VGraham LLC does what it does and does it well. They’re a unique commodity in the Baton Rouge area – a boutique consulting firm providing outsourced, highly customized solutions for the CFO and controller functions. While it’s true other companies offer the same thing, it’s almost always part of a much larger portfolio of services.
Owner Vanessa Graham recognized a need for a more specialized financial leadership source some 10 years ago, particularly among small to medium-sized businesses. Since then, her mostly female staff has grown to 15 experienced financial professionals and CPAs with unmatched skillsets in project management, data analytics and workflow process improvement, among others. They’re still in growth mode, having recently opened a new office on Picardy Avenue with plans to open another office in Lafayette in 2023 while also adding to their staff.
Of course, the firm’s success wasn’t by accident. Graham, herself, has a history of serving the community, and she has hand-picked a staff of experienced, respected professionals who are already well known in the Baton Rouge area.
Another selling point is the way that VGraham works. The staff typically interacts face-to-face with their clients and often physically embeds at the site. That level of trust is hard to come by, but important as they’re typically given access to information that is proprietary. “We’re hands on in everything we do,” Graham says. “When we’re not on site we’re collaborating here in the office.”
VGraham’s experience enables them to handle everything in house for a variety of markets, including manufacturing, healthcare, construction, service companies and non- profits, among others. In the process, they assist companies and organizations in achieving growth goals and overcoming challenges.
AN OBSTACLE OVERCOMER
The bottom line: They want to take their business to the next level. “They’re trying to climb some hurdle,” Graham says. “That could mean streamlining processes, managing workflows, training … anything a CFO might spearhead in their own shop.”
As the financial side of most businesses has become more operationally focused, VGraham has adapted and evolved to “speak the language” of most organizations “Many companies aren’t looking for someone to crank out financials these days,” Graham says. “They’re looking for a better way forward.
“I tell my group that we’re catching the balls that the CEO wants us to catch,” she adds. “They’re putting their financial worries in our hands, and they need to know that someone can carry the burden. They’re deep into whatever initiative they’re working on and realizing that they need some help.”
As such, the need is often urgent and immediate, so Graham has strategically added to her staff each year to give her firm the ability to respond quickly when the need arises. VGraham’s first interaction is almost always with the CEO, followed by senior leaders, bankers, lawyers, investors, potential partner etc. On most projects, their work is more intense in the beginning as they get “under the hood” of an organization, financially speaking, and seek out the information and numbers they need to create reliable data analytics.
Many times, the problem is a lack of visibility. “A company will often be unable to make a financial decision because they can’t see the data,” she adds. System disparity is another typical issue. Corporations will have three to five systems from which they pull data, and none of them are communicating. That leads to inconsistent information. “There’s usually a need to streamline those workflow processes,” she adds.
No matter the obstacle, VGraham operates as a trusted advisor to each client, channeling years of experience as the “right hand” to entrepreneurial CEOs and drawing on their extensive accounting background to offer strategic financial guidance and thought leadership.
