How This CPA Turned Fractional CFO Broke Free from Her 9-5!

I've always had that itch to go out on my own. I really just wanted to be able to control my schedule and my time. I want to, you know, be able to enjoy things in life outside of work. I like to golf, I like to, you know, work out, take care of myself. And you know, I love that freedom of being able to set my day how I want and also to feel like the effort I put in, I see the reward more directly rather than a corporate job where you're waiting years for a promotion or you're getting like a small raise every year. I like that working for myself. The more effort I put in, the more I usually see that in the bottom line of my paycheck.

Yeah, yeah, there's definitely a feeling of I've worked for a large company, made other people rich for a really long time, why not me? At least that's how I got here. So one thing that I find is interesting, Most people, accountants, CPAs, people who are in this field, they get into it because of the stability, right? Like, there's probably no more guaranteed path of, hey, if you work a long time in this field and you do the big four thing, you'll probably make a hundred thousand dollars a year before you're 30. And it's like, it's like a guaranteed, like path as long as you follow it. Not saying it's not hard, but it's like it's guaranteed. Just do the things, you'll get the results. And so that attracts a lot of people who are very stability focused. What do you think made you different? That you're like, all right, I've got all this knowledge, I want to work for myself.

I've always been maybe a little more comfortable with risk than other accountants. And I also, you know, when I thought about going out on my own, played out in my head like, what is the worst case scenario? If the worst case scenario is that I end up back where I am now in another year, then fine, at least I tried it. But being a cpa, it's not like you're ever going to go hungry. There's much work to be had. So I figured, you know, I would try it on my own. Even if I had to pick up some part time hours for a local firm or something, that that would still be worth it if it allowed me the lifestyle. And thankfully I didn't have to, you know, I was able to build up my own book of business. But I think a lot of accountants imagine the worst case scenario to be a lot worse than it actually is.

Okay, that, that makes tons of sense when you, when you look at that, when you decide to fully work for yourself. Did you have a couple clients beforehand or were you just like, turkey? Like, f this, I'm working for myself. Like, how was that transition?

Yeah, I had a few clients already, but it was definitely not enough to replace my corporate paycheck. And it was October, November of last year. So I was kind of at this crossroads because if I stayed in the corporate job through another tax season, I knew my progress in the business would kind of plateau. And it's a good time of year to get clients. The end of the year, everyone's looking for, you know, clients, clean up with their books, a new tax accountant. So I figured if I made the leap, then I could find some clients relatively quickly, which thankfully I was able to. I also stayed on as a consultant in my corporate job for like 10 hours a week for a few months. So that didn't, you know, cover all my personal expenses. But at least it gave me a little bit of stability enough to like pay some basic bills and know that I'd have that money coming in. So that's, you know, maybe something that some people don't always consider is like opportunity for 1099 or part time work where you already are.

Okay, that makes sense. What, what would you say to someone who's like on the fence of like, hey, I'm thinking about working for myself, I want to do it. It's scary. Like, what would you say to someone sitting on that fence?

Just take the leap. It's, it's worth it. I haven't regretted it for one day. Even though it's harder, it's, it's worth it to control your own destiny. And I think the, you know, the work that it takes to go out on your own is better than the regret that you'll feel if you don't, like, if you have that desire to create this life and business that you want, if you don't try, you're always going to regret it. And there's never going to be a better time than now. There's always a reason not to.

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. There's always going to be a reason not to do it. It's kind of like kids. It's like it's never going to be a good time to have kids. It's never going to be a good time to start your business. But like, we do it anyhow. When you're, you're looking about that and you're thinking about that you said October, November, does this kind of time that you're. Does this mark like one year fully on your own?

Yeah, at this point last year I had put my notice in, in my corporate job. I didn't actually leave till November, but yeah, at this point I had given the notice. So just about a year out of my own.

Okay, okay. So yeah, you're almost out of your, out on your own. Tell me about like some of the, some of the journey, right, like starting out, you know, you're a year into it now. Like tell me about that journey.

