LAVOIE + BESPOKE SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT CASE STUDY

LAVOIE + BESPOKE SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT CASE STUDY

See why this award-winning Charlotte Sports & Entertainment Marketing Agency uses Lavoie CPA as their financial strategy partner

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Company: Bespoke Sports & Entertainment

Founded: 2014

Specialty: Sports and entertainment consulting and experiential marketing agency

Location: Charlotte, NC

With over 50 years of combined experience in Sports & Entertainment Marketing, Bespoke’s founders, have seen their fair share of agencies come and go. They have worked with some of the largest names and most complex brands in the sports and entertainment industry. So, when they started their venture, they knew they needed more than just an accountant to supervise their financial stability. They needed a financial strategist that could confidently run major investor meetings and take control of the company’s future; and a firm that could manage expenses while also augmenting human resource needs.

Download the case study to learn how Lavoie helped the company grow year over year and work with award-winning brands.

“It’s simple, Lavoie helped us create the infrastructure we needed. From setting up accounts payable and HR policies to recommending affordable technology, Sharai Lavoie and her team were there to give us the day to day insights we needed to keep cash flowing, flexibility to focus on sales, and proactive recommendations that enabled us to scale at the right pace.”

Mike Boykin

CEO & Cofounder

A CPA firm that does NOT provide Tax or Audit services?

A CPA firm that does NOT provide Tax or Audit services?

The value in not providing traditional accounting services

When most people hear CPA they immediately think tax and audit.  Lavoie CPA does NOT provide either service.  So, what do we do?  We provide world class accounting bundled with leading accounting technology and Outsourced Accounting (Accounting as a Service) to help our clients succeed . But why don’t we provide tax or financial audit services?

  1. Our focus is helping grow your business.  We provide financial intelligence you can rely on to make informed financial decisions.
  2. We don’t want to become tax experts.  Staying on top of changes to tax laws and regulations is an exhaustive process. We rather partner with tax professionals and focus on what we do best – help grow your business!
  3. We can’t audit ourselves. Since we provide leading finance and accounting services, we can’t audit our own work.  However, our clients are always audit ready!

Why do clients come to Lavoie CPA since we don’t do tax or audit?

  1. We help grow sales.
  2. We turn finance into a strategic asset.
  3. We keep cost under control.
  4. We eliminate distractions and let our clients focus on what they do best.

Want to learn more? 

The Importance of Strategic Accounting

The Importance of Strategic Accounting

As automation, control, and period-end tasks are embedded within day-to-day activities, accountants are freed from manual work.

Freeing finance from manual work not only saves time that can be allocated to continuous process improvement and preventative controls, it also gives accountants access to game-changing, real-time data so they can provide analysis and business intelligence at the point of need.

Accounting technology is disrupting the way business is run, and accountants need to reskill and upskill to meet the demands of both internal and external stakeholders.

Benefits:

  • It’s an organization win.

Strategic accounting doesn’t just benefit finance.  Access to and quick analysis of real-time data helps the entire organization become more agile, responsive, and proactive.

  • Increased employee engagement and reduced hiring costs.

Bored, tired, burned out staff is a flight risk. But working on something meaningful, like strategy creation, increases engagement, investment, and ultimately, retention.

  • Functioning as a strategic force.

Today, finance organizations have access to the real-time information that is so crucial to functioning strategically.

This creates the opportunity for accounting and finance teams to function as a strategic force in the organization. CFOs, controllers, and other accounting leaders can now help the business act proactively instead of reactively by providing up-to-the-minute analysis and intelligence.

The Path to Success In the Modern Marketplace

Implementing necessary technologies can be expensive.  Documenting current state and designing desired future state and is often time consuming.   As a result, companies are turning to service providers to help with the process.  This may entail a consulting project, augmenting current staff or even outsourcing the finance and accounting department.

 

4 Things all Startups should consider Outsourcing

4 Things all Startups should consider Outsourcing

Founders create businesses because they have a passion or expertise in providing particular goods or services to market and often get caught up on focusing on items outside of their expertise. Being a startup means there’s always more work to do, and not enough time to do it. It is easy to get caught in numerous non-value add tasks that take anyway from working on the business. That’s why most success startups outsource certain tasks to companies or individuals who specialize in providing valuable time-saving services for a fee.

With all the advancements in technology, it’s easier and more convenient than ever to outsource. Here are five things you should consider outsourcing to experts.

