171. Stop Skipping These 5 CFO Growth Levers

Do you want healthier cash flows, happier clients, and more predictable growth? Of course you do. So here are five simple changes that you can make today inside your fractional CFO firm that will lead to big returns. Let's dive in. Number one, Send your CFO call agenda three days prior to the actual CFO call. This seemingly small change will make a noticeable impact. Now, I'm not talking about a fully templated copy and paste agenda. What I'm talking about is an agenda that has been thoroughly thought out, including, but certainly not limited to. First, a thesis for the call. What is the key message that you want to cover with the client on the call and why is it critical? Second, I want you to include a run of show or an agenda for the call. What are the major sections or milestones that you want to make sure you cover? How long do you want to spend inside of each section? And third, include key financial takeaways. In other words, what are you seeing in the data? What are the key drivers? What goals are they impacting? Once you've assembled your big ideas, put those into an email and send them to the client at least three business days before the call. Ask the client specifically to review your thoughts and to come to the call prepared with any questions, comments or concerns. What's the cost to do this? Well, you gotta have your act together ahead of time. You can't wait until the morning of your CFO calls to start preparing anymore, which you probably know you shouldn't be doing anyway. But what's the return on doing this? Well, your calls are more meaningful because of the preparation, and that means your clients are better prepared as well. This leads to better client questions and more value added through your services. Client satisfaction goes through the roof and so does client retention number two. I want you to auto draft client payments and do it ahead, not in arrears. Making this shift was absolutely terrifying for me. In the early days, I told myself all kinds of horror stories about how nobody would ever agree to do that, and so I avoided it for years. But that meant I was wasting so much time chasing down AP and wasting mental bandwidth on questions like oh my gosh, this client is late again. Should I be assertive and force them to pay or will that just scare them off? Maybe I should just let it go for now, or maybe I can be sort of assertive. I don't really know. Nearly had an aneurysm doing all the mental gymnastics thinking this through. Finally, in 2019, I took the most boldest of all steps. I was just about to close a new client that I really needed. Cash flow was tight back then. I went through the scope with them and then we talked about pricing and expectations. And then I told the prospect that we bill at the beginning of the month instead of at the end of the month. Sweat started dripping from my brow. My knees got weak. My palms were moist. Tension throughout my entire body. The prospect stared at me for an eternity. Finally, the silence was broken. Cool. Send over the invoice. I'm excited to get started. Here's the truth. It's been half a decade since that moment, and not one time, not once has anybody ever pushed back on billing and charging automatically at the beginning of the period. Not one time. Not. Not once, not ever. What's the cost to do this? Well, making the decision, no matter how scary it is. But what's the return? Well, you're not chasing AP and you're not trying to play mental gymnastics about when to push on unpaid invoices and how to handle it. Oh, and there's a lot less friction between you and your clients. Change number three is a complete game changer if you answer yes to any of the following questions. Are you tired of being broke? Are you tired of inconsistent leads? Are you sick and tired of missing your growth targets every month, every quarter and every year? Well, if so, the solution is simple. You've got to spend at least 30 minutes a day prospecting. Now, you might be thinking, 30 minutes, that's easy. I already do way more than that. That's what I thought, too. But here's what prospecting is. Number one, it's things like reaching out to people who might need your services and telling them how you might be able to help. It might be connecting with potential referral partners. Or number three, it might be trying to get speed speaking opportunities. You might even go to networking events and meet with potential clients. Now, here's what prospecting is not. It's not posting on LinkedIn. It's not fooling with your website. It's not scrolling through the scroll hole on Instagram or TikTok. It's not contriving a plan about how you're going to start prospecting tomorrow. Now, let me be clear. I am just like you. I do not like prospecting. In fact, I hate prospecting. But I also hate being broke. In the same way, I don't like running, but I also don't want heart disease. So what do I do? I run and I prospect. So yeah, prospecting sucks. But doesn't being broke suck more? You get to choose Your suck. And only one choice is going to actually grow your firm. What's the cost? 30 minutes a day a suck. Two and a half hours a week of suck. What's the return? Well, it's a posh P and L in a banging balance sheet. That brings us to number four. Just niche already. Stop telling yourself that niching down is a bad idea or that it's going to limit your market too much. The truth is, sometimes spear phishing is better than casting a wide net and coming up with a boatload of junk. Identifying a niche unlocks more referrals, better quality leads, improved firm efficiency, more effective processes and procedures, and increased clarity on who to hire and when to hire them. At this point, I've talked to and coached thousands thousands of fractional CFO firm owners in exactly zero of them have ever said, michael, I really screwed up last year when I decided to niche down. I really wish I hadn't done that. If you're stuck on how to create a niche, I wrote an entire blog article on exactly how to do it. I'm going to include a link in the description below if you want to check that out. Now, when it comes to niching, what's the cost? Absolutely nothing. It's free dollars. What's the return? More efficiency and a heck of a lot more money. And finally, number five, Find and engage with a community of your people. Community has probably been the most discounted, under leveraged, and underutilized. Utilize super hack when it comes to building a business, and fractional CFO firms are no exception. I mean, think about it. We face countless hurdles every single day in our firms. Pricing bad hires, frustrating clients, market shifts, regulatory changes, new tech to learn, old tech to fix, late payments. And that's just before lunch. You can face these challenges alone and try to figure out what to do and how to do it. Or you can surround yourself with a community of other people in the same boat. Some of those people will be ahead of you in some areas. Some of those people will be behind you in other areas. Some of those people will be right where you're at right now. When you find the right community, you and your peers are working together to support one another. This short circuits the entire process of figuring out all the hard things on your own. In fact, community is probably the most proven hack in building a business and in life. I would say that if there is any sort of easy mode in business, it's community. What's the cost? Well, 30, maybe 45 minutes a week to invest in the community. Maybe $1,500 a year to join, but what's the return? You work faster, you work smarter, you're more efficient. You have accountability. You have fewer headaches, better profits. Oh, and not feeling alone all the freaking time. That's huge. If you're looking for a community full of your people, then I'd love to encourage you to check out the Inner Circle. Now I know I'm a little bit biased, but this group is pretty special. There are 350 or so highly collaborative firm owners inside. I've included a link to the Inner Circle below if you'd like to check out more. When it comes to community, I want you to remember this. The people at the top of the industry are collaborating. The people at the bottom of the industry are competing. Where do you want to be? So here's the deal. I know none of these changes are particularly sexy. You're probably not going to talk about any of these with your girls on the golf course or with your buddies at the bar. But the time in dollar investment is extremely low and the can be massive. So just pick two or three of these small changes and your firm is guaranteed to see some explosive growth over the next 12 months. And if you want to make an even bigger change, check out this video on Making the Switch from Task Based Pricing to Outcome Based Pricing. I share the exact pricing model that I use to achieve a million dollar run rate and beyond. Consider the switch, enjoy the gains and I'll catch you next time. All right my friends, I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a five star review on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening to this episode. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back right here next week. I'll see you then.