Are you looking for a Portfolio FD role?
Are you looking for a Portfolio FD role?
We have built up our own network of contracts and work over the last 3 years, but we regularly get enquiries or requests from our regular clients and from new enquiries which we can’t fulfill just when the client would like, which is usually immediately. We are therefore always seeking Finance Directors and other Porfolio FD’s who are willing to work with us either on a Portfolio basis which means working for more than one part time role, for interim work assignments for as a regular FD. We do get regular FD roles, either from new clients or sometimes where a client has grown and the Portfolio FD we have working with them doesn’t have the time available to increase their days to full time. About 50% of the roles we placed for clients in 2019 were permanent ones or roles going to full time.
Portfolio FD
Portfolio FD roles offer a higher than usual day rate, but the work does tend to be more variable than traditional roles, so for example you may find the time required steadily reduces down or grows, which then becomes a challenge to fit around your other commitments. To give you an idea the typical pay range in 2019 is between £650 and £850 per day in London and £550 and £700 outside of London. It can make for personal financial challenges as income rises and falls regularly and often at unexpected times.
Fitting together multiple roles like this is however rewarding both financially and in terms of work experience, as typically you earn more overall working this way than the equivalent full time role, I specialise for example in fund raising, and Search Enging Marketing which are not skills always in demand from the same clients, though it tends to be the case that most businesses need my skills some of the time. Hence why being a portfolio matches well to my skill set.
Since 2019 we have been getting a lot of work from the distressed lending teams of the main clearing banks and some of the smaller players, these are roles where a client is breaching their loan covenants and the banks concerned are uncomfortable with the direction the business is going in, and of the standard of financial information being prepared. The roles can be challenging and time pressured as the businesses concerned are at real risk of entering insolvency and the teams in place may be unable or unwilling to face up to the changes needed to get out of this. A Porfolio FD with the right background can be ideal in this situation.
When you produce cash flows for these businesses it quickly focusses the mind as you typically realise that cash will run out in a number of weeks unless action is taken to turn things around, or to raise fresh debt and or equity. Sometimes tempers fray and with these clients and situations you need to be a robust personality to keep things moving forward, and balance the need to drive things forward without alerting the wider staff of an impending insolvency event.
Not all roles involve distress, some roles involve specialist skills for example producing a pitch deck to support a fund raise, or financial models including CFADS (Cash Flow available for Debt Service) to support bank debt, other situations include rapid growth where a business has quickly moved from £15m to £30m and its finance team and systems are unable to step up to the higher standards expected by banks when rapid growth leads to cash flow issues.
Many of our roles involve Private Equity houses or Venture Capitalist, and an FD is required and a condition of their lending, these roles are really interesting as the businesses concerned are growing and moving to an exit which if you become part of the senior management team can lead to share options or long term incentive programs, opportunity that involve equity being offered are rare and we have only have a couple like that which are not surprisingly very sort after within our network.  Having PE House or Venture capital experience is very advantageous for your CV and future work opportunities so often it may be worth working with us for a period, just to be able to pick up that sort of experience. A Portfolio FD works very well for a PE house and they are very familiar with this model.
Portfolio FD
It helps if you have an entrepreneurial flair of your own, so for example I ran my own businesses for twelve years which gives me greater empathy with SME businesses and their owner managers. None of those skills are in any way a requirement. If you are an SME or Private Equity house and and are reading this blog post and are looking for the type of skill sets that our teams has then please feel free to reach out to us today as we have great Portfolio FD candidates available, some for an immediate start.
A great benefit of working with FD Capital is that we are an FD Recruitment network, we have our own team of FD’s and CFO’s, plus a group of subcontractors working for us, then beyond that we have a network of contracts of people we have worked with or dealt with who we know and trust as they have the right match of skills and experience to be part of our network.  Of course the main benefit of our network is that we have work available regularly so if you have yet to develop your own channels then working with us is a great way to get started.  You can invoice us through your own personal services company, go directly on our payroll or via an umbrella payroll partner, depending on the nature of work and size of client. This article was posted in 2019, so please bear in mind that IR35 rules are subject to change.
If you are a business looking for a Portfolio FD in either the London or the Midlands area, then reach out to us on 020 3287 9501 we are always on the look out for new clients and opportunities, we can help in many areas:-
Turnarounds, debt and or equity raising, forecast modelling and online marketing are just some of the disciplines that our team has a lot of experience of.
Adrian Lawrence FCA with over 25 years of experience as a finance leader and a Chartered Accountant, BSc graduate from Queen Mary College, University of London.
I help my clients achieve their growth and success goals by delivering value and results in areas such as Financial Modelling, Finance Raising, M&A, Due Diligence, cash flow management, and reporting. I am passionate about supporting SMEs and entrepreneurs with reliable and professional Chief Financial Officer or Finance Director services.