1. Accounting & Finance Firms
Most entrepreneurs are not Accountants. However, understanding cash flows or analyzing profitability of a business is vital to its success. Too often startups neglect building an accounting process until profits go downhill or cash slowly drains away. Setting up an accounting process for your startup is critical to the long-term success. An accounting process is also important because it allows your business to look forward. Startups or small businesses that that don’t have an accounting process in place find themselves trapped by past actions or constantly worried about having enough money to pay bills.

In addition to accounting process, setting up an accounting system is important for your startup as it will allow you to see how your business is doing and allow you to make decisions to strategically position your business for growth.

Look for an outsourced accounting firm that does more than just bookkeeping. Partnering with someone that goes beyond debits and credits and gives advice on such things as cashflow will help set you up for success. Technology is vital to help provide necessary insights.

2. Graphic Design and Web Development.
Coming up with a brand-defining logo, an attractive website, and print materials can be extremely time consuming and difficult to get right. Using a professional graphic designer will help your business look its best. They understand a lot of things that you may overlook. Whatever your goals, there’s a graphic designer with the talent, aesthetic sensibilities, and visual skills to fulfill your vision and enhance your company brand.

Look for a graphic designer that offers web development to help streamline the process and provide a unified message.

3. Web Research.
Prospecting for new business and keeping up with the latest developments in your industry can be time consuming and daunting. A web researcher can research information you, whether it’s gathering information and statistics for an upcoming presentation or looking up the names of companies and contacts for a leads list. They can also organize this material in a form that’s easy to use and read.

4. Administrative Assistance.
If half your day is spent sifting through your overflowing email inbox, returning call and making travel arrangement, a virtual administrative assistant (VA) may be just what you need to streamline that frustrating process and keep you from being inundated by a constant stream of on administrative tasks that keep you from more value-added items.

Before you waste your time on something that is not in your expertise, consider outsourcing. This will make your to-do list shorter and free you up to focus on the things you’re best at and that generate the most income for your business.

Accounting the Key Strategic Advantage?

Accounting the Key Strategic Advantage?

Most companies that are thriving view accounting as a strategic function. Companies relying on bookkeeping have a hard time keeping up in today’s changing climate. Bookkeeping by itself does not provide opportunities.  In a fiercely competitive work environment, companies that properly manage finance can grow and protect themselves from risk.

The opportunities are exciting for the future but it also comes with lots of challenges.  Too many companies are stuck looking into the past because of lack of expertise and or technology.  It is important to understand the past, but essential to have the knowledge and tools to be able to see in real-time and make educated predictions into the future.  As companies grow, hiring and retaining qualified employees can be a difficult task with lots of uncertainty.

A growing number are relying on Accounting as a Service (AaaS) to gain a competitive advantage. AaaS combines tactical and strategic accounting and includes leading accounting software.

Top 3 benefits of Accounting as a Service:

  • Focus on Core
    • Concentrate on growing the business
    • Efficiency gains
    • Eliminate staff turnover complexities
    • Ability to scale as you grow
  • Professional Expertise
  • Technology
    • Real-time visibility into your business performance
    • Increased security
    • Reduced IT headaches
    • Integration with other applications to eliminate information silos

Forward thinking companies put themselves a head of the curve.  Interested in learning more about Accounting as a Service?   Contact us.

10 Benefits of “Accounting as a Service”

10 Benefits of “Accounting as a Service”

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are often driven by a passion or cause – not spending hours on accounting and financial management.

SMBs face many financial challenges that affect cash flow including hiring new employees, increasing profits, employee healthcare, growing revenue and properly managing expenses.

Fortunately, technology has changed the game for SMBs. In the last decade, new technologies have enabled SMBs to compete with large enterprises.

Technology is only part of the equation.  Accounting as a Service (AaaS) is a hybrid solution that combines services with accounting software; thus, the client can enjoy the benefits of professional expertise and leading cloud technology. This lays a great foundation, allowing companies to focus on revenue generating activities.  They are able to focus on future growth instead of being stuck analyzing the past.

10 Benefits of  Accounting as a Service

  1. Real-time visibility to your business performance via dashboards
  2. Reduce financial risk
  3. Increase productivity
  4. Be financial audit ready at all times
  5. Improved process flow and automation
  6. Eliminate staff turnover
  7. Cost savings
  8. Increased security
  9. Reduced IT headaches (upgrades and maintenance)
  10. Integration with your other applications to eliminate information silos

Interested in learning more?