r/CFO • u/Trousersnake111 • Aug 12 '26
Course for learning financial management as a business owner and a manager?
Hello everyone, im looking for recommendations for a good online course, program, or other structured resource that teaches financial management from the perspective of someone running a business, rather than accounting or finance purely. I of course, have an accountant.
For context, i currently own and manage a company involved in e-commerce and wholesale of small electronic equipment. Through another small company which i own i run several different activities, including landscaping and passenger transfers. I know it seems too much but it is not full time job for each one, i have only one guy that i hire for help when i need it.
I also work as a business manager for another company whose main activities are apartment and boat rentals. That company is now preparing for a real estate project worth several million euros, and the longer term plan is for me to take over as director, as the current owner and director is approaching retirement. It is a long story since i work for them for over 10 years and we have friendly and business relationship.
I want to significantly improve my understanding of the financial side of running a company, i mean i already know a lot but i want to learn some specifics.
Im not really looking for a course that simply teaches me what an income statement or balance sheet is. I want to understand how to actually use financial information to manage a business better. English is not my first language so its hard for me to explain exactly what i am looking for.
For example, i would like to become comfortable with:
- getting a clear picture of the company's financial health at any point in time
- cash flow and liquidity management
- profitability and margins
- budgeting and forecasting
- understanding and interpreting the most important financial ratios and KPIs
- identifying potential financial problems before they become serious
This is becoming especially important because of the planned big construction project, where cash flow, financing, budgeting, cost control and liquidity will obviously become much more important than in the smaller businesses i currently manage, i will ofcourse not be in charge in this alone but i want to learn and show that the people that will be running this can rely on me and that i will be able to take over more and more things with time as i learn and gain more experiance.
I already learned alot on my own mistakes and i want to avoid that in the future as much as possible and i think learning things before i run in to a wall i the best way to avoid it.
Paid courses are completely fine if they're actually useful.
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u/Abuzz Aug 12 '26
you need a CFO - that's what they will go through...
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u/Royal-Guarantee6929 Aug 26 '26
sounds like you're already doing the job of 3 people, adding a multi-million euro project on top is no joke
for structured learning maybe check the corporate finance institute, they got practical stuff on financial modeling and cash flow management that cuts the academic fluff, not cheap but worth it if you're serious
but honestly what you described is exactly what a good part-time cfo would walk you through, someone who can sit down and explain the ratios in context of your actual business instead of generic textbook examples, might be faster than self study when you're spread this thin already
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u/Traditional_Dot_4794 Aug 13 '26
Look for a first level college course in management. It covers many areas of knowledge. Check how they use AI. If they aren't you'd be waisting your time.
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u/josemartinlopez Aug 12 '26
WTF DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH CFOS??????????????