In the beginning it was just about, you know, getting enough clients to survive. And I found a lot of those initial clients through in person networking groups in my local area. And a lot of those were smaller business clients looking for bookkeeping and taxes. As we were coming into that next tax season and I started out thinking that I just wanted to build a little book of business, you know, enough to replace my old salary and keep me busy. I didn't want to hire a team or anything initially, but then I quickly saw that, you know, the only way to grow and get some freedom back in my life is to be able to delegate some stuff. So a few months ago started bringing on part time bookkeeper. Then for this next tax season, I'm going to have a part time tax person. Because one thing I've learned that I didn't know initially was how much time it takes to work on the business, not just in the business. When you're in a corporate job, you can work almost all billable hours on client work all the time because you don't have to worry about the marketing and networking and all the other things that go into running the business. I actually like that stuff and want to be able to devote more time to it. So that means some of the categorizing of the transactions monthly has to be done by someone else now.

Okay, that makes sense. When, when did you make that shift in your head from oh, like, like you started out, you're like, I want my own firm. Sounds like you quickly realized like, oh shoot, I own a job. When did you make that switch to I want to own a business and not a job? When, when did, when did that occur to you? Is it like, is there like a story or did something happen?

Yeah, I would say it was May of this year. After I, you know, the first few months it was just like get enough clients and get through the April 15th tax deadline. And then once I did that, I was reflecting back on those, on that first tax Season. And like, what worked? What didn't? Is this what I want to keep doing? And that's when I realized that, you know, I had to start thinking of myself as like a CEO or business owner and not just someone who owns my job, like you said. So that's when I started to think about, you know, what are the services I want to scale with? How can I build a team? And really, June of this year is when I started working on that, and that's when I found profit surge too.

Awesome. Okay, so it sounds like you, you're like, you made that delineation between job owner and business owner, and then you were starting to look in for solutions. What was the kind of the problem when you're like, when you had that light bulb moment of like, oh, okay, this is the direction I need to go? Like, what problem did you run into? Then?

I felt like I'd kind of maxed out on my capacity of what I could do alone personally with the tax and bookkeeping work. And, I mean, the money was decent by that point. I'd more or less replace my corporate salary, but it wasn't where I eventually wanted to grow to. And just doing the math of like, well, if I want to make more, there's only two ways to do this. One is to offer higher ticket services, or the other is to take on more bookkeeping clients. But then that would mean more hours, and I didn't necessarily want to keep trading more time for money.

Okay, gotcha. That makes perfect sense. I know having time to do golf and fitness and all the other things is really important to you and you enjoy the networking aspect. So even if we loaded you up with 50 clients at 50 bucks a month, which was a terrible idea, right? Like, it sounds like that model doesn't really work for you. So you decided, hey, I don't want to be a job owner. I want to be a business owner. Here's the direction I need to scale. I'm looking on bringing on some more high value clients, increase my effective hourly rate. You know, you and I have spoken about, you know, how to bring that up and some other things. So what sort of criteria were you looking for? And like, why specifically did you choose to go for the fractional CFO route? Specifically, why do you think fractional CFO was the answer to, like, solving that equation?

It's definitely, you know, higher value that you're bringing to the business, so in turn, you get a better effective rate from it. I started to find too that I felt like it was actually what Business owners are looking for, like, a lot of people hire a bookkeeper thinking that they're gonna, like, budget for them or teach them how to run their money, and it's like, no, you really need someone who can give you more direction. Is. I. Is. I was starting to find, like, that was a lot of the questions I was getting from the clients, and you can't devote the time to answering all those for what you can charge for monthly bookkeeping. So, you know, with the fractional CFO package, you can give the business owners the tools that they're actually really desiring so they can grow their business and, you know, increase the profit.

Okay. So it kind of seems like it was just like a natural progression.

Yeah.

So when we're thinking of that natural progression, you know, is there anything specifically about working with us that stuck out to you? Like, what. What attracted you to us when you were thinking of that natural progression of, you know, job owner to business owner, accountant to fractional cfo, it sounds like. It sounds like this kind of occurred naturally, you know, why did you choose to work with us in that. In that process there?

