👋Hey there,
Want to move up the FP&A ranks faster?
Deliver a little extra financial analysis.
It helped us meet more people, learn new things, and get promoted faster.
Tune in to hear what extra financial analysis we did.
And stay tuned after our off-the-charts closing music for an after-the-pod conversation about pivot tables and marketing yourself.
Listen on
Curiosity Leads to Learning (and Networking)
Your job has a specific scope of work:
✔️Tasks
✔️Departments
✔️People
Eventually, your learning will cap out until your next job begins or you get a new scope of work.
Don’t wait for the new job or scope of work to start learning new things.
Start right now.
By doing extra analysis that benefits others outside of your current job scope.
🔥TIP: Here are all the FP&A job levels and how you can reach them.
Show Notes
00:20 - Don’t knock doing a little extra—it can lead to a lot of upside
01:35 - Being genuinely curious leads to learning
01:55 - Analyzing failed payments w/ segmentation = cash flow opportunity
03:02 - Leadership wants analysis—then an action plan to improve results
03:30 - SURPRISE—quick wins can come from extra analysis
03:51 - Doing VMaP analysis can give revenue performance clarity
06:11 - Use analytical frameworks that work everywhere—rinse and repeat
06:46 - Continuous learning and networking—all from being curious
08:08 - Pivot tables and SQL—tools that help you do extra analysis
09:20 - Be a marketer—do good work for people, they will be your best promoter
Why Delivering Extra Financial Analysis Helps Your Career
15 years ago we built a website for a friend’s business.
We had ZERO experience building websites.
Why did we do it?
We were curious how the process worked and we wanted to help our friend.
The results?
✔️A website was built that generated sales
✔️We acquired skills to build a website (which helped build FP&HEY) 🙏
✔️Our friend is forever our reference for future job opportunities
You don’t need to build a website to spring your FP&A career.
Instead do extra financial analysis.
You’ll acquire new skills, grow your network, and maybe help your company improve results.
You just have to be a little curious.
How Analyzing Failed Payments Helped Cashflow
Cash is kind of a big deal.
Yarty helped a small company generate more of it.
By analyzing failed payments and segmenting customers to understand the drivers.
And at the request of his executives, he collected the money by:
💪Creating an action plan to collect failed payments
💪Selecting a software vendor to help automate failed payment collection
💪Reporting progress
Sometimes FP&A jobs can take on operational tasks.
Which helps you learn a bunch of skills you didn’t think you’d learn.
How VMaP Drove Revenue Performance Clarity
Without revenue, your business doesn’t survive.
So when revenue starts dropping below expectations, you better figure out why.
Which Drew did—by accident.
He used volume, mix, and price analysis to assess shipping and product revenue performance.
🔥TIP: Here’s your essential guide to doing VMaP analysis.
Because he was curious—no one asked him to do it.
The result?
A way better understanding of revenue performance that executives took notice of.
Which resulted in a CFO-sponsored project to do more VMaP analysis.
And some awesome trips to Canada and Spain.
Use Simple Tools to Do Financial Analysis
You don’t need much to whip up a garage project-style financial analysis.
Start with a spreadsheet (Excel is amazing).
Ask your boss for data (SQL can help, so can ChatGPT).
And leverage pivot tables, data tables, and maybe some PowerQuery.
Not sure how to use these tools?
Read up to learn and watch your productivity skyrocket.
🔥TIP: Here’s how to speed up your learning using ChatGPT.
Conclusion: A Little Extra Can Go a Long Way In Your Career
You are capable of doing amazing things (not just FP&A).
And figuring out what you are capable of can happen as fast as you want it to.
By putting yourself out there.
And trying to help your company and co-workers grow.
What extra financial analysis have you done to help accelerate your career?
Share your experiences by replying to this. We read and reply to every email.
Now go have fun making an impact on your business and your career!
See you next week 👊
Cheers,
Drew & Yarty
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Disclaimer: This content is not investment advice or financial advice. The views expressed and stories told are our own. We may be investors in the companies discussed. Do your due diligence when considering applying what you learn.
How Delivering Extra Analysis Can Grow Your FP&A Career