March 21, 2025 • 47 mins
Discover how Alex Wright, a former U.S. Naval officer, founding member of the City of Peachtree Corners, and corporate finance veteran, made the bold decision to "burn the ships" and launch his own fractional CFO firm. Hosted by Rico Figliolini
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways:
- Burn the Ships Mentality – Why Alex embraced total commitment when leaving corporate America to start his own business.
- Solving Business Challenges – How a fractional CFO helps entrepreneurs manage cash flow, optimize processes, and grow sustainably.
- Financial Storytelling – The power of translating financial data into actionable insights for business owners.
- City Leadership & Business Strategy – Lessons learned from helping launch Peachtree Corners as a smart city and how that applies to business growth.
- The Role of Technology in Finance – How tools like QuickBooks and Power BI can improve financial planning—if used correctly.
- Long-Term Business Planning – Why forecasting, budgeting, and understanding financial trends are crucial for sustained success.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The playgrounds and stuff we've building out there, and you
see all those people and enjoining themselves, you think, you know,
I had some small part.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Of You're listening to Peachtree Corner's Life, a podcast sharing ideas, opinions,
and news about the city of Peachtree Corners, the community
we live in and the people that are your neighbors.
Now your Hostrigo Figliolini.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Hi, everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corner's Life.
I have a great guest today this morning, Alex. Right,
Hey Alex, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Hey, Rico, it's good to see again. Thanks for the invite.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Sure we're going to have exciting things to talk about,
but before we get into that, I just want to
say thank you to our two sponsors, EV We're Modeling, Inc.
And Eli and his family who lived here in Peachtree
Corners and the company's based here, provide a sponsorship to
us for supporting our pot casts in our magazines and
EV Remodeling Ink is a company that does designed to build.
(01:06):
You need a whole house remodeled, or you just need
your bathroom modeled or your kitchen. They are the people
to do it. They've done over two hundred and sixty
large projects over the past few years and you should
check them out. Great supporter of OURUS, great people, nice
guy ev remodelingink dot com is where you can find them.
Our second spots, vox popular is also based here in
(01:29):
Peacetree Corners. Family owned. They are a company. If you
have a brand and you want to bring that brand
to life, vox popularize the people to do it.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
They do. Think about the.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Truck wraps, car wraps that you see traveling around trade
show booths, signage anything you need and printed on any
object in printing, they're the people to do it. You
need a backdrop for you twenty feet by ten feet tall,
they can do it. Any of those things that will
bring your brand to life is what they're doing. Challenge
(02:02):
them and they'll come back and surprise you. They're right
here in Peace three Corners and Norcross. So check them
out vox popular and the link will be in the
show notes. But if you search them vox pop Uli
you'll find them. Thanks again for your support. So now
we have Alex. So let me introduce Alex a little bit.
(02:22):
He has a great background. He served in the US
Naval as a US Naval officer back during the nineties.
He was the founding member of the City of Peachtree
Corners City Council and has been a city councilman here
in leadership here since twenty twelve when he was first elected.
(02:43):
He was also the guy, the guy that originated the
idea of Curiosity Lab, that set out path on being
a smart city and on so many foundational parts that
the Curiosity Lab has been involved in, including autonomous vehicle,
five G technolog and all that. So without him, I
don't know where we'd be when it comes to that
(03:06):
Georgia Institute of Technology grad so much more. He's also
a board member of the Peatree Corners Veterans Monument Association,
if you're familiar with that and the monument that we
have at Town Center. So, now that I've given a
really good background, I think of you, Alex, why don't
you tell us just a little bit more about what
you've been up to and where we're going.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, that was a great introduction. I wish my wife
could have heard how Brady made me sound sheets on
that entertaining Yeah. So I after I got out of
the Navy, I went to the grade of the school
at Wake Forest and then basically the next twenty five
years was various companies and corporate finance. Some big ones
(03:55):
Glack So Welcome, which I guess that I was, Glastos,
Declined Depot, Equifax, and then the last eleven years was
at a big consumer products company in a divisional CFO
role that I was here in Atlanta, and about three
I guess it's probably November, I made a decision to
(04:19):
transition out of Corporate America and with some colleagues of
mine that I used to work with, formed a fractional
CFO company. Some people referred to it as a business
advisory firm, and it's called Burn the Ships. That's the
(04:39):
name of the company. And so yeah, we're in the
process of just getting engaged in the community and looking
for companies that could use our services.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So tell me, I understand to Burn the Ship's part,
but really, what inspired you to name Burn the Ships Financial?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So you know, when I was making the decision to
leave Corporate America, and you know, that's kind of all
you know, it's you get comfortable with that and and
to make that, you know, giant career change, you know,
it's it could be kind of scary. And I happened
(05:23):
to be reading a book at you know, during this
time when I was trying to figure out how do
I want to do this? And the name of the
book was called Actually Burned the Boats and the book
is about it's written. I can't remember the guy's name,
but it's an entrepreneur, serial entrepreneur, and kind of the
gist of the book is not to have a plan
(05:45):
be and you can play a concept to really anything,
whether it be your marriage, or training for an athletic
event or starting a business, that something that's going to
you know, be challenging and require, you know, your little
effort in order to succeed. He can't have that thought of, well,
if this doesn't work out, I'll just go back to
(06:06):
that have to be a total commitment. So that phrase
is as a metaphor for total commitment. And you know,
there's a not to go in too much of the history,
but you know the phrase comes from not to want
a lot of history, but the of Cortes when he
was exploring the coast of Mexico, he had been tasked
(06:28):
with that and he gets there and discovers that, you know,
there's the Aztec empires there and decides, hey, I want
to I want to go into the the fowels of
Mexico and see what's going on there. He just had
a few hundred men with him, and these guys that
he had with him were apprehensive, obviouslyqued. He wants to
(06:50):
march into the jungle the unknown. Plus their orders were
to just explore the coast. Well, his solution to that
was I'm eliminate the plan be and his the limit
of the way he did that was he literally burned
all the ships. That was now no way to go back.
