David Lightfoot

David Lightfoot

experience. Most of the last 25 years David has served as Controller, Chief Financial Officer or Vice President of Finance for small and medium-sized businesses. He also has operations experience and has worked as a CEO, giving him a broad business perspective.

Recent Posts by David Lightfoot:

Well, That Escalated Quickly!

Two weeks ago, I wrote in this blog that the chance of a recession being triggered by the COVID-19 as being “Probable.” This situation has changed very quickly. At this point, we are way past “Probable.” We are in the early stages of a recession. You heard it here second. The stock market, which is always about the future, was the first to tell us that a recession is upon us.
 
The questions, at this point and in my mind are, how bad will it be and how long will it last?

Topics: Profitability Forecasting Economic Trends

The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing vs In-house

Outsourcing of various functions is not a new topic; it has been a trend for 20 years or more. It really started with the idea of sticking to a company’s ‘core competencies’ and outsourcing (or just getting rid of) things outside core competencies. What I’m talking about here is true outsourcing, not just making employees contractors to try and avoid payroll taxes and HR compliance issues.

Any function can be outsourced. I’ve heard of virtual companies that have only one employee, and that employee is the CEO and owner of the business. In the case I’m thinking about, the owner had outsourced product design, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, sales and accounting. I guess the ultimate step would be to find a company that offered outsourced CEO services and outsource that too.

Topics: Profitability Hiring Outsourcing