May 10, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode of Peace Luv Biz, Steve and Mary break down the truth about fractional CFOs—and why they’re not just a line item on your expense sheet, but a powerful asset to your business.
They walk through three high-impact ways a fractional CFO can directly increase your profitability: optimizing cash flow, making data-driven decisions with financial forecasting, and implementing strategic tax planning. With real-life examples and actionable insights, this episode will help you rethink the role of a CFO and understand how hiring one can pay for itself...And then some.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Why viewing a CFO as a cost is the wrong mindset
✅ How smart cash flow management can immediately improve your bottom line
✅ The power of financial forecasting for long-term decision-making
✅ How tax strategy, not just tax prep, can save you tens of thousands
✅ Practical tips even non-CFOs can implement today
🎯 Ready to see what a CFO could do for your business? Visit www.peaceluvbiz.com to download a free resource or schedule a strategy session.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Good afternoon everybody, Steve Higgins here, you're Salton of Sales with another episodeof Peace Love Biz.
This week we are going to be covering three ways that a fractional CFO can make more moneythan you cost.
So I thought it'd be a good idea to bring in our resident fractional CFO.
(00:23):
You may have met her before and that's Madam Mary Roach III.
Mary?
How are you doing?
so funny.
I forgot that, but I am Mary Roach the third.
Not officially, but I am.
No, no, no, I'm the third Mary Roach and we're all the same.
(00:44):
We're all batshit crazy and when we're pissed, we are not to be messed with.
That's all I know.
We're all the same.
Yep.
Third Mary Roach.
Kudos to my aunt, my great aunt.
my other aunt, who's my godmother as well.
God help us, the world cannot handle three Mary Roaches.
(01:05):
Yeah, we- yeah, I can barely handle one, so...
Yeah.
And from what I can hear is you're the easiest one to deal with.
uh
Uh, yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You good?
You doing okay?
think they they lived out everybody kind of like I do.
(01:26):
So I think there's a trend there.
Name.
I am really good.
I am really good.
I'm really had some bad headspace for about three weeks now.
um But I'm really good.
Like, just rocking it out, trying to take my own advice, do one thing at a time, notstressing myself to death.
(01:50):
um
You know I'm really good.
nice well I appreciate you I know it hasn't been said publicly but you do a lot for us youdo way too much for us and we I know that we've said it before but way too much access to
people to our detriment things like that but you are kicking ass you're amazing and we welove you for that so
(02:17):
Well, thanks.
I have the best team in the world.
So by far, we have the best team we met this morning, the accountants and I met thismorning.
And we had a discussion about potential new client.
Got some feedback on that.
(02:38):
I have the best friend, best business partner in the world as well.
So yeah, it's all about
things that make you happy.
That's what I'm focusing on.
Yep, no, and that's a good place to be.
I was going to say, and first off, jump before we dive into the main topic of the realbenefits to a fractional CFO.
(03:03):
We do have some new service lines that we're offering.
We're going to be launching our business coaching and sales strategy sessions that we'regoing to be doing.
Mm-hmm.
Schedule that with me and we'll go through that and help anybody that's looking for thatbusiness growth.
We are also launching our admin assistance program.
(03:27):
So for those people that feel like they don't have enough time in the day, you probablyneed an admin assistant.
There's probably ways that you can streamline some of your processes or focus on doingwhat you're good at instead of getting bogged down in the busy work.
So we have that available as well.
if you guys are interested, go to peacelovebiz.com, put in a contact form and we willdefinitely get back to you and see what we can do and do a quick 30 minute consultation,
(03:57):
figure out where we can help everybody and yeah, let you be the expert in your ownbusinesses.
Absolutely.
mean, there's a lot of best things that we've done this year.
um But learning how to delegate and being able to trust the person.
I mean, you've obviously got to make sure it works.
(04:18):
Like there's a chemistry and it jives and whatever.
But once you have it, it's amazing.
It's it just shrinks.
It's like anything like I don't want to have to be an admin.
that's why we have an admin for me and that's why we have an admin for you.
And you know, I don't like doing that stuff.
It's not that you don't know how to you can, but that's not where you're using your besttalent.
(04:43):
So.
You know I'm not good with delegating.
um But I've actually found it really freeing and I've just completely let go.
Since we've got my help so...
em Yeah, it's kind of a nice segue to...
Yeah, Kayla.
(05:04):
a shout out to, I mean, we do shout out to our team a lot.
Kayla's brand new with us and she's amazing.
Yeah, she's going through finals week two this week, so...
Once she's all done there, then she'll be all ours.
But, no.
She'll get through it, and...
(05:25):
Now, I think she's got maybe a trip planned this summer, but it'll be good.
It's kind of a nice segue, because delegation is a really good segue into talking aboutfractional CFO, because...
I feel like the future is in fractional roles, whether it's CFO, COO, CMO, CHROMO, the HRversion.
(05:55):
And there's a lot of benefits to having a fractional person in those kind of areas.
m So we're going to kind of dive in, talk about, you
Cost versus value and getting people to realize the true value to having that professionalin that position.
(06:19):
Couple of strategies and hopefully leave people with a bit of a differing mindset becausewe hear it a lot when we're meeting with people to begin with, not even to begin with,
clients that we've had before and we've gone to, you know,
increase the price and things like that is I can't afford you and use what's your responseto that
(06:47):
you can't afford not to.
And I think it's it's this is the part that really is eye opening is when we're goingthrough and showing how much that they'll pay in taxes extra without having us doing the
work, the planning.
And we go through this a lot tax prep.
