Helping Small-Medium Businesses Take Profitable Investment Decisions

Finances for a family or business are an area that a lot of people look for the solution. All of us want to double our wealth but do not have the right direction in multiplying the same. Financial advisory services from Aristotle helps you gain the financial independence and more.

When someone is looking for financial advice, they are going to be makes sure that they have someone who is reputable providing this information. Managing your personal finance should not be difficult task even if you are not financially intelligent. Aristotle are the experts who specializes in every discipline of life including all areas of finance.

Description of the business

Aristotle Consultancy is a one-stop shop offering end-to-end accounting, financial and advisory services. We were incorporated in 2010, with the idea that large corporate are not the only companies that should benefit from experienced finance professionals. Current market offerings in the finance and accounting domain are either geared towards servicing corporate and are very expensive or offerings are in the form of one-time, arms length piecemeal solutions without any ongoing advice and support which is required for young, high-growth companies. The company was founded to address the gap in the market for high quality, end-to-end, financial and advisory services under one umbrella at affordable prices.

We offer services in the following domains –

• Virtual CFO
• Accounts Outsourcing
• Payroll Services
• Advisory Services
• MNC’s entering India

What kind of clients/industry you have worked in the last 6 months? Name a few

Our target clientele is startups, SMEs, MNC s entering India and equity investors. Our clients include Jabong, IndiaMart, Fabfurnish, Gojavas, FoodPanda, TownRush, Zoffio, Phone Warrior, Pickingo, Eshopbox among others. We are not industry agnostics but developed expertise in servicing ecommerce companies.

Can you provide us a few client details for us to speak to?

Jabong is one such client where Aristotle has been since day one. Jabong as a company has been seeing a complete transformation in the E-commerce ecosystem in India. It has been a roller coaster ride for Aristotle too. As Aristotle started with Jabong, it learned things in no time. It not only managed the pace with changing systems both operational and regulatory, but in fact exceeded them.

Aristotle handled complete finance, accounting and payroll for Jabong for its first four years. As Jabong grew, it required bringing some processes in-house; Aristotle successfully did a smooth hand holding of such processes.

Aristolte is still working with Jabong in certain crucial areas and maintains a very healthy relationship.

But it would be difficult on our part to share details for you to speak.

What were the business hurdles when you started the company, and how did you improve the turnover?

Being a service industry, our “product” is not easily scalable. Each client requirement is unique. We have developed standard processes and reports for our client to the extent possible and we are in the process of adding more value-added services. Unlike other consultancy firms, we take complete ownership and responsibility of the services. We are involved both in the advice and execution of work.

Through a mix of internal resources and outside partners, we are able to/working on providing the whole range of services under one roof.

Further, we are able to leverage our relationships with outside agencies for financial services (compliance partners, banks, etc.) due to the large number of customer base and provide the benefit of these services to our clients.

We are able to provide solutions at a lower cost for the same quality of services due to our vast experience, domain industry knowledge, shared resources across different companies and established partners/vendors.

We have a team which works on a standard process and we keep on making it more standardized as much as we can, which is our key strength in moving forward in the Journey. With strong credibility and number of satisfied clients will surely help in gaining new clients at a much faster pace.

How did you transform your business from start-up to a successful one?

The Indian ecosystem is maturing and there has been a huge spurt lately in the number of equity investors. This has further encourages mushrooming of startups and faster scaling up of startups into small enterprises.

A CA Firm working for an SME, typically works on an arm’s length basis. They do the minimum statutory compliance, audit and taxation part. An entrepreneur needs to engage different entities for accounting, taxation, secretarial, HR compliance policies. A company of a bigger size has a full-fledged finance department which is costly to maintain. There is a big gap in the market for integrated, high level, deep engagement services in the financial services domain where we step in with our flagship product, Virtual CFO services.

We realize that the CEO of the company is time constrained, and he wants to focus on the core functions of his business – sales & marketing, operations etc. He requires a strong outside partner for his support functions – finance, legal, administration and HR. And he wants holistic services, so that his time and energy is not wasted in coordinating with different entities.

A startup or a SME requires higher quality services in its growth stage, a partner who can provide advice and set up the finance department. Further in the growth stage with a lot of business uncertainty, he needs flexibility and speed in mobilizing resources.

We go beyond the minimum statutory requirement of the client, helping set up the financial processes and controls, providing advice to the client as and when required, maintaining the company s books on a timely basis and providing management MIS to the client to help him take business decisions. Our engagements with our clients are deep and we work with them as our business partner.

