B2B CFO’S RECORD GROWTH SURPASSES 200 PARTNERS AND SHAPES NEW LEADERSHIP TEAM
B2B CFO Appoints Joseph C. Worth to Vice President of Operations and Expands In-House Digital Media Team
Phoenix, Ariz., November 1, 2011 — B2B CFO’s record growth is pushing the firm to become the world’s largest CFO services firm with more than 200 Partners across 39 states and more than 800 clients across North America. B2B CFO surpassed the 200 Partner mark in September of 2011. Corresponding with the pace of the growth, the company today announced the appointment of Joseph C. Worth to Vice President of Operations.
Jerry L. Mills, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of B2B CFO said: “We have entered a very exciting time for B2B CFO. As we further drive our expansion and growth, we must focus on streamlining our operations and ensuring the consistency of our brand and value proposition. Great people have always been the key to our success and I am so pleased to have Joe Worth join our executive ranks. His leadership skills, deep roots in service, sales and the financial industry will be an invaluable asset in our future growth.”
“There are tremendous opportunities ahead for B2B CFO,” Mr. Worth said. “I look forward to further elevating the success of our firm by focusing on the individual development of each one of our Partners and supporting their accomplishments and growth.”
Mr. Worth, who lives in Wall, NJ, first joined B2B CFO as Partner in 2007. In 2008, Jerry Mills turned to Mr. Worth to help create a custom sales training program for B2B CFO’s Partners. Since then, Mr. Worth has been leading the sales training for B2B CFO, allowing him to not only get to know all the Partners that join the firm, but also to continually work to improve the process and fill any gaps. Mr. Worth was instrumental in launching a new coaching program in 2011 that will further enhance the resources available to the firm’s partners.
Making him extremely effective in this endeavor is his unique and diverse background. Mr. Worth has 30 years of financial and general management and transaction experience in many industries. Prior to joining B2B CFO he has been the full-time CFO of one mid-sized publicly-held company and four privately-held companies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Worth was the President of a “rust belt” manufacturing company, the Sales Manager and Marketing Manager of a high-tech equipment manufacturer, a financial consultant, and even a computer programmer and a naval officer. His broad experience helped to build his generalist approach to companies and problems.
Mr. Worth earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard College on a Navy ROTC scholarship and his MBA from Harvard Business School. After serving in the Navy and Navy Reserve, he retired as a Captain with 23 years of total service, including a combat tour in Vietnam. When not working, Mr. Worth is an accomplished sailor and navigator. He has sailed halfway around the world including passages of the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, Suez Canal and Atlantic Ocean.
Streamlining the training and coaching processes for B2B CFO Partners will be Mr. Worth’s first order of business. He will also be tasked with forming strategic partnerships and business alliances for the company. Mr. Worth’s new role complements the work that B2B CFO is already doing to leverage and implement emerging technologies across its operations. In 2010, B2B CFO created an in-house digital media team under the direction of Danny Stansfield to take the firm’s interactive marketing and digital presence to the next level. In his position as Director of Emerging Media, Danny Stansfield expanded the team in 2011 by adding Andrew Freeman as Interactive Marketing Manager and Dale Mills as Assistant Director of Social Media. To support the growth, B2B CFO also added Brenda Hildebrand as Executive Assistant to the CEO and Marie Hollingshead as Office Assistant.
“2011 has been a huge year for us,” added Mr. Mills. “Not only did we surpass the goal of 200 Partners – which puts us in the forefront of our industry, we also created six full time in-house positions within the company, expanded our leadership team and we were recognized with top national honors for our continued growth and contributions to the economy.”
B2B CFO’s success echo loudly in the national accolades received this year. The company made the prestigious Inc. 5000 list for two consecutive years as well as the ACE Corporate Growth Awards, which recognizes top 25 most successful and fastest growing private companies in Arizona. B2B CFO was also named as the Free Enterprise Honoree by the US Chamber of Commerce and Jerry L. Mills was recognized as one of the top 100 Small Business Influencers in North America.
“I’ve often said that we are an overnight success that’s been 25 years in the making,” said Mr. Mills. “But my vision for the company has always been ambitious and we will continue to see further growth each year ahead.”
Mr. Mills founded the company in Phoenix, Ariz. in 1987. He established the company with a determined philosophy to put integrity, ethics, and the needs of small businesses above all.
The philosophy proved to be successful and by the 1990s, the firm expanded presence into the southwest. In early 2005 the company had gained national prominence following expansions in its service portfolio and geographic coverage. In 2008, B2B CFO first moved into an aggressive growth period doubling the number of partners and increasing revenue by 70 percent. The company has maintained that fast growth momentum and is on set trajectory to continue that growth in the years ahead.
As of November 2011, B2B CFO has grown to 210 CFO partners in 40 states with nearly 6,000 years of cumulative experience. Each Partner is a seasoned financial executive who serves as a part time CFO to growing businesses on as-needed basis. Approximately 80% of the Partners have a background that includes senior executive positions at the Big Four, and all of the Partners have held high level executive finance positions in various industries in corporate America. Together, B2B CFO Partners work with more than 800 businesses in the nation with combined annual sales of more than $4 Billion.