(07:11):
and tax filing is not the same as tax planning and having somebody that knows your books,knows you, works with you.
um We literally people save all the money that they pay us and then more just by havingproper tax planning and having a proper CFO.
(07:34):
yeah and it's it's kind of funny because you mentioned that exact kind of example theysomebody will see it's I'm throwing a random number out so nobody gets targeted but yeah
say it's a thousand dollars a month and they're like whoa that's crazy I'm I can't do thatand then we show them the numbers and the fact that they're going to be saving
(08:02):
$40,000 in taxes they're have the support of a CFO that's been doing it for 30 years andAnd what that's gonna do for them
And I mean, and do you really want to pay the federal government $40,000 that you don'thave to legally?
You don't have to by having us take care of the planning and taking care of the things andputting them in place.
(08:29):
So you're going to pay it somewhere, pay less by having this in place.
I think I've used this analogy before.
Think of taxes like you would a car.
You go and get your regular service.
You know what?
I think fractional CFO and what we do, it's kind of like putting gas in.
(08:54):
Or, you know, putting, you know, getting it serviced where if you don't do that stuff, thecar's going to break.
Yeah.
you're have to pay for a brand new car and it's gonna be way more expensive.
So, um how...
the insurance on your fiscal life, so to say.
(09:15):
That's what we do.
That's what we specialize in.
um And then with our service, we do offer um business growth and development so that youcan figure out how to bring in more clients.
That's obviously where you come in, but we're unlike
(09:38):
I think we're unlike or I know we're unlike any average accounting firm because like itsays in the name, we're a holistic accounting service business and we look at the company
in its entirety.
So it's not just that you have a CFO, it's that you have an entire team backing you.
(10:02):
Absolutely.
So for those people that don't know what a CFO does, can you give us kind of an overviewof what your day would look like?
Not your day, but you know, what kind of responsibilities you would have as a fractionalCFO for a firm?
(10:25):
Sure.
So obviously the people immediately think it's just bookkeeping.
It's not just bookkeeping.
It's looking at those, first of all, the transactions, understanding the transactions.
So, you know, I'll have somebody take a loan and I'm like, wait a minute, why are theytaking this loan?
(10:46):
um You know, yeah, we have a team that does all the cleanup and does the monthlytransactions, but they know
they know what to look for because I also have trained them.
So yeah, they have all those degrees as well.
They're all accredited.
But I teach them.
I take time every week and go through things on what they should be looking for.
(11:08):
um So there's that.
Then it's looking at what's the most beneficial way to navigate loans?
What's the most beneficial way to navigate your payroll?
How are you have things set up?
Are you selling?
Um, looking at, know, what the funding is looking like, uh, looking at the financialreports every month and knowing whether they're in, if they're gaining, if they have a net
(11:38):
profit every month, but their bank account isn't showing it.
Well, then, then we're looking at your distributions and what you're using.
If you're taking distributions, if you're using the cashflow correctly, because if youhave a, a positive, um, profit.
then you should have a positive cashflow.
(11:59):
And if you don't have a positive cashflow, then that's when we start digging into that.
We start looking at forecasting.
We start looking at what other things that we need to do so that you are hitting thosemarks.
you want to be at, um we had one, I mean, we have all sorts of clients, but we had oneclient that said, I want to be at, think a half a million this year, or a million.
(12:23):
And
a million and last year what they did in the entire year last year they already did in thefirst quarter of this year.
So they're going to hit if they keep that pace they're going to hit more than theirmillion dollar goal.
They should hit million dollars by June to be honest at the way they're trending.
(12:44):
So it's being able to build stuff like that out and that's what we do.
Yeah, and not to pray for a disaster or anything like that, but I know that one hurricanewould help their business specifically.
Well, mean, you know, and tis the season, it's start, mean, this is hurricane season nowfor Florida.
(13:05):
and for the Southeast coast of
first storm of the season in Central America today.
em It's on the Central America side.
It's not even gonna touch you, I don't think.
eh
downpours.
really I don't get a whole lot of I get, you know, a lot of rain, but not a lot of wind.
(13:28):
A lot, not a lot.
But um, yeah.
The other thing that you do really well from me coming into this and learning the way thatyou operate is that the decision making portion of things and the strategizing.
(13:51):
We tell everybody, God, family, Mary.
Yeah.
What that allows you to do then is go away and if somebody does have those big live eventsis plan the right things that they need to do to show that their books are showing the
right things, their taxes are.
Like for example, there's a client that is looking to buy a house.
(14:15):
It would have been really useful to know that before we filed the taxes.
And the thing is that we literally say this to every client.
And what people don't understand is they think that it's just, okay, well, I'll let herknow after.
I need to know before.
(14:35):
That's why we have those conversations of what's your goal this year.
So in that conversation, one of the things that should have been mentioned is I'd like tobuy a house.
Because you can't, your paperwork
has to match, has to show that you can afford that house.
(14:56):
Period.
You may have $300,000 in the bank.
That's great.
That's fabulous.
But if you're getting a loan for a house, it's not just enough to have something in thebank.
You need to have the tax return show it as well, because they've got to be able tofinancially back you.
And if on paper you're making on your tax return, you had a net loss, well, then you'renot getting that loan.
(15:20):
How?
It just, you can't, there's no way to do that.
And that's why we tell people, God find family married because I understand theintricacies of making it all work.
Yeah.
So let's talk a little bit more about strategies.
(15:50):
How can a fractional CFO, you're obviously going to bring value, but how can youdemonstrate and show that you are worth, you have your worth?
