The story of my first fractional CFO client started with a Zoom call I almost didn’t take...

7 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this first‑person narrative, Charles Leikauf recounts the pivotal moment that launched his freelance finance career. After his wife repeatedly urged him to speak with a small‑business owner she found in a Facebook group, Charles initially dismissed the request, believing small firms couldn’t afford his expertise. He eventually took a Zoom call with the owner of a multi‑million‑dollar marketing agency, who needed basic budgeting and forecasting. During the call Charles pitched a six‑month engagement at $7,500 per month, but instead asked for the full $45,000 up front. The client accepted with a single “Okay,” prompting Charles to reflect on how much he could have charged and the value perception of fractional CFO services. The story highlights the transition from corporate employment to entrepreneurship, the role of personal networks in client acquisition, and early pricing strategy decisions.

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This is the number one thing that I did to escape my corporate job to go to working for myself. So what I ended up doing is my wife was like, you know what? I found this lady in a Facebook group and she wants finance help. Do you think you could talk to her? And I was like, ah, that's a waste of my time. And then 3 days goes by of her saying, you should talk to her, you should talk to her, you should talk to her. And I was like, no, it's a waste of my time. Small businesses don't need help from someone who has finance skills like me. They can't afford to pay a lot. Anyhow, after a couple days of her bugging me, I decided to have a call with the lady who needed help with their small business. So I snuck away at my job in the middle of the conference room, and I was sitting in the conference room taking a Zoom call She owned a small business. She was doing a couple million dollars a year in her marketing agency, and she needed help with like a budget and a forecast and other easy entry-level finance stuff. And she wanted help with it. So what I ended up saying to her was like, you know what, I can help you. This stuff is easy for me, but it'll take a little bit of time. I'm really busy. You know what? It'll take— and I said it'll take $7,500 a month, but it'll take about 6 months for me to do all this. Right. So what I was able to do is I told her it would be $45,000 paid today. And so with that, I paused for a second. I told her and she goes, She said one word, and that one word was, "Okay." And at that point, I was absolutely like, well, how much could I have charged her?