9 steps to set up your Office of the CEO budget

CEOs, Chiefs of Staff and Executive Assistants, if you don't budget for your Office of the CEO, your executive office will become second-class. You won't know where to make strategic investments to optimize your executive office and you'll fall behind your competition. So how do you budget for your CEO Office? 

Here are 9 steps to set up a budget for your Office of the CEO:

1. Review your company's goals  

Review your company KPIs and OKRs. Identify which ones that you can impact the most with your Office of the CEO. For example, you can boost company revenue by increasing CEO touchpoints with strategic customers, new prospects and GTM partners.

2. Review your CEO's goals  

Review your CEO's KPIs and OKRs. Align all activities in your Office of the CEO to each goal. Say your CEO wants to establish a better social media presence to advance the company brand recognition in the market. Your CEO Office can operationalize CEO posts and audience engagement on LinkedIn.

3. Quantify the impact of your Office of the CEO  

Now that you have reviewed your CEO's and your company's KPIs and OKRs, it's time to quantify your Office of the CEO impact. For example, you can make the case that your Office of the CEO has increased topline revenue by 10%, reduced customer churn by 7% or accelerated execution of your product roadmap by 2x. Remember, the more successful you are at drawing a clear line between your CEO Office and your CEO and company goals, the more successful you will be in unlocking more budget.

4. Gather financial information and conduct spend analysis for your executive office  

Collect historical data about the investments you have made to date for your Office of the CEO. Expenses can include headcount, training, coaching, team offsites, industry reports, technology, and consultants. Complete spend analysis and create trend lines to understand the trajectory of your budget over time.

5. Define your development roadmap for the CEO Office  

Next, it's time to figure out your Office of the CEO roadmap. This defines future investments in your executive office based on previously identified development areas, like Office of the CEO offsites, better decision protocol, and board prep optimization. Reference this playbook’s section on how to develop your roadmap here [[insert link to 2.2]].

6. Quantify your Office of the CEO expenses 

With your Office of the CEO roadmap and past expense analysis in hand, it's time to project next fiscal year's budget. Outline fixed costs (salaries), variable expenses (technology and bonuses) and one-time expenses (training, coaching, development and consulting).

7. Benchmark your budget against other Offices of the CEO

Reference industry reports and speak with Office of the CEO peers from similarly sized organizations in similar sectors. Make sure that your budget asks are within standard industry ranges. If you're below industry standard, make note of how you can increase the budget. If you're above industry standard, make sure you have a solid business reason for the ask.

8. Gain budget approval from your CEO, CFO, and/or COO

Combine the elements above into a persuasive, compelling business case. These include your quantified Office of the CEO impact on your company and CEO, your defined Office of the CEO roadmap, and your proposed, industry-aligned budget. Follow your formal budget approval process and get sign off from your CEO, CFO and/or COO.

9. Monitor and track your Office of the CEO budget

As your next fiscal year unfolds, assign an owner to monitor and track your executive office's budget. Make sure you stay below budget and proactively raise spend issues as they come up.

To dive deeper into budgeting strategies for the Office of the CEO and ensure your executive office isn’t left behind, connect with Mackenzie Lee, Cedar CEO, on LinkedIn here for more insights and updates.