I guess that's a really bad way of putting it.
Check out any Google review of ours.
(16:11):
uh
I get asked a lot why would I need a fractional CFO.
They're an owner of a business for example, they're a small, they're not exactly a bigcompany but they don't understand the value of what a CFO brings.
(16:36):
And know that you've talked about what you do.
But what are some strategies that you would look to implement?
Or that you would evaluate and figure out how you could show your profitability for yourposition?
to start with, mean, the first thing I'm going to ask them is what tell me your averageday.
(16:56):
Tell me what you're doing.
Show me your tax returns.
That's the first thing we do with everybody.
Show me your tax returns.
Give me access to your QuickBooks.
And I hear we hear more times than not, I don't have QuickBooks.
I use spreadsheets.
God help me.
That right there, like.
I don't know which is worse, that I don't have QuickBooks, I use spreadsheets or I do myown bookkeeping.
(17:21):
Okay, I do my own accounting.
Okay, and how's that working for you?
I I'm not gonna be my own doctor.
I'm not gonna be my own roofer.
I'm not gonna be my own therapist.
We can go down the line of all the different industries we're in, which is an everything.
I'm not gonna be my own.
So why would you?
(17:43):
Why?
would you do that?
And then we look at it and we go, yeah, this is, you know, nine times out of 10, there ismistakes everywhere, everywhere.
And right there, and we do it when we, when we meet with clients, we literally sit and wescreen share and I go through line by line by line, all the errors and people are blown
(18:08):
away right there.
They go, Oh my God.
You know, I point out in the tax return that because people have been doing their owntaxes and I kind of cringe at that on social media.
uh People go, you know, teach high schoolers how to do their own taxes.
Yes.
If you're a W2 and that's it, you get a W2, knock yourself out, do your own taxes.
(18:32):
There's nothing really there.
But if you have your own business, why would you think you can do your own accounting andyour own taxes with
virtually no experience, virtually no education in it, allow somebody to literally look atyour tax return and point out all the places that you're falling short and you're costing
(18:55):
yourself money.
You know, so, I mean, we bring value out the gate because we sit and when we're meetingwith potential new clients, we look at it as an interview.
Like, am I a good fit for you?
Are you a good fit for me?
And the couple people that we have not kept long term as clients, I have said it from thebeginning, this is not gonna work.
(19:23):
Because they don't wanna let go, they don't wanna trust the process, and they reallydon't, they want something that doesn't exist.
They want money to just flow in without doing any of the work.
and you've got to show up and work every day for what you want.
mean, yeah, take your day off or take the afternoon off, take your breaks, but you got toshow up.
(19:47):
You got to want it.
You got to be hungry for it.
And I think the fact that we have clients that literally, if we're awake at midnight andthey need something and they text, we'll respond to it.
There's no other accountant in the world that's going to do that.
(20:08):
I challenge anybody to tell me another accountant and their business partner, you, thatwill get on a call at midnight to help out a client.
And what do we say always?
Nobody dies.
Nobody died.
Nobody's dead.
Then it's not an emergency and literally nobody dies in accounting.
(20:29):
So if we make, I there's, there's literally, there's no other, there's, mean, to ourdetriment, like you say, but
We will get on the phone with you at midnight if we need to.
No problem.
If we're awake and sober.
No problem.
I'll be awake and sober.
So that's to my detriment.
(20:50):
I'm always awake and I'm sober.
Maybe I need to figure that out.
So you've talked a little bit more about looking at overviews of tax filings from previousyears.
Immediately you've seen places that people can put strategies in place.
(21:12):
What are some examples that you've seen?
I do want to say this though.
Also, when we're looking at those, when, when we're looking at those tax returns and we'relooking at in real time with the client or the potential client, we've, I've also said,
see all this they've reported.
I don't know.
Everything ends in a zero $5,000 for this $2,500 for this.
(21:34):
You're literally making numbers up.
can see it.
Because if you go to the grocery store or you go to a lunch, and I think we've discussedthis before, but you go to lunch and it's $32.18 and you put that with the client, okay,
great, whatever.
(21:55):
Say you do that every week for 52 weeks.
32.18 times 52 does not end in a zero.
It doesn't.
You may round it.
It may be 15.
It may be 1,517 maybe your total or $1,517.83 or 37 cents.
(22:17):
so no, it rounds, but it's not an exact 2,500, 1,500, 500, 700 that does not exist.
And those are massive red flags.
And, and when I've said it, people have gone, yeah, you're right.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
(22:38):
Words typically have meaning, so if you say them they generally mean something.
I mean, what's great is you've spoken to people, new clients, it's like, okay, I'm lookingat depreciation, I'm looking at cost segs, I'm looking at all of this, and a lot of people
(22:58):
don't understand what it is that they really need.
And the value that you can bring by just telling people you don't
need all of this, you're overcomplicating it for people.
uh I've done it in other industries and it's got me fired ironically from one place.
uh Lesson learned.
(23:24):
But you know, can have those complicated conversations and talk about entity restructuringand you know.
R &D credits, depreciation strategies, all of these kind of things.
the uh
(24:10):
and actionable strategies.
even when you think about cash flow optimization and financial forecasting or even cashflow is a good one because you look at some of the systems, are their systems working?
(24:34):
Do they have the cash?
What are some saving?
you know things that they can save on or you know credit card fees for example the amountof people paying way too much in credit card fees what can we go and
we have one client that I, you know, through not in the through fault of his own, but theoverdrafts were just outrageous.
