WESTERN GOVERNORS UNIVERSITY
Developing Your Finance Skills
Finance Skills
If you want to excel in today's competitive business environment, possessing strong finance skills is essential.
Whether you aim to improve financial decision-making or get into a finance-related career, acquiring and using these skills can significantly impact your career growth.
Let's explore why finance skills are crucial, their benefits, examples of their application in the workplace, and how you can acquire and use them effectively.
What Are Finance Skills?
Finance skills are the abilities that empower you to manage and handle financial matters effectively. They include competency in budgeting, financial planning, investing, risk management, and analyzing financial data.
Mastering these skills enables you to make informed choices, mitigate risks, and contribute to the financial success of organizations.
Why Are Finance Skills Important?
Finance skills provide several advantages to employees and organizations. Here's why they are important in various fields:
- Budgeting: Finance skills equip you to create and manage budgets effectively. By understanding financial statements, analyzing cash flows, and forecasting expenses, you can make sound financial decisions, allocate resources efficiently, and drive organizational growth.
- Risk management: Proficiency in financial risk management enables you to identify, assess, and mitigate financial risks that organizations face. By implementing robust risk management strategies, you can protect assets, optimize performance, and ensure business continuity.
- Negotiating power: Your negotiating capabilities will allow you to engage in financial discussions to secure favorable terms. For example, you will have an advantage when negotiating contracts, investment opportunities, or financing terms.
What Are the Benefits of Having Finance Skills?
Acquiring and applying finance skills yields numerous benefits, opening doors to career progression and success.
Here are a few ways finance skills can positively impact your professional journey:
- Knowledge of financial software: Proficiency in financial software enhances efficiency and accuracy in financial analysis, reporting, and decision-making. By using software tools effectively, you can streamline processes and save time.
- Insight into business operations: Your ability to comprehensively understand financial data and its impact on overall business operations, will equip you to contribute recommendations and optimize resource allocation to drive financial performance.
- Assessing financial strategy: Finance skills enable you to evaluate financial strategies, analyze investment opportunities, and assess their potential returns. This ability allows you to make informed decisions, minimize risks, and maximize long-term returns.
- Improving financial decision-making: You’ll be empowered to make informed financial decisions. By building strong financial planning skills, you can analyze financial data, assess risks, and develop strategies that ensure long-term financial sustainability.
- Assessing risk management: You’ll have the ability to identify and mitigate risks by conducting thorough financial analysis, anticipating potential risks, and developing risk management strategies to protect your organization's financial health.
- Improving investor relations: Developing finance skills is beneficial if you intend to be in an investor relations or corporate finance role. These skills will enable you to effectively manage investment portfolios, attract and retain investors, and enhance stakeholder relationships.
- Improved financial performance evaluation: Finance skills enable you to assess your organization's financial performance. You can evaluate profitability and financial health by conducting financial statement analyses, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing corrective measures to drive financial success.
Examples of Finance Skills in the Workplace
Finance skills find practical application in various job roles and industries. Here are some specific examples of how you can utilize these skills in daily work settings:
Financial Planning
Finance skills enable you to create comprehensive financial strategies, establish realistic goals, and monitor progress toward financial objectives. These skills are also helpful in conducting financial analysis, developing budgets, and making informed recommendations to drive financial stability and growth.
Financial Negotiation and Decision-Making
You’ll be equipped to effectively assess financial options, evaluate risks, and negotiate favorable terms. This skill empowers you to make sound financial choices, optimize resource allocation, and achieve desired outcomes.
Cost Analysis and Control
Financial skills are crucial when conducting cost analyses, identifying cost-saving opportunities, and implementing effective cost-control measures. You can utilize financial data to optimize operational efficiency, reduce expenses, and enhance profitability.
Financial Reporting
You’ll be proficient in preparing accurate financial statements, analyzing financial performance, and communicating financial results to stakeholders. These proficiencies ensure transparency, support decision-making, and foster trust within organizations.
