March 6, 2025 • 34 mins
We dive deep into the world of fractional CFOs and their pivotal role in transforming financial strategies for businesses aiming to scale. Our guest, Ken LaCroix, a seasoned fractional CFO, shares his invaluable experiences and strategies for leveraging financial data, moving beyond gut-instinct decision-making, and harnessing analytical insights for growth.
Ken illustrates the potential for fractional CFOs to bridge high-level strategy with day-to-day operations, inspiring a data-driven culture that helps businesses avoid pitfalls tied to misinformed decisions. He discusses the critical importance of financial planning and analysis, empowering leaders to look toward future forecasting to inform their decisions. Additionally, Ken emphasizes the need to overcome persistent educational barriers that hinder understanding of fractional CFO value, helping business owners recognize how they can benefit from enhanced financial oversight.
With his compelling philosophy of relationship-building, Ken reshapes the perception surrounding accounting and consulting, positioning the fractional CFO as an ally dedicated to a client's success rather than just a necessary expense. He sheds light on how technology can streamline financial processes and reveals strategies for elevating financial conversations, ensuring that numerical insights lead to actionable business outcomes.
Whether you are a small business owner, an aspiring fractional CFO, or a professional looking to boost your financial acumen, this episode offers essential lessons on driving business success. Join us as we explore how to navigate the complexities of modern business and unlock your potential for growth. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success, the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories.
And Welcome back to CFOChronicles the secrets behind
success.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Today, we're diving deep into the financial side of
business growth with a guest whoknows how to turn numbers into
real strategic decisions.
Ken LaCroix is a seasonedfractional CFO who helps
business owners move beyond gutinstinct decisions making and
leverage financial data tomaximize profitability and
scalability.
His unique approach bridgeshigh level strategy with day to
(01:13):
day operations, ensuring thatbusinesses aren't just growing,
but growing profitably.
In today's conversation, we'lluncover hidden financial blind
spots, the key metrics thattruly drive success and how CEOs
can make smarter, data-backeddecisions that lead to long-term
sustainability.
Ken, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Thank you, james, appreciate it.
Thanks for having us on.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Really looking forward to diving in, hearing a
little bit more about your story, how you're helping out your
clients and how you guys reallyshow the data behind so business
owners can make more databasedecisions.
How did you get into this world, ken?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
So we're.
You know, my background in thevirtual or fractional CFO space
goes back about 15 years here inOrange County.
We're in Southern California,and I just sold off one of my
prior companies to privateequity and 2009,.
If none of you remember, it wasa very difficult time to be a
CFO.
You know, the middle of thefinancial crisis.
(02:13):
So I just hung my shingle outand said, look, I'll do CFO work
for these small companies.
At the time it was less than 10million and I like it.
We had some success, but we hadlots of failures.
I like to describe it asphenomenal analysis on horrible
numbers, because that sub $10million space, the accounting is
always wrong.
It's not how wrong is it or isit going to be wrong, it's
(02:33):
always wrong.
So it was very, veryfrustrating.
So I spent a lot of my timegetting better at outsourced
accounting, getting better atgetting the numbers better
underneath it, and then thetechnology sort of aligned, if
you will, around attaching tofinancials.
Qbo became much more mainstreamand we could get to the data
much, much easier, much, with alot less pain for our clients
(02:57):
and for us, frankly, as well,and so we just morphed into
Insightful Partners about sevenyears ago to be really the
virtual CFO that's focused onthe FP&A space, financial
planning and analysis.
So we like to think ofourselves as very focused on the
FP&A side, looking a little bitat the numbers in the rear view
mirror, but really looking atwhere we are and where we want
(03:17):
to go.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's awesome.
I love how it seems likethere's a big boom in the last
year, year and a half, withfractional CFOs or virtual CFOs
coming in and it seems likebusiness owners are starting to
realize a little bit more howmuch value there is there.
Do you find there's stilldifficulty, or is it a
(03:41):
bottleneck when you speak to newprospects or even existing
clients who work with you thatthere's a lot of education that
needs to take place first beforethey truly understand how much
value you're actually bringingto them?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's really a great insight it.
So I've been at this for what?
15, 16 years now.
I thought everyone knew what afractional CFO was, and so, as
we've done a little bit ofmarket research and I've been at
this for what?
15, 16 years now I thoughteveryone knew what a fractional
CFO was.
And so, as we've done a littlebit of market research and I've
been educated by some goodpeople on the marketing side of
things, I realized that there'sstill a tremendous number of
business owners and theirmanagement teams that have no
(04:16):
idea this exists.
So I thought there would bemuch less of an education
component at this stage, butthey're still very much an
education component.
I would say that our biggesthurdle our biggest competitor,
if you will is really the statusquo.
I think business owners don'talways understand what
accounting does, and, again, ourclients are in the $5 to $50
(04:38):
million space well before theyhave a CFO.
They might have a controller,they might have a pretty good
handle on getting their numbersdone on a monthly basis, but
there's not a lot of insightcoming from it, there's not a
lot of foresight coming from it,and so I think the business
owners want to get more fromaccounting, but accounting is
sort of well.
We just kind of published thepast and then, by the way, the
(05:00):
month is already halfway over, Igot to get ready for my next
round of month-end close andfinancials and all this stuff I
have to put together and thenthey go to their CPA.
That's maybe done their taxesfor them and they ask for you
know, I'd kind of like to know alittle bit more about my cash
flow forecasting.
Or I want to know more aboutbudgeting, and they say, yeah,
we don't really do that, we justkind of do your taxes.
(05:23):
Irrespective of the number ofwonderful accounting firms that
are doing client advisoryservices CAS, if you will
there's still a tremendousnumber of accounting firms that
really just do basic accountingand basic tax preparation.
So what we find is that we havea frustrated business owner,
but they really don't know whereto turn.
And that status quo piece isthey don't quite understand the
(05:46):
accounting department.
They don't want to disrupt it,they know they can't do without
it, and so our biggest challengeis letting both the decision
makers call it the president,the founder, the decision maker
overcome the decisioninfluencers, which we'll call
the existing sitting accountingdepartment that says look,
everything's working fine, wedon't need anyone to come in and
(06:06):
look at it.
We don't really need anyone todo anything to upset our apple
cart, if you will.
So I think that's our biggeststruggle overall in general.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Do you feel the existing bookkeepers, the
existing accountants that are inplace with these businesses, do
you think there's a fear thatthey don't want you and your
team or other fractional CFOscoming in because they feel like
they're going to be pushed outof the picture?
Because, from where I'm sittingand my knowledge is, you're
(06:38):
actually going in there tocomplement what they're doing
and really strengthen thebusiness.
You're not going in there toreplace the bookkeeper at all.
You're not going in there toreplace the tax filing at the
end of the year.
You're focused on the futurestuff, not everything that's
happened in the past.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You're absolutely correct, and there is a fear and
, whether they know it,consciously or just
subconsciously, people get intoaccounting because there's an
element of control, there's anelement of satisfaction, there's
an element of effort equalsresults.
There's no place in businessmore rewarding for getting the
right story and picture thanaccounting, because you can do
(07:15):
something called areconciliation.
It tends to be unique toaccounting, but we have these
outside statements that we cancompare to our internal work and
we can say look, we balance.
