Speaker: Millie Mlilo & Collette Wright, CFO: Andrew Dollenberg
We just wanted to say a big thank you to Andrew...
Millie Mlilo & Collette Wright: We want to say a big thank you to Andrew Dollenberg. He came in at the right time. He came in when we were just trying to find our feet as a small company, and as a Health and Social Care company, that's what we know. Collette and I, we are into Health and Social Care and want to say thank you for all the support that you gave us with your in-depth knowledge on Sage Accounting. You came and unravelled what was a big mess and putting things in place the way they should have been. We really appreciate everything that you did.
What one or two big issues/untapped opportunities were you facing before we started working with you?
Millie Mlilo & Collette Wright: The financial reporting was our biggest challenge when Andrew started with us, because we didn't know where things were, we didn't know what the cash flow was like, we didn't know how to get the debt in because the invoicing wasn't done correctly. And so we really needed somebody to go through all of that and find the best way to do all that kind of reporting so that we, as Directors, knew where we were on a daily basis, and we could then manage the cash flow and know where the company was so that we could do the right thing for the company and stay afloat.
What have been the benefits to your business specifically?
Millie Mlilo & Collette Wright: As a company we did benefit quite greatly from the support that we received from Andrew. Just his personality made us feel very comfortable with him. He showed his expertise and we were quite impressed, and from that, we must say there's nothing that we do without checking with him first. So it was something that we feel without somebody like Andrew, you know, we're not sure where we would have been at this point in time in our business. So yes, it was his expertise that we benefited the most.
What have the benefits been to you personally?
Millie Mlilo & Collette Wright: For me personally, the reduction in anxiety was paramount because we knew we could trust everything that Andrew told us about the business, and we started to be able to collect the debt and work on actually managing the business the way it was supposed to be managed. And then, finally, we were able to get a salary, which was even better! Definitely. You know, the salary was a big help because, you know, we could start seeing ourselves really earning as Directors. So, yes, it was great.
With support from your FD/CFO, what are you hoping to achieve over the coming 12-24 months?
Millie Mlilo & Collette Wright: Like any other growing business, we really want to maximise our income and reduce our expenses, and hopefully this is what we'll be able to achieve in the coming year. We very much hope to have a stable working capital that we can rely on and then be able to venture out into other avenues and really take our brand, Lily Care, into numerous places so that we become very well known as specialists in Care provision and Dementia Care.
