Why Costbuster?

Simply said, because the devil is in the details and details are spoken by the numbers in business, but we all know details are boring, right? Well maybe they can be marinated to tell a story!

Whether you are a grocery store stocking up different brands and items, or a service provider , you need to know how to spend your efforts to get your bucks maximized. That requires smart data and simulation prior to business structuring or venture launch.

I believe in gut feel and business sense, and I have seen some people with great intuition to steer their businesses with pure gut feel. However, I still believe that those successful businesses have left significant money on the table if decisions were unaccompanied by data , analysis and financial modelling . Almost like squeezing an orange halfway and throwing it away.

Ok if this is the case, and I believe not many would debate this, why would a start up not not use help from a finance expert to model their business, to analyse the actuals, project the business potential and define meaningful targets and kpi’s?

Reasons are many but here is my view based on my experience in business life, after having worked in many different industries, corporate and privately owned :

· The founder has pre-conceived ‘truths’ and does not feel the need for these to be tested by numbers

· The instinct of an entrepreneur is to jump in the water and tell you after if it is cold or warm , which is the fuelling source of ventures, so I am in awe of this courageous steak of entrepreneurs.

· Bad taste in mouth from prior experience - Often the numbers worked on does not provide more data than what the founder/venturer already knows. This happens when the finance business partner provides off the shelf service . I had the priviledge to hear a very succesful entrepreneur say to a consultant – ‘I don’’t need to pay you to tell me the time on the watch I am wearing , I can check my own watch, tell me more than that!’

· Finance people over complicating communication to the venturer: this feeling intimidates the venturer if they are not academically adequate to follow all the jargons and terminology. Be simple , explain everything like you explain to a small child or your grandmother (or just mine!:) , after all behind every number there is a real life event , connect the numbers to these, when communicating. That is my secret sauce, no longer a secret I guess.

At Costbuster, when I set out my journey to help businesses thrive those were the principles I promised myself I would stick to and hence came up with my company name.

I believe that a good finance consultant is actually a business partner. Jump right

into the shoes of the venturer , put those virtual goggles on and take a journey in his shoes, build the numbers or interpret the existing ones with that vision.

Slice and dice the business to identify futile efforts and spend, project the business to define the biggest potentials, question everything from scratch form a cost and benefit perspective.

In founding Costbuster LLC, I wanted to offer businesses my special edge with having lived the busines realities in both worlds as an ex CEO of a multi country, multi business line organization and a CFO of many multinationals .

Looking forward to digging my teeth into your numbers!