(25:02):
And it's as simple as navigating that and moving to a different bank, setting it up,getting, if your bank is not providing a line of credit or a credit card to back your
business for
the times that people are late paying bills, then switch your bank.
(25:23):
That was a really easy solution and we did it and now, and you know, he still needs tofinish, you know, changing things over and that falls on him.
I mean, there are things that we're gonna expect the client that they're gonna need to dobecause example, I can't.
I don't want the authorization nor should any accountant have the authorization to doanything with your bank account.
(25:50):
So yeah, there are going to be times that you're going to have to do some things that Ican't and it's for your own protection.
But literally that same time just and bank fees like $25,000.
I know what I could do with 25 grand.
Me too.
(26:12):
So it's a big difference.
I mean, 25 grand in bank fees.
That's enormous.
Well, think about a meds bar or something.
Yeah.
we don't even get paid that much for this.
So he right there we saved him more than what they pay us annually.
(26:35):
And it's what's best for the business, it's what's best for the person and that's thething.
It's not about us and how much money we can make, it's how much more profitable can wemake this business.
um That right there.
not realize they really look at it.
They'd go, oh, it's an overdraft fee of $29.
(26:55):
$29 every single time adds up.
That's why we do financials and this stress, the stress of, my God, my account's overdrawnagain.
And then you think about when you see that he literally, this client went, do not tell methe number out loud.
And I went, okay.
And he goes, how much is it?
And I said, I'm not going to tell you out loud, but it's more than what you.
(27:18):
We received him payment and he went, my god.
That was mind blowing for him.
Switched.
Done.
Such...
he's such a good dude as well, I must say.
Oh, yeah, I love him.
But not saying his name.
Just love him.
you know, it's like, once people start seeing the reality, like I, I still doing taxes, ofcourse, but somebody was like, Oh, my God, I owe.
(27:49):
Yeah, I mean, we're not saying that you're never going to owe taxes.
Owing taxes is not a bad thing.
It means you're making money.
We're just trying to make sure we
we minimize your tax liability and your tax exposure.
So what I do is I go, so this is the number you're gonna pay, but this is the number thatyou would have paid had I not been doing this work.
(28:14):
Had you not had me as a CFO, this is the number.
Your CFO, your tax planning, the whole thing.
And then they go, oh, so no.
I can appreciate not liking to owe taxes.
I pay taxes.
We pay taxes in some form.
But mitigating that is the ideal situation.
(28:37):
And that's in part what we do by doing all this.
And so then your health is better, your brain is better, your mental state is better,because you're not so stressed out with all the money.
It's a good thing.
That's why we have a Mary.
(28:57):
That's why we have a Mary.
Because...
We've said it before that you either pay it as you go or you pay it at the end.
And if you just pay it at the end you're gonna get hit pretty heavily.
And working with a professional gives you a fighting chance to save as much money aspossible.
(29:21):
And that's the other thing is...
you're not paying for the 10 minutes it takes Mary to do QuickBooks.
You're paying for the 30 years experience and all of that that goes with it.
You know, you think...
if you don't pay for the beginning, you're gonna pay for the end.
literally have, I don't know how many clients we onboarded, but when I was going throughtheir QuickBooks today, or this week, and then again today, it was reviewing everything.
(29:51):
You know, your bank, if you're not with one of the bigger banks, there's only so far backthey pull in.
So what do we have to do?
We have to get their bank statements, we convert the PDF into a CSV.
Then we get the CSV, then we have to restructure that CSV because it's got to be exactlycompatible to upload into QuickBooks.
We upload it all, we have to change the description and move things around.
(30:16):
you know, CSVs don't just pop out.
They're not like super clean.
It takes work to get those running right.
Especially if you're with a credit union.
God help me with the credit unions.
mean, no disrespect, they they're the ones that like they don't go
back more than three months.
So we're pulling bank statements.
have like four companies that I've got to pull bank statements, convert them to CSVs toupload them.
(30:40):
You're paying for all that time.
Like that takes a lot of time.
We have somebody doing it, but you know, the process is longer because it disconnected andyou forgot to reconnect it.
And now we're pulling things in and, and we've got to do it this way.
And, and you know, it's there's constant stuff.
(31:02):
Like, if you want to get the true value, you have to pull your own weight.
It's not all a one-way street because you pay for a service.
How can we be expected to do our jobs if we're not given the information and the tools todo what we need to do?
And the other thing is, if you're a Wells Fargo or a Bank of America or Chase or, youknow, the major ones, they also give you guest access.
(31:29):
So give us guest access.
Yeah.
(32:12):
agreed um I think that's a good place to start wrapping up um what would you say to abusiness owner that says I hear what you're but I don't know that a CFO is the right way
to go
(32:38):
Mm-hmm.
(33:28):
Yeah, that sounds about right.
um If you're serious about building a business, you need to have the experts in the rightareas.
You're not gonna get everything off legal zoom.
You're not gonna get everything off WebMD that you need.
Like, you'd need to go and find the professionals and implement what they need you toimplement.
(33:58):
obviously don't do it blindly of course but have that discussion we like discussion youknow we say things for a reason but if somebody's like okay I hear what you're saying but
what if I did this and then we could have that conversation of here's why you do XYZ overABC they're the kinds of people that we love working with because they're moldable,
(34:24):
they're coachable
And you know.
(35:06):
I agree.
for anybody that wants to learn how we can help from a fractional CFO standpoint, pleasereach out to us.
to www.PeaceLoveBiz.com, Peace, L-U-V-B-I-Z.com.
Schedule your free session.
