This article was published in the November 2006 edition of Director magazine

Can't afford £65,000-plus a year for your own FD? Using a freelance might buy you the skills you need, when you need them.

If you’re starting to feel the pressure on the financial management side of the business, it’s natural to think about bringing in an FD. But when do you take the leap?

Perhaps you don’t have to—or at least not as soon as you thought. “Our typical clients are companies that want a big-ticket FD, but either can’t justify the salary, or wouldn’t be able to use an FD full time,” says Simon Walters, managing director of FD Solutions (FDS) and himself a former finance director.

FDS is made up of a dozen experienced financial managers who “hire themselves out” to companies. At one client, magazine publisher Intersection Media, Walters worked closely with the company’s director on the preparation of a business plan that attracted funding under the government’s Small Firms’ Loan Guarantee Scheme. He now monitors Intersection’s current account balance daily to ensure that excess funds are kept in an interest-bearing deposit account. And he covers banking, credit control, payments, VAT and tax—leaving management to concentrate on the creative side of the business.

“Simon helps us manage the company by providing constant feedback on operations and strategy from a rigorously financial viewpoint, but always with a wider understanding of the issues we face,” says Dan Ross, one of the creatives behind Intersection. “We’re able to draw on this array of services whenever we need, paying only for the hours we use.”