Serena Humphrey FCMA – Strategic Finance Director to ambitious agencies
Helping you build the value of your business and improve your profitability and cash flow
Strategic Finance Director | Board Advisor | Financial Coach
I’m a Commercial Finance Director to some of smartest and fastest growing award-winning SME marketing agencies in the UK, with over 30 years’ experience working in & with hundreds of small companies. I’ve developed a passion and specialism for working with agencies & all the very particular issues they have.
I’m a straight talker, bold and experienced enough to challenge you & hold you to account. I help business owners get what they want from their business, building financial strength and resilience in as standard; making sure every part of their business is performing at its peak.
I’ve got a sharp commercial mind and a ferocious relentless commitment to keep my clients’ businesses safe whilst helping them build value for their future.
In business you’ve got 2 ways to secure your future; build the value of your business and exit, or accumulate your wealth along the way
And neither will happen by accident, especially in the brutal and fast changing, perma-crisis world we live in today
You have to engineer the future you want, and for that you need to:
- Get super clear on exactly what you want and what your business needs to be worth
- Create a strong strategic plan including a financial strategy
- Have a financially resilient business, with strong financial controls & processes, using the latest tech
- Have strategic future-focussed reporting with predictive KPIs that shows up your problems & issues so you can fix them quickly
- A 3 year planning process with scenario plans to reflect business changes & threats
- Create a profit culture that benefits everyone in the business
- To always be growing the value of your business for a successful exit, with a constant focus on improving your cash and profit
Get started with our unique financial health check
Our comprehensive 120 point financial health check will celebrate what you do well, discover your blind spots, weak points & risks.
Together we’ll decide next steps to fix what’s not working, build resilient financial foundations, controls and processes, automate and improve efficiency in your finance function, and set up your monthly cloud based management reporting and budget.
We’ll recommend the best way to resource your finance function; upskill your finance team to do more to minimise any external support you might need, outsource the lot, or somewhere in between.
We can provide any outsourced support you need, from book keeping to management accounts, cash flow and credit control, and we’ll make sure you’ve got the best finance tech stack to make things as slick as possible.
Who I work with
It’s important to me to love what I do and have time and headspace to dedicate to my clients, so I only work with a few clients at a time.
And I only work with people and businesses that I feel a connection with, and who are committed to the greater good – for people, planet and profit.
If you’re just in it for the money then I’m not for you!
Typically my clients will have a team of 15 – 60 people and turnover of £1.5m to £6m
My passion to help you run your business and life on your terms
I’m Serena Humphrey FCMA, a leading finance coach and finance director in the UK and I know what it takes to get amazing financial stability and the level of success you want.
For over 30 years I’ve been on a mission, you could call it an obsession, to help business owners get the life they want and deserve. I’ve spent that time growing my knowledge around what makes a business successful and valuable.
Because in the early ‘90s 3 things happened that changed the course of my life and set me on this journey.
First I lost my home, one I’d saved hard to buy at 18. At 21, with interest rates at 15% I handed back the keys.
Then the amazing business I worked for went bust overnight. Over 3 years we’d turned it into a £10m success and now I had to make everyone in the factory redundant and close down our stores all over the country.
Finally I watched my parents lose their dream business, a hotel in Scotland, because of the recession.
I needed answers. So I set out on a mission that still drives me to this day.
This fuels my life-long passion to help small business owners build value, so they get the future they want.
I’ve been running my own business since 2000; I’ve employed teams of people and had the sleepless nights worrying about clients, cash flow, staff and marketing. I really get it!
I’m a Chartered Management Accountant, experienced Finance Director, and an NLP Coach with over 30 years’ experience working in finance; I did my professional training with Northern Foods plc and NEXT plc. I then started and built a management accounting practice in 2000 that I sold in 2012, working with over 130 companies during that time.
I created The Fword in 2012, a financial training and coaching company that’s worked with hundreds of business owners. I’ve since evolved into working as a strategic finance director where I get the joy of being involved with several businesses at a much deeper level, and where I can have more impact.
Hear from some of our clients