We will talk about how, what your situation is, how we can help and, you know, get youguys ready for the...
(35:33):
this year and get you ready for next year and see how you guys can grow.
Again we are launching our business strategy services and admin assistance services so ifyou guys need that as well so that you don't have to do the busy work let us know and
(35:58):
until next time we've been Peace Love Biz where peace of mind meets the bottom line.
Ciao.
Yep.
Yep.
(36:19):
Yep, absolutely.
See you next time.
Good afternoon everybody, Steve Higgins here, you're Salton of Sales with another episodeof Peace Love Biz.
This week we are going to be covering three ways that a fractional CFO can make more moneythan you cost.
So I thought it'd be a good idea to bring in our resident fractional CFO.
(00:23):
You may have met her before and that's Madam Mary Roach III.
Mary?
How are you doing?
so funny.
I forgot that, but I am Mary Roach the third.
Not officially, but I am.
No, no, no, I'm the third Mary Roach and we're all the same.
(00:44):
We're all batshit crazy and when we're pissed, we are not to be messed with.
That's all I know.
We're all the same.
Yep.
Third Mary Roach.
Kudos to my aunt, my great aunt.
my other aunt, who's my godmother as well.
God help us, the world cannot handle three Mary Roaches.
(01:05):
Yeah, we- yeah, I can barely handle one, so...
Yeah.
And from what I can hear is you're the easiest one to deal with.
uh
Uh, yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You good?
You doing okay?
think they they lived out everybody kind of like I do.
(01:26):
So I think there's a trend there.
Name.
I am really good.
I am really good.
I'm really had some bad headspace for about three weeks now.
um But I'm really good.
Like, just rocking it out, trying to take my own advice, do one thing at a time, notstressing myself to death.
(01:50):
um
You know I'm really good.
nice well I appreciate you I know it hasn't been said publicly but you do a lot for us youdo way too much for us and we I know that we've said it before but way too much access to
people to our detriment things like that but you are kicking ass you're amazing and we welove you for that so
(02:17):
Well, thanks.
I have the best team in the world.
So by far, we have the best team we met this morning, the accountants and I met thismorning.
And we had a discussion about potential new client.
Got some feedback on that.
(02:38):
I have the best friend, best business partner in the world as well.
So yeah, it's all about
things that make you happy.
That's what I'm focusing on.
Yep, no, and that's a good place to be.
I was going to say, and first off, jump before we dive into the main topic of the realbenefits to a fractional CFO.
(03:03):
We do have some new service lines that we're offering.
We're going to be launching our business coaching and sales strategy sessions that we'regoing to be doing.
Mm-hmm.
Schedule that with me and we'll go through that and help anybody that's looking for thatbusiness growth.
We are also launching our admin assistance program.
(03:27):
So for those people that feel like they don't have enough time in the day, you probablyneed an admin assistant.
There's probably ways that you can streamline some of your processes or focus on doingwhat you're good at instead of getting bogged down in the busy work.
So we have that available as well.
if you guys are interested, go to peacelovebiz.com, put in a contact form and we willdefinitely get back to you and see what we can do and do a quick 30 minute consultation,
(03:57):
figure out where we can help everybody and yeah, let you be the expert in your ownbusinesses.
Absolutely.
mean, there's a lot of best things that we've done this year.
um But learning how to delegate and being able to trust the person.
I mean, you've obviously got to make sure it works.
(04:18):
Like there's a chemistry and it jives and whatever.
But once you have it, it's amazing.
It's it just shrinks.
It's like anything like I don't want to have to be an admin.
that's why we have an admin for me and that's why we have an admin for you.
And you know, I don't like doing that stuff.
It's not that you don't know how to you can, but that's not where you're using your besttalent.
(04:43):
So.
You know I'm not good with delegating.
um But I've actually found it really freeing and I've just completely let go.
Since we've got my help so...
em Yeah, it's kind of a nice segue to...
Yeah, Kayla.
(05:04):
a shout out to, I mean, we do shout out to our team a lot.
Kayla's brand new with us and she's amazing.
Yeah, she's going through finals week two this week, so...
Once she's all done there, then she'll be all ours.
But, no.
She'll get through it, and...
(05:25):
Now, I think she's got maybe a trip planned this summer, but it'll be good.
It's kind of a nice segue, because delegation is a really good segue into talking aboutfractional CFO, because...
I feel like the future is in fractional roles, whether it's CFO, COO, CMO, CHROMO, the HRversion.
(05:55):
And there's a lot of benefits to having a fractional person in those kind of areas.
m So we're going to kind of dive in, talk about, you
Cost versus value and getting people to realize the true value to having that professionalin that position.
(06:19):
Couple of strategies and hopefully leave people with a bit of a differing mindset becausewe hear it a lot when we're meeting with people to begin with, not even to begin with,
clients that we've had before and we've gone to, you know,
increase the price and things like that is I can't afford you and use what's your responseto that
(06:47):
you can't afford not to.
And I think it's it's this is the part that really is eye opening is when we're goingthrough and showing how much that they'll pay in taxes extra without having us doing the
work, the planning.
And we go through this a lot tax prep.
(07:11):
and tax filing is not the same as tax planning and having somebody that knows your books,knows you, works with you.
um We literally people save all the money that they pay us and then more just by havingproper tax planning and having a proper CFO.
