A fractional CFO explains why they avoid investor-heavy companies and clients who just want reports instead of coaching. They work best with growth-minded owners whose values align with theirs, not firms where competing priorities slow everything down.
What kind of people do you want to work with? If you don't know, that's okay is you get into your first few clients, pay attention. For example, we don't like working with clients that have big ownership structures, particularly with investors because a lot of times there's competing priorities. We don't want to have to report to multiple people or get approvals from a board before something can be implemented. I want you to think about is from a values perspective for us. We've got our KFC playbook and we have our core values on our pay to play values and aspirational values. We want to make sure that there's alignment. An eye opening moment for us is we recognized that we only want to work with business owners that are growth minded. They have a growth mindset and they're both willing and able to invest in their growth and their businesses growth. We're not just numbers reporters. We're going to talk them through it and help them think differently. A big client that we turned down a couple of years ago, he was like, I don't want any of the coaching stuff, just give me the reports. And I was like, I got a pass.