It was succeed or in their case. So that that
(07:16):
phrase is about in total commitment to the mission, and
it really at that time it rang, you know, just
struck a chord with me as I was trying to
make this decision, because that's a big, big change in
a lot of different ways. And so I really just
loved the story that idea of total commitment. And so
(07:37):
that's the brief background where as brief as I could
make it, where that that phrase came from. I just
loved that story about the you know, the commitment those
other to go to a lot of my other kind
of pursuits that I've got in my life. But you know, different,
whether it be especially like athletic things or projects he
(07:58):
and some of the things we've done with the city
where it's only going to suc speed, you totally buy
into what we're trying to accomplish, the total commitment. So
that's the that's the name. And you know another some
of the advice I got was you need to make
the name the vocket So when someone here's that name,
I think, what does that mean, you know, versus as
(08:19):
opposed to a right CFO services.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, now, I totally agree with that. Branding is is
key to a lot of what we do and get
people remembering. And I can appreciate what you're saying too,
because having I mean, I have not worked in the
corporate environment except for a couple of years, and I've
been on and off a business owner and then working
(08:44):
for a company and stuff, so I've been on both
sides of that, so it's a little different. But you you've
your whole career has been corporate, large companies, so I
can appreciate that jumping off the ship almost and not
going back is really scary, I'm sure. So your experience
(09:06):
has been as a divisional CFO at least for the
past decade or so. I guess, how do you think
that that's going to How does that shape the services
that you're offering through burn the ships financial So.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
In this role I had it. When people say I
worked in corporate finance, that can mean a whole lot
of different things because the larger companies the finance departments
quite large. So the role I had in this business
in this company had probably fifteen businesses, and as a
divisional CFO, you'd be embedded in the business. And what
(09:46):
that means is you're at the table with the decision
makers actually helping run the business, from generating sales to
making say manufacturing more efficient too, you know, how can
we ship more efficiently, to negotiating with vendors for better terms?
You know, you name it. You had exposure to that.
(10:08):
So the relevance of that is, you know, you've seen
my granted maybe it's a bigger scale, you know, bigger numbers,
but the challenges of making a business successful. You've had
exposure to full P and L balance sheet just like
for a small company, and so that allows you. The
reason that's translatable is ultimately what when companies hire someone
(10:34):
as a fractional CFO. Really, what they're looking for is
I've got a problem, I've got a pain point, and
I need someone to help alleviate that pain, to make
that help take that problem away. So it's really about
problem solving. So running a business in the finance role
(10:56):
is ultimately about solving problems as well. So I feel
like the skill set very translating because that's what I
did for ten years, which was solved problems to make
our business more financially successful.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
In the practical way. Can you give us an example
without sharing the company you worked with? I guess or
you know particularly, but is there an example that you
can give how that translates in an actual real life story.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yes. So now you know, at a larger company, it's
especially that's publicly traded. You know, it's all about how
do we get our earnings per share up? You know,
the company is normally pretty stable, and like say a
smaller company, they might in some cases it might be
fighting for survivals in some instances, so a little bit
(11:48):
different scenario, but ultimately about how do we make the
company more profitable, whether it be small or big. And
so an example of something we did at this larger
company is we were in a market where the there
wasn't a lot of growth on the top because it
was an industry that was actually kind of shrinking. So
(12:10):
how do you grow profit if your top line is
stagnant at you know, invest or maybe just growing through
price increases very low single digits. So one of the
things that you could look at is, let's look at
our product, you know, the actual composition of the So
we are actually a manufacturer. There are ways that we
can make the product that we're producing less costly, but
(12:35):
hopefully in the process also make it more effective. And
so in this instance, and not just the product in
this case was grass seed, you're thinking, well, how what
can you possibly do to grass seed? But in today's world,
they actually take the grass seed and they put a
biostimulant around it so that when the seed goes out,
(12:56):
it has a much higher probability of germinating. So what
what you would look at is what can we do
with the stimulant to you know, change the makeup of it,
you know, change the composition where it's maybe the germination
is even higher. But we've substituted some type of material
(13:18):
that costs less. So in those instances you're working with
an R and D department, your marketing people, and and
so in this instance, we did that over a series
of five years, which all of our changed the composition
of our products. And so the ultimate takeaway for that
was we increased the margins for the business by about
(13:42):
a thousand basis points. So what that means as I say,
your margin was thirty percent, now it's forty percent. So
that's and that drops straight to the bottom line through
that something as it was, it wasn't simple, but you know,
study to say, well, there's nothing we can do because
we're not growing is to basically look at everything on
(14:03):
the panel. What are you know, areas that we could
look at. I mean, you could apply that to your
own personal life of I'm trying to come back on
spending and you go through, look at every expense and
explored and maybe we don't need the one g you
know Internet, maybe we just need the five hundred megabytes
and you know, no stone uncovered. That's the way we
(14:27):
had to operate. And I think that's very a very
translatable skill for smaller businesses because most likely they're going
to be even more cost conscious than a bigger company
that's got you know, resources at their disposal.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
So it's really looking closely not just at the books,
but at the process of what companies do.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Right, That's that's exactly right. So one of the things
when i'm and this is before I transition, you know,
people say, well, well, you know, what does finance do
is just kind of this broad term. I would always
describe it as in three pieces, and it's very simplistic.
The first, the most basic part, is the gathering of information,
(15:09):
and that could be billing ar ap like at a
big company that's completely automated. Smaller company, it might not
even really exist. The next level is you're taking that information,
you're analyzing it, you're putting into a reporting format. At
a bigger company, not completely automated, but mostly automated. At
(15:33):
a really small company that especially reporting. You know, they're
the small business owner. His financials might be his bank statement.
That might be the limit of what he's got. And
the third part, and this is really where finance difference
from say accounting, is you are going to the decision
(15:53):
maker and you're saying, hey, if you pull this lever,
this will happen over here. You're you're giving them actionable
data advice, if you will, how to drive the company
whatever the company's financial goals are, giving them suggestions how
to do that.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
So it's also I guess, you know, if I look
at it from what I do a little bit from
my business and stuff, every business is somewhat the same
to the degree these peaks and valleys. You may not
always have the same trend line of revenue coming in
and stuff. So it's finding how to maximize the use
of the money that's coming in and the money flowing out.
(16:37):
Maybe it's a manufacturing or the service side and how
that's being done. When are those parts being delivered, or
how it's being ordered or insiuch. So you're looking beyond
just the numbers on the books. You're trying to optimize
the way a company's doing business behind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
That's right, and that's the thing I was talking about.