(07:34):
yeah and it's it's kind of funny because you mentioned that exact kind of example theysomebody will see it's I'm throwing a random number out so nobody gets targeted but yeah
say it's a thousand dollars a month and they're like whoa that's crazy I'm I can't do thatand then we show them the numbers and the fact that they're going to be saving
(08:02):
$40,000 in taxes they're have the support of a CFO that's been doing it for 30 years andAnd what that's gonna do for them
And I mean, and do you really want to pay the federal government $40,000 that you don'thave to legally?
You don't have to by having us take care of the planning and taking care of the things andputting them in place.
(08:29):
So you're going to pay it somewhere, pay less by having this in place.
I think I've used this analogy before.
Think of taxes like you would a car.
You go and get your regular service.
You know what?
I think fractional CFO and what we do, it's kind of like putting gas in.
(08:54):
Or, you know, putting, you know, getting it serviced where if you don't do that stuff, thecar's going to break.
Yeah.
you're have to pay for a brand new car and it's gonna be way more expensive.
So, um how...
the insurance on your fiscal life, so to say.
(09:15):
That's what we do.
That's what we specialize in.
um And then with our service, we do offer um business growth and development so that youcan figure out how to bring in more clients.
That's obviously where you come in, but we're unlike
(09:38):
I think we're unlike or I know we're unlike any average accounting firm because like itsays in the name, we're a holistic accounting service business and we look at the company
in its entirety.
So it's not just that you have a CFO, it's that you have an entire team backing you.
(10:02):
Absolutely.
So for those people that don't know what a CFO does, can you give us kind of an overviewof what your day would look like?
Not your day, but you know, what kind of responsibilities you would have as a fractionalCFO for a firm?
(10:25):
Sure.
So obviously the people immediately think it's just bookkeeping.
It's not just bookkeeping.
It's looking at those, first of all, the transactions, understanding the transactions.
So, you know, I'll have somebody take a loan and I'm like, wait a minute, why are theytaking this loan?
(10:46):
um You know, yeah, we have a team that does all the cleanup and does the monthlytransactions, but they know
they know what to look for because I also have trained them.
So yeah, they have all those degrees as well.
They're all accredited.
But I teach them.
I take time every week and go through things on what they should be looking for.
(11:08):
um So there's that.
Then it's looking at what's the most beneficial way to navigate loans?
What's the most beneficial way to navigate your payroll?
How are you have things set up?
Are you selling?
Um, looking at, know, what the funding is looking like, uh, looking at the financialreports every month and knowing whether they're in, if they're gaining, if they have a net
(11:38):
profit every month, but their bank account isn't showing it.
Well, then, then we're looking at your distributions and what you're using.
If you're taking distributions, if you're using the cashflow correctly, because if youhave a, a positive, um, profit.
then you should have a positive cashflow.
(11:59):
And if you don't have a positive cashflow, then that's when we start digging into that.
We start looking at forecasting.
We start looking at what other things that we need to do so that you are hitting thosemarks.
you want to be at, um we had one, I mean, we have all sorts of clients, but we had oneclient that said, I want to be at, think a half a million this year, or a million.
(12:23):
And
a million and last year what they did in the entire year last year they already did in thefirst quarter of this year.
So they're going to hit if they keep that pace they're going to hit more than theirmillion dollar goal.
They should hit million dollars by June to be honest at the way they're trending.
(12:44):
So it's being able to build stuff like that out and that's what we do.
Yeah, and not to pray for a disaster or anything like that, but I know that one hurricanewould help their business specifically.
Well, mean, you know, and tis the season, it's start, mean, this is hurricane season nowfor Florida.
(13:05):
and for the Southeast coast of
first storm of the season in Central America today.
em It's on the Central America side.
It's not even gonna touch you, I don't think.
eh
downpours.
really I don't get a whole lot of I get, you know, a lot of rain, but not a lot of wind.
(13:28):
A lot, not a lot.
But um, yeah.
The other thing that you do really well from me coming into this and learning the way thatyou operate is that the decision making portion of things and the strategizing.
(13:51):
We tell everybody, God, family, Mary.
Yeah.
What that allows you to do then is go away and if somebody does have those big live eventsis plan the right things that they need to do to show that their books are showing the
right things, their taxes are.
Like for example, there's a client that is looking to buy a house.
(14:15):
It would have been really useful to know that before we filed the taxes.
And the thing is that we literally say this to every client.
And what people don't understand is they think that it's just, okay, well, I'll let herknow after.
I need to know before.
(14:35):
That's why we have those conversations of what's your goal this year.
So in that conversation, one of the things that should have been mentioned is I'd like tobuy a house.
Because you can't, your paperwork
has to match, has to show that you can afford that house.
(14:56):
Period.
You may have $300,000 in the bank.
That's great.
That's fabulous.
But if you're getting a loan for a house, it's not just enough to have something in thebank.
You need to have the tax return show it as well, because they've got to be able tofinancially back you.
And if on paper you're making on your tax return, you had a net loss, well, then you'renot getting that loan.
(15:20):
How?
It just, you can't, there's no way to do that.
And that's why we tell people, God find family married because I understand theintricacies of making it all work.
Yeah.
So let's talk a little bit more about strategies.
(15:50):
How can a fractional CFO, you're obviously going to bring value, but how can youdemonstrate and show that you are worth, you have your worth?
I guess that's a really bad way of putting it.
Check out any Google review of ours.
(16:11):
uh
I get asked a lot why would I need a fractional CFO.
They're an owner of a business for example, they're a small, they're not exactly a bigcompany but they don't understand the value of what a CFO brings.
(16:36):
And know that you've talked about what you do.
But what are some strategies that you would look to implement?