I felt like the fractional CFO offer is maybe something I could have figured out through trial and error over a couple of years, but I wanted to work with someone who could kind of fast track that for me, who'd already done it before. Because to me, the fractional CFO is a little more nebulous than, like, your standard bookkeeping and tax offer. It's like, I know what to charge for that. It's very, like, standard. And you know what the deliverables are. It's very black and white. But when you get into fractional cfo, you know, there's certain things that you can include or not include. It depends on the industry. How to price it is a lot more vague. So I was looking for help with that, and then, yeah, I just like working with mentors and courses a lot. I've done it in other parts of my life, and I find that, you know, it's. It's so helpful to have that knowledge from someone who's already done it. And then also being part of a community of other people who are trying to do this too, makes it feel a lot more possible. And you, you know, learn from your peers as well. So that combination of the, you know, mentor who's been there before and can share their knowledge and then also being part of a community of other people doing the same thing is. Is what drew me to profit surge.

Gotcha. Yeah. The community aspect I love working with other people who've done it before. It's kind of easier because when someone has a system, you kind of just go, boop, all right, I'm going to go do this. And you kind of fast forward your, your way to results. Speaking of that, when working together, we worked, you know, for the past couple months here. What specifically is, like, really kind of helped you when it comes to creating a fractional CFO offer or maybe get some new clients or some marketing stuff. Like, what was the thing you were like, okay, this to me was really, really, really helpful because it's different for everybody.

Yeah. I'd say there's two things. The first is what I came here for, what I expected, which is like, clarity on what is my offer, what industry am I targeting, what's the pricing, how do I sell it? But then the second thing that I got from the program that I wasn't expecting was increasing the motivation to increase my bookkeeping prices and attract more high ticket clients with just that offer. Like, we significantly increased my revenue just from increasing my current pricing, which I was underpricing for the bookkeeping and taxes, so just increasing that. And then since then, I've added more bookkeeping and tax clients at those higher prices. So that alone has been huge. And I think, you know, hearing you say, like, no, this is what everyone else is charging, this is what you should be charging to, that helped me, you know, have the confidence to increase that more. So, you know, even that alone just your, your knowledge of like, what's industry standard for the services I was already providing was super helpful.

Yeah. Yeah. It's wild that you can come in and be like, actually, I deserve a heck of a lot more for my time, and then suddenly you can get it almost overnight.

Yeah. Kind of, kind of shocking market I saw once I started marketing myself as a fractional cfo, like on Instagram and everything. More people came to me for bookkeeping too, but they were willing to pay more. Like, I think they perceived me as being more of an expert. Even if they weren't coming to me for the fractional CFO offer, they just saw me as higher value because I have that.

Interesting do. When people come to you now, are they still like price shopping you, or is it more of just like, all right, like, I know Kate, I know the value that Kate has.

Yeah. I find that like, most of the time it's like they want to work with me because I'm me.

Okay, cool. So you mentioned some Instagram stuff. I know you're big on some in person marketing, some networking. I know you talked in our group coaching call yesterday about like the specifics of you trying to choose like the right groups of people to be in for the right people. And then it sounds like Instagram has been pretty powerful for you as well. A lot of people, when they think about growing their accounting firm, they're thought in like the brick and mortar way. And I got to have an office and I got to be there and I'm in my local area and if it's not super affluent, that means everyone wants to pay me, you know, low dollars for what I'm doing. And it sounds like you're getting clients over the Internet now and it sounds like they're not all where, where you're at. Tell me, like what, what's that done for your business? Right, Moving. Moving to like the online model.

Yeah, the Internet's been huge, Instagram specifically. And my target industry is therapy practices. So a lot of my target audience is, you know, women in their 30s and 40s who are certainly on Instagram. And I would recommend, you know, whatever niche you're targeting, focus on the social media platform that aligns with that demographic because they're all a little different. So for me, that's Instagram, which I really enjoy being on. And I find that it helps a lot with getting people to like and trust you before you even get on the phone. Like I'll find that people follow me for a few weeks before they book a discovery call. But then we're on the discovery call, they tell me that they feel like they know me already, which is a great advantage to have when you're selling services. So yeah, that's been huge. And I, I share a little bit about like, you know, technical accounting stuff, some like tips occasionally. But a lot of what I post about is just my day to day life. I'll do like behind the scenes daily blogs or just, you know, stories throughout my day. And to us it might feel really boring and like, who wants to see me working on my laptop in my office? But people enjoy it.