And so that reconciliationmentality combines or results in
look, I'm only as good as theeffort I put forth, and it takes
a long time to get thesereconciliations done.
(07:37):
So my worth is tied to theamount of time I'm spending or
the amount of manual proceduresthat I'm applying to these
numbers I'm spending, or theamount of manual procedures that
I'm applying to these numberswhen, in reality, with bank
feeds and matching bank feeds,you don't need to do a
reconciliation at all.
In fact, in many cases, yourreconciliation is click here to
complete reconciliation, becauseyou're doing a mini
(07:57):
reconciliation every day, whichis really where we should be.
We should be looking at thatbank account every day and
finding out where we are andusing those numbers every day.
So I would argue that why wouldyou do a reconciliation until
the end of the year?
Because you're doing it daily.
Why would you do the formalprocess inside of an accounting
system to do it?
(08:17):
That's wasted time.
You can do 12 reconciliationsat the end of the year in the
same amount of time.
It would take you to do oneevery month.
It's a very different, radicalviewpoint, but it makes my point
that we want to move from dataentry to data analysis.
And if everything's a bit and abite, if everything's already
electronic, which it usually is,then let's just move it through
(08:38):
the system electronically andlet's spend all of our time
managing accounts payable,managing accounts receivable,
managing the GL, managing themonth-end close or the weekend
close or the weekday close.
That's the stuff that reallymatters.
Someone once described from anoutsider's perspective, say an
owner's perspective.
They described accounting asgiving me a report that I don't
(09:02):
understand, six weeks too late,and so that's what we're trying
to solve, and that's franklyscary to accounting.
It's scary to that Part of itis they don't really understand
what their real role is, whichis to help make better decisions
.
But they might also be a littlescared that.
Well, what if I had to make adecision?
No one's ever asked them to dothat before, so there's a lot of
(09:24):
fear involved and we just tryand hold their hand through it.
We're not looking to replacethem at all.
There's nothing that we want todo inside the accounting
department other than you usethe numbers for better decisions
for everybody.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You mentioned that that's one of the biggest
bottlenecks.
Is, you know, the businessowner?
They go back to theirbookkeeper, their accountant hey
, you know is the business owner.
They go back to theirbookkeeper, to their accountant
hey, ken's team's gonna come in,they wanna do X, y, z and the
CPA, the bookkeeper's like no,that doesn't need to happen.
How do you overcome that as afirm to close new business when
that is such a common obstacleor objection that you'd be
(10:00):
getting on sales calls?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Let's just call it a long sales cycle, so it solves
itself.
When you're in a situation thatyou'd be getting on sales calls
, let's just call it a longsales cycle, so you know it
solves itself.
When the business owner ortheir management team finally
says I'm willing to take on thestatus quo, I'm so frustrated,
this has gone on so long thatI'm willing to do whatever it
takes.
In that change management andwe all remember the J curve of
(10:25):
change management it gets worsebefore it gets better, by
definition.
And so in that early stagewhere it gets worse, all the
naysayers can jump right on andsay look, told you, this is
horrible.
Hey, look, it's only been aweek, it's only been.
You know five steps, it's onlybeen.
And then the rewards come muchlater, when you can do something
(10:45):
about some of thoseinefficiencies and you really
gain it.
So the naysayers have sort of afront row seat to derailing it
in the early stages.
So we just sort of wait.
We just keep pinging thebusiness owner and say hey, do
you have all the answers thatyou needed this month from your
financial reports?
Do you know exactly what yoursales are going to be three
months from now?
You must have it by now,because we've been talking about
(11:06):
it for so long.
And finally they just sort ofsay, look, I still don't have it
.
And you're right, I really needthis.
My Vistage group is telling meI need this, my peer group is
telling me I need this, my coachis telling me I need this, so
they just have to take on theaccounting department.
And so it usually doesn'thappen in the first month, but
usually we can be prettypersuasive after a quarter or
two.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
All right, there's a couple of different directions
or questions.
I have based off of thatbecause there's a lot of insight
and value getting added here.
But I mean speaking of the Jcurve, like everyone's right
until they're not.
So I love that you're speakingabout and just how visual that
is of it's going to be worseuntil it gets better and
(11:49):
everyone can say, yep, told youthis wasn't gonna work, what a
waste of money.
But what are we doing?
And then all of a suddencrickets because things are
getting better and then so italmost sounds thankless in a way
, until you're back in the lightwhere you know you're going to
be.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
It is.
It is, we develop thick skinsand we develop really a very
strategic.
That's where the strategicmindset comes through.
We're not solving a problemright in front of us.
We're not even solving for thetechnology that we're
implementing.
We're not even solving for theprocess.
That's the bonus that comesfrom it.
We just happen to need moregranular data by definition.
We need it much faster bydefinition, and we don't want to
(12:30):
add bodies to do that bydefinition.
So we're not hung up on thetechnology, we just know that
that's our pathway to get towhere we need to go and, by the
way, that helps everyone alongthe way.
So having that vision of thatand we do create a vision in our
minds of that future statereally helps us kind of get
through this.
And maybe someday I'll puttogether a PowerPoint of all the
(12:53):
objections that I get for that,because they tend to be some
pretty funny objections, if youwill.
But for now we're just kind ofsoldiering on through it, but
for now we're just kind ofsoldiering on through it.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I love that you also mentioned a long sales cycle and
, you know, just following upfor like a month, maybe two
months, maybe even three monthsof just kind of pinging hey
we're here, are you getting whatyou need?
And just, I would love to heara little bit about more, a
little more about what thatprocess looks like, because I
think inherently in thefinancial world call it the
(13:28):
accounting world, the fractionalCFO industry, sales doesn't
feel natural because there's aheavy reliance on referrals.
So someone comes in fromFacebook, linkedin, wherever the
platform is, it doesn't matter,because it's a human who's
looking for service.
But that cold conversation,pitching them, selling them,
(13:50):
it's uncomfortable, even though,again, you're having a
conversation with another human.
But then that follow up process, which clearly that's where the
money is Not.
A lot of people are closingdeals on the very first
conversation.
So it really is in thefollow-up what keeps you and
your team motivated or, I guess,strict on that follow-up to get
(14:12):
those deals closed, because Ithink a lot of your peers would.
Just they fall off and if theydon't respond to that proposal
that was sent out, that that'sthe first time they're seeing
the cost of the service.
Oh, they didn't like theproposal, and that's just it.
It dies.
But it sounds like you have adifferent approach.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
So it's a different approach, but to be honest it's
a very recent approach becauseI'd say that we definitely fit
the mindset of, hey, our stuffis good enough.
It should just be evident toeveryone how good this is.
And we don't want to be salesy,we don't want to be that guy,
that girl, that person, thatfunction that follows up.
(14:51):
We've all had pesky sort ofsales process experiences that
are not nice and so we naturallyhold ourselves out as
professionals.
We hold ourselves out as, hey,our stuff should stand on its
own, and I was guilty of thatfor the last 14 and the last 15
years and we were fortunateenough to have an awful lot of
referrals.
We get a lot of platformreferrals.
(15:11):
We're in a good spot to get alot of that.