We maintain bench strength of resources and provide our services on a shared service model. The shared service model helps us in keeping costs low and shared service and bench strength together provide us with the required speed and flexibility desired.

The transformation of making a successful company lies in the process and hard work. It ultimately results in –

Proven credibility – Our clients have continued with our services and renewed their contracts. We have long-lasting and deep business relations with them

Proven Growth – our operations started in 2011 and within few years we are strong team of 100+.
Enabling startup/SME growth in the ecosystem: We are an important component in a specific niche of the startup SME ecosystem enabling young companies to grow.

Describe why this company is the best example of business excellence. Do mention if you engage in social activities/CSR as a part of your business.

Aristotle has many E-commerce companies as clients; most of them are funded, and/or getting funded. Keeping the book clean and timely MIS, help a lot in making good investor relationship in such cases. Some of very popular names from Rocket Internet are in Aristotle’s kitty. Rocket Internet group itself bestows its trust in Aristotle’s services.

In its initial days Aristotle bagged big clients like Jabong and Rocket Internet. Working with such aggressive players helped Aristotle to develop speed and quality in service. Today, Aristotle handles around 40 odd happy clients. These clients are being served by a team of around 100 competent people, 20% of them are CA’s/ MBA’s and have work experience in companies like Big 4’s. Aristotle has been doubling its revenue every six months in recent times, and already expanded to geographies like Delhi-NCR, Bangalore and Chennai.

What makes your products or services excellent? You can list few USPs

To summarize, our USPs are:

• Targeting an untapped segment of the market (Virtual CFO)
• Lower cost for same quality of services
• Speed and flexibility in mobilizing resources
• Strong relationships with business partners
• Range of services under one roof
• Ownership/Responsibility of processes

How well does this company communicate its mission or vision?

Our mission is to provide support in advisory, financial and outsourcing related matters to entrepreneurs, business houses and corporate world, enabling them to focus on core business issues and serving their customer in more efficient manner.

We have been providing our services to many young companies who cannot afford full-time high-quality professionals in finance and legal domain. At the same time, it is at the beginning of their growth stage that they require broad range knowledge, guidance, and support and compliance management.

In a young, high growth company, the CEO is overwhelmed with day-to-day tasks and loses focus on strategic issues. We take care of all the finance, legal and compliance issues taking the headache off his head.

In lot of domains, e.g. FDI and Taxation, legal and finance functions interact with each other. By having the two functions under one roof, we are able to give solutions considering both aspects and save the CEO’s time in coordinating between the two functions.

We also set up processes and controls in place as per the client requirement, setting the stage for smooth future growth of our clients.

Have you made a positive impact within your industry? If yes, how?

Aristotle Consultancy is a one-stop shop for Accounts, finance and advisory services for young, high-growth companies. Current market offerings in the finance and legal domain are EITHER – very costly and geared towards servicing corporate OR offerings are in the form of one-time, arm’s length piecemeal solutions without any ongoing advice and support which is required for young, high-growth companies. The company was founded in 2010 to address the gap in the market for high quality, end-to-end, and legal and financial services under one umbrella at affordable prices.

We work as partners with our clients working closely with them, advising them and taking full responsibility for our work. Timely advice helps in preventing costly delays and fines at a later stage. In short we work as their finance and legal department. We setup financial processes and controls in place, making the company ready for future growth and expansions.

Do you offer a superior level of customer service? If yes, how?

A startup or a SME requires higher quality services in its growth stage, a partner who can provide advice and set up the finance department. Further in the growth stage with a lot of business uncertainty, he needs flexibility and speed in mobilizing resources.

We go beyond the minimum statutory requirement of the client, helping set up the financial processes and controls, providing advice to the client as and when required, maintaining the company s books on a timely basis and providing management MIS to the client to help him take business decisions. Our engagements with our clients are deep and we work with them as our business partner.

We maintain bench strength of resources and provide our services on a shared service model. The shared service model helps us in keeping costs low and shared service and bench strength together provide us with the required speed and flexibility desired.

Unlike other consultancy firms, we take complete ownership and responsibility of the services. We are involved both in the advice and execution of work.

Through a mix of internal resources and outside partners, we are able to/working on providing the whole range of services under one roof.

To contact Aristotle write to us on request@smejoinup.com

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