Being in edit in the business, being part of the
decision making is again looking at the full pano. You're
not just reporting the news. You're trying to influence what's
going on. So you know, you might you might be
looking at in the course of a day, Okay, how
do we make our you know, logistics more efficient. You
(17:20):
might be looking at, hey, what's the ROI on this
marketing spend? You know, any anything you can do to
you know, drive profitability and that you know that. Guess
that's one of the upsides of a publicly traded company
when you've got that pressure, that quarterly pressure. If we've
got to make earnings. You know, you're you're looking at
anything and everything all the time. Now, there's downsides to
(17:43):
it because sometimes to make the numbers look a certain way,
things will be done that maybe aren't super logical. But
you still have that relentless pressure to become more efficient,
to drive cost down as much as possible.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
I think. I think with certain types of business, like
you said, the private business, smaller businesses, the owners tend
to the job keeps going right. You'll three years will
pass before you know it. Maybe they're not optimizing the
cash flow properly. Maybe they're doing the work, if you will,
and not really looking at everything because money's coming in,
(18:20):
everything seems fine. They might not see even the trend
of how things are going where maybe it's going bad,
but they're not seeing it yet because maybe they have
the revenue there. The cash flow is there, they might
not see it for the next three months, and all
of a sudden they start realizing, whoa, this is bad.
We're beyond Why didn't I see this before? So how
(18:44):
does the aspect of what you do, you know, as
a fractional CFO, let's say, how would you how does that?
How will you give that foundation to these businesses? What's
the process if you will?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Well, I think that obviously the company is different, right
you have to go in and see, but if any
processes they have. But I think if you make the
assumption that they don't, kind of your point, they're just
you know, you've got this entrepreneur. They're really good at
making pencils. Yeah, and that's and that's what they're total
(19:19):
focuses and selling those pencils, just growing, growing, growing. You know,
they don't really have a whole lot of time to
focus on the the finances other than the making sure
they got enough money to be payroll or buy anything.
I think the key thing that you go in in
a situation like that is you know to talk to
(19:41):
the owner of the founder understanding what is it that
what are your trying to define the goals besides just
staying and float you know, kind of help them sit down. Okay,
let's let's put this pen to paper. What is it
you're I'm going to make something. Look, okay, you're doing
five hundred thousand men in revenue and you want to
(20:02):
get to a million and a half in two years. Again,
I'm just making this up. You know. In the larger company,
it would be, you know, to be a budget, or
if they'd call it a five year plan, it'd be
some kind of structure. You it's a guide post, if
you will. I think that's the I mean, you could
apply that to your personal life, like, Okay, I'm trying
(20:24):
to you know, retired age sixty five, or I'm trying
to you know, lose twenty pounds or whatever it might be.
Whatever that you know you're trying to accomplish, you've got
to the saying about it if I failed a plan,
a plan to fill. So I think that's the key
thing is to understand from that owner what it is
you're trying to accomplish, and then once because ultimately it's
(20:46):
their business, you're there to help them be successful. So
once they've articulated what those those goals are, then one
of our jobs would be Okay, let's lay out a
plan to see if we can get to that, because
in some cases, you know, my experience has been people
(21:07):
that are entrepreneurs when it comes to forecasting financially, they're
not not always the most realistic because it's they're normally
gonna be really optimistic I can conquer the world, which
is you need that to be an entrepreneur. Sure, but
one of the jobs of finance is to kind of
(21:28):
poke holes in arguments, not to you know, discourage people,
but to make people think, realistically, Okay, can we can
we grow from a million to a meter and a
half in two years? You know, understanding you know, what,
is there a path to do that? That's that's realistic,
and having those conversations with you know, with these guys,
(21:50):
because in some cases you're bringing up things that maybe
they haven't thought about because they're so focused on the
here and now here versus looking a year or two
out that that's that's just not really what they're focused
on because again, they're trying to grow the business. So
when you come into a firm, for example, you know,
obviously people you know, you want to build that foundation
(22:13):
without the cost of full time CFO I mean that's
the idea, right, So work with me for a minute.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
In a ideal world, you would come in for a
few hours or whatever that first month, and then how
would the rest of it work? Like? Is there a
maintenance level that you provide? Corely stuff you provide, So
give me in brief what that would look like to someone.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Right, So again, each company is going to be different,
but really two levels and I'm simplifying this, but sure,
really two levels of service, and you can pick one
or the other or both. So let's assame we're talking
about a company that we use an example earlier of
the finances or literally the bank statement that's i know,
(23:03):
much cashing. You know, that's kind of an extreme example,
so we use that one as a as our example.
So in that case, they don't have a P and
L or balance yout. They don't really know what's going
on other than you know, how much casting got in
the bank, and maybe in their head they've got kind
of a gut instinct of what's going on. So in
that instance, you know, you're going to have to come
(23:23):
in and create a structure that will allow you to
build a P and L, which is, you know, the
foundation of any type of forecasting or budgeting, you've got
to have that initial document. To get to that, you've
got to go in and take basically all their transactions
(23:43):
that you know are in their bank statement and create
what's called a trial balance, which is gonna have a
chart of accounts based of all the it's coding where
you know, okay, this is travel and this is you know, sales,
and it's basically you know, accounting one O one, right,
And so that base level of service would be something
(24:03):
like that plus reporting that goes with it, and that
reporting you would get through programs like Microsoft Power BI
that can do you know, anything at the like that,
but you've got to have the you know, the numbers format.
So that would be a basic level of service. And
the first time, that initial transition, that would be time
(24:29):
consuming because you've got to create something a structure that's
not there before. But then after you've created a structure,
you know, each month you're just really just updating you know,
the results, putting them into a P and L format.
And if you think back when I was talking about
the three levels of finance, that's really like the first
two levels combined. So it'd be like a fixed fee,
(24:51):
you know, for that service, almost like a subscription. The
second level of service, it's more like what that kind
of like that third level talking about before, where you're
sitting down with the decision maker and you're telling them, hey,
this is what's going on with your business, and depending
on if they wanted to have layout objectives, then you
(25:14):
talk about the progress each month of how are we
progressing versus these these objectives that we've laid out, and
if we're off course, what things can we change to
get you back on course? And so that would be
an in person review where the analogy I use is
(25:35):
that movie The Matrix. If you remember, they've got all
the data that's doing this right, you can't read it.
