CFOs, often siloed from the experience of other financial leaders in other industries, are all operating in the same economic landscape. The same factors — inflation, economic uncertainty, thinning access to capital, and the regulatory environment — affect how finance chiefs allocate and make their decisions every day.
With this in mind, we asked leaders from different industries their biggest challenges in Q3 of 2023. While the responses varied, the end goal is largely the same: growth.
Anthony Rose
CFO, Kapitus (small business lending)
Anthony says:
Our biggest challenge for Q3 is forecasting 2024, given the multiple layers of uncertainty.
One layer of uncertainty is the economy — the economy in our space is still soft, but inflation has decelerated and the forward view for the economy seems better.
We run a rolling 12- to 18-month forecast. In September, we do a decent refresh for the next year. So, we will need to run multiple scenarios and be very thoughtful about our investments leading up to 2024 in case the economy takes a dip.
Jay Jung
Fractional CFO, Embarc (capital markets advisory)
Jay says:
Inflation is trickling through the economy, impacting businesses' labor and input costs.
However, many services businesses have not been able to raise their prices. In several situations, we see gross margins, operating margins, or both compress. Companies need to start looking forward.
Too many [small businesses] and middle-market companies only look backward and do not have proactive forward planning. Forward planning allows us to manage customer relationships, input costs, pricing, and overall margins to mitigate risks before it is too late.
Melissa Hurrington
CFO, Premier Claims (insurance claims adjuster)
Melissa says:
My biggest challenge in Q3 is the ever-changing technology landscape. The change feels revolutionary, so I don't want to be left on the sidelines; however, it feels like a near-impossible task to keep up with all the latest and greatest options.
The thing about technology is that you can't automate chaos, you get faster chaos.
So, I am taking Q3 to thoroughly document and streamline all processes across the company while attending every webinar and class, or reading every article or whitepaper I can find to learn more. In streamlining processes, I identify the problems first and then find the right solution, rather than reviewing all the solutions and looking for a problem to apply them to.
Keith Lambert
President, Oxidizers, and CEO of InCheq (task verification platform)
Keith says:
For Oxidizers, the biggest challenge we see going into Q3 is related to staffing. In the skilled trade market, finding talented individuals has been a big struggle. We’re in a growth position, so the goal is creativity when it comes to staffing up in the industrial field.
Being in the pollution control market, we’re focusing our offerings to attract the next generation of industrial technicians, emphasizing compliance, technology, and a long-lost component of “take pride in what you do, knowing it makes a difference.”
For InCheq, the biggest challenge going into Q3 will be volume. Being a tech company, you can get drowned out with all the “flash-in-the-pan” announcements and changes. For us, the challenge will be presenting a signal that doesn’t get drowned out by all the noise; we believe the key to that will be clarity on what our software offerings can do on both the corporate and individual levels. Getting noticed in the market gets harder and harder every day, so you have to be ready to pivot and always be open to trying new things.
Kate Peachway
CFO, TS Imagine (SaaS-based financial trading services)
Kate says:
Our biggest challenge is navigating clients in the wake of the banking crisis because we are still feeling some reverberations.
We feel that their posture towards risk has permanently changed.