The Chef Show — Demo
In short
A conversation with The Finance Team's Grant Robson and Richard Angus about part-time and interim financial executives, and why growing businesses come unstuck on foundations rather than products. Covers CC versus PTY structures, the public interest score, shelf company risks, when to hire which level of finance person, and their reading of land expropriation talk and its effect on bank lending. The one takeaway: Part-time and interim financial executives let smaller companies buy experience without carrying the cost of a full-time senior hire.
What does The Finance Team actually do?
They place part-time and interim financial executives into companies that need financial experience without the cost of a full-time hire. Part-time engagements run from one day a week up to five; interim work covers maternity leave, resignations, acquisitions or disposals. They work on a 30-day commitment with no long-term contracts.
What size of business do they work with?
Part-time engagements typically start at businesses turning over around 10 to 15 million rand and go up to privately owned companies doing a billion rand. Interim placements sit with larger corporates, including multi-billion rand turnover companies, for projects lasting anything from three months to two years.
What qualifies them to advise on other people's finances?
Both Grant and Richard are qualified CAs who have been CFOs of large entities. Richard spent 13 years in banking in the First Rand Group; Grant spent time in the Mvelaphanda Group. They have been in the seats their clients occupy, and have worked in the industry for close on nine years.
How is this different from using a recruitment agency?
They describe themselves as a consultancy rather than a recruiter. Instead of sending five CVs, they take a brief and put forward one person they already know can do the job, chosen to represent their brand. That removes the risk of a client sifting hundreds of CVs and interviewing strangers.
Why does personal fit matter more than technical skill?
Richard puts it at 40 per cent technical and 60 per cent fit. If a business owner cannot trust the person handling their financial management, the engagement will not work. He argues that a 50 million rand company making one flawed, poorly informed decision can be finished, so trust in the numbers is fundamental.
What trips entrepreneurs up when they start scaling?
Foundations. Owners have good products and services but neglect people, systems and processes, so they cannot grow at the speed needed to hold profitability. Budgets, forecasting, margins and the working capital cycle get ignored, and businesses that grow too quickly end up caught in a cash flow problem.
Should a small business stay a CC or become a PTY?
They favour the PTY. A sole proprietor carries far more risk, while a company creates a separate legal persona with limited liability. Existing CCs are not forced to convert and new ones cannot be registered, but keeping a CC may look dated and cost credibility later. A CC is also capped at ten natural members.
Does a small PTY have to be audited?
No. Richard explains the revised Companies Act uses a public interest score, so compliance scales with exposure to the public. A one-man entity or small partnership needs an independent review, comparable to what an accounting officer did in a close corporation, rather than a full audit. Large listed entities and banks face far heavier requirements.
Are shelf companies still worth buying?
Rarely. Electronic registration through CIPC means a new company can often be registered in days, while a name change on a bought entity is frequently manual and takes weeks. Buying a shelf company from an unreputable agent also risks inheriting someone else's tax and legal liability problems, because the entity already has legal standing.
What did they make of the land expropriation debate at the time?
Richard called it largely rhetoric and an emotional card, urging people to think it through. If land can be taken without compensation, banks are effectively being told to do unsecured lending, yet they have a fiduciary duty under the Banks Act to protect depositors' funds. Grant linked the heat to the coming election and the loss of nation builders.
In their words
I always say 40% of what we do is technical. 60% is about getting the fit right. If you don't get the fit right
What we find with, with entrepreneurs is they've got great products, they've got great services, but they tend, as they, as they grow, they tend not to get the foundations right. They don't get the basics right.
And I used to laugh at this and used to think to myself, who's actually in control of the destiny here? The employee or the entrepreneur that's running the business.
I've often said that running your own business is the most exciting, scariest thing you can ever do in your life.
The moment you tell a bank that you can take land without compensation effectively, what you're saying is all banks please stop lending immediately and you know, you freeze the system.
Key takeaways
- Part-time and interim financial executives let smaller companies buy experience without carrying the cost of a full-time senior hire.
- Getting the personal fit and trust right matters more than technical capability in a finance placement.
- Businesses tend to fail on foundations — people, systems, processes and cash flow — rather than on products or services.
- The revised Companies Act scales compliance by public interest score, so a small PTY needs only an independent review rather than an audit.
- Registering a new company electronically is usually faster and safer than buying a shelf company and changing its name.
- Threatening land ownership threatens bank security, and therefore depositors' funds and the wider lending system.
Show notes
On this demo episode we chat with Chef Koo Pillay and Sarah Gray about the SA Chefs Association. What does the association do and what some of the plans are going forward.
Frequently asked questions
How big is The Finance Team?
Close to 30 associates, mainly in Gauteng, with smaller teams in Durban and Cape Town. Grant said growth over the preceding two years had been good, though the previous year was tough as the economy and their clients' activity stagnated.
How long do their client engagements typically last?
Longer than expected. They aim to stay with companies for two or three years, and three or four clients had been with them for four years or more, often at only one or two days a week to keep it affordable.
When should a growing business hire a senior finance person?
Timing and level matter. Grant warns against putting an FD with 40 years' experience into a two-year-old business with a few thousand transactions, and says there are growth points at which bookkeepers, then accountants, then financial managers and directors become appropriate.
Where can smaller businesses get their advice for free?
Their website, thefinanceteam.co.za, carries blogs, a few ebooks and past radio material, plus a monthly newsletter you can sign up for. Richard also suggests Entrepreneur Mag, adding that people still have to put in the effort to read and engage.
Keep listening
Alison Tucker — Author, Entrepreneur, Breast Cancer Survivor
On this episode I chat with Alison about her book My Best Worst Year - A Breast Cancer Story. We talk about life, work and the journey from being diagnosed with breast cancer to the subsequent treatment and the lesson…
Lwando Xaso — Lawyer, Human Rights Activist, Author
On this episode I chat with Lwando about her book Made in South Africa - A Black Woman’s Stories of Rage, Resistance and Progress This is probably the most important book published in 2020. Like so many of her generat…
Michael Hook — Entrepreneur, Platinum Tribe Creator, Author
On this episode I chat with Michael about his book 2020 The Year that Killed Retirement 2020 The Year that Killed Retirement is a delightful book. Michael Hook believes that retirement as we know it is dead and urges…
Rob Berrington — Entrepreneur, Biochemist, Health Advocate, Nootropics
On this episode I chat with Rob about his life and journey and Nootropics. In 1995 a young boy was reading a book given to him by his father called Mega Brain Power, by Michael Hutchison. This was the book which start…