When Should a Small Business Hire a Finance Chief?
At Quickoffice, which sells software that allows users to create and edit documents on mobile devices, Alan Masarek always enjoyed getting deep into the numbers of his business — almost as if he were chief financial officer instead of chief executive.
That is because Mr. Masarek, who helped found the Plano, Tex., business in 2002, has a background in finance. “I always wore two hats in my business: the C.E.O. hat and the de facto C.F.O. hat,” he said, adding that he relied on staff accountants and a controller to help him run the everyday accounting functions of the company.
That changed in 2010, when he decided to hire a full-time chief financial officer. “Not every company needs a C.F.O.,” Mr. Masarek said. “It depends on how dynamic the business is. I needed to hire someone who could function as my business partner and allow me to step away from the books so I could manage other aspects of the business better.”
Generally, as start-ups grow, they hire outside accounting firms. Often, the accountants handle only the taxes and maybe the payroll. If the company continues to grow, and its financial reporting requirements become more complex, the chief executive might decide to bring on a full-time controller who can take charge of maintaining the business’s general ledger and bank accounts. On the other hand, the decision to bring on a finance chief is often tied to strategic decisions, like performing competitive market analysis, raising capital or securing credit.
THE TIPPING POINT A C.F.O. typically takes responsibility for financial analysis, accounting and budgets, along with overseeing insurance, banking, real estate, health insurance, accounts receivable and legal issues.
“When the C.E.O. is being distracted from critical revenue-generating activities to handle financing or similar issues, it’s time for the C.F.O. to take his place and make these things happen,” said Mike Henderson, the finance chief of Lendio, a company with annual revenue of $9.6 million that is based in South Jordan, Utah, and helps small businesses secure loans. “Once the C.E.O. starts to feel the pain, act quickly, because a good C.F.O. can provide tremendous unforeseen support and help avoid some of the growth problems companies face.”
No matter how small, any company can benefit from having a finance chief to help organize its finances and track its performance. Typically, however, hiring one does not become essential until companies reach a tipping point — often $10 million to $20 million in revenue, according to Mr. Masarek and other chief executives interviewed for this article.
The main reason companies hesitate, of course, is the cost — most finance chiefs are paid six-figure salaries. That expense becomes more palatable when the company has more revenue and the company’s numbers need to be analyzed and communicated.
“I like to say that a controller is always looking backward in their role of financial reporting and closing the books,” Mr. Masarek said. “But a C.F.O. is always looking forward, someone who will own the accounting functions but also get involved strategically in how we handle things like debt and equity and how we finance the company moving forward.”
Companies that do not have the revenue to justify paying someone a six-figure salary may consider hiring someone to play the role part time. For example, when her advisory board suggested she hire a C.F.O. after her company hit $2 million in revenue, Bibby Gignilliat, founder and chief executive of Parties That Cook, which stages hands-on cooking parties and corporate team-building events, turned to a consultant on that position.
Jeff Gustafson, whom Ms. Gignilliat pays $150 an hour for typically eight hours a month, took on several critical projects for the company, including building an extensive financial model that demonstrated the impact of expanding into new cities, hiring employees and raising prices. “It has allowed me to be the C.E.O., working on the business versus working in the business,” Ms. Gignilliat said.
DEALING WITH INVESTORS For growing companies, a common trigger can be the decision to bring on investment capital. At these companies, the finance chief often becomes the liaison charged with keeping investors updated on how the company is performing.
Paul M. Doman, chief executive of the Accurate Group in Charlotte, N.C., which provides financial services to banks and mortgage lenders, made the decision last February to hire a finance chief to help manage his relationship with Evolution Capital Partners, a private equity fund based in Cleveland.
“My expectation from a C.F.O. tends to be high,” said Brendan D. Anderson, a partner in Evolution Capital. “I almost view the C.F.O. as the next step to the C.E.O. in that they understand everything and can communicate verbally and in writing how the business is performing, how the plan is coming together and also forecasting where budgets and projects are headed.”
Forecasting performance is particularly important if a company sets its sights on an initial public offering. That is why Karen S. Camp joined VirtuOz, which is based in Emeryville, Calif., and provides companies with virtual agents for online marketing, sales and support.
VirtuOz, which has 75 employees and more than $10 million in annual revenue, is considering pursuing an initial public offering in the next few years — a process Ms. Camp has guided other companies through five times as an investor and finance officer.
“Even though we are not yet a public company, we will eventually do an I.P.O. or be acquired by a public company,” Ms. Camp said. “In my role as C.F.O., I have to make sure that the nuts and bolts, reporting standards and control systems are up to a public company standard.”
In addition to her internal duties, Ms. Camp said that an important part of her job is building visibility for the company with investment bankers and analysts. “It’s all about language and communication and understanding what they need to hear,” she said.
