Strategic CFO Services

DCG solves your business’s most complex challenges – we bring a breadth of expertise covering financial and operational areas, and we take a long-term view in our relationship. We immerse ourselves in your company to truly understand your needs and aspirations, and we strive to become your trusted partner across all your company’s needs.

  • Strategic Operational Planning 
  • Financial Planning & Controlling 
  • Cash & Liquidity Management 
  • Strategic Tax Advisory
  • Financing (stakeholder/ investors management) 
  • M&A Advisory

Some of the challenges we solve…

Have you ever felt you could use the expertise of an external advisor but feel you are too small to afford consulting & guidance?

Do you wish you had support to think through how to better access capital? How to grow profitably? How to better manage your company’s finances?

Small and medium companies need the same activities that normally fall under a CFO role in large companies – Strategic Planning, Financing (stakeholder management with banks and investors), Financial Planning & Controlling, Cash Management & Liquidity, Taxes, M&A. Often however these companies can’t afford or really need the typical CFO profile. Strategic Financial Services provides your company what you need in the doses you want.

What we do…​

  • We start from an analysis of your financial statements to identify short-term opportunities and at the same time work with your management team to create a financial plan for the year, including cash management.​
  • We then put in place the controlling mechanisms for the financial reporting of your company.​
  • We also provide support as needed on topics like M&A, Insurance, Tax Strategy.

Proactive Tax Strategies

DCG  seeks to implement proactive strategies that reduce your tax exposure moving forward. We explore a variety of impactful techniques including, but not limited to, retirement plan design and contributions, under-utilized concepts within the tax code, maximizing and creating deductions, and adjusting or adding to a company’s structure. 

  • Qualified Retirement Plan Design 
  • Management Service Organization (MSO) 
  • Charitable Strategic Solutions 
  • Donor-Advised Fund 
    • Charitable Estate Design ​
    • Self-Insurance (Captive)
  • Estate Tax Analysis
  • Others (R&D credits, Cost Segregation, and more)

Some of the challenges we solve…

Your Challenges…

  • Do you expect a large taxable base this year and don’t know how best to reinvest? ​
  • Have you considered cost segregation, R&D credits, or captive insurance to reduce your tax burden?​
  • Are you maximizing the tax reduction potential of your charitable contributions?

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  • At Diamond Client Group, our philosophy is that you should be taxed on your consumption, not on the amount you are saving or investing. This is the same principle that guides much of the U.S. tax code for businesses. Entrepreneurs are generally not taxed on the dollars that are being reinvested into their companies. Within your business, there are many strategies to accomplish these tax savings. ​
  • Solutions that we bring to the table include designing the right retirement plan packages for your employees, designing a C Corporation structure to support the management functions of your company, exploring more specialized deduction strategies, like cost segregation, R&D credits, or captive insurance, and more. 

Asset Protection & Treasury Management

DCG takes a strategic view to asset and treasury management. Together, we’ll determine the appropriate entity structures, risk mitigation, and asset management.

  • Entity Org Chart Review​
    • Tax Efficiency Analysis​
  • Treasury Management​​
    • Review Credit Facilities​
  • Start-up Funding with Retirement Funds​
    • Business Owner Retirement Savings Account (BORSA)​
    • Rollover for Business Startups (ROBS)​

Some of the challenges we solve…

Your Challenges…

  • Have you thought about the most optimal entity (C, S-Corp) structure for your business?​
  • Do you have idle capital and want to maximize its value?​
  • Do you have a good opportunity to grow by acquiring a franchise but don’t have the necessary funding? 

  • As business owners successfully expand, they typically add new structures and entities to their organization. DCG will review and analyze your existing entity org chart exploring options for improved efficiencies and protection. 
  • Many businesses need liquid cash available to operate. Owners struggle to determine how much cash is appropriate to keep within their business. They know that their cash is earning nothing as it sits idle within the company. DCG will introduce alternative liquid and fixed treasury management concepts. 
  • DCG will provide guidance around leverage and optimizing your business’s credit facilities.

Operational Planning

DCG understands that you are busy working on growing your company. As it expands, analyzing your business operations, measuring performance, and developing a thoughtful and calculated plan becomes essential for achieving profitable growth and your desired goals. DCG will show you how successful companies approach operational planning and execution.

  • 5-Year Business Plan
  • Annual Strategic Plan
  • Performance Management
  • Governance
  • Operational Due Diligence
  • Monthly Implementation Support

Some of the challenges we solve…

Have you ever felt that there’s something missing in your business but don’t know what? 

