So you have seen Spotlight Reporting in action, heard how other firms have had great success using Spotlight to grow their VCFO practice – and now you want the same if not better results for your firm. Where to from here?

Well, don’t worry. We’ve guided many firms to successfully implement Spotlight within their practice and we would love to help you have the same positive outcomes.

We’ve outlined below the best things a firm can do to kick-start their VCFO journey. How you respond to the suggestions below will determine whether you too will have a great experience – or run the risk of your momentum fizzling out.

Get trained!

This might seem obvious – but so many software users leap in and have a sub-optimal experience that just a little investment of time in training could have avoided. Whilst our products are pretty easy to use, do attend a webinar, review one of our self-help videos – or request hands-on training by one of our Implementation Partners.

Webinars – check out our Training Page. Or follow us on Twitter for the latest events and sessions.

Videos – our Spotlight TV is jam-packed with useful content, including full training sessions.

Knowledge is power, so don’t fly blind.

Build a Spotlight Team

Form a Spotlight Reporting team of two to three members who will be responsible for implementing Spotlight Reporting within the practice. This team should become ‘Spotlight gurus’ by growing their product knowledge, leading on roll-out and pushing for tangible progress.

Identify the Target Market

Engage your whole team and decide which clients will benefit the most from the Spotlight reports. They will be:

• The most discerning clients you think are likely to be interested in improving performance
• Existing management reporting recipients
• Emerging or high-growth businesses
• Start ups
• Clients who want greater clarity
• Clients who need improved reporting due to poor performance, change in structure, financial pressures and/or cash flow issues.

Create a simple Spotlight Reporting Plan

You will need to decide and allocate the resource that will applied to these value-add services. Determine which staff member will be responsible for creating the reports, deadlines for reports, budgets and who will review them. The Spotlight Reporting Plan must be updated on a monthly basis.

Generate Interest and Demand

Get face to face with your clients to show them a sample report. Better yet, personalize a report for them and explain how regular mentoring sessions can lead to business growth and wealth creation.

• Hold a seminar for existing and new clients – talk about the new advisory team who are focused on helping businesses grow, and options available for clients.
• Be proactive – contact all the clients that you identified as your target market. Follow up on the initial meeting. Promote the service to all new clients and leads from the first meeting. Do a few case studies to raise your public profile.
• Create useful reports – research industry KPIs and brings these into the reports. Ask the client what metrics they especially would find useful and formulate a plan for collating this information and including in the reports. Change one chart per month to keep it exciting and fresh for your clients.
• Pricing Strategy – will the value added services be apart of bundled packages or will they be one-off fees? Decide this from the beginning and incorporate it into your website so new and existing clients can see how much it will cost them for valuable information produced from Spotlight Reports.
• Partner Programme – ask us about our Partner Programme. Partners receive exposure on the Spotlight websites and are promoted in blogs and at events. Partners receive marketing material and can gain access to our VCFO growth material.