And so if you're not in finance, often people struggle
to you can give them twenty reports, but if they're
not a finance person, they're offering to me like, I
don't really understand what this is telling me. At that
second level is it's really about storytelling where you're taking
(25:57):
the information and you're telling the owner of a story.
You know, not in a fictional way, but this is
what's going on with your business, but you're translating in
a way that is easy for them to understand, you know,
Versus if you're just talking you know about data CE
credits is, they're going to be lost with that.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
So if there they already have quick books online for example,
they're already getting reports. You're at that stage already, but
you're able to tell them more than that what the
reports give them in numbers because you're looking at all
of it right holistically.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Almost that's correct. So you know a lot of companies
will have you know, don't have a controller, bookkeeper, you know,
maybe both of them. And so my previous life, I
had plenty of accountants that worked for me, and really
what their job and I'm simplifying and this isn't say
(26:55):
anything negative buy accountants. Like I said, I've worked in accounting,
but their job really is to tell you, Okay, this
is the number and this number is correct. But if
you ask them, well, okay that number is, that's a
number ten. Last year it was a five. Why did
it go from a five to a ten, That's really
(27:16):
not what their role is in most cases, and so
they're challenged to, you know, explain the why part of it, right,
And so that's where that's really where finance comes in
to explain what is going on.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
That's just report and that's just explain that. I would
imagine if from my point of view, you might explain
why that went from a five to ten. But you
should probably be able to give me advice on you know,
where can we take that from?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Now?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
You know why is this? I know the difference is there.
I knew it grew, maybe it maybe it grew for
this reason. But you might be able to tell me
how we can adjust that, right, I mean the whole
idea is you to provide guide it. So I'm almost
like a yeah, what do.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
You call it?
Speaker 3 (28:06):
A person that the accountability partner if you will in this?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah? Yeah, Well that's the great thing about you know,
having a budget is that you've you've again we were
using examples earlier about you could apply to different parts
of your personal life. But having that objective. If you
don't have that objectives and you don't really know, it's
like driving a car. You're trying to get some of
(28:31):
gentle a mat Now you're right, you're going to struggle,
you know without that about that map too points in
the direction you're trying to get to.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
How does so that we've got here does technology play
a part in what you do as well? In financial
advisory when this type of field.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
So the remember earlier I was talking about the kind
of the three levels of not services, but you know
what finance does. And what's occurred over the last twenty
or more than twenty five years is that systems like
say SAP or hypering or work with these large rps
(29:13):
is they have really kind of flattened the org structure
of companies because what they've allowed is it's really like
an early form of AI is they automated tons and
tons of functions that before that would have been literally
like armies of people, you know, just doing kind of
(29:34):
mindless work almost. And so technology now some of these
small companies, you know, they're not going to have an
SAP or hypeering. But when we were talking earlier about
power where that that's like quick books but on steroids,
the kind of things that can do. But the reality is,
(29:55):
whether it be quick books or power BI, if you
don't have that basic level of the information formatted, you
can't the magic can't happen without that. So ultimately the
smaller companies, you know, you do there is some some
manual aspect of I got to I got to code
(30:15):
this expense you know correctly, you know, input it. So
the technology at a smaller company, you know, that doesn't
have an SAP or a hyperient or oracle is really
more in the you know, the reporting phase, the things
that can do once the numbers are formatted correctly. The
(30:36):
it's it's almost mind boggling now that the danger there
is you can have too many reports, right, so you
can have I can produce thirty forty reports, but it'd
be too much you know, information. And that's the so
when people talk about well I got quick books or
even got power BI, if you don't have someone there
to to interpret it for you to say, well, this
(30:58):
is actually what this is telling you is a very
limited value. Like we're again using the matrix example of
it is great, but if I can't take any actions
based off of it, then I don't really want to
do it right.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
And I can see that in a world where a
company might have two, three or four different credit lines
using them for a variety of reasons. With a financial plan,
it might come in and say why do we have
these two where your APR, your interest rate? Is this
you're actually utilizing the wrong credit line or you know,
I mean there could be a variety of things there. Right,
(31:34):
let's look a little bit at experience as a founding
member of Peatree Corners the City of Patrie Onaders since
twenty twelve. How is the involvement in local government influenced
your business perspective? Does that has that influenced it at all?
And you know where does that go?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
The thing that I kind of a not a comparison,
but an analogy is God was talking to someone about
this the other day. Where we started the city, you
know those in a you know, those an election to
whether to have a city, and then there was an
election to elect a council suddenly had seven people who
(32:15):
for the most part didn't know each other, right, And
I mean that was the city. There was no city staff,
there was no no anything. So the reason that's relevant,
it's almost like a startup where we're like, okay, we
need to find someone. It was like, you don't you
don't know what, you don't know. You had to go
find people to kind of help us get started. And
then there's those growing pains of whether it be the
(32:38):
relationships amongst the council or you know, finding the right
people from a staff standpoint to be part of a
city startup, because if you think about all the cities
in the country, very few new cities had that idea
of a new city. It's not unique to Georgia, but
you know, prior to say, like two thousand and five,
(32:59):
that wasn't so something that was happening here. So it's
that there's only certain people that want to take that risk.
I guess it's kind of like being going from a
big corporation to a startup. It's you've got to have
the right you know, mindset and you know kind of
firing your ability to do it. So it's being part
of something and seeing it grow from you know, literally
to seven others in a room one day, like meeting
(33:21):
each other to know what there is now. It's what
I envision starting a company would would be like. And
you know, maybe the comparisons aren't you know, the correlation
is not completely you know, accurate, but I would think
for sure there's some you know similarities, those same kind
(33:41):
of decisions we had to make about bringing the right
people in at the right time and you know, just
being able to get along because at a at a
smaller company, I would think those relationships are importance of
them are more pronounced because there's fewer people versus at
a larger corporation. Not that the relationships aren't important, but
(34:03):
you know, the success or the failure of the say
like working at the home Depo headquarters, is it going
to be based on you know, just a you know,
my relationship with some micros. There's four hundred thousand people
that worked there. Yeah. I think.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
I think part of it too is you're starting. You know,
the city started with just HMP, you know, with a
certain amount of revenue because it took over some of
that revenue being a city franchise, taxes, business licenses, but
you also grew into a budget and then as the
city grew financially. I know it's not a business, but
you all treated it to some degree as a business.