But I recently changed mythinking when, among the number
of different accountingmarketing books and marketing
and professional services booksI read but specifically around
accounting, the follow-upprocess and this is my insight,
it's my personal one and Ibelieve strongly in it that
(15:33):
follow-up process isdemonstrating to your potential
client what you will bring as aprofessional.
And if you don't do that, thenyou're telling them, maybe
consciously or subconsciously,and maybe they're receiving it
consciously or subconsciously,that I just don't care that much
about your books, I don't carethat much about the decisions
you have to make.
So, turning it from a salesprocess into a demonstration of
(15:56):
care, and we add another layerto it.
We're a little more bold, ifyou will.
We add an accountability layerto it.
We don't say, hey, justfollowing up, or I'm still
thinking about you.
We say you must be getting thedecisions you need because you
haven't called us, Like you mustknow your 13-week cash flow now
, because you haven't reallyresponded to us to do that.
And again, we're cheeky in away.
(16:16):
But there's a layer ofaccountability there that says
look, when you're ready, we'rehere for you and we are still
thinking about you and we stillthink this is relevant, even
though you haven't looked at itfor three months or six months
or even a year.
So you know, we just have thatas our mantra.
Like, how do we show a potentialclient how good we are through
diligent and respectful butaccountable follow up, Because
(16:39):
that's how we do our engagements.
We're diligent in ourengagements, we're respectful in
our engagements, especiallyaround the accounting department
and other people, but we'realso brutally accountable.
We're brutal with the businessowner and the one piece that I
found successful in selling tobusiness owners about what it is
that we do and why you shouldhire someone fractional and why
(17:01):
shouldn't I hire someone fulltime and why this model and not
a different one.
We have the ability to tell youexactly what you should be.
We have the ability to tell youexactly what we're seeing in
the financials.
You can fire us tomorrow andour family's livelihoods are not
at stake.
We can just move on to the nextclient.
(17:21):
In fact, that might be a muchbetter fit than the current
client.
That'd be better for everyone.
So if you don't respond well towhat we're seeing and what we
think you should be doing froman accountability standpoint and
making better decisions androlling with the team and
helping everyone in yourorganization, then just fire us
and find someone else.
And if you're a consultant withone client which is what I call
employees If you're a consultantwith one client which is what I
(17:43):
call employees you're going toreally resist.
If I'm a CFO or I'm acontroller or heck, if I'm a
bookkeeper or an accountant, I'mgoing to really resist telling
sort of my management team, theperson that signs my check, some
bad news, Because what if theydon't take it right?
What if they fire me?
My family's at risk?
I'm not going to do that.
(18:03):
So we remove that element fromit and say, look, fire us if you
want, but we think this is whatyou should be doing Again,
respectful right and all of that.
But I think that's one of ourbiggest advantages is, in
addition to seeing things acrossmultiple businesses, we don't
care if you don't like it, we'regoing to tell it to you anyway.
That's our mission, that's ourvalues, that's what we hold.
(18:24):
Sacred is are we having thosedifficult conversations?
Are we having those seriousconversations around what's
really happening?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Anyone can give the first 90, but if you're not
willing to give that last 10%, Ithink you're really doing a
disservice to your clients,because that's what they're
paying you for your strategicinsight, which they don't have,
and you need to be giving that100%, whether they are going to
like the answer or they're not.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
But that's why we don't measure our performance
based on churn, because churncould be a good thing, because
we need to make ourselvesavailable for those business
owners that want to hear it.
And I'm not suggesting thateveryone has to hear it.
Not everyone is ready.
It's that change managementpiece.
Some of the clients that wefire, some of the clients that
fire us, some of the clientsthat say, hey, this is not
working.
They come back in a year or twoand say now we're ready.
(19:22):
There's no shame in that,there's no problem with that.
It's just we've been able tohelp a bunch of other companies
in the meantime until they'reready.
Instead of this painful youknow, geez, I've got to get on
this call again.
On both sides we're going totalk about the same thing we've
been talking about the lastthree months On both sides.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
We're going to both make excuses as to why it didn't
happen this time.
But hey, it's going to happentomorrow, it'll happen next
month.
So I also want to I just goback to your mindset shift in
the follow-up because whatyou're saying is so true and so
important.
There and I really hopeeveryone hears that is you're.
You're almost giving a freetrial of some sort, like a taste
of what it's like to work withyou, just based on how diligent
you are, because you truly knowhow important it is for that
business to work with youbecause you have the solution
(20:16):
they need.
I think so many look at it likeoh, I'm going to bother them.
When should I call this?
It's not about you.
It's about your potentialclient, who you have the
solution for, and it's makingthat switch, like you just said.
It really has nothing to doabout Ken following up.
It's about the business ownerwho you said.
This is my solution that yousaid you're asking for.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And I'm going to keep reaching out to you because I
know this is the right fit foryou, and it's a revelation that
took me 14 out of my 15 years inthis space to come to.
So I get it.
I get it that it's reallydifficult to do, but it was a
light switch for me, just alight switch.
So I'm so pleased that I wasable to at least see that,
because I truly believe that'sthe case.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
How much of a difference have you seen, either
in the bottom line or just likethe health of the business or
your confidence?
On these, I don't want to saysales calls, because it sounds
salesy for lack of better words,but just the consultations or
the conversations with prospects, when you made that switch to
(21:23):
I'm here to help you.
You're not the other way around.
If you're here to help me andfeed me, put money on my table,
I'm going to make your businessbetter and in turn, that's just
going to make my business better.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
So let's create a new word, right?
You said let's not use thesales process.
I just thought of a new phrasewe can use.
We can use engagement education.
Let's just call it that.
I'm here to educate you on ourengagement.
One of my I hesitated to callthem competitors because we
don't run across anybody else.
Again, our competitors arestatus quo.
Our competitors are not doinganything.
But our secret sauce might beslightly different than someone
(21:58):
else's secret sauce.
My background might be verydifferent than other people's
background.
Our team's background might bedifferent.
We can all approach things fromslightly different ways.
So let's call it just I'm justgoing to educate you on our
engagement and here's how we dothings.
So we're a work in process.
Again, these are long salescycles and I would say I only
came to this realization in thethird or fourth quarter of last
(22:18):
year.
So I don't know that we've seena marked difference.
What I've seen is I approachthings very differently.
I approach things from adifferent.
I can't speed things up.
There's still that changemanagement piece of it, but I
know that people are willing totake my phone call and it
appears as though we're havinggood conversations around.
(22:39):
Not ready, not ready, not readyas opposed to crickets,
crickets, crickets.
So once you know that it's notcrickets, once you know that
you're either a fast no, whichwe love like hey, not you,
someone else not ready, call mein, fill in the blank.
That's awesome Because now noone's wasting their time.
So that, I think, is the biggestbenefit, is that I've freed up
(23:00):
all kinds of time about worrying, thinking, wondering, answering
internal questions about whereis this, where are they?
I'm like, oh, they're a quickno.
That's wonderful, and we'll putthem on our little newsletter
list to follow up and maybesomeday they'll come back or
maybe they won't, but we canmove on to the people that are
better prospects for better fit.
I'll call it.
So.
(23:21):
It's really engagement,education and finding the right
fit.
We don't have to win everybake-off.
We want to find the right fit,we want them to find the right
fit.
