126. Do THIS To Scale Your CFO Firm (6 Requirements)

Making a quarter million dollars as a fractional CFO isn't as complicated as you think. In fact, most firm owners end up overcomplicating things, which ends up holding them back from ever reaching a quarter million dollars a year. In today's episode, I'm going to reveal the only six things that you need to have in place to hit the coveted quarter million dollar mark. Let's dive in.

When I started my firm, KFE Solutions, seven and a half years ago, I really struggled to get to the $100,000 a year revenue mark, much less the quarter million dollar a year reven. I went out and I tried all these different things that ultimately didn't pay off. And so what ended up happening is I wasted a bunch of time and money on complete duds. Over the years I've realized that really you only need to have six specific things in place in order to hit that multiple seven figure mark. The first thing that I found that is just so essential to have in place is one scope of work at one price point. When I first started, I bought into this myth that I had to offer multiple packages at multiple prices based on the size or the complexity of the client that I was trying to sell to. But I ended up not selling much of anything because of all the complexity. I never got good at selling any of the packages. The big unlock for me was that when I realized I only needed to offer one package at one price point for my ideal client. Now this unlocks two big benefits. First, it's easier to sell one package than three. And second, when you only have one package, it's so much easier to document all the back end processes and procedures that you need to deliver that package with excellence. The next thing that you need to have in place is a website. Although it's probably not what you're thinking. When I first started, I had this idea that I needed to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a beautiful website with all the branding and the logos and the professional photos of me. And I thought that if I had all those things in place, then the customers would just come flocking in. But what really happened was crickets. I spent tens of thousands of dollars and I got no new leads. The reality is when somebody visits your website, they've probably met you, seen you, or heard you from somewhere else. They're just stopping by to make sure that you're so what kind of website do you need? You need a simple landing page with a simple contact form at the bottom. Websites should cost you hundreds of dollars, not tens of thousands of dollars. When you're just getting started, the next thing that you need to have in place is some sort of a social media presence. Do you need to be a daily poster with the stories and the reels and the TikToks and videos of you having complete emotional meltdowns? Absolutely not. But you do need to have some sort of presence. Just like with the website, people are going to be checking you out to make sure that you're legit. So having weekly posts where you're showing some level of thought leadership will go a long way in proving legit and not just a hobbyist. Next on the list is you're going to need a basic technology stack. Now be careful when it comes to technology, because if you're constantly downloading the next cool app and configuring it and setting it up just so you can get some fancier charts or graphs or better displayed KPIs, then you're focused on the wrong things. You've got to be focused on growing your firm, especially when you're getting to that $250,000 mark. It turns out you don't need much of a technology stack to reach the first quarter million dollars. In fact, you really only need four things. The first two items on the list are Slack and G Suite. Slack and G Suite are all you need for client communications and emails. Next on the list is Ignition. Ignition allows me to send beautiful professional templated proposals immediately after a sales call, and it seamlessly connects with my QuickBooks. Scaling a fractional CFO firm is hard work, especially when you think about all the different tech platforms that are out there that claim to make your life easier. Most of them end up not working as promised, and you spend more time on them than they're worth. After running my own fractional CFO firm for the past eight years, I have found one platform that has been consistently delivering for us for years and years, and that is Giacon. G Accon is one of those platforms that works quietly in the background, day in and day out. In fact, Giacon saves my firm well over 40 hours a month, every single month. But how does it do that? Well, G Accon is a data connector that links accounting platforms like QuickBooks Online, Sage, FreshBooks, and Xero to Google Sheets. This data connector allows you to fully automate your custom reporting, consolidate reports, and even get live currency exchange rates. Best of all, it eliminates the manual work like repetitively copying and pasting data. You know, the kind of work that nobody really wants to do, but super prone to Errors. Yes, G Accon does all of that for you automatically, anytime you need it. If you want to scale your firm without adding a ton of additional technology or labor expenses, you need to check out G Accon. Get 30% off G Accon for the first three months by clicking the link in the description below and start taving top and money with GCON today. Next, you're going to want to be sure to get a templated CFO report in place for several reasons. First, it's going to help streamline your CFO calls. Next, it's going to help maximize efficiency when you're preparing for CFO calls. And it's a great visual tool that you can reference when you're on sales calls. Over the years I found that having a templated CFO report is absolutely essential because that CFO report should become the central hub for all of your communications with clients. When it comes to creating the CFO report, as usual, I like to keep things simple so we just use Google Sheets. Inside the CFO report we have one tab for each of the following charts and graphs showing the historical financial performance for the client. A 12 month P&L a 12 month balance sheet, a 12 month statement of cash flows, cash flow forecasts, budgets and projections and goal tracking. This thing you need to have in place to hit that coveted quarter million dollar mark is seven clients each paying $3,000 a month. Now I know this sounds like common sense, but I see so many fractional CFOs that will spend their time on literally anything other than going out and getting new clients. But the truth is without money we can't sustain the mission. Why is it that so many fractional CFOs are reluctant to go out there? Well, I think there's two reasons. Number one is nobody's ever taught us how to market. That's why I've created a free guide where I lay out the entire strategy that my firm is using this year to get new clients. You can check that out using the link in the description below. Number two, a lot of us, frankly, we kind of suck at selling. And that's why I've created a free one hour training where I'm walking you through the literal sales process that I use to sell clients between 5,000 and $8,000 a month. Again, you can check that out using the link in the description below. Both of those resources are absolutely free. Like I said, hitting that quarter million dollar a year revenue mark isn't complicated. Is it a lot of hard work? Absolutely. But I can tell you firsthand that the payoff is absolutely worth it. Remember to keep things simple and focus on doing the things that are going to drive revenue, like finding clients. I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, please share it with a friend. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back here next week. I'll see you.