(34:37):
Right you didn't spend money you didn't have, or if
you did, there was a reason. You knew where the
revenue might come in from, whether it was a grant
or a loan or whatever it was. I got to
say that the city has overall done it responsibly. So
has any of that informed the way you know or
have you used your experience there you know, working with
(35:01):
that type of finance too.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
So you know, the analogy I use sometimes with people
is like the city council relationships. Heay to the city
manager is similar to in a company a border of
directors to a CEO, so that you know, being a
role you know, because I was never on a board
of directors at a company that you're going to be
(35:25):
way up and probably older than me normally, you know,
to be in that role of coming up with the
policies and then in trusting someone to execute those, it
definitely gives you a different perspective you're running an organization
because my career had been on the implementing people's policy,
(35:47):
taking that director romon high and implementing it and you know,
bringing it to some results. So to have that perspective
from the other side has been I think good because
you know, I sit there and think about not too
many people get that opportunity to be on the other
side of the you know, the table if you will,
(36:07):
to come up with policies, and that's trust other people
to find the right people to enact those and make
them successful.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Going from other experiences, your military service as a naval
officer has that also provided any any experience that you've
drawn on. Excuse my black teat.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
No, you're okay. That was a little more tricky. I
think the thing that where that part comes in, and
this was really more about, you know, the why of
you know, I wanted to get into this type work
because when I was making the decision to leave Corporate America,
(36:53):
you know, I was in a position from a career standpoint,
financial standpoint, a personal standpoint of kids rolling off the
payroll of right, and there's an opportunity here to to
do something different. And I did a I don't know
if you know what a SWAT analysis is, but strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
(37:14):
threats like a SWAT analysis. As myself, I thought, what
is it that you know, now, in this situation where
I don't have as much responsibility as far as taking
care of other people, Like what really bring me, you know, satisfaction,
fulfillment besides just you know, helping a company get that
EPs each quarter. And you know, the common theme is
(37:37):
I've looked at all these different things I've been involved in,
you know, I looked at my military experience, looked at
serving on the city council, I looked at the twenty
years I coached kids sports. All three of those things
we think of, how the heck are those three related
to each other. But the common theme, because each one
of those brought me satisfaction in different ways, was that
(37:59):
you helping other people. In each of those instances, you're
serving other people. You're making other people either successful or
in the case of you know, the military is really
about you know, serving the nation, but it was doing
stuff for other people again differently, and I thought, how
do I take these skills that I've built up over
(38:21):
twenty five years and you know, do that in a
way where I can help other people be successful. Because
one of the things I would constantly hear from small
business owners is we were kind of talking about it before,
where they're really good at you know, that making the
pencils or whatever it is, but they struggle finances. That's
(38:42):
that's not what their expertise is. And a lot of
instances can't afford, you know, to bring somebody in, or
they don't they don't need someone full time. And as
I learned more about that industry, I thought, I think
this could really feel that the impulse if you will,
you know, I've got about how can I help other
(39:03):
people be successful? And in a way where you go in,
you take this person's got their whole life's work tied
up in this business, and they're hard and soul in it,
and the bit to go in and help them eliminate
or alleviate some of their pain points that are preventing
them from being successful. That really appealed to me much
(39:25):
more than well, I'm just going to go back into
I'm going to call it the matrix of corporate America.
We're just going to you know, get that EPs up
three cents. You know, you get to a certain point
in life, like I'd really like to be a focus
more on giving back, just like with the city Council.
It pays eight thousand dollars a year an occasional free
(39:46):
T shirt, But you just have a great sense of
satisfaction when you go out to the town Center and
you see like the playgrounds and stuff we've built out there,
and you see all those people enjoying themselves. You think,
you know, I had some all part of bringing that
joy to these other people. So it's that same Yeah,
(40:07):
I want to do the same thing, but just different. Yeah,
industry now.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
And I can see that I mean you've brought a lot.
You're passionate about the things you do. We were talking
about a little bit about the industries that you're passionate
in the areas of of like CrossFit and stuff. So
you know a person that's driven that way, and that's sharing.
I mean, you're doing the Memorial Day challenge for kids
(40:36):
on the Fort pain which is our obstacle course. That's
probably one of the best in the in the city,
if not the best. So I can see that, I
mean giving back to the community and all that, and
working with entrepreneurs, stoughtup businesses or even just businesses that
have been around for a while, providing them with information.
(40:58):
And you're right, some people either they think they can
afford it, but they really can't ignore it, right because
if they're going to grow their business, they really need
to know what those numbers mean. And you know, I
mean you're right, bank statement or even a quick book report.
I mean, fine, so you can see your business is growing,
(41:18):
you can see its profitability, but you may not see
the things that are coming which those numbers can tell you.
It's almost like being a futurist with it right, or
or a you know, being able to tell the future
with numbers if you will, but and those old numbers
don't lie to a degree. So giving back to the
(41:39):
community as a business leader, as a political leader, I mean,
that's I know, that's part of what you do. The
relationships you're building with burn, the ships financial. I mean,
you just started out, this is your first few months
of business, and you want to be able to give
the feedback that you can to them. So tell tell
(42:00):
me what you know? What what do you look ahead?
What's your company's long term goals? Well towards the end
of our interview here, so I just want to know
where you think you're going, where you want to be
in a couple of years, what type of clients, what
industry may be, Where do you want to be tell me.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So one of the things that I've done, you know,
as I was learning about other companies that play in
this space, you know some of their limitations, whether it
be bandwidth or skill set. One of the things I
did is I reached out to a lot of formal
colleagues and said, hey, would you be interested in going
on this journey with me? I don't quit your job,
but you know, would you like to partner with me
(42:44):
on this, and literally every person I reached out to
like yes, I would love to do this with you
that they were very excited about it. The reason that's
relevant is, you know, gives us a scope of skills
in bandwidth that I would argue most of these other
companies just don't have because they don't have access to
(43:05):
these people that I have worked in companies. The reason
I mentioned that, you know to your question is you
know some of these folks that are really you know,
fired up about you know, doing the business. Initially, I
was just I'm just going to do it myself and
take them four or five six customers you know that
are compelling stories. But as these other folks really wanted
(43:27):
to get involved, you know, I've been rethinking that we'll
just see how things go. But you know, it could
be that things take off and we're able to some
of these folks come on board, we might you know,
make it a bigger plan. I just wasn't expecting the
level of response I got about how excited people wanted
to you know, to do this as well. So that's
(43:49):
tv D Obviously, I will just see how that that goes.