So that's how we approach it.
So a work in process.
Check back in with me in a yearand I'll have some better
numbers for you, because we'reall about data.
But I would say it's just, it'sfreed up some time to do better
follow-up because we're notchasing the ones that are
(23:43):
clearly enough.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And there's so much, so much power in that as well.
Like I would much rather at theend of that educational
engagement, hey, if it's notgoing to fit, just tell me.
You're not going to hurt myfeelings, I'm an adult.
You're an adult Because thenyou're not going to hear from me
which you don't want to.
I'm not going to waste my timeand we can just move on and like
(24:05):
, yeah, being told no, I'd muchrather that than that gray area
where so many people live andthey think, wow, I've sent out
all these proposals, okay, butthey're a no.
You just haven't heard the noyet.
And wouldn't you rather hearthat?
You mentioned having a lot moresolid conversations.
Now how do, how do you or yourfirm generate these new
(24:29):
conversations so you are able tobring on more clients and
provide a higher level serviceto them?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I would say it's so.
The other big aha that we kindof knew but we didn't do a
really good job of making sureof, is no lingo.
Do not use the words that weuse internally or that we use as
a profession.
Don't use those with ourpotential clients.
So in accounting we haveinvoices and in the business
(25:00):
world they have people that owethem money and we have bills to
pay for accounts payable.
And where's your accountspayable Aging and they have
stuff I got to pay for thingsthat impact my cash.
That's how they view the world.
So, getting rid of the lingo,getting rid of the hey, do you
have your 13-week cash flowprojection and your budget and
(25:21):
your forecast and yourre-forecast?
And do you know your productprofitability and do you know
your customer profitability?
All the jargon that we usewhere we in essence I'll use an
old term show up and throw up.
We don't do that anymore.
We talk about what it is thatthey're really looking for, what
their perceived pain point is,and we just focus on that in,
hopefully, words that they canrelate to and understand.
(25:42):
And again, we talk a lot aboutchange management.
We describe, we truly let themknow that our biggest
competition right now is thefact that you may not want to do
anything right now, that youmay not be willing to make that
change, and I think that justleads to much more open
conversations about what it'sreally going to take for both of
us, both sides, to besuccessful.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I love the removal of the accounting jargon because
that's not how I mean any otherbusiness owners thinking right.
They have their own languagefor the industry they're in.
So if you really simplify it,you know like fifth grader
language where everyone canunderstand it, I can see why
you're having a lot betterconversations.
(26:23):
Is there?
What sort of strategy are youusing to get people come through
the door?
Do you have paid ads on, say,meta?
Are you doing organic outreachon LinkedIn?
Is it cold calling?
What works well for your firm?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
So we're on version 3.0 of our marketing and I would
say version 1.0 was a swing anda miss, and version 2.0 was a
swing and a miss.
So my business partner I lookedat each other and said we can't
sub this out anymore.
We can't sub out theresponsibility for this.
We both need to make sure thatwe have responsibility for it,
and then people do stuff for us.
(26:58):
So we devote between five and10 hours a week between us to
marketing, to this, this process, and that's happened since, I'd
say, the last six months, andso we now are less impatient
around getting some tools inplace and we're much more
patient about building the truefoundation of all the different
areas that are needed, I think,to market well in this space.
(27:27):
So we're still a work inprocess when it comes to that
technology process.
We've got that dialed in rightOver 15 years.
We made enough mistakes.
We know who our ideal customeris, we know who they're not.
But the marketing thing, to behonest, it's an eye opener for
us and we've been stronglyinvesting in marketing for three
years and we don't have much toshow for it.
So I think the biggest changefor us is we're no longer
(27:47):
subbing it out to our virtualCMO.
We're no longer trusting whatthe marketing agency might say.
We're really guiding them andwe found that to be much better
conversations.
We found it to be much betterfit on either side.
It's not just a series of thingsthat get done.
It's a series of things that wethink we need to do to build
(28:10):
this, and so we're fortunate.
We've been around long enough.
We get some nice referrals andwe have some nice client bases.
Again, we've been at it threeyears, so we need to make some
progress on it.
I think we are doing the rightthings now to do it, but it's
really lengthening that horizonof what it will really take Not
taking the quick win, not tryingto find that quick win.
We did paid ads and failedmiserably.
(28:33):
We did again show up and throwup blog posts and failed
miserably.
Lots of failed miserably piecesbefore we realized that it's a
long process and my businesspartner Wes and I we need to
take responsibility for it.
We're not doing the work, butthe buck stops with us each and
every time.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
What I'm hearing is more of a partnership.
Look versus.
Here's the vendor, do the thingand where's all of our money?
Because you guys did marketing,which is a very vague term yep,
that's a great way to summarizeit perfect, um ken.
Last question for you whatadvice would you give to any
(29:15):
other entrepreneur listening oranyone who's looking to get into
the space, or just anythingabout building and building a
successful business and pushingthrough when things get tough?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Process, process, process.
We overlook process early onbecause we can wing it.
It's relatively easy to wing itbecause nobody knows what we
should be doing.
We're the only ones that reallyknow what the Excel spreadsheet
or the Power BI dashboard orthe Fathom platform or the
financial reporting should be,and in fact they're all the same
.
It's income statement, balancesheet and maybe a statement of
(29:50):
cash flows.
So I would say that, early on,define your process because, in
the same way that the follow-upprocess impacts indicates how
well you're going to perform theservices, the infrastructure,
the how does this work?
You know when the clientdecides to move forward and they
ask how does this work?
(30:11):
Having really concrete answersaround that and a really good
process that doesn't drop theball, miss the email, overlook
something, quality control, anyof that.
Have those things in place.
They don't need to be perfect,they don't need to be complex,
they don't need to beoverwhelming, but at least start
thinking of those things.
So your first client okay, it'seasy to do everything.
But your second client how willI get the documentation?
(30:33):
What does the first meetinglook like?
What's our agenda?
It won't be right.
The third client it'll be alittle bit better.
It still won't be right.
But by the 10th client, 20thclient, you've probably got a
pretty good system there andthen it doesn't become difficult
because at 15 clients or 20clients you lose track of things
.
You're going to make mistakes.
So I would just say investearly on in your thought process
(30:53):
around the process.
Don't let it get in the way ofdoing the work.
Still get the client to do thework, but just recognize that
hey, let's learn from this andbuild that process little by
little.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Awesome, so good.
Ken, how can others get intouch with you if they want to
continue the conversation?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Hit me up on LinkedIn , Ken LaCroix.
Insightfulpartnerscom is ourwebsite.
We're happy to have aconversation anytime.
I'll sit on the phone withsomeone in this space or a
business owner for 15 minutesAnytime.
You can tell I love to talk.
You can tell I have my opinions.
Would love to continue thedialogue.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Are you still there?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I'm still here.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Again, just in case the audio wasn't too great.
So, Ken, for those who want tocontinue the conversation with
you, how can they get in touch?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Hit me up on LinkedIn , ken LaCroix.
Hit us up on our website,insightfulpartnerscom, ken.
At insightfulpartnerscom.
Hit me up anyway.
You can tell I love to talk.
You can tell I have my opinions.
I'll sit down with anybody inthis space or a business owner
for 15 minutes and have aconversation about anything.
