Founded in 2008, JMI Sports is a full-service collegiate marketing firm providing the highest quality management of athletics multimedia rights. Serving clients across the United States, JMI Sports is a highly regarded project manager for the development of collegiate and professional sports facilities.
Dean Dorton spoke with Kate Haywood, Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff at JMI Sports, to take a deep dive into their operational team’s experience with Dean Dorton’s managed accounting and financial outsourcing (Dean Dorton AFO) services.
THE CHALLENGE
Before using Dean Dorton’s outsourced accounting services, JMI Sports was managing everything internally through QuickBooks with a single employee. One of the biggest barriers the organization faced with QuickBooks was the lack of a broader lens of visibility into their financial data, which hindered the capability to evaluate new business opportunities and initiatives in a timely manner.
Due to having a small team, another challenge JMI Sports faced was the inability to dedicate employees to accounting tasks. This resulted in multiple people constantly jumping in and out of financial activities—which in turn increased the risks of reporting errors and productivity loss.
PIVOTAL MOMENT
As JMI Sports started to see consistent business growth, its financial management processes became more complex. Poised with a significant growth opportunity, but unable to venture down the path of internal expansion, JMI Sports engaged with Dean Dorton’s AFO team through local relationships.
Dean Dorton provides accounting and financial services through intuitive, cloud-based accounting technology that the team at JMI Sports also has access to anytime, anywhere. Aside from 24/7 access to their real-time financial data, JMI Sports benefits from multidimensional dashboards and measurable metrics to track continuous business growth.
“Bringing Dean Dorton on board allowed us to engage with an entirely new industry and grow our company exponentially, rapidly.”
— KATE HAYWOOD, EVP AND CHIEF OF STAFF AT JMI SPORTS
BENEFITS OF AFO SERVICES
The biggest benefit that JMI Sports saw by teaming up with the Dean Dorton AFO team is the ability to grow quickly and contract the manpower, along with associated costs, as they need. The growth and response time necessary for clients was not manageable with just the internal team.
“The Dean Dorton AFO team is incredible at behaving like they are an internal entity in terms of both managing effective/positive work relationships and availing themselves as needed—we never feel like we are part of a juggling act with many clients—while also holding
— KATE HAYWOOD, EVP AND CHIEF OF STAFF AT JMI SPORTS
themselves apart as professionals who treat us as respected clients.”
Additionally, JMI Sports now has monumentally stronger records, models, and financials from the breadth of knowledge and industry experience that Dean Dorton’s team brings to the table. From tax implications, GAAP accounting, bank reconciliation, and multi-entity management, the AFO team is able to provide expertise in each of these areas.