It helps connect with you.

And like one of my most responded to stories recently was when I posted about buying a new paper shredder. It just silly things like that people, you know, like to engage with.

And is it, is it? So a lot of people, especially the accountants think that marketing online doesn't work. And I know that's not true. And it sounds like you that know that's not true. What would you say to those people who are like, hey, like Marketing on the Internet, getting clients on the Internet isn't a thing, isn't scalable. Like, what would, what would you say to them?

I think our industry specifically isn't marketing online very well. That's why there's so much opportunity for people who can do it. Right. Like, especially with social media, if you can show up authentically and well on the platform, you'll put yourself ahead of 90% of other accountants who either aren't using it or are using it poorly.

I'm right there with you. There's the same four templates that I see on everybody's page and it's the same four posts and it's the only people who's following those other people are other accountants or other bookkeepers or even fractional CFOs. And so there's a lot of, a lot of mistakes being made, which means there's more opportunity for people like you and I. Right. I own a firm, you own a firm. So let's talk about it. So you came to us a couple months ago. Right. You don't have to share specific numbers or whatever, but you came to us at one point and then you're at another point. So I love to hear about like, some of the different things you've done and then some of the different new clients or new revenue you're at. Like, what has been the change of like working with us and putting some of the things that we've kind of learned together in your business?

Yeah, right away we increased my revenue by a couple thousand a month just by increasing my prices for existing clients. And then since then, I've signed on more, mostly bookkeeping clients still, but at higher prices. So in total, I'm at about 50% higher revenue already than I was when I started the program. And because of the timing of the tax deadlines, I've gotten a little delayed with launching the fractional CFO offer in the way that I've wanted to. But we were doing the math the other day. It will only take me a couple of those clients to get to my eventual end goal, which I should be at by the end of the year, which would essentially be double the monthly revenue that I came into the program at. Um, yeah, so we're, we're kind of halfway there just from increasing prices and adding some bookkeeping clients alone. And then once we really pour gas on, the fire of the fractional CFO offer will be a hundred percent there. You also helped me realize that I had to clean up a few little, like custom offers that I'D been doing for people in the beginning. I think I was saying yes to too many things and making too many different offers. So it's helped me, like streamline it. Like I used to do sales tax and some other stuff that have since weeded out just so I can simplify things and focus on what's really going to drive the value going forward.

Yeah, that makes tons of sense. Not. Not a big sales tax guy. I'll tell, I'll tell you that when. So when we're looking at that. Right. So it sounds like 50% revenue increase, which is pretty cool, right? Especially in just a couple of months. We're thinking basically doubling, I would say by the end of the year, maybe a little bit sooner, maybe a little bit later. But you'll probably be about another 50% by the end of the year compared to where you started. So that's awesome. I know you and I built your CFO offer together. How confident do you feel in talking about it, presenting it, pitching it? How comfortable do you feel? Because I know you used the word nebulous before, which is a good word, by the way, sometimes. Nebulous, esoteric, ethereal. It's like, what is fractional cfo? How confident do you feel in being able to like market and sell it and do it and understand it now that we've kind of built something together?

Yeah, I feel super confident. I think the call where you and I went through, you know, what each of the six weeks of the initial offer I'm going to have would look like was probably one of the single most valuable pieces of the program. Because I think that was a lot of my initial hesitation with the CFO offer before I started the program was it's hard to sell something. You don't know exactly what it is or that you don't feel confident. And you shouldn't sell something if you don't know exactly what it is. So having the clarity on, like this is what we're doing each of the six weeks. These are the deliverables I need to give the client. Makes it so much easier to, to sell. And it doesn't even feel like selling. It's just like explaining what's in the program. And if you're talking to the right people and that solves their problem, then sale made.

