The Portfolio Executives

I had a long and successful career as an FD within the large corporate environment. I came to an age where I no longer wanted the stresses that came with that. I still wanted to make an impact in the workplace so decided that I wanted to bring my over 30 years of skills an experience to SME scaling businesses that needed senior finance expertise but not full time

I got to know Charles McLachlan over a number of years, valuing his business coaching guidance. I first knew him whilst still working in the corporate world so he was a natural port of call to talk about the way ahead after I decided to leave that career. I had a good payoff so took a year out to decide my future and take a well earned rest. I am glad I gave myself time and space to bring clarity and renewed energy to my future.

Starting the Journey itself I see as a huge success. The role of a portfolio CFO is so different to that of a corporate. As the CEO of your own organisation, you become the leader of your work and hence your life. You set the culture, business tone and morality for everything that you do, whereas this was previously set by someone else. I found the freedom to be my own boss and do my own thing both exciting and daunting at the same.

I had always been more in the back office of a large corporate  within the Finance function and now I became the CEO with responsibility for all functions of the business where I has previously had colleagues with specialist knowledge. Learning how to present my proposition and sell was a huge learning curve. In a corporate environment, presenting the facts accurately was my main role. When presenting to owner/manager business leaders where everything was more personal, I had to learn the soft skills required in this environment

I have now been a portfolio executive for over 5 years and the financial rewards are established. When friends talk about retirement and what shall they do, I have already set the course for my future which brings me personal freedom as to how much time do I work, the location of my work , the choice of clients ( I only work with clients I like) and the age at which I no longer want to work.

The journey has brought me a whole new perspective to work and life. I am finding new personal freedoms through it and doors are opening to new opportunities all the time. These opportunities are unlikely to have occurred if I had not embarked on the portfolio executive journey.