How Chad Landed His First $5K CFO Client in 30 Days

I am here today with Chad. Chad is a fractional cfo. He's got a ton of corporate finance experience. He's helped a ton of clients grow their business, and also he served a really, really large business, all in the same kind of field. And I brought him on here today to talk about a little bit of experience being a fractional CFO and working with us a little bit. Chad, super grateful to have you here.

Yeah, thankful to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Really easy. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your business, and what you do.

Yeah. So I started my fractional CFO firm back in October after meeting with you. It's called Blue Collar Pro cfo. I serve an H vac. Really? The trades H vac, plumbing, electrical, roofing, contractors. And my background as a CFO was five and a half years as CFO of a really large H vac wholesale distributor.

Okay, so you've done the thing as a full time cfo. Now you. You've moved to a fractional cfo. I'm curious, how did, how did you find us?

I don't know how you ended up on my Instagram, but there you were. And I just kept seeing your ads and I thought, man, this fractional thing sounds interesting. I think I could do that. So I clicked your ad and before I knew it, I was on a call with you and here we are.

Okay, gotcha. All right. So we found you're rolling around the Internet somewhere. Probably Facebook or an Instagram ad, I think. I think you and I talked on Instagram for a little bit first.

Yeah, that's right. I'm super. I don't know, I was super. I'm super skeptical of the Internet and so just. I think I sent you a dm just trying to understand more about what it is and what you do. And you were super gracious and patient and never felt pushy and ended up booking a call with you just to find out more about it and just kept liking what I was hearing. So kept going.

I know you weren't offering fractional CFO before coming to us, right?

That's right. No, it was. I'd never even really thought about it until I started seeing your ads.

Okay. And then you decided to work with us. I'm sure there's probably ads of other people out there. Is there anything that kind of stuck out to you or.

I don't know, I don't remember.

It was a while ago.

Yeah.

So I know you and I spent a lot of time together.

Right.

I know you've got Some other entrepreneurial ventures that you've grown, you signed some CFO clients. What. Is there anything in particular that kind of stood out when you and I worked together for you that was maybe particularly helpful?

Yeah, I think the most helpful thing was the exercise to define like, who is my clientele and who am I serving. And rather than trying to be a jack of all trades to everyone, it was like, let's define who you serve and serve them well and focus on that niche. And I think that was probably the most helpful and it has served me well up to this point.

We focus a lot here on the six week intensive structure and then it rolls into an ongoing, I think for you. When we sat down, we created your offer together. How helpful was that when going and approaching the client? Because you have a lot of skill. Like you're, you come from a pretty high skilled background. Was it helpful to have like the six week offer? Like, tell me, tell me about that because I know the six week intensive is a little bit different than what I see a lot of other people doing.

Yeah, it was incredibly helpful because I've never sold anything. Like I'm an accountant, so I'm not good at selling. And I guess what it made me realize is everybody's good at something. And that six week program that I put in front of clients just speaks to my strengths. And I don't really have to sell. I can just tell them what I can do and how I can help their business and it kind of sells itself. So it gave me a lot of confidence being in front of clients.

I remember the story of your first client, but you approached it a little bit of a different way. Can you, can you share how you kind of get that, got that first client?

Yeah. So the first client is a good friend of mine. And I didn't run this by you. I probably should have, but I just put my six week plan in front of him, just wanted his feedback and just said, hey, you own an H Vac company. Does this sound like too much of an accountant? Like, I need to translate this from accounting to like someone in your world. And I don't, I don't want to overwhelm them with accounting terms. I want to make sure that it's understandable. He started looking at it and he helped me edit it. And after, after he looked at it, he brought it back to me the next week and said, I think I want to do this with you. And that really wasn't my intention. He was my first client. You know, I gave him half off on the, you know, the six week plan. Just because I told him, I said, you're, you're the guinea pig here. I'm going to need more time to build out models and templates and that kind of thing. And in exchange, just for you being gracious and letting me take a little longer, you know, I'll cut that in half. And, and that's, that's been super helpful and I think just bolstered the relationship even further.

What did you, what did you end.

Up charging him up front instead of the 10?

And are you still.

I don't think he, in hindsight, I don't think he would have batted an eye at the 10, but I just, I knew it was going to take longer and I just wanted to make sure that he was getting value. So.

Makes sense. Get the first, first one in the door and then worry about growing them after that. Is you still working with them?