Compliance and Regulation
Your ability to understand relevant laws, regulations, and compliance requirements can be used to maintain legal and ethical standards, avoid penalties, and safeguard the reputation of your organization.
Performance Evaluation
Performance evaluation is an important step in assessing and evaluating the financial performance of an organization. By analyzing financial reports, conducting variance analysis, and benchmarking against industry standards, you can identify areas for improvement, measure progress, and make necessary adjustments to enhance financial performance.
Business Valuation and Investment Analysis
Mastering finance skills is valuable when you need to value businesses, evaluate investment opportunities, and assess potential returns. With these skills, you can conduct due diligence, analyze financial models, and make informed investment decisions to maximize stakeholder value.
How Can I Use Finance Skills?
The finance skills you acquire can be valuable in various personal and professional settings. Here are several ways you can utilize your finance skills:
- Personal finance: You can apply your finance skills to manage your own money effectively. These skills will enable you to create a budget, track your expenses, and save for short-term and long-term goals. Concepts like investing, retirement planning, and risk management help you make informed financial decisions.
- Entrepreneurship: If you have an entrepreneurial mindset, your finance skills can help you start and manage your own business. You'll need to understand financial statements, cash flow management, funding options, and financial planning to ensure the success of your venture.
- A career in finance: Your skills in financial analysis, budgeting, and forecasting will be highly relevant in different roles. Here are a couple of finance career roles that you can pursue with these skills:
- Finance analyst: You will use finance skills to assess the financial performance of companies, help with budgeting, and provide recommendations for investment decisions or financial strategies.
- Financial planner: Finance skills empower you to help individuals and families develop financial plans and provide recommendations on investment ideas, retirement planning, tax optimization, and insurance coverage.
- Investment manager: As an investment manager, you’ll use investment portfolios on behalf of individuals, institutions, or funds and maximize returns while considering risk management.
- Banker: Finance skills equip you to offer financial services to individuals and businesses, such as assisting clients in managing their finances, opening accounts, providing loans and credit facilities, and offering investment advice.
- Finance analyst: You will use finance skills to assess the financial performance of companies, help with budgeting, and provide recommendations for investment decisions or financial strategies.
- Consulting: You can offer financial consulting services to individuals or businesses. Your expertise in financial analysis, budgeting, and financial planning can assist clients in making informed decisions, improving financial performance, and optimizing their operations.
To explore more career paths where these skills are valued, check out our career guides to find a program that aligns with your interests and aspirations.
How Can I Learn Finance Skills?
At WGU, we provide comprehensive education programs emphasizing finance skills across disciplines.
Our School of Business offers courses that cover these skills extensively. For example, we offer a B.S. in Finance, an M.S. in Accounting, a B.S. in Accounting, and more. In these programs, you’ll learn to:
- Identify financial tools and techniques to inform financial decisions.
- Prepare financial reports for organization management teams.
- Interpret basic financial statements in a highly structured environment to assess limited performance.
- Create financial statements that include a balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flow, and statement of changes in owners' or stockholders' equity.
- Analyze financial statements to maximize productivity and enhance revenues.
- Create financial statements for the balance sheet and income statement.
- Analyze financial statements to determine the company's performance and debt ratio, using prior year sales and industry-standard return data.
- Analyze financial statements to determine how these statements impact the business.
Frequently Asked Questions
When highlighting your financial skills on a résumé or job application, focus on specific achievements and experiences that demonstrate your proficiency in finance skills.
Include relevant coursework, internships, or projects that showcase your ability to analyze financial data, make informed decisions, and manage budgets effectively.
Some specific financial skills employers look for include financial analysis, budgeting and forecasting, risk management, financial reporting, investment analysis, and knowledge of financial regulations.
To continue developing your finance skills throughout your career, consider professional certifications that validate your expertise, for example, Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certificates. These can enhance your credentials and demonstrate your proficiency to potential employers.