Love to do it.
I love this space.
I love what you're doing, james, with this space, so just hit
(32:11):
me up.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Awesome.
I really hope everyone reachesout.
Continues that conversation.
We'll put your links in theshow notes.
Ken, thank you so much forcoming on.
This was awesome getting toknow a lot more about your
business and the way youapproach business.
I think it's really cool.
So thanks again for coming on.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Thank you for doing this.
It's really helpful for all ofus in this space.
Thanks, James.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
(32:55):
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call it's time to positionyourself as the advisor your
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And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
(33:16):
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract morehigh-paying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
(33:46):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success, the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories.
And Welcome back to CFOChronicles the secrets behind
success.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Today, we're diving deep into the financial side of
business growth with a guest whoknows how to turn numbers into
real strategic decisions.
Ken LaCroix is a seasonedfractional CFO who helps
business owners move beyond gutinstinct decisions making and
leverage financial data tomaximize profitability and
scalability.
His unique approach bridgeshigh level strategy with day to
(01:13):
day operations, ensuring thatbusinesses aren't just growing,
but growing profitably.
In today's conversation, we'lluncover hidden financial blind
spots, the key metrics thattruly drive success and how CEOs
can make smarter, data-backeddecisions that lead to long-term
sustainability.
Ken, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Thank you, james, appreciate it.
Thanks for having us on.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Really looking forward to diving in, hearing a
little bit more about your story, how you're helping out your
clients and how you guys reallyshow the data behind so business
owners can make more databasedecisions.
How did you get into this world, ken?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
So we're.
You know, my background in thevirtual or fractional CFO space
goes back about 15 years here inOrange County.
We're in Southern California,and I just sold off one of my
prior companies to privateequity and 2009,.
If none of you remember, it wasa very difficult time to be a
CFO.
You know, the middle of thefinancial crisis.
(02:13):
So I just hung my shingle outand said, look, I'll do CFO work
for these small companies.
At the time it was less than 10million and I like it.
We had some success, but we hadlots of failures.
I like to describe it asphenomenal analysis on horrible
numbers, because that sub $10million space, the accounting is
always wrong.
It's not how wrong is it or isit going to be wrong, it's
(02:33):
always wrong.
So it was very, veryfrustrating.
So I spent a lot of my timegetting better at outsourced
accounting, getting better atgetting the numbers better
underneath it, and then thetechnology sort of aligned, if
you will, around attaching tofinancials.
Qbo became much more mainstreamand we could get to the data
much, much easier, much, with alot less pain for our clients
(02:57):
and for us, frankly, as well,and so we just morphed into
Insightful Partners about sevenyears ago to be really the
virtual CFO that's focused onthe FP&A space, financial
planning and analysis.
So we like to think ofourselves as very focused on the
FP&A side, looking a little bitat the numbers in the rear view
mirror, but really looking atwhere we are and where we want
(03:17):
to go.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's awesome.
I love how it seems likethere's a big boom in the last
year, year and a half, withfractional CFOs or virtual CFOs
coming in and it seems likebusiness owners are starting to
realize a little bit more howmuch value there is there.
Do you find there's stilldifficulty, or is it a
(03:41):
bottleneck when you speak to newprospects or even existing
clients who work with you thatthere's a lot of education that
needs to take place first beforethey truly understand how much
value you're actually bringingto them?
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's really a great insight it.
So I've been at this for what?
15, 16 years now.
I thought everyone knew what afractional CFO was, and so, as
we've done a little bit ofmarket research and I've been at
this for what?
15, 16 years now I thoughteveryone knew what a fractional
CFO was.
And so, as we've done a littlebit of market research and I've
been educated by some goodpeople on the marketing side of
things, I realized that there'sstill a tremendous number of
business owners and theirmanagement teams that have no
(04:16):
idea this exists.
So I thought there would bemuch less of an education
component at this stage, butthey're still very much an
education component.
I would say that our biggesthurdle our biggest competitor,
if you will is really the statusquo.
I think business owners don'talways understand what
accounting does, and, again, ourclients are in the $5 to $50
(04:38):
million space well before theyhave a CFO.
They might have a controller,they might have a pretty good
handle on getting their numbersdone on a monthly basis, but
there's not a lot of insightcoming from it, there's not a
lot of foresight coming from it,and so I think the business
owners want to get more fromaccounting, but accounting is
sort of well.
We just kind of published thepast and then, by the way, the
(05:00):
month is already halfway over, Igot to get ready for my next
round of month-end close andfinancials and all this stuff I
have to put together and thenthey go to their CPA.
That's maybe done their taxesfor them and they ask for you
know, I'd kind of like to know alittle bit more about my cash
flow forecasting.
Or I want to know more aboutbudgeting, and they say, yeah,
we don't really do that, we justkind of do your taxes.
(05:23):
Irrespective of the number ofwonderful accounting firms that
are doing client advisoryservices CAS, if you will
there's still a tremendousnumber of accounting firms that
really just do basic accountingand basic tax preparation.
So what we find is that we havea frustrated business owner,
but they really don't know whereto turn.
And that status quo piece isthey don't quite understand the
(05:46):
accounting department.
They don't want to disrupt it,they know they can't do without
it, and so our biggest challengeis letting both the decision
makers call it the president,the founder, the decision maker
overcome the decisioninfluencers, which we'll call
the existing sitting accountingdepartment that says look,
everything's working fine, wedon't need anyone to come in and
(06:06):
look at it.
We don't really need anyone todo anything to upset our apple
cart, if you will.
So I think that's our biggeststruggle overall in general.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Do you feel the existing bookkeepers, the
existing accountants that are inplace with these businesses, do
you think there's a fear thatthey don't want you and your
team or other fractional CFOscoming in because they feel like
they're going to be pushed outof the picture?
Because, from where I'm sittingand my knowledge is, you're
(06:38):
actually going in there tocomplement what they're doing
and really strengthen thebusiness.
You're not going in there toreplace the bookkeeper at all.
You're not going in there toreplace the tax filing at the
end of the year.
You're focused on the futurestuff, not everything that's
happened in the past.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You're absolutely correct, and there is a fear and
, whether they know it,consciously or just
subconsciously, people get intoaccounting because there's an
element of control, there's anelement of satisfaction, there's
an element of effort equalsresults.
There's no place in businessmore rewarding for getting the
right story and picture thanaccounting, because you can do
(07:15):
something called areconciliation.
It tends to be unique toaccounting, but we have these
outside statements that we cancompare to our internal work and
we can say look, we balance.
And so that reconciliationmentality combines or results in
look, I'm only as good as theeffort I put forth, and it takes
a long time to get thesereconciliations done.
(07:37):
So my worth is tied to theamount of time I'm spending or
the amount of manual proceduresthat I'm applying to these
numbers I'm spending, or theamount of manual procedures that
I'm applying to these numberswhen, in reality, with bank
feeds and matching bank feeds,you don't need to do a
reconciliation at all.
In fact, in many cases, yourreconciliation is click here to
complete reconciliation, becauseyou're doing a mini
(07:57):
reconciliation every day, whichis really where we should be.
We should be looking at thatbank account every day and
finding out where we are andusing those numbers every day.