Yep.

What are you doing on an ongoing basis with them?

Yeah, so I've got, let's see, I, I write kind of an FPA report. It ends up being 18 pages. It sounds like a lot, but there's a lot of dashboards in there. Okay. And just walking through the three statements and just teaching and coaching like, hey, here's the FPA analysis of what happened this month. Here's, you know, I start off with an executive summary of high Level. Then we walk through the three statements and then I've got my recommendations at the end that, you know, these are the things that if you're wanting to accomplish them, here's the data I need. And, and then like I mentioned, I've got dashboards and that are easy to understand, but it's got KPIs that matter to them and help them understand the different segments and departments between their plumbing and H VAC businesses.

So I know when you and I were speaking over the phone the other day, because you used to work for a large company and now you're working for yourself. And that's a pretty big shift there. Talk to me about that shift.

It's not as scary as I thought. I wish I had done it sooner. I think anybody that's worked in a, in a big corporate job like you have, like I have, the paycheck's great, but it becomes a grind. And just the flexibility and the autonomy and the time with my family has been super rewarding.

I know this is you, I think you were telling me like you started working for yourself. Didn't, didn't one of your kids approach? You were like, I want to work for myself too. Is that. You told me that. Right?

Yeah. So my wife has a little business too, and my youngest daughter was just like, this is awesome that you guys both have your own business. I. I want to start a business. She wanted a Nintendo Switch and so she started a little pet sitting business with her sister and they paid for it in like two weeks, the Nintendo. So it was cool to see them get excited about. You don't have to be chained to a desk. You can make your own way.

That's. That's definitely something I see a lot of people get stuck in. Right? Because trained to go to college and get a fancy job and go up the corporate ladder. And once you get to a high enough position, it's go up the company ladder.

Right.

Somehow in the finance path, working for yourself never really seems like an option. And then we end up getting to where we are, at least me accidentally and you because you saw some guy's Instagram ad and here we are. World. World's a wild place. Where. Where do you think you'd be right now if we didn't have that conversation and you didn't see that of like, hey, I wonder, what's this fractional CFO thing?

You know, I'd probably be in the same spot I was back in October and, and it would be fine, but I'm thankful to be where I am right now.

If there's anyone on the fence who's thinking about working with us or maybe booking a call with us, what would you say to them?

Definitely book the call. Your team is incredibly helpful. I never felt pressure to do this when I met with you guys. I just felt more informed and educated and was excited about the opportunity to do it. But, you know, you don't have to jump off the deep end and just resign from your W2 today. You can start with one client with a nameless, faceless Instagram and Facebook account. And I mean, it's harder that way, but it is possible and just dip your toe into it and build it up slowly if you need to. You don't have to do it all at once.

I think people get a little, little stuck on that.

Right?

Like, I didn't, I didn't jump ship from my job until way more clients than I needed and I was making more from CFO than my job. I was like, oh, I don't need to do this anymore and haven't for a long time. But you know, you get stuck so much working and putting your head down.

So I think the thing that was scary for me was, if I start this thing and I've got to post ads on Facebook or Instagram, what if people from work see it? And, you know, I don't. I don't want to lose my job because of this, you know, and so, I mean, I think your team's even helpful with that in terms of, like, how to start this and do it well and do it on the side while keeping your job.

You can certainly get away with it. There's. It's a little harder. It's. It's easier to sell you than to sell a service.

Right.

But it's very possible. But you got to get a little crafty, and I think. I think that's right. Is there anything you want to add or anything else comes to mind of kind of some of our experience working together or just kind of thoughts on. On what. How you've. Your experience as a fractional cfo?

It's not as hard as I thought it was going to be. I mean, my skill set's there. I've done this for a long time. I'm just doing it for much smaller companies that need my help, and it's much less complicated work than I was doing in a previous role. So I don't know. I would just say bet on yourself and book a call and just see where it goes.

Chad, I appreciate you being here. Someone's watching this, and maybe they're looking for a fractional CFO place. It's good to reach out to you or maybe someone on your team if they're looking for a CFO in the. In the blue collar kind of trade space.

Yeah. Right now I just have the Instagram and Facebook, and it's just blue collar pro cfo. You can just send me a dm, my contact information, email and phone numbers on there, and I'd be happy to chat. See where it goes.

Chad, thank you so much. Appreciate you being here today.

Yep. Thanks.