46. Do CFOs Have To Be A One Stop Shop in 2023?

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Do you have to offer bookkeeping tax accounting services in 2023 if you want to be successful? That's the exact question that we're tackling in today's episode of the CFO Report. Hey there. Welcome back to the CFO Report. My name is Michael King. I talk about all things starting scaling and optimizing fractional or virtual CFO services. Before I dive into today's episode, you're probably asking yourself if you've been here before, wait a min. I thought this show was called the Connected Accountant. Well, it used to be, but as of January 1, 2023, we've rebranded from the Connected Accountant to the CFO report because I felt like the Connected Accountant didn't really drive home the type of content that we were putting out and the type of audience that we were wanting to serve. So we did a little switcheroo and we rebranded from the Connected accountant to the CFO report as of January 1st. I am so glad to have you here with us. So like I said in 2023, a big question that I'm getting is do I have to be an all shop for accounting services if I also want to offer CFO services? What I'm hearing people say is that they get on sales calls and that their clients are saying, look, I want a fractional cfo, but I also want somebody that can do the accounting, the bookkeeping, the tax services. But gosh, I really don't want to do that. So in today's episode, I'm going to walk you through if you actually have to offer those services and if you don't, how can you turn that conversation around from it being something of a detractor from working with you into something that's really positive, that actually builds trust and momentum on that sales call? So let's go ahead and dive in and let's look at this conversation that I had with Carlos and one of our inner circle members, Brian, and see how we address this question. Brian, what can we do for you today?

A lot of the feedback that I've gotten from some of the leads that I've had discovery calls with is that they're looking for more of a kind of a one stop shop. They value some of the CFO stuff, but they also want, you know, like payroll and AP and AR and they want somebody who can handle like the tax strategy and tax filing. And I've been thinking about going that direction. I know you've got some other thoughts on that. And then I guess the other part of the conversation is if we do go that direction. Like, are there firms that outsource that? And what's been your experience with trying to outsource kind of work to third parties?

Yeah. So let me start by saying don't do it or not do it based on what I or anybody else tells you to do. Right. This is your firm, and it should be work that you're passionate about and interested about and get lit up and fired to serve in that way. So just because Carlos and I don't like doing that kind of work, that doesn't mean by any measure that anyone else should or shouldn't do it. So I just want to make sure I'm, like, really clear about that. That's just not what we want to do. So it's completely okay and great if that's what you want to do.

All right.

I just want to start by clear the air on that.

Okay, yeah, no, that's clear. It's just, you know, I started this business about a year ago, and that's been consistent feedback from clients. Kind of the 1 to 10 million and sales range. And I agree. I, I, I prefer the CFO kind of strategic side of things, but cost effective way.

I've been doing this for a lot of years. There's plenty of them out there that are completely okay with only having you do the strategic work. Now, the way I'd like to tackle this, if you're cool with it, I'll touch on the marketing and sales piece on how you can kind of break away, like, get out of that if you don't want to do it. And then if you wanna talk about some of the experiences we've had with, like, subbing it out and those kind of things and the challenges we had, that'd be great. Uh, sound good, Brian?

That sounds great.

Cool. Do you have the CFO Academy?

I do, actually. Just purchased it today.

That's right. That's right.

Congrats.

Awesome. I touched on this a little bit in Playbook three, which is on sales. But I'll give everybody kind of a sneak peek into my mindset on this. Whenever I get on a sales call and somebody's kind of nudging me to do something that we don't really love doing.

Right.

This is like my go to strategy to get out of it. And so I'll use the example of like, bookkeeping and tax for this. But don't, don't tell anybody, but it works for everything.

Right?

