Valerie is the kind of founder who built her business mission-first. Her business grew fast, fuelled by strong delivery and a global contractor team across Africa. The work was meaningful and the demand high, it did not take long for growth to outpace visibility. Finance as always is the first place to show trouble.
Our journey together began when Valerie found us through LinkedIn and one post about cash flow hit home hard. Initially, it was bookkeeping support she was looking for.
“I realised I didn’t know anything about my cash flow. It doesn’t matter if you have a good business if you don’t have the cash flow that goes with it.”
In reality we bonded over something a lot more human and personal; we joined our networking call while heavily pregnant with our second child. As a business that is female-led and a supporter for mothers that need flexible work, here at KARE we are proud to be relentless in delivering exceptional results, deeply caring about clients’ businesses as if our very own and fiercely human when it matters.
Turns out to Valerie this mattered too: “She came to our first call with her baby. I was like, I love her. This is a mom running a business. She gets me.”
“I realised I didn’t know anything about my cash flow. It doesn’t matter if you have a good business if you don’t have the cash flow that goes with it.”
valerie bowden
Fixing the invisible cash flow trap
Valerie’s service model was simple but it left gaps in the cash flow.
Clients were billed after services were delivered. The team was paid immediately at month-end. As the business grew, hourly tracking became a serious bottleneck. Contractors logged hours, the team chased them, payroll was a mess, and Valerie was paying for tracking tools that did not support the model anymore.
So we had to simplify the entire contractor and payroll workflow
Pricing went from hourly billing to fixed blocks of hour
🚩 Pricing went from hourly billing to fixed blocks of hours
🚩 Moved invoicing to the first of the month with automated debit
🚩 Removed unnecessary software costs by removing the tracking tool that was no longer fit for business
Moved invoicing to the first of the month with automated debit
Removed unnecessary software costs by removing the tracking tool that was no longer fit for business
The result was immediate and Valerie felt the relief:
“It’s the ability to breathe and not be panicky at the end of the month. We always hit payroll on time. We don’t have cash flow issues anymore. It helped us pay our team members on time. Retention improved. We could attract better talent because we had a financial model that supported growth."
We also upgraded how Valerie protected her business in the long-run.
We updated the contracts with a view for long-term scaling. We introduced stronger client terms and annual increases with a view to cater to growing client demands, and protect against rising operating costs over time.
It was a timely decision. When we started the team was counting roughly 25 people now the headcount is at approximately 130.
As payment volume grew, QuickBooks began showing strain. Then without meaningful warning, it shut down Valerie’s merchant account. The business was at risk of not charging clients for the month.
As we had already anticipated the need to upgrade the systems, we were ready with a fast response:
Migrated to Ignition in under a week
🚩 Migrated to Ignition in under a week
🚩 Billing resumed as normal before month-end
🚩 Disruption kept to a minimum
Billing resumed as normal before month-end
Disruption kept to a minimum
Protecting growth in the long run
When QuickBooks broke, we moved in a week
When Valerie started she avoided the numbers. She used to relinquish access to Quickbooks for fear of messing anything up. As with all our clients, we strive to empower and educate each one of them, so that they can always feel in control of their finances. With or without us.
Almost two years later, the transformation was visible: she can run her own reports, she absolutely understands cashflow and accrual basis, and she can confidently read a P&L and balance sheet.
Valerie: “I rate myself at an eight now. I know I can make smart choices and be confident in them.”
Valerie expected bookkeeping. Truth is that we knew straight from our first call that this was an ambitious founder who needed the financial system that could scale with her
Valerie: “My expectation was bookkeeping. What I got was a true CFO who shaped the strategy of our billing, payment methods, finances, and helped put in place the foundation we needed to grow. I can sleep at night. I’m not waking up at 4 am worried about money.”