So I would argue that why wouldyou do a reconciliation until
the end of the year?
Because you're doing it daily.
Why would you do the formalprocess inside of an accounting
system to do it?
(08:17):
That's wasted time.
You can do 12 reconciliationsat the end of the year in the
same amount of time.
It would take you to do oneevery month.
It's a very different, radicalviewpoint, but it makes my point
that we want to move from dataentry to data analysis.
And if everything's a bit and abite, if everything's already
electronic, which it usually is,then let's just move it through
(08:38):
the system electronically andlet's spend all of our time
managing accounts payable,managing accounts receivable,
managing the GL, managing themonth-end close or the weekend
close or the weekday close.
That's the stuff that reallymatters.
Someone once described from anoutsider's perspective, say an
owner's perspective.
They described accounting asgiving me a report that I don't
(09:02):
understand, six weeks too late,and so that's what we're trying
to solve, and that's franklyscary to accounting.
It's scary to that Part of itis they don't really understand
what their real role is, whichis to help make better decisions
.
But they might also be a littlescared that.
Well, what if I had to make adecision?
No one's ever asked them to dothat before, so there's a lot of
(09:24):
fear involved and we just tryand hold their hand through it.
We're not looking to replacethem at all.
There's nothing that we want todo inside the accounting
department other than you usethe numbers for better decisions
for everybody.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
You mentioned that that's one of the biggest
bottlenecks.
Is, you know, the businessowner?
They go back to theirbookkeeper, their accountant hey
, you know is the business owner.
They go back to theirbookkeeper, to their accountant
hey, ken's team's gonna come in,they wanna do X, y, z and the
CPA, the bookkeeper's like no,that doesn't need to happen.
How do you overcome that as afirm to close new business when
that is such a common obstacleor objection that you'd be
(10:00):
getting on sales calls?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Let's just call it a long sales cycle, so it solves
itself.
When you're in a situation thatyou'd be getting on sales calls
, let's just call it a longsales cycle, so you know it
solves itself.
When the business owner ortheir management team finally
says I'm willing to take on thestatus quo, I'm so frustrated,
this has gone on so long thatI'm willing to do whatever it
takes.
In that change management andwe all remember the J curve of
(10:25):
change management it gets worsebefore it gets better, by
definition.
And so in that early stagewhere it gets worse, all the
naysayers can jump right on andsay look, told you, this is
horrible.
Hey, look, it's only been aweek, it's only been.
You know five steps, it's onlybeen.
And then the rewards come muchlater, when you can do something
(10:45):
about some of thoseinefficiencies and you really
gain it.
So the naysayers have sort of afront row seat to derailing it
in the early stages.
So we just sort of wait.
We just keep pinging thebusiness owner and say hey, do
you have all the answers thatyou needed this month from your
financial reports?
Do you know exactly what yoursales are going to be three
months from now?
You must have it by now,because we've been talking about
(11:06):
it for so long.
And finally they just sort ofsay, look, I still don't have it
.
And you're right, I really needthis.
My Vistage group is telling meI need this, my peer group is
telling me I need this, my coachis telling me I need this, so
they just have to take on theaccounting department.
And so it usually doesn'thappen in the first month, but
usually we can be prettypersuasive after a quarter or
two.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
All right, there's a couple of different directions
or questions.
I have based off of thatbecause there's a lot of insight
and value getting added here.
But I mean speaking of the Jcurve, like everyone's right
until they're not.
So I love that you're speakingabout and just how visual that
is of it's going to be worseuntil it gets better and
(11:49):
everyone can say, yep, told youthis wasn't gonna work, what a
waste of money.
But what are we doing?
And then all of a suddencrickets because things are
getting better and then so italmost sounds thankless in a way
, until you're back in the lightwhere you know you're going to
be.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
It is.
It is, we develop thick skinsand we develop really a very
strategic.
That's where the strategicmindset comes through.
We're not solving a problemright in front of us.
We're not even solving for thetechnology that we're
implementing.
We're not even solving for theprocess.
That's the bonus that comesfrom it.
We just happen to need moregranular data by definition.
We need it much faster bydefinition, and we don't want to
(12:30):
add bodies to do that bydefinition.
So we're not hung up on thetechnology, we just know that
that's our pathway to get towhere we need to go and, by the
way, that helps everyone alongthe way.
So having that vision of thatand we do create a vision in our
minds of that future statereally helps us kind of get
through this.
And maybe someday I'll puttogether a PowerPoint of all the
(12:53):
objections that I get for that,because they tend to be some
pretty funny objections, if youwill.
But for now we're just kind ofsoldiering on through it, but
for now we're just kind ofsoldiering on through it.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I love that you also mentioned a long sales cycle and
, you know, just following upfor like a month, maybe two
months, maybe even three monthsof just kind of pinging hey
we're here, are you getting whatyou need?
And just, I would love to heara little bit about more, a
little more about what thatprocess looks like, because I
think inherently in thefinancial world call it the
(13:28):
accounting world, the fractionalCFO industry, sales doesn't
feel natural because there's aheavy reliance on referrals.
So someone comes in fromFacebook, linkedin, wherever the
platform is, it doesn't matter,because it's a human who's
looking for service.
But that cold conversation,pitching them, selling them,
(13:50):
it's uncomfortable, even though,again, you're having a
conversation with another human.
But then that follow up process, which clearly that's where the
money is Not.
A lot of people are closingdeals on the very first
conversation.
So it really is in thefollow-up what keeps you and
your team motivated or, I guess,strict on that follow-up to get
(14:12):
those deals closed, because Ithink a lot of your peers would.
Just they fall off and if theydon't respond to that proposal
that was sent out, that that'sthe first time they're seeing
the cost of the service.
Oh, they didn't like theproposal, and that's just it.
It dies.
But it sounds like you have adifferent approach.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
So it's a different approach, but to be honest it's
a very recent approach becauseI'd say that we definitely fit
the mindset of, hey, our stuffis good enough.
It should just be evident toeveryone how good this is.
And we don't want to be salesy,we don't want to be that guy,
that girl, that person, thatfunction that follows up.
(14:51):
We've all had pesky sort ofsales process experiences that
are not nice and so we naturallyhold ourselves out as
professionals.
We hold ourselves out as, hey,our stuff should stand on its
own, and I was guilty of thatfor the last 14 and the last 15
years and we were fortunateenough to have an awful lot of
referrals.
We get a lot of platformreferrals.
(15:11):
We're in a good spot to get alot of that.
But I recently changed mythinking when, among the number
of different accountingmarketing books and marketing
and professional services booksI read but specifically around
accounting, the follow-upprocess and this is my insight,
it's my personal one and Ibelieve strongly in it that
(15:33):
follow-up process isdemonstrating to your potential
client what you will bring as aprofessional.
And if you don't do that, thenyou're telling them, maybe
consciously or subconsciously,and maybe they're receiving it
consciously or subconsciously,that I just don't care that much
about your books, I don't carethat much about the decisions
you have to make.
So, turning it from a salesprocess into a demonstration of
(15:56):
care, and we add another layerto it.
We're a little more bold, ifyou will.
We add an accountability layerto it.
We don't say, hey, justfollowing up, or I'm still
thinking about you.