But you know, this is a you know money is
a very personal thing, whether it be or you know,
our personal money or businesses money. It's really about trust
and obviously, you know you've got to build that over time.
So I'm anticipating that you know, it's going to take
(44:12):
several months where hey, you got in four people, they
have moved into this space, and you're spending a whole
lot of time meeting with people and just telling them
what I'm doing and you know, getting the word out
that I'm here to you know, get involved to help
people be successful. So we're just we're gonna have to
wait and see how that goes. Sure, sure, see what
(44:33):
kind of growth opportunities are. But the Pe Street corners
as over, I want to say about twenty five hundred businesses.
They're not all in the space that I'm looking to
get involved in, but it's a great location you know,
to be in in terms of this for sure, for sure,
and we're growing city so it's never ending. We've been
(44:53):
speaking to Alex right with Bring the Ship's Financial just
start up of his own anouncement with City Piece Corners
here as well. Alex, I appreciate you being with us.
Can you tell people where they can find more information
about you your website to you know, contact info. Yes,
so website is just like the company. I ain't burn
(45:16):
the Ships financially. Got that up a few weeks ago,
and that's probably the best place to go. You just
got my contact info and some of my partners contact
info in there, and yeah, that's it's gonna have all
my info. I was going to say you can go
to the city website, but at this point that's everything
(45:39):
you would.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Need would be on the company it is, and in
fact on the home pays is a phone number, email address,
and a schedule of consultation button. So it is Burn
the Ship's Financial dot com that you shore all of
visa and check out Alex right and his team and
the services that provide. Soa hang with me for a second, Alex,
(46:02):
but everyone else, thank you for joining us. Appreciate your support.
Appreciate the support of ev Remodelinginc. Dot com and Voxpopular
as well for supporting our podcasts as well as the
magazines and the digital work that we do, newsletters and
all that and the journalism that we produce. So thanks
again to everyone. Alex appreciate you being here and if
(46:24):
you have, if you all have any comments, leave it
in the comment box depending where you are, YouTube, Facebook,
or just email Alex and we'll be able to answer
your questions.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Thank you, thanks for listening to Peachtree Corners Life with
Rico Figliolini. You can listen to the show wherever podcasts
are found, like iHeartRadio, Spotify and Apple Podcast. Leave us
a review too, it helps others find the show as well.
(46:55):
Don't forget to like our Facebook page and YouTube channel
for notifications of our life live simulcast video streams of
the show. Catch our other podcast shows at Living in
Peachtreecorners dot com. In fact, you can listen to our
other popular show, The Capitalist Sage, a twice a month
podcast about and four businesses. The show brings you interviews
(47:16):
with business owners, leaders and subject matter experts find what
you need to meet today's challenges that every business owner faces.
Check out the show at The Capitalistsage dot com.
The playgrounds and stuff we've building out there, and you
see all those people and enjoining themselves, you think, you know,
I had some small part.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Of You're listening to Peachtree Corner's Life, a podcast sharing ideas, opinions,
and news about the city of Peachtree Corners, the community
we live in and the people that are your neighbors.
Now your Hostrigo Figliolini.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Hi, everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corner's Life.
I have a great guest today this morning, Alex. Right,
Hey Alex, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Hey, Rico, it's good to see again. Thanks for the invite.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Sure we're going to have exciting things to talk about,
but before we get into that, I just want to
say thank you to our two sponsors, EV We're Modeling, Inc.
And Eli and his family who lived here in Peachtree
Corners and the company's based here, provide a sponsorship to
us for supporting our pot casts in our magazines and
EV Remodeling Ink is a company that does designed to build.
(01:06):
You need a whole house remodeled, or you just need
your bathroom modeled or your kitchen. They are the people
to do it. They've done over two hundred and sixty
large projects over the past few years and you should
check them out. Great supporter of OURUS, great people, nice
guy ev remodelingink dot com is where you can find them.
Our second spots, vox popular is also based here in
(01:29):
Peacetree Corners. Family owned. They are a company. If you
have a brand and you want to bring that brand
to life, vox popularize the people to do it.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
They do. Think about the.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Truck wraps, car wraps that you see traveling around trade
show booths, signage anything you need and printed on any
object in printing, they're the people to do it. You
need a backdrop for you twenty feet by ten feet tall,
they can do it. Any of those things that will
bring your brand to life is what they're doing. Challenge
(02:02):
them and they'll come back and surprise you. They're right
here in Peace three Corners and Norcross. So check them
out vox popular and the link will be in the
show notes. But if you search them vox pop Uli
you'll find them. Thanks again for your support. So now
we have Alex. So let me introduce Alex a little bit.
(02:22):
He has a great background. He served in the US
Naval as a US Naval officer back during the nineties.
He was the founding member of the City of Peachtree
Corners City Council and has been a city councilman here
in leadership here since twenty twelve when he was first elected.
