About
WHO WE ARE
Meet Natalie
I’m a chartered accountant turned CFO with a passion for helping business owners understand their numbers and take confident action to grow a seriously profitable business.
Over the past 15 years, I have supported hundreds of businesses (big and small), through smart financial strategy and guidance. Running a business can be an overwhelming and lonely experience, especially if you’re not a numbers person.
I’m your go-to manager in the world of finance, but I’m also here to help you think beyond the numbers. Together, we’ll look at the big picture and unpack the stories the finances are telling us about the different areas of your business – what’s propelling you forward and what needs to change.
With a trusted CFO in your corner, you’ll open the doors to new opportunities that you never thought possible.
Whether you’re starting or growing your business, I’m here to help you create a solid financial framework to reach your highest potential and gain the confidence to know how to make the right decisions at the right time.
Lessons From Small Business Failures
Growing up, working my first jobs and going to university living in a small seaside town on the Sunshine Coast taught me a lot.
I learnt that local businesses are the heart and soul of the community, oozing with dedication and passion. I found that business owners are willing to do anything for their customers and community, so much so that they tend to look past the hard stuff in business. And this is usually the stuff that will eventually make or break a business.
Seeing so many businesses fail due to a lack of solid financial foundations, then impacted the owners as well as their staff, not just at a job level but also on a personal level. I saw how it affected their home life, their family life, their confidence, and even their mental health. And this is what has driven me to help more business owners succeed in the long term, by making them financially fit and strong.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been intrigued about how businesses make confident decisions daily and the impact this can have on profits. After working with hundreds of businesses over the years and seeing lots of success and failure, it made me realise just how important it is to have strong financial foundations alongside business strategy. It doesn’t matter what industry they’re in, how big or small the business is, or how long they’ve been in business there is always potential for growth.
My Story
Starting my career as a Tax Accountant (yes, I know how unexciting that sounds), I took an inquisitive journey through the world of understanding numbers. From helping new entrepreneurs set up their business and coaching them through the finances to working in medium scale businesses as a management accountant and finance manager where operations met the numbers, it all fed my curiosity.
But a deeper, more powerful passion ignited alongside this curiosity, and this gave me the idea to start Beyond CFO, a business that helps other businesses link their strategy with their financials to bring success. Through Beyond CFO, I bring together over 15 years of skills and experience across all levels of business strategy and financial information to apply proven concepts and reach success in a quicker, more formulated way.
The thrill of helping small business owners understand the big picture, breaking it down into simple bite-sized actionable components and applying that to their business decisions is what really excites me. The feeling of pure joy from creating those AHA! moments for you is why I serve businesses like yours.
Qualifications & Memberships
Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting (GradDipCA), 2011
Bachelor of Business (Accounting), University of Sunshine Coast, 2006
Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, 2015
Member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, 2021-22
Helping Others
Each month I give back to the community through the Wonder Worker charity. Wonder Workers are a very special group of people who are making a continued and profound impact on the lives of sick kids, through the support of planned research, equipment, and patient support programs.
This year I have also been participating in the mentoring element of the Boosting Female Founders Initiative run by Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. I have been providing targeted support to women owned and led start-ups to:
• scale into domestic and global markets
• help foster female entrepreneurship
• harness the full potential of their start-up phase.
Now you know a bit more about me, if you like what you see feel free to reach out and let’s chat about you and what you need.