PREPARING FOR DUE DILIGENCE Finance officers can also bring tremendous value to a company when it is considering making an acquisition or preparing itself to be acquired. For instance, when Sharon Napier spun off her Rochester, N.Y., marketing agency, Partners & Napier, from a holding company in 2004, she wanted to put her agency on the fast track to growth.
“I wanted to be in an agency that would be nationally recognized,” she said. “I figured that would likely mean that we would need to eventually make an acquisition or be acquired. And having a C.F.O. on board to manage that was part of that strategy.”
She hired Jim DiNoto for the post in 2001 and made it a crucial part of his job to analyze the market for potential acquirers or acquisitions and to ensure that the company’s books would be ready to stand up to any due diligence process.
The turning point for Partners & Napier came when it began discussions with a newly formed holding company, Project: WorldWide, about being acquired. Ms. Napier credits Mr. DiNoto with shepherding the process along until the deal was finalized in January.
“Jim took the lead role in providing the data Project: WorldWide needed from us,” she said. “He had to interact on a daily basis for eight weeks with their C.F.O. and mergers-and-acquisition team working over every single financial issue. An acquisition can break down if you can’t provide the right data or think ahead to what might be needed, and that’s where a C.F.O. like Jim is invaluable to a business.”
The bottom line is probably this: hire a C.F.O. as soon as you can afford one.
B2B CFO NAMED IN PRESTIGIOUS INC. 5000 LIST
B2B CFO NAMED IN PRESTIGIOUS INC. 5000 LIST
184% Growth Earns B2B CFO Spot in the 2010 List of Fastest
Growing Companies in America
Phoenix, Ariz. August 24, 2010 – B2B CFO, nation’s largest
provider of CFO services to small businesses, has been named to the
prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America.
Now in its 29th year, Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking judges US-based
and privately held companies by their revenue growth. This year’s
list was ranked on the percentage in revenue increase from
2006-2009. B2B CFO’s growth earned 84th place in its industry.
“There are approximately 27 million small businesses in the U.S.
today,” said Jerry L. Mills, founder and chief executive officer of
B2B CFO, “It is a huge honor to be among the fastest growing and the
most successful businesses in the country. Our firm has experienced
tremendous growth over the past few years and we are on track to
continue expanding. I am especially grateful to all of the firm’s
dedicated Partners who continue to advocate our services around the
nation.”
In a personalized letter congratulating B2B CFO on this
accomplishment, Jane Berenston, editor-in-chief of Inc. Magazine’s
wrote “Congratulations: your company, B2B CFO, has made the 2010
list of the fastest growing private companies in America. This
achievement puts you in rarefied company, especially if you consider
that over 27 million businesses are registered in the USA. The elite
group you’ve now joined has, over the years, included companies such
as Microsoft, Timberland, Visa, Intuit, Jamba Juice, Oracle, and
Zappos.com. I look forward to congratulating you in person in
Washington, D.C.”
B2B CFO’s growth is reflected in numerous awards this year. The
company was also recently named in ACE Corporate Growth Awards,
which recognized the most successful and fastest growing companies
in Arizona.
In August 2010, B2B CFO has grown to 170 Partners across 39 states,
representing 5,000 years of cumulative experience. Each Partner is a
seasoned financial executive who serves as CFO to growing businesses
on as-needed basis. Approximately 80% of the Partners have a
background that includes senior executive positions at the Big Four,
and all of the Partners have held high level executive finance
positions in various industries in corporate America. Together, B2B
CFO Partners work with more than 500 businesses in the nation with
combined annual sales of more than $3 Billion.
Jerry L. Mills and many of the B2B CFO Partners regularly dedicate
time to educate business owners on financial matters. Mills is a
frequent speaker and contributor and has been featured on many
national media networks including FOX Business, Fortune Small
Business, Smart Money and many others. Mills is also the author of
The Danger Zone – Lost in the Growth Transition, and Avoiding The
Danger Zone – Business Illusions, both business non-fiction books
that help entrepreneurs understand and build a strong financial
strategy.
“We look forward to participating in the Inc. 500|5000 conference in
Washington, DC this fall,” added Mills. “Along with my colleagues, I
look forward to the October 2nd awards ceremony and to meeting the
entrepreneurs that created the other 5000 fastest growing companies
in America.”
About Inc. Magazine
Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc.
is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners
and managers of growing private companies that delivers real
solutions for todays innovative company builders. Inc. provides
hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people,
finances, sales, marketing, and technology.
Inc. Magazine’s 29th annual Inc. 5000 ranking of the fastest-growing
private companies in the country is available online at
www.inc.com/inc5000/list
About B2B CFO
Headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz., the firm was founded in 1987 by
Jerry L. Mills. B2B CFO is the nation’s largest CFO firm serving
entrepreneurial, growth and mid-market companies with revenue under
$75 million. The firm’s partners have an average of 25 years of
experience and each individual partner is a senior level executive
with a broad range of expertise. Please visit online at
http://www.b2bcfo.com/
The Wall Street Journal featured B2B CFO® as experts in cash flow management. 