(02:43):
He was also the guy, the guy that originated the
idea of Curiosity Lab, that set out path on being
a smart city and on so many foundational parts that
the Curiosity Lab has been involved in, including autonomous vehicle,
five G technolog and all that. So without him, I
don't know where we'd be when it comes to that
(03:06):
Georgia Institute of Technology grad so much more. He's also
a board member of the Peatree Corners Veterans Monument Association,
if you're familiar with that and the monument that we
have at Town Center. So, now that I've given a
really good background, I think of you, Alex, why don't
you tell us just a little bit more about what
you've been up to and where we're going.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yes, that was a great introduction. I wish my wife
could have heard how Brady made me sound sheets on
that entertaining Yeah. So I after I got out of
the Navy, I went to the grade of the school
at Wake Forest and then basically the next twenty five
years was various companies and corporate finance. Some big ones
(03:55):
Glack So Welcome, which I guess that I was, Glastos,
Declined Depot, Equifax, and then the last eleven years was
at a big consumer products company in a divisional CFO
role that I was here in Atlanta, and about three
I guess it's probably November, I made a decision to
(04:19):
transition out of Corporate America and with some colleagues of
mine that I used to work with, formed a fractional
CFO company. Some people referred to it as a business
advisory firm, and it's called Burn the Ships. That's the
(04:39):
name of the company. And so yeah, we're in the
process of just getting engaged in the community and looking
for companies that could use our services.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So tell me, I understand to Burn the Ship's part,
but really, what inspired you to name Burn the Ships Financial?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So you know, when I was making the decision to
leave Corporate America, and you know, that's kind of all
you know, it's you get comfortable with that and and
to make that, you know, giant career change, you know,
it's it could be kind of scary. And I happened
(05:23):
to be reading a book at you know, during this
time when I was trying to figure out how do
I want to do this? And the name of the
book was called Actually Burned the Boats and the book
is about it's written. I can't remember the guy's name,
but it's an entrepreneur, serial entrepreneur, and kind of the
gist of the book is not to have a plan
(05:45):
be and you can play a concept to really anything,
whether it be your marriage, or training for an athletic
event or starting a business, that something that's going to
you know, be challenging and require, you know, your little
effort in order to succeed. He can't have that thought of, well,
if this doesn't work out, I'll just go back to
(06:06):
that have to be a total commitment. So that phrase
is as a metaphor for total commitment. And you know,
there's a not to go in too much of the history,
but you know the phrase comes from not to want
a lot of history, but the of Cortes when he
was exploring the coast of Mexico, he had been tasked
(06:28):
with that and he gets there and discovers that, you know,
there's the Aztec empires there and decides, hey, I want
to I want to go into the the fowels of
Mexico and see what's going on there. He just had
a few hundred men with him, and these guys that
he had with him were apprehensive, obviouslyqued. He wants to
(06:50):
march into the jungle the unknown. Plus their orders were
to just explore the coast. Well, his solution to that
was I'm eliminate the plan be and his the limit
of the way he did that was he literally burned
all the ships. That was now no way to go back.
It was succeed or in their case. So that that
(07:16):
phrase is about in total commitment to the mission, and
it really at that time it rang, you know, just
struck a chord with me as I was trying to
make this decision, because that's a big, big change in
a lot of different ways. And so I really just
loved the story that idea of total commitment. And so
(07:37):
that's the brief background where as brief as I could
make it, where that that phrase came from. I just
loved that story about the you know, the commitment those
other to go to a lot of my other kind
of pursuits that I've got in my life. But you know, different,
whether it be especially like athletic things or projects he
(07:58):
and some of the things we've done with the city
where it's only going to suc speed, you totally buy
into what we're trying to accomplish, the total commitment. So
that's the that's the name. And you know another some
of the advice I got was you need to make
the name the vocket So when someone here's that name,
I think, what does that mean, you know, versus as
(08:19):
opposed to a right CFO services.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
Yeah, now, I totally agree with that. Branding is is
key to a lot of what we do and get
people remembering. And I can appreciate what you're saying too,
because having I mean, I have not worked in the
corporate environment except for a couple of years, and I've
been on and off a business owner and then working
(08:44):
for a company and stuff, so I've been on both
sides of that, so it's a little different. But you you've
your whole career has been corporate, large companies, so I
can appreciate that jumping off the ship almost and not
going back is really scary, I'm sure. So your experience
(09:06):
has been as a divisional CFO at least for the
past decade or so. I guess, how do you think
that that's going to How does that shape the services
that you're offering through burn the ships financial So.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
In this role I had it. When people say I
worked in corporate finance, that can mean a whole lot
of different things because the larger companies the finance departments
quite large. So the role I had in this business
in this company had probably fifteen businesses, and as a
divisional CFO, you'd be embedded in the business. And what
(09:46):
that means is you're at the table with the decision
makers actually helping run the business, from generating sales to
making say manufacturing more efficient too, you know, how can
we ship more efficiently, to negotiating with vendors for better terms?
You know, you name it. You had exposure to that.
(10:08):
So the relevance of that is, you know, you've seen
my granted maybe it's a bigger scale, you know, bigger numbers,
but the challenges of making a business successful. You've had
exposure to full P and L balance sheet just like
for a small company, and so that allows you. The
reason that's translatable is ultimately what when companies hire someone
(10:34):
as a fractional CFO. Really, what they're looking for is
I've got a problem, I've got a pain point, and
I need someone to help alleviate that pain, to make
that help take that problem away. So it's really about
problem solving. So running a business in the finance role
(10:56):
is ultimately about solving problems as well. So I feel
like the skill set very translating because that's what I
did for ten years, which was solved problems to make
our business more financially successful.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
In the practical way. Can you give us an example
without sharing the company you worked with? I guess or
you know particularly, but is there an example that you
can give how that translates in an actual real life story.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yes. So now you know, at a larger company, it's
especially that's publicly traded. You know, it's all about how
do we get our earnings per share up? You know,
the company is normally pretty stable, and like say a
smaller company, they might in some cases it might be
fighting for survivals in some instances, so a little bit
(11:48):
different scenario, but ultimately about how do we make the
company more profitable, whether it be small or big. And
so an example of something we did at this larger
company is we were in a market where the there
wasn't a lot of growth on the top because it
was an industry that was actually kind of shrinking. So
(12:10):
how do you grow profit if your top line is
stagnant at you know, invest or maybe just growing through
price increases very low single digits. So one of the
things that you could look at is, let's look at
our product, you know, the actual composition of the So
we are actually a manufacturer. There are ways that we
can make the product that we're producing less costly, but
(12:35):
hopefully in the process also make it more effective. And
so in this instance, and not just the product in
this case was grass seed, you're thinking, well, how what
can you possibly do to grass seed? But in today's world,
they actually take the grass seed and they put a
biostimulant around it so that when the seed goes out,
(12:56):
it has a much higher probability of germinating. So what
what you would look at is what can we do
with the stimulant to you know, change the makeup of it,
you know, change the composition where it's maybe the germination
is even higher. But we've substituted some type of material
(13:18):
that costs less. So in those instances you're working with
an R and D department, your marketing people, and and
so in this instance, we did that over a series
of five years, which all of our changed the composition
of our products. And so the ultimate takeaway for that
was we increased the margins for the business by about
(13:42):
a thousand basis points. So what that means as I say,
your margin was thirty percent, now it's forty percent. So
that's and that drops straight to the bottom line through
that something as it was, it wasn't simple, but you know,
study to say, well, there's nothing we can do because
we're not growing is to basically look at everything on
(14:03):
the panel. What are you know, areas that we could
look at. I mean, you could apply that to your
own personal life of I'm trying to come back on
spending and you go through, look at every expense and
explored and maybe we don't need the one g you
know Internet, maybe we just need the five hundred megabytes
and you know, no stone uncovered. That's the way we
(14:27):
had to operate. And I think that's very a very
translatable skill for smaller businesses because most likely they're going
to be even more cost conscious than a bigger company
that's got you know, resources at their disposal.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
So it's really looking closely not just at the books,
but at the process of what companies do.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Right, That's that's exactly right. So one of the things
when i'm and this is before I transition, you know,
people say, well, well, you know, what does finance do
is just kind of this broad term. I would always
describe it as in three pieces, and it's very simplistic.