It's like my, like my secret ninja card here. We were really looking for somebody that was more of a one stop shop. And this is, this is what I'll say. Look, look, Barb, bookkeeping and taxes, those things are. They're critically important to your business. And there's a lot of people that went to school and got degrees in those things. They've got their CPA license, they do it every day. They're passionate about it, and they're very well qualified to serve you in that way. But the truth is my skillset and expertise and background is on the forward and strategic work. And honestly, Barb, I would probably be doing you a disservice because I don't stay up to date on all of this. The very detailed legislation and IRS requirements and those kinds of things that you need somebody that's up to date on. Right. You need that level of expertise on this because you got an $8 million a year business. If you have someone doing your taxes that's not super up to date on those things, we're either leaving money on the table or we're underpaying. Right. And both of those things are bad. So I understand why the convenience factor might at a surface level be attractive. But I'm telling you, been doing this for a while and you really want somebody that. That's what they do for a living. And the cool part is, as your cfo, I work with them like this. Like we have to be on the same page. We have to be in lock and step around your business and the strategies that we're doing. So there's going to be great communication between me, your bookkeeper and your tax preparer. Again, I know why you want that. But I'm here to tell you that you will be better served by having somebody like me that has the expertise and the experience on the forward looking strategic work. And there's a lot of people that have a lot of expertise, more, more than I have on some of the more tactical work in the reporting and compliance work. And I think we would work really well to have a team dynamic like that to serve you at the level that you need.

So we've seen this go well and not well. Right. So recently we had a person in the mastermind that did white label tax strategies and she had a bad experience. She had to let go of the. Of the person and those tax prep.

It was tax prep.

Tax prep. Yeah, yeah. And she was white labeling that, including in the package of CFO services. And she actually had to let go of the person and then have the unfortunate experience of letting clients know that she wasn't offering tax services anymore and that she would have to adjust their billing and all that kind of stuff. There are other practitioners that have made it work, right? And it's a matter of finding the right fit and communicating with the vendor or service provider. But I would say that what is the reason clients are looking for that one stop shop is really not because they just want to make one payment instead of four or three different payments, is because they don't have really the knowledge and expertise to manage all those people, right? So if you got somebody handling your payroll, your sales tax, another one handling your income taxes and your business taxes, a cfo, a lawyer, this or that, they're feeling overwhelmed because they don't have the expertise to be able to manage those relationships. Where we have been very successful at, at this is that we're quarterbacking those relationships, right? So we're talking to the tax provider or tax prep by the end of the year or on a quarterly basis in that meeting with the client, and we're telling that person the thing, and the client is just hanging back and listening to our conversation. If I'm letting the bookkeeper know, hey, this needs to be recorded in this fashion from now on. And the client is just kind of witnessing what's going on. The client is fine paying different people. And what Mike said is, is not only a great sales pitch, it's absolutely the exact same thing that has to happen. We need somebody that specializes in payroll to process payroll. We need somebody that specializes in taxes to process taxes. We need somebody that specializes in sales tax to do that. The client will be extremely benefited from having somebody that specializes on those things working on their team instead of us trying to figure things out and trying to do all the things that we're not either passionate about or competent about, right? So it makes all the sense in the world. But the, The. The stress that you have to take out from the client is that you, as a cfo, are quarterbacking that relationship.

Use those words on the sales call. We quarterback all these positions, right? You don't understand the words to use and all that stuff, but as a cfo, I do. And so one of the values that I bring is I'm going to come in and quarterback all those other people so that we ensure that one message is being heard, but also that everyone's going in the same direct. That's the direction that you need us to go in. They eat it up. They totally eat it up. They're like, oh, that's awesome. Is. We'll. We'll even talk to like lawyers and stuff too. Right. Because it's important for a lot of legal things, for financial strategies.

Right.

So, you know, we're going to quarterback those conversations to. We're going to break it down for you in words you can understand.

Right.

They love that. They eat it up, use it on the sales call. But then, like Carlos said, didn't do it. Like I'm telling you, you'll see like looks of relief when you tell them that you do that. They're like, oh, thank you. I've been worried about, like, that's how you know you got them because you'll see the look on their. So like, oh, that's amazing. I love it. Take my money.

And I was in a meeting this morning and we were talking about exactly the same thing. I told them, hey, I'm not a wealth management person. Let's get the tax prep, let's get the state tax planning attorney, let's get the wealth management person in a room with me and you and we'll have this conversation. And they're like, would you do that? Absolutely. Awesome. Thank you. Right, so that's the stress that they have. It's not about making four payments or two different payments to different from vendors, is that they don't have the competence and ability to manage everything. So if you remove that stressor out of the equation, you'll be fine.

Is that helpful, Brian?

That's great, guys. Yeah, appreciate it.

All right, that's it for this week's episode. My team and I truly hope that you found this information to be helpful. If you did, please make sure to hit the subscribe button. And if you found it really great, we would love it if you would give us a thumbs up, five star review and some comments below. That would mean the world to us. In the meantime, we can't wait to see you right back here next week.

See you then.

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