Yeah, it's kind of for the right person. It's kind of a no brainer. And when you, you walk them through, hey, this is what you're going to be doing. These are the results that you're going to be Getting this is the outline. This is how we're going to do it. This is how it's going to impact your business. This is when you lay it out, like the who, the what, the how and the why, it becomes really easy, especially from their part. Right. I know a lot of people, especially in the accounting world, like, they're like, I don't. I don't want to sell something. I don't know what it is. You know, we can build that together. And it seems like, you know, you've gotten that experience, but the next thing is, is like, how do I sell it? Right. And so usually, for the most part, accountants, finance people, we're not very good at sales in general. Right. I think I kind of got a couple screws rattling around in there, so I think I'm pretty decent at it, but it took me still a long time to get good. How do you think your sales ability has increased, you know, in the last couple months? Whether it's from a confidence standpoint or just how you communicate, even if it's whether it's selling the fractional CFO or the higher value bookkeeping. How do you feel about how your sales skills have changed over the last couple months? And, you know, did they change? Right. Did your sales style change? Like, curious about that.

Yeah. My mindset shifted a lot from this. When I started the business, I saw sales as like this necessary evil that I was going to have to learn if I wanted to work for myself. And I think I still saw it as something like a little icky or pushy. But now when you have a really valuable offer, my mindset shifted. It's really a service. Like, if you're talking to the right people and this is going to help them, it's going to solve their problem, it's going to make them more money, and they're business, and the value that you're going to deliver is less than what you're actually charging. You're helping them by explaining what it is that you offer. And I think of it more as, like, educating about them about what results they're going to get versus trying to sell them. And that makes it a lot easier to talk about and sound confident in.

Okay, that makes perfect sense. It sounds like sales beginning was like, oh, this is kind of sleazy. I'm like, pushing these people to do this thing. I don't know if it's the right thing for them to. I have clarity on what I'm going to do. It's going to be good for them. I'm going to be able to help them if it makes sense. They're going to go ahead and enroll in the fractional CFO or even the higher level bookkeeping to have an access to someone like you who frankly gives a crap about their business. So it seems like sales has kind of shifted from necessary evil to hey, now I'm helping people. And one of the things that people see, this may be my perception, correct me if I'm wrong, but when we think of Internet marketing, we think of like sleazy guy and Lamborghini and I'll make you a millionaire tomorrow. And even I see some of the comments in my ads, like, a bookkeeper is not a cfo. And correct, they're not. However, there's a way that you can help clients grow their business. And there's varying levels of skill. But you also don't need to be Jamie dimon, who's the CEO of Chase, to help small businesses doing 5 or 6 million a year. Right. There's a pretty big gap there. And so when we're thinking about that. Right. Does sales feel sleazy to you at all now that you have some new sales skills and you have a better offer to sell? Does it feel weird like it used to?

No, definitely not. And something I'm always reminded of too is like, as accountants, we understand so much about business. I think it's easy for us to forget how many other business owners don't. And we underestimate how much we're helping them with what we do. Like, a lot of my clients are in the therapy industry and, you know, they go to school for psychology because they want to help people and they come out and they have no idea, you know, how to set up business finances. Even the simplest stuff that we know about how to run a business is a huge value add for them. And a lot of times we're the only people that these business owners can talk to these things about, can talk about these things with like, you can't necessarily even your spouse maybe doesn't understand the business money. So that's a huge value that we're providing them too, is like this space in this relationship where they can talk candidly about the money in their business. And when you think about that service we're providing that way, you know, putting yourself out there so that people can find you is really a service to them. It's, it's not pushy if you're doing it the right way.

Okay. Yeah, that, that to me makes perfect sense. We're trying to help people Right. And it's funny you mentioned, like, even, you know, maybe their spouse doesn't understand. I joke sometimes. As a fractional cfo, half the time I'm a money therapist. Half the time, you know, I'm helping them with their budget or their forecast or their financial systems. Right? And the other, you know, the other half the time I feel like a coach. And so I feel like I have three jobs as a fractional cfo, and oftentimes the first one of playing money therapist and helping them understand, even if it's like, you know, things that are simple people like you and I, time, value money, right? Dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, and here's how you can discount it back. Or just giving them a different perceptual view of money. Like, you can't run your business on, hey, I got XYZ dollars in my bank account. That's bad. Is a huge value. A lot of. A lot of times I think you're right. We forget. I think accounts in general have the Dunning Kruger effect is in full force, which is simply when you know little, you think you're awesome. And then when you know a ton and you're really an expert, you realize that there's a million other things to learn and you actually think you're not that good. And so a lot of people come to us, like you, who are like, fractional cfo, There's a million things, you know, when you think of CFO, it's a guy who has white hair, who has six master's degrees, who's probably in his 50s and has had that job for 30 years. Well, you don't need to be that to service these small clients. You also, really, at the end of the day, you're helping them navigate the financial landscape of their business. You don't have to have an answer for everything, right? There's tools, there's resources, there's our community, right? There's other things you can tap into. And so I find it really interesting that accountants in general, who are usually super qualified, super smart, and sometimes even know more than me, are like, charles, I don't think I can offer this. And I'm over here, like, what do you mean you can't offer this? Like, you. You. I promise you, you can. Let's. Let's. Let me show you what it looks like, and then you'll be pleasantly surprised. Have you. Have you found that to be kind of true?

