Using financial planning to create a hiring plan‍

Question: Do they have enough cash to hire an additional person?

GRP21 wanted to hire an additional employee and had no idea if they had the cash to do so or not. The team didn’t know exactly how much cash was coming in and going out at the end of every week or month. They also didn’t know if they had the additional work for the growing team in a few months if the influx of new business died down.

Problem: Lack of insight into cash could lead to much bigger issues

If GRP21 kept making hiring decisions without a full understanding of the impact it would have on cash, not only would they not be able to pay the team’s salaries, they wouldn’t be able to deliver on the contracts and agreements they made with their clients. The company wouldn’t be able to survive if that kept getting caught in the cycle of hiring new talent and then having to let them go because they couldn’t afford them after several months.

Solution: Cash flow forecasting in Clockwork

GRP21 would be able to map out how each impending decision affected their cash and ability to perform on active projects. They are working towards becoming one of the largest digital agencies and want more hires, more clients, and be able to offer more services. They need to have real clarity of what was happening with their finances and not have to always depend on their accountant or bookkeeper for answers.

Outcome: 200% growth year over year

The GRP21 team was able to map out what that additional hire would do to their bottom line and the timing they had to make that decision. They decided that hiring that individual at the current moment would put too much strain on their cash situation and realized they would be able to hire someone more qualified in 2 months and since then, the agency has grown by over 200% in all aspects.

GRP21 has grown over 200% year over year since launching in 2015. The vision is to grow into one of the largest digital agencies and Clockwork is the tool they use to make sure they are growing without risking cash or opening themselves up to uncertainty. They rely heavily on project renewals to grow and uses Clockwork to manage what the renewals or non-renewals will do to the bottom line as well as for resource allocation. The team uses Clockwork to manage how many team members are working on which projects and when they need to hire additional staff. The ability to grow into new markets and offer new services are crucial for the continued rapid growth and creating scenarios in Clockwork allows the team to predict and manage that growth in real-time. Since using Clockwork, the staff has more than doubled and their newly added international markets now serve for over 50% of their business.

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