Or that you would evaluate and figure out how you could show your profitability for yourposition?
to start with, mean, the first thing I'm going to ask them is what tell me your averageday.
(16:56):
Tell me what you're doing.
Show me your tax returns.
That's the first thing we do with everybody.
Show me your tax returns.
Give me access to your QuickBooks.
And I hear we hear more times than not, I don't have QuickBooks.
I use spreadsheets.
God help me.
That right there, like.
I don't know which is worse, that I don't have QuickBooks, I use spreadsheets or I do myown bookkeeping.
(17:21):
Okay, I do my own accounting.
Okay, and how's that working for you?
I I'm not gonna be my own doctor.
I'm not gonna be my own roofer.
I'm not gonna be my own therapist.
We can go down the line of all the different industries we're in, which is an everything.
I'm not gonna be my own.
So why would you?
(17:43):
Why?
would you do that?
And then we look at it and we go, yeah, this is, you know, nine times out of 10, there ismistakes everywhere, everywhere.
And right there, and we do it when we, when we meet with clients, we literally sit and wescreen share and I go through line by line by line, all the errors and people are blown
(18:08):
away right there.
They go, Oh my God.
You know, I point out in the tax return that because people have been doing their owntaxes and I kind of cringe at that on social media.
uh People go, you know, teach high schoolers how to do their own taxes.
Yes.
If you're a W2 and that's it, you get a W2, knock yourself out, do your own taxes.
(18:32):
There's nothing really there.
But if you have your own business, why would you think you can do your own accounting andyour own taxes with
virtually no experience, virtually no education in it, allow somebody to literally look atyour tax return and point out all the places that you're falling short and you're costing
(18:55):
yourself money.
You know, so, I mean, we bring value out the gate because we sit and when we're meetingwith potential new clients, we look at it as an interview.
Like, am I a good fit for you?
Are you a good fit for me?
And the couple people that we have not kept long term as clients, I have said it from thebeginning, this is not gonna work.
(19:23):
Because they don't wanna let go, they don't wanna trust the process, and they reallydon't, they want something that doesn't exist.
They want money to just flow in without doing any of the work.
and you've got to show up and work every day for what you want.
mean, yeah, take your day off or take the afternoon off, take your breaks, but you got toshow up.
(19:47):
You got to want it.
You got to be hungry for it.
And I think the fact that we have clients that literally, if we're awake at midnight andthey need something and they text, we'll respond to it.
There's no other accountant in the world that's going to do that.
(20:08):
I challenge anybody to tell me another accountant and their business partner, you, thatwill get on a call at midnight to help out a client.
And what do we say always?
Nobody dies.
Nobody died.
Nobody's dead.
Then it's not an emergency and literally nobody dies in accounting.
(20:29):
So if we make, I there's, there's literally, there's no other, there's, mean, to ourdetriment, like you say, but
We will get on the phone with you at midnight if we need to.
No problem.
If we're awake and sober.
No problem.
I'll be awake and sober.
So that's to my detriment.
(20:50):
I'm always awake and I'm sober.
Maybe I need to figure that out.
So you've talked a little bit more about looking at overviews of tax filings from previousyears.
Immediately you've seen places that people can put strategies in place.
(21:12):
What are some examples that you've seen?
I do want to say this though.
Also, when we're looking at those, when, when we're looking at those tax returns and we'relooking at in real time with the client or the potential client, we've, I've also said,
see all this they've reported.
I don't know.
Everything ends in a zero $5,000 for this $2,500 for this.
(21:34):
You're literally making numbers up.
can see it.
Because if you go to the grocery store or you go to a lunch, and I think we've discussedthis before, but you go to lunch and it's $32.18 and you put that with the client, okay,
great, whatever.
(21:55):
Say you do that every week for 52 weeks.
32.18 times 52 does not end in a zero.
It doesn't.
You may round it.
It may be 15.
It may be 1,517 maybe your total or $1,517.83 or 37 cents.
(22:17):
so no, it rounds, but it's not an exact 2,500, 1,500, 500, 700 that does not exist.
And those are massive red flags.
And, and when I've said it, people have gone, yeah, you're right.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
(22:38):
Words typically have meaning, so if you say them they generally mean something.
I mean, what's great is you've spoken to people, new clients, it's like, okay, I'm lookingat depreciation, I'm looking at cost segs, I'm looking at all of this, and a lot of people
(22:58):
don't understand what it is that they really need.
And the value that you can bring by just telling people you don't
need all of this, you're overcomplicating it for people.
uh I've done it in other industries and it's got me fired ironically from one place.
uh Lesson learned.
(23:24):
But you know, can have those complicated conversations and talk about entity restructuringand you know.
R &D credits, depreciation strategies, all of these kind of things.
the uh
(24:10):
and actionable strategies.
even when you think about cash flow optimization and financial forecasting or even cashflow is a good one because you look at some of the systems, are their systems working?
(24:34):
Do they have the cash?
What are some saving?
you know things that they can save on or you know credit card fees for example the amountof people paying way too much in credit card fees what can we go and
we have one client that I, you know, through not in the through fault of his own, but theoverdrafts were just outrageous.
(25:02):
And it's as simple as navigating that and moving to a different bank, setting it up,getting, if your bank is not providing a line of credit or a credit card to back your
business for
the times that people are late paying bills, then switch your bank.
(25:23):
That was a really easy solution and we did it and now, and you know, he still needs tofinish, you know, changing things over and that falls on him.
I mean, there are things that we're gonna expect the client that they're gonna need to dobecause example, I can't.
I don't want the authorization nor should any accountant have the authorization to doanything with your bank account.