Our operational due diligence services refer to the analysis of the company from an external perspective. We take a 360-degree view of your company and “look under the hood” – we review your financial statements, evaluate your strategy, understand your Sales & Marketing and Operations, and interview key employees. We will bring all this together on a fact-based/ substantiated document that spells out your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Do you sometimes feel like you don’t know what your profit will be at the end of the year?

  • You have probably heard that you can’t improve what you can’t measure, behind it is the very real and important idea of performance management. Understanding how to measure different areas of the company and how these areas affect the overall performance of the company (typically defined as profitable growth for a for-profit business) is key for success, this is what our performance management services are all about.​
  • We understand how your company generates value by looking at your top and bottom line. We work with you to clarify the relationship between different activities/ areas and the profitability of your company. Based on this we define the necessary KPIs to achieve your stated objectives for the year and implement the necessary tools for your leadership team to track them.

Variable Compensation Design

DCG excels in incentivizing and retaining your key employees. The standard 401(k) is not always the best fit for a small business. DCG knows the alternatives, like non-qualified deferred compensation, which allows you to give incentive dollars to key employees, rather than to everyone equally. Deferred Comp also comes with added flexibility and other benefits, like the ability to invest the deferred dollars.

  • Key Personnel Incentives 
    • 409A, Deferred Compensation 
    • Phantom Stock 
    • Restricted Shares 
  • Group Benefits 
  • Retirement Plan Design 

Some of the challenges we solve…

Your Challenges…

  • Do you offer or are being asked to offer a 401K matching program but don’t know if it’s the best incentive/ really motivates employees?​
  • Have you done everything you can to attract, retain and reward the key employees that are critical to your business?

  • There are multiple problems with the traditional retirement plans that most small businesses offer their employees. 401ks and profit-sharing plans are costly for small companies. Administrative costs can come out of the internal investments’ performance, or they can be paid by the business. Also, you are required to apply the match or profit component equally to all employees, and it cannot be tied to performance, so there is no way to highly incentivize your key people within that framework. Furthermore, you take on compliance risk as a fiduciary to your employees under ERISA. And finally, from your employees’ perspective, they can’t access the funds without penalty until they are 59 ½ years old.​
  • Most business owners assume that one of their only options for employee incentives and retention is to provide a match on a 401k or offer a large cash bonus. This is simply not true. There are actually multiple ways to incentivize key employees. When designed carefully, these alternatives may be more tax-efficient to the business owner, and they can get money into the hands of the people who are most impactful to your business while encouraging them to stay long-term.​
  • One of these alternatives is a very simple non-qualified deferred compensation plan. We educate business owners on 409a deferred comp, custom design the plan alongside you, and connect you with an attorney to draft the documents. The goal is for the employees to perform above expectations, they are committed to staying with your company to receive this deferred compensation, and the other employees of the company are unaffected. 

Transition Planning

DCG partners with you to impact the transfer of your business, whether it’s to a third party, internally to employees, or to family members. We can affect all financial aspects, like M&A, business valuation, and estate equalization, while also consulting around the operational transition to the new management team, governance, and organization.

  • Buy/Sell Planning 
  • Business Valuation (informal valuations internally, formal through partners) 
  • Estate Equalization & Optimization for Family Businesses 
  • M&A Execution 
  • Transition Support

Some of the challenges we solve…

Have you thought about retiring from your company in the next 5 years or less? When thinking about this do you feel there’s a strong team that would continue the company’s success?

One of the most critical and delicate moments for a company is the transition of ownership/ leadership and companies sometimes don’t dedicate enough time to detail a well-thought-out plan. With our Transition Support service, we begin with a detailed understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the key personnel in the company. Then we document, in as much detail as possible, the activities performed by current owners (or departing management team) and have an open discussion of the desired timings and expectations on responsibility/ level of control of all involved. Equipped with this we look at what’s required from an organization perspective (roles, workloads, key positions, the potential for people to cover them, etc.). Finally, we draft a plan with key activities, responsible, timings, important milestones, and KPIs that you can implement. 

Are you comfortable that the right decisions will be made when you retire? 

​With our Governance service, we help companies put in place the right processes and structures to make the best decisions in the company, this could involve formalizing a Non-Executive Board with external advisors so an owner transitioning outside of the company to keep involved and provide additional guidance and make sure there’s strong accountability of the new management team.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER

Diamond Client Group works as a team to provide you with the best resources, guidance, and service available.