We say you must be getting thedecisions you need because you
haven't called us, Like you mustknow your 13-week cash flow now
, because you haven't reallyresponded to us to do that.
And again, we're cheeky in away.
(16:16):
But there's a layer ofaccountability there that says
look, when you're ready, we'rehere for you and we are still
thinking about you and we stillthink this is relevant, even
though you haven't looked at itfor three months or six months
or even a year.
So you know, we just have thatas our mantra.
Like, how do we show a potentialclient how good we are through
diligent and respectful butaccountable follow up, Because
(16:39):
that's how we do our engagements.
We're diligent in ourengagements, we're respectful in
our engagements, especiallyaround the accounting department
and other people, but we'realso brutally accountable.
We're brutal with the businessowner and the one piece that I
found successful in selling tobusiness owners about what it is
that we do and why you shouldhire someone fractional and why
(17:01):
shouldn't I hire someone fulltime and why this model and not
a different one.
We have the ability to tell youexactly what you should be.
We have the ability to tell youexactly what we're seeing in
the financials.
You can fire us tomorrow andour family's livelihoods are not
at stake.
We can just move on to the nextclient.
(17:21):
In fact, that might be a muchbetter fit than the current
client.
That'd be better for everyone.
So if you don't respond well towhat we're seeing and what we
think you should be doing froman accountability standpoint and
making better decisions androlling with the team and
helping everyone in yourorganization, then just fire us
and find someone else.
And if you're a consultant withone client which is what I call
employees If you're a consultantwith one client which is what I
(17:43):
call employees you're going toreally resist.
If I'm a CFO or I'm acontroller or heck, if I'm a
bookkeeper or an accountant, I'mgoing to really resist telling
sort of my management team, theperson that signs my check, some
bad news, Because what if theydon't take it right?
What if they fire me?
My family's at risk?
I'm not going to do that.
(18:03):
So we remove that element fromit and say, look, fire us if you
want, but we think this is whatyou should be doing Again,
respectful right and all of that.
But I think that's one of ourbiggest advantages is, in
addition to seeing things acrossmultiple businesses, we don't
care if you don't like it, we'regoing to tell it to you anyway.
That's our mission, that's ourvalues, that's what we hold.
(18:24):
Sacred is are we having thosedifficult conversations?
Are we having those seriousconversations around what's
really happening?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Anyone can give the first 90, but if you're not
willing to give that last 10%, Ithink you're really doing a
disservice to your clients,because that's what they're
paying you for your strategicinsight, which they don't have,
and you need to be giving that100%, whether they are going to
like the answer or they're not.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
But that's why we don't measure our performance
based on churn, because churncould be a good thing, because
we need to make ourselvesavailable for those business
owners that want to hear it.
And I'm not suggesting thateveryone has to hear it.
Not everyone is ready.
It's that change managementpiece.
Some of the clients that wefire, some of the clients that
fire us, some of the clientsthat say, hey, this is not
working.
They come back in a year or twoand say now we're ready.
(19:22):
There's no shame in that,there's no problem with that.
It's just we've been able tohelp a bunch of other companies
in the meantime until they'reready.
Instead of this painful youknow, geez, I've got to get on
this call again.
On both sides we're going totalk about the same thing we've
been talking about the lastthree months On both sides.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
We're going to both make excuses as to why it didn't
happen this time.
But hey, it's going to happentomorrow, it'll happen next
month.
So I also want to I just goback to your mindset shift in
the follow-up because whatyou're saying is so true and so
important.
There and I really hopeeveryone hears that is you're.
You're almost giving a freetrial of some sort, like a taste
of what it's like to work withyou, just based on how diligent
you are, because you truly knowhow important it is for that
business to work with youbecause you have the solution
(20:16):
they need.
I think so many look at it likeoh, I'm going to bother them.
When should I call this?
It's not about you.
It's about your potentialclient, who you have the
solution for, and it's makingthat switch, like you just said.
It really has nothing to doabout Ken following up.
It's about the business ownerwho you said.
This is my solution that yousaid you're asking for.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
And I'm going to keep reaching out to you because I
know this is the right fit foryou, and it's a revelation that
took me 14 out of my 15 years inthis space to come to.
So I get it.
I get it that it's reallydifficult to do, but it was a
light switch for me, just alight switch.
So I'm so pleased that I wasable to at least see that,
because I truly believe that'sthe case.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
How much of a difference have you seen, either
in the bottom line or just likethe health of the business or
your confidence?
On these, I don't want to saysales calls, because it sounds
salesy for lack of better words,but just the consultations or
the conversations with prospects, when you made that switch to
(21:23):
I'm here to help you.
You're not the other way around.
If you're here to help me andfeed me, put money on my table,
I'm going to make your businessbetter and in turn, that's just
going to make my business better.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
So let's create a new word, right?
You said let's not use thesales process.
I just thought of a new phrasewe can use.
We can use engagement education.
Let's just call it that.
I'm here to educate you on ourengagement.
One of my I hesitated to callthem competitors because we
don't run across anybody else.
Again, our competitors arestatus quo.
Our competitors are not doinganything.
But our secret sauce might beslightly different than someone
(21:58):
else's secret sauce.
My background might be verydifferent than other people's
background.
Our team's background might bedifferent.
We can all approach things fromslightly different ways.
So let's call it just I'm justgoing to educate you on our
engagement and here's how we dothings.
So we're a work in process.
Again, these are long salescycles and I would say I only
came to this realization in thethird or fourth quarter of last
(22:18):
year.
So I don't know that we've seena marked difference.
What I've seen is I approachthings very differently.
I approach things from adifferent.
I can't speed things up.
There's still that changemanagement piece of it, but I
know that people are willing totake my phone call and it
appears as though we're havinggood conversations around.
(22:39):
Not ready, not ready, not readyas opposed to crickets,
crickets, crickets.
So once you know that it's notcrickets, once you know that
you're either a fast no, whichwe love like hey, not you,
someone else not ready, call mein, fill in the blank.
That's awesome Because now noone's wasting their time.
So that, I think, is the biggestbenefit, is that I've freed up
(23:00):
all kinds of time about worrying, thinking, wondering, answering
internal questions about whereis this, where are they?
I'm like, oh, they're a quickno.
That's wonderful, and we'll putthem on our little newsletter
list to follow up and maybesomeday they'll come back or
maybe they won't, but we canmove on to the people that are
better prospects for better fit.
I'll call it.
So.
(23:21):
It's really engagement,education and finding the right
fit.
We don't have to win everybake-off.
We want to find the right fit,we want them to find the right
fit.
So that's how we approach it.
So a work in process.
Check back in with me in a yearand I'll have some better
numbers for you, because we'reall about data.
But I would say it's just, it'sfreed up some time to do better
follow-up because we're notchasing the ones that are
(23:43):
clearly enough.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
And there's so much, so much power in that as well.
Like I would much rather at theend of that educational
engagement, hey, if it's notgoing to fit, just tell me.
You're not going to hurt myfeelings, I'm an adult.
You're an adult Because thenyou're not going to hear from me
which you don't want to.
I'm not going to waste my timeand we can just move on and like
(24:05):
, yeah, being told no, I'd muchrather that than that gray area
where so many people live andthey think, wow, I've sent out
all these proposals, okay, butthey're a no.