(25:50):
So yeah, there are going to be times that you're going to have to do some things that Ican't and it's for your own protection.
But literally that same time just and bank fees like $25,000.
I know what I could do with 25 grand.
Me too.
(26:12):
So it's a big difference.
I mean, 25 grand in bank fees.
That's enormous.
Well, think about a meds bar or something.
Yeah.
we don't even get paid that much for this.
So he right there we saved him more than what they pay us annually.
(26:35):
And it's what's best for the business, it's what's best for the person and that's thething.
It's not about us and how much money we can make, it's how much more profitable can wemake this business.
um That right there.
not realize they really look at it.
They'd go, oh, it's an overdraft fee of $29.
(26:55):
$29 every single time adds up.
That's why we do financials and this stress, the stress of, my God, my account's overdrawnagain.
And then you think about when you see that he literally, this client went, do not tell methe number out loud.
And I went, okay.
And he goes, how much is it?
And I said, I'm not going to tell you out loud, but it's more than what you.
(27:18):
We received him payment and he went, my god.
That was mind blowing for him.
Switched.
Done.
Such...
he's such a good dude as well, I must say.
Oh, yeah, I love him.
But not saying his name.
Just love him.
you know, it's like, once people start seeing the reality, like I, I still doing taxes, ofcourse, but somebody was like, Oh, my God, I owe.
(27:49):
Yeah, I mean, we're not saying that you're never going to owe taxes.
Owing taxes is not a bad thing.
It means you're making money.
We're just trying to make sure we
we minimize your tax liability and your tax exposure.
So what I do is I go, so this is the number you're gonna pay, but this is the number thatyou would have paid had I not been doing this work.
(28:14):
Had you not had me as a CFO, this is the number.
Your CFO, your tax planning, the whole thing.
And then they go, oh, so no.
I can appreciate not liking to owe taxes.
I pay taxes.
We pay taxes in some form.
But mitigating that is the ideal situation.
(28:37):
And that's in part what we do by doing all this.
And so then your health is better, your brain is better, your mental state is better,because you're not so stressed out with all the money.
It's a good thing.
That's why we have a Mary.
(28:57):
That's why we have a Mary.
Because...
We've said it before that you either pay it as you go or you pay it at the end.
And if you just pay it at the end you're gonna get hit pretty heavily.
And working with a professional gives you a fighting chance to save as much money aspossible.
(29:21):
And that's the other thing is...
you're not paying for the 10 minutes it takes Mary to do QuickBooks.
You're paying for the 30 years experience and all of that that goes with it.
You know, you think...
if you don't pay for the beginning, you're gonna pay for the end.
literally have, I don't know how many clients we onboarded, but when I was going throughtheir QuickBooks today, or this week, and then again today, it was reviewing everything.
(29:51):
You know, your bank, if you're not with one of the bigger banks, there's only so far backthey pull in.
So what do we have to do?
We have to get their bank statements, we convert the PDF into a CSV.
Then we get the CSV, then we have to restructure that CSV because it's got to be exactlycompatible to upload into QuickBooks.
We upload it all, we have to change the description and move things around.
(30:16):
you know, CSVs don't just pop out.
They're not like super clean.
It takes work to get those running right.
Especially if you're with a credit union.
God help me with the credit unions.
mean, no disrespect, they they're the ones that like they don't go
back more than three months.
So we're pulling bank statements.
have like four companies that I've got to pull bank statements, convert them to CSVs toupload them.
(30:40):
You're paying for all that time.
Like that takes a lot of time.
We have somebody doing it, but you know, the process is longer because it disconnected andyou forgot to reconnect it.
And now we're pulling things in and, and we've got to do it this way.
And, and you know, it's there's constant stuff.
(31:02):
Like, if you want to get the true value, you have to pull your own weight.
It's not all a one-way street because you pay for a service.
How can we be expected to do our jobs if we're not given the information and the tools todo what we need to do?
And the other thing is, if you're a Wells Fargo or a Bank of America or Chase or, youknow, the major ones, they also give you guest access.
(31:29):
So give us guest access.
Yeah.
(32:12):
agreed um I think that's a good place to start wrapping up um what would you say to abusiness owner that says I hear what you're but I don't know that a CFO is the right way
to go
(32:38):
Mm-hmm.
(33:28):
Yeah, that sounds about right.
um If you're serious about building a business, you need to have the experts in the rightareas.
You're not gonna get everything off legal zoom.
You're not gonna get everything off WebMD that you need.
Like, you'd need to go and find the professionals and implement what they need you toimplement.
(33:58):
obviously don't do it blindly of course but have that discussion we like discussion youknow we say things for a reason but if somebody's like okay I hear what you're saying but
what if I did this and then we could have that conversation of here's why you do XYZ overABC they're the kinds of people that we love working with because they're moldable,
(34:24):
they're coachable
And you know.
(35:06):
I agree.
for anybody that wants to learn how we can help from a fractional CFO standpoint, pleasereach out to us.
to www.PeaceLoveBiz.com, Peace, L-U-V-B-I-Z.com.
Schedule your free session.
We will talk about how, what your situation is, how we can help and, you know, get youguys ready for the...
(35:33):
this year and get you ready for next year and see how you guys can grow.
Again we are launching our business strategy services and admin assistance services so ifyou guys need that as well so that you don't have to do the busy work let us know and
(35:58):
until next time we've been Peace Love Biz where peace of mind meets the bottom line.
Ciao.
Yep.
Yep.
(36:19):
Yep, absolutely.
See you next time.
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