work together, referring work to each other and employing FD’s directly ourselves.    When we are too busy ourselves we charge out the time of other FD’s making a markup, we work in an open way so you know where you are.   We pay our FD’s the same day our clients pay us and work as a team to support each other.

What can I expect to Earn as a Part-Time FD?

Typical the earnings range for Part-Time FD‘s are in the range £550-£750 in London and £450-£600 outside of London. We have had clients pay £1,000 per day in central London, but that is rare.   IR 35 is likely to increase the Portfolio FD day rate in the long term but at the moment all Officer roles need to be via IR35 whilst consultancy roles can be outside of IR35.  The rules are likely to change so keep up to date in this area and speak to our team to get advice.

Payments are made as soon as the client pays us, which usually means some variability in the timing of payments, but typically payments are weekly and between 14 days and 30 days in arrears. We check the bank each morning and set up payments every day as needed.

Want to learn more? Speak to us today.

Call us on 020 3287 9501 and let’s go from there.   We are always interested to have new Portfolio FD‘s and CFO’s on our books and of course delighted to speak with companies and businesses looking at recruiting a Part-Time FD.  If you just want a chat or to find our more about FD Capital Recruitment we are always around and happy to share our experience.

Are your a business looking for a Part-Time or Full-Time FD?

FD Capital Recruitment are based in Great Portland Street, London and are a leading provider of Portfolio FD, part-time and full-time FD’s and CFO’s we cover London and South East plus Oxford from our London office and the West Midlands from our Shropshire office.

We offer specialist FD’s and CFO’s if you need a particular industry expertise or a Turnaround or E-Commerce FD specialist then reach out to the team today as we have really excellent candidates available some for an immediate start.

Our team is made up of Experienced Finance Directors, Chief Financial Officers and recruitment professionals, which means we are really experienced in all aspects of FD and CFO roles.