We sat down with Nico, founder of Futsol, and the brand's accountant, Dave Sellick, of Sidgrove Accountants, to learn more about how a high level of strategic financial advisory is helping Futsol thrive in what is a challenging and convoluted marketplace — and how the brand is positioning itself ahead of this summer's Men's World Cup.
Firstly, an introduction to Futsol; a primarily menswear brand that’s inspired by the beautiful game. Think: football shirts with gorgeous prints inspired by gelaterias in Tuscany and shorts perfect for time spent on the beach. This year was also Futsol’s foray in autumn-winter fashion, which comes with its own set of new challenges, but it’s something that Nico believes is a real signal of growth.
The power of an astute and empathetic advisor
Nico says he’s been working with Dave for four years, allowing him to become a trusted advisor on all fronts for what is a complex business on the finance and operations side. The complexities that come with the running of a brand like Futsol are the varying suppliers in a number of different countries and the various timelines that come with partnering with those suppliers: "There's huge variance in the way we have to work with all Futsol's suppliers, but my approach is tactical, focusing on advising Nico and Futsol. Not charging fees for things such as payments, which with Apron are really quite straightforward anyway, is one way that I try to keep things empathetic and useful to what the brand needs."
Simplifying a complex network of costs and suppliers
To give context, Futsol has factory partners in Lithuania, Portugal and Italy, advisors around the whole of Europe and an ever-changing roster of creative producers from all over the world who support in crafting the storytelling of the brand. Nico explains this is core to the business: “to effectively do what we want to do with Futsol, we cast the net wide with our extended team and that’s really fun but it comes with a need to have our operations — while lean — running very smoothly, which is something Dave and his advice to use Apron really helped with.”
Apron allows Nico to sit with all those various supplier payments, view them holistically and make an effective weekly plan for how to address them, ensuring on-time payments but also, as Dave puts it, “payments that are coming from the person with the ultimate context of the business, the founder… Nico can sit in Apron and quickly review everything, coming up with all the knowledge of the bank accounts and cash flow; he has ultimate autonomy to make the finances make sense. I’m just here to help it make even more sense.”
What’s next
Dave paints a neat picture of how Futsol is currently operating with his guidance: “Nico is still trying to really build the foundations to springboard the brand forward, and without having huge capital. So the complexity comes more from the fact that it’s like we need to be savvy with our resources at this stage, while still looking at things pragmatically when and where they present opportunities for growth.
The next 12 to 18 months are really exciting for Futsol and Nico, as the brand gears up to build out their collections further, as well as ramping up more expansive brand efforts with the Men’s World Cup this summer, acting as something of a big milestone in their storytelling and business evolution. Nico feels that despite the lean nature of the Futsol team today, the operations are ready to scale alongside a P&L that could grow monumentally if the Futsol brand achieves Nico’s vision.