You just haven't heard the noyet.
And wouldn't you rather hearthat?
You mentioned having a lot moresolid conversations.
Now how do, how do you or yourfirm generate these new
(24:29):
conversations so you are able tobring on more clients and
provide a higher level serviceto them?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
I would say it's so.
The other big aha that we kindof knew but we didn't do a
really good job of making sureof, is no lingo.
Do not use the words that weuse internally or that we use as
a profession.
Don't use those with ourpotential clients.
So in accounting we haveinvoices and in the business
(25:00):
world they have people that owethem money and we have bills to
pay for accounts payable.
And where's your accountspayable Aging and they have
stuff I got to pay for thingsthat impact my cash.
That's how they view the world.
So, getting rid of the lingo,getting rid of the hey, do you
have your 13-week cash flowprojection and your budget and
(25:21):
your forecast and yourre-forecast?
And do you know your productprofitability and do you know
your customer profitability?
All the jargon that we usewhere we in essence I'll use an
old term show up and throw up.
We don't do that anymore.
We talk about what it is thatthey're really looking for, what
their perceived pain point is,and we just focus on that in,
hopefully, words that they canrelate to and understand.
(25:42):
And again, we talk a lot aboutchange management.
We describe, we truly let themknow that our biggest
competition right now is thefact that you may not want to do
anything right now, that youmay not be willing to make that
change, and I think that justleads to much more open
conversations about what it'sreally going to take for both of
us, both sides, to besuccessful.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I love the removal of the accounting jargon because
that's not how I mean any otherbusiness owners thinking right.
They have their own languagefor the industry they're in.
So if you really simplify it,you know like fifth grader
language where everyone canunderstand it, I can see why
you're having a lot betterconversations.
(26:23):
Is there?
What sort of strategy are youusing to get people come through
the door?
Do you have paid ads on, say,meta?
Are you doing organic outreachon LinkedIn?
Is it cold calling?
What works well for your firm?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
So we're on version 3.0 of our marketing and I would
say version 1.0 was a swing anda miss, and version 2.0 was a
swing and a miss.
So my business partner I lookedat each other and said we can't
sub this out anymore.
We can't sub out theresponsibility for this.
We both need to make sure thatwe have responsibility for it,
and then people do stuff for us.
(26:58):
So we devote between five and10 hours a week between us to
marketing, to this, this process, and that's happened since, I'd
say, the last six months, andso we now are less impatient
around getting some tools inplace and we're much more
patient about building the truefoundation of all the different
areas that are needed, I think,to market well in this space.
(27:27):
So we're still a work inprocess when it comes to that
technology process.
We've got that dialed in rightOver 15 years.
We made enough mistakes.
We know who our ideal customeris, we know who they're not.
But the marketing thing, to behonest, it's an eye opener for
us and we've been stronglyinvesting in marketing for three
years and we don't have much toshow for it.
So I think the biggest changefor us is we're no longer
(27:47):
subbing it out to our virtualCMO.
We're no longer trusting whatthe marketing agency might say.
We're really guiding them andwe found that to be much better
conversations.
We found it to be much betterfit on either side.
It's not just a series of thingsthat get done.
It's a series of things that wethink we need to do to build
(28:10):
this, and so we're fortunate.
We've been around long enough.
We get some nice referrals andwe have some nice client bases.
Again, we've been at it threeyears, so we need to make some
progress on it.
I think we are doing the rightthings now to do it, but it's
really lengthening that horizonof what it will really take Not
taking the quick win, not tryingto find that quick win.
We did paid ads and failedmiserably.
(28:33):
We did again show up and throwup blog posts and failed
miserably.
Lots of failed miserably piecesbefore we realized that it's a
long process and my businesspartner Wes and I we need to
take responsibility for it.
We're not doing the work, butthe buck stops with us each and
every time.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
What I'm hearing is more of a partnership.
Look versus.
Here's the vendor, do the thingand where's all of our money?
Because you guys did marketing,which is a very vague term yep,
that's a great way to summarizeit perfect, um ken.
Last question for you whatadvice would you give to any
(29:15):
other entrepreneur listening oranyone who's looking to get into
the space, or just anythingabout building and building a
successful business and pushingthrough when things get tough?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Process, process, process.
We overlook process early onbecause we can wing it.
It's relatively easy to wing itbecause nobody knows what we
should be doing.
We're the only ones that reallyknow what the Excel spreadsheet
or the Power BI dashboard orthe Fathom platform or the
financial reporting should be,and in fact they're all the same
.
It's income statement, balancesheet and maybe a statement of
(29:50):
cash flows.
So I would say that, early on,define your process because, in
the same way that the follow-upprocess impacts indicates how
well you're going to perform theservices, the infrastructure,
the how does this work?
You know when the clientdecides to move forward and they
ask how does this work?
(30:11):
Having really concrete answersaround that and a really good
process that doesn't drop theball, miss the email, overlook
something, quality control, anyof that.
Have those things in place.
They don't need to be perfect,they don't need to be complex,
they don't need to beoverwhelming, but at least start
thinking of those things.
So your first client okay, it'seasy to do everything.
But your second client how willI get the documentation?
(30:33):
What does the first meetinglook like?
What's our agenda?
It won't be right.
The third client it'll be alittle bit better.
It still won't be right.
But by the 10th client, 20thclient, you've probably got a
pretty good system there andthen it doesn't become difficult
because at 15 clients or 20clients you lose track of things
.
You're going to make mistakes.
So I would just say investearly on in your thought process
(30:53):
around the process.
Don't let it get in the way ofdoing the work.
Still get the client to do thework, but just recognize that
hey, let's learn from this andbuild that process little by
little.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Awesome, so good.
Ken, how can others get intouch with you if they want to
continue the conversation?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Hit me up on LinkedIn , Ken LaCroix.
Insightfulpartnerscom is ourwebsite.
We're happy to have aconversation anytime.
I'll sit on the phone withsomeone in this space or a
business owner for 15 minutesAnytime.
You can tell I love to talk.
You can tell I have my opinions.
Would love to continue thedialogue.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Are you still there?
Speaker 3 (31:38):
I'm still here.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Again, just in case the audio wasn't too great.
So, Ken, for those who want tocontinue the conversation with
you, how can they get in touch?
Speaker 3 (31:50):
Hit me up on LinkedIn , ken LaCroix.
Hit us up on our website,insightfulpartnerscom, ken.
At insightfulpartnerscom.
Hit me up anyway.
You can tell I love to talk.
You can tell I have my opinions.
I'll sit down with anybody inthis space or a business owner
for 15 minutes and have aconversation about anything.
Love to do it.
I love this space.
I love what you're doing, james, with this space, so just hit
(32:11):
me up.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Awesome.
I really hope everyone reachesout.
Continues that conversation.
We'll put your links in theshow notes.
Ken, thank you so much forcoming on.
This was awesome getting toknow a lot more about your
business and the way youapproach business.
I think it's really cool.
So thanks again for coming on.
Speaker 3 (32:29):
Thank you for doing this.
It's really helpful for all ofus in this space.
Thanks, James.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
(32:55):
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call it's time to positionyourself as the advisor your
clients need.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
(33:16):
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract morehigh-paying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
(33:46):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
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