When you ask new EFM Associate Nigel Day about his extensive career in finance and financial management, he describes it in refreshingly simple terms: 

“I’ve spent a lot of time sitting in rooms with executive teams and other non-Finance folks, understanding how I can best add value to the business and drive better financial outcomes.” 

It’s a theme that runs through nearly all of his past roles as Finance Director (FD) and in other board-level positions: a resolutely commercial focus that positions finance as forward-looking and open to calculated risk. 

He calls it a “speculate to accumulate” mindset — one that’s always balanced with accountability and performance monitoring to ensure progress towards key performance indicators (KPIs) and strategic objectives. 

For Nigel, working with entrepreneurs and business owners is both energising and inspiring. He sees his function as a natural complement to their vision and creativity — operating behind the scenes, but critical to enabling others to do what they do best. 

The human side of business is also especially important to Nigel. Having worked extensively in the travel and leisure sector — an industry that still holds his interest today — he has mentored teams across geographies and cultures, and throughout every stage of business growth. His experience spans both managing and developing high-performing teams. 

“It costs far more to recruit a new team member than to upskill an existing one,” he says. “So I get a great deal of satisfaction from seeing people improve.” 

About Nigel 

A CIMA-qualified management accountant, Nigel has held a wide variety of senior roles in businesses ranging from large corporates to family-run SMEs — often with responsibilities extending far beyond the purely financial. 

Notably, in senior non-finance executive positions, he has led major expansion projects, refurbishments, and even the rapid build of a call centre. But his approach to delivering complex projects is refreshingly straightforward: 

“Make sure all the experts are in the room at the same time when decisions need to be made,” he explains. “Then keep the agreed work on track. It’s basically a finance skill set, but applied cross-functionally.” 

Nigel thrives in agile, smaller businesses where meaningful decisions can be made quickly. While he’s experienced more than his fair share of corporate bureaucracy earlier in his career, it’s definitely not his preferred working style. 

He listens closely to others’ perspectives — especially when they bring deep specialist knowledge — and contributes his own to help reach considered, workable solutions. 

What Nigel Will Help EFM to Do 

With considerable experience in both corporate and SME environments, Nigel brings a powerful combination of mutually supportive skill sets to the table.  

As he explains: 

“The corporate background delivers world-class training on how finance should be done — but the SME experience teaches you which elements of that are actually appropriate for smaller businesses and will work well without being too onerous.” 

“It’s about using the strengths of big-company experience to identify weaknesses in SME operations — and knowing exactly which levers to pull to turn things around.” 

Although he’s skilled in both reporting and modelling finance, Nigel is clear about his main priority: making businesses more efficient. That means reducing costs, improving processes, and always keeping an eye on the revenue line to drive greater value. 

Along the way, he puts his exceptional communication skills to good use. 

“You can’t explain finance using a spreadsheet — that’s just the analysis,” he says. “You need to tell the story behind the numbers and personalise it. For example: ‘This is what it means for your salary expectations,’ or ‘This is how we could improve staffing levels going forward.’” 

In short, Nigel sees his Finance role in SME environments as that of the “trusted advisor,” building relationships, demonstrating respect, and working closely with commercially focused leadership and teams to fuel – not just record – measurable uplifts in performance. 

In His Own Words 

Nigel says of joining EFM: 

“Having led finance in many organisations over the course of my career, I saw EFM as an unmissable opportunity to bring those skills within reach of SMEs — as an outsourced Finance Director, without the full-time FD salary bill that many SMEs simply can’t afford.” 

“EFM is also a wide-reaching network of part-time Finance Directors and other finance professionals who share work, leads, and expertise. Its flexible model means both my clients and I can work in the way that suits us best.” 

Find out more about Nigel here | Follow Nigel on LinkedIn here