Yeah, definitely. I think most accountants are already offering advisory services without knowing it. You helped me realize that you know, the bookkeeping is really just the categorizing of the transactions and the providing of the reports. And anything beyond that starts to get into the advisory territory. Even just recommending, like, hey, here's a few expenses you could reduce. Things that seem very simple to us and a lot of people are already probably including with their bookkeeping services, you can, you know, build up more of that into a consulting package and, and make that into a fractional CFO offer.

Yeah, and there's, there's. Everyone's offer doesn't have to look the same. Right? Like, what I do for my E Commerce clients may be completely different than you do for your therapy practices. There's probably a couple things that you and I are similar on, right? Like some, some costs for some customer acquisition, cost analysis, maybe some lifetime value analysis, maybe some working capital stuff. But then there's things that are completely different. Like therapy offices usually don't have lots of inventory. And so every offer for every different client is going to look, you know, materially different. And so oftentimes people think like, I see people who are like, oh, this is my package, and this is what this guy on the Internet recommended my packages are, and this is what they look like. And sometimes we run into the challenge of like, well, yeah, if you just slap something on, like, I sent an email the other day. It's like, if you think you can just slap on advisory, congratulations, you're going to make an extra money a year. Yeah, you'll make a little bit more, but you're not serving the client in the way that you want to. You're probably not serving the client in a way that you can sell confidently and authentically because you're not really serving them at the highest level, which is, you know, something custom and made for them. And so I think sometimes people run into the challenge of is they build something and it's not really the best thing for the client, and then they feel icky selling it, and then they go, oh, fractional CFO doesn't work. Sales isn't for me. And then they just kind of like, all right, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go back to what I know. So I oftentimes see, see that when people do it, like, half heartedly. So if there's anyone that's on the fence about thinking about booking a call to speak with us or thinking about as fractional CFO is for them, you know, what would you say to those people who are like, on the edge of, like, this might be for me this might not be for me.

I think there's so much more opportunity in this field than a lot of people realize. And the fractional CFO offer gives you such great hourly rate with a lot of flexibility. So if it's something that you're on the fence about, it's definitely worth exploring. I don't think there's any other revenue stream you can add in accounting that's going to change your life and your money and your business faster than fractional cfo.

Okay, and if someone was thinking about working with us to build that out, what would you say to them?

I'd say that you guys absolutely delivered and more on everything.

Awesome. Thank you so much. So I really appreciate you being here today. If someone is thinking about all the things and all the opportunities and, you know, whether they're going to start their own firm or just started their own firm or, you know, have a firm and are crushing it, what's like, the number one piece of advice that you'd leave to people that you've learned in the last year of just running your own business?

You just have to take action, even if it's not perfect. You're going to learn so much more from trying than you are from overthinking and. And, you know, delaying the process. You just have to get started and be willing to take some chances, and you'll be amazed where you can, you know, end up in six months or a year. But the. The longer you delay that, you know, it's never going to be perfect at first, but the longer you delay jumping in, then, you know, the longer it's going to take to get where you eventually want to go.

Awesome. I love that. Thank you so much. So, Kate, where. Where can people find you if they want to reach out to you, kind of see your content, see what you got going on? Where's the best place to reach?

I'm most active on Instagram, which is Ilacaccounting.

Perfect. All right, cool. Hey, Kate, thank you so much.

Thank you.