A short YouTube video (Fractional CFO GPT) argues it's difficult to gain strategic influence while doing bookkeeping/accounting, especially for solopreneurs. The speaker recommends first selling the client on CFO (strategic) services to gain commitment, then offering bookkeeping/accounting as an added package, because selling accounting after securing CFO buy-in converts more effectively.
What I found is it's really, really hard to get a seat at the strategy table when you're also deep in the weeds on the accounting. It's even harder if you're a solopreneur, where you're the one that's actually doing the bookkeeping and the accounting. It's a little easier if you've got a team, but it's still pretty challenging. If you want to do the accounting work and the bookkeeping work, that's okay, but it's an easier sell, in my experience, if you first go through the whole sales process to sell them on the CFO services, get that verbal commitment like, yeah, I want to do, and then say, hey, look. Another thing that I found after working with a lot of businesses is that a lot of times they need bookkeeping and accounting support too. I decided I want to offer that service as well. After you've sold them on the idea of you as the cfo, then hit them with the accounting, for whatever reason, I'm way more likely to sell them on that package there than if I do it in the reverse order.
