Jim Downes founded Blueprint CFO at 71, turning accounting data into actionable business insights. He built the company by hiring younger talent to scale it, arguing founders must step aside for the next generation. He suggests spending roughly 10% of sales on marketing, but warns most companies don't track where new clients actually come from.
Hello and welcome to this episode of The Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Today we are going to South California and we're going to talk about the cost of chaos because you have a business called Blueprint CFO, which is Chief Financial Officer. So Jim, tell us what you do at Blueprint CFO.
So Jim, we're an accounting company in effect, but we're a different kind of accounting company because we help our clients use their current financial data to improve the performance of their business in the future. And that's kind of making, you know, what I like to think of it as making accounting relevant because most of the time the financial statements that a client gets put in a drawer and nobody really looks at the data to say, you know, what does this data tell us that we could be doing better? And so that's the whole focus of Blueprint CFO.
Now, Jim, We also had this conversation about, you know, getting out of the way as a founder and letting the next generation build the brand. Do you mind sharing that dynamic?
No. So, I mean, I know we know we're not going to talk about this, but I'm 74 years old. And so I started Blueprint when I was 71 years old, but really I started it when I was about 50 years old, but it went through a lot of iterations and I never really got it right. Until I came to the conclusion that the timing was right for this kind of service. And I was able to surround myself with young people, like you just mentioned, that could help me make it happen. Because you can only take something so far on your own. You know, you may have the idea, but if you can't build a team of people that are talented, that get it and want to do the same things that you're putting forth as a unique mission of a company, then you're And Jim, I don't get many chances to ask someone in your position this question.
How much should companies be spending on marketing?
Every company's different, so it's hard to say exactly. You know, I always think in my mind that 10% of your sales should be spent on marketing. But we see many companies that are growing that don't spend that much money on marketing. But, you know, Many times companies are just spending money blindly without really knowing what the benefits of that marketing money is. Most companies don't track that information, which is kind of, I don't wanna say stupid, but definitely not something they should be doing. They should be tracking where those clients are coming from and making sure the money they're spending is being spent wisely.
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2 people, infinite agents, 1 billion dollar idea #AIAgents #Startup #Productivity
