Articles and White Papers
May 17, 2009
Kimberly D. Goessele of W Squared Inc. sits in a meeting
with Bob Kinard, CFO of HealthTeacher.
W Squared: Outsourcing firm offers 'right' financial advice
By Getahn Ward
Nashville, TN - For entrepreneurs looking to bootstrap, Kimberly D. Goessele and her partners at W Squared Inc. have an idea for you: let them handle all of your back office functions while you run your business.
While many entrepreneurs pursue startup ideas of their own, Goessele left Healthways, where she was vice president of value assurance, to help launch an information technology department at the then-fledgling W Squared.
"It allowed us to round out our offerings to clients," said Goessele, who worked with W Squared co-founders Shannon Farrington and Tammy Howell at another company. "We do everything but the CEO and the chief operating officer positions."
Since Goessele and Chief Information Officer Mark Farrington joined W Squared more than two years ago, the Brentwood-based company has seen its annual revenues almost quadruple to about $3 million from $800,000.
Health-care clients account for about a third of those revenues, including work for companies run by Goessele's former Healthways colleagues, such as Frazer Buntin of Silvercare Solutions and Justin Lanning of CredenceHealth.
W Squared's services include helping small and midsize companies target the right funding sources; serving as their finance and accounting departments; preparing monthly financial statements; outsourcing their back offices; and helping to refine business plans.
Using such outsourcing companies can give entrepreneurs an edge when they pitch potential investors, proponents say.
Goessele credits the entrepreneurial culture at Healthways - where she was part of a business technology group that operated like a separate company - for inspiring her to step into her role at W Squared.
"Our clients actually run their business, while we're taking care of making sure everyone gets a paycheck, making sure that you have money in the bank," she said of W Squared and its services.
This article continued by highlighting several other health-care entrepreneurs linked to Healthways, including CredenceHealth and Silvercare Solutions, both W Squared clients.
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