The first, the most basic part, is the gathering of information,
(15:09):
and that could be billing ar ap like at a
big company that's completely automated. Smaller company, it might not
even really exist. The next level is you're taking that information,
you're analyzing it, you're putting into a reporting format. At
a bigger company, not completely automated, but mostly automated. At
(15:33):
a really small company that especially reporting. You know, they're
the small business owner. His financials might be his bank statement.
That might be the limit of what he's got. And
the third part, and this is really where finance difference
from say accounting, is you are going to the decision
(15:53):
maker and you're saying, hey, if you pull this lever,
this will happen over here. You're you're giving them actionable
data advice, if you will, how to drive the company
whatever the company's financial goals are, giving them suggestions how
to do that.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
So it's also I guess, you know, if I look
at it from what I do a little bit from
my business and stuff, every business is somewhat the same
to the degree these peaks and valleys. You may not
always have the same trend line of revenue coming in
and stuff. So it's finding how to maximize the use
of the money that's coming in and the money flowing out.
(16:37):
Maybe it's a manufacturing or the service side and how
that's being done. When are those parts being delivered, or
how it's being ordered or insiuch. So you're looking beyond
just the numbers on the books. You're trying to optimize
the way a company's doing business behind the scenes.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
That's right, and that's the thing I was talking about.
Being in edit in the business, being part of the
decision making is again looking at the full pano. You're
not just reporting the news. You're trying to influence what's
going on. So you know, you might you might be
looking at in the course of a day, Okay, how
do we make our you know, logistics more efficient. You
(17:20):
might be looking at, hey, what's the ROI on this
marketing spend? You know, any anything you can do to
you know, drive profitability and that you know that. Guess
that's one of the upsides of a publicly traded company
when you've got that pressure, that quarterly pressure. If we've
got to make earnings. You know, you're you're looking at
anything and everything all the time. Now, there's downsides to
(17:43):
it because sometimes to make the numbers look a certain way,
things will be done that maybe aren't super logical. But
you still have that relentless pressure to become more efficient,
to drive cost down as much as possible.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
I think. I think with certain types of business, like
you said, the private business, smaller businesses, the owners tend
to the job keeps going right. You'll three years will
pass before you know it. Maybe they're not optimizing the
cash flow properly. Maybe they're doing the work, if you will,
and not really looking at everything because money's coming in,
(18:20):
everything seems fine. They might not see even the trend
of how things are going where maybe it's going bad,
but they're not seeing it yet because maybe they have
the revenue there. The cash flow is there, they might
not see it for the next three months, and all
of a sudden they start realizing, whoa, this is bad.
We're beyond Why didn't I see this before? So how
(18:44):
does the aspect of what you do, you know, as
a fractional CFO, let's say, how would you how does that?
How will you give that foundation to these businesses? What's
the process if you will?
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Well, I think that obviously the company is different, right
you have to go in and see, but if any
processes they have. But I think if you make the
assumption that they don't, kind of your point, they're just
you know, you've got this entrepreneur. They're really good at
making pencils. Yeah, and that's and that's what they're total
(19:19):
focuses and selling those pencils, just growing, growing, growing. You know,
they don't really have a whole lot of time to
focus on the the finances other than the making sure
they got enough money to be payroll or buy anything.
I think the key thing that you go in in
a situation like that is you know to talk to
(19:41):
the owner of the founder understanding what is it that
what are your trying to define the goals besides just
staying and float you know, kind of help them sit down. Okay,
let's let's put this pen to paper. What is it
you're I'm going to make something. Look, okay, you're doing
five hundred thousand men in revenue and you want to
(20:02):
get to a million and a half in two years. Again,
I'm just making this up. You know. In the larger company,
it would be, you know, to be a budget, or
if they'd call it a five year plan, it'd be
some kind of structure. You it's a guide post, if
you will. I think that's the I mean, you could
apply that to your personal life, like, Okay, I'm trying
(20:24):
to you know, retired age sixty five, or I'm trying
to you know, lose twenty pounds or whatever it might be.
Whatever that you know you're trying to accomplish, you've got
to the saying about it if I failed a plan,
a plan to fill. So I think that's the key
thing is to understand from that owner what it is
you're trying to accomplish, and then once because ultimately it's
(20:46):
their business, you're there to help them be successful. So
once they've articulated what those those goals are, then one
of our jobs would be Okay, let's lay out a
plan to see if we can get to that, because
in some cases, you know, my experience has been people
(21:07):
that are entrepreneurs when it comes to forecasting financially, they're
not not always the most realistic because it's they're normally
gonna be really optimistic I can conquer the world, which
is you need that to be an entrepreneur. Sure, but
one of the jobs of finance is to kind of
(21:28):
poke holes in arguments, not to you know, discourage people,
but to make people think, realistically, Okay, can we can
we grow from a million to a meter and a
half in two years? You know, understanding you know, what,
is there a path to do that? That's that's realistic,
and having those conversations with you know, with these guys,
(21:50):
because in some cases you're bringing up things that maybe
they haven't thought about because they're so focused on the
here and now here versus looking a year or two
out that that's that's just not really what they're focused
on because again, they're trying to grow the business. So
when you come into a firm, for example, you know,
obviously people you know, you want to build that foundation
(22:13):
without the cost of full time CFO I mean that's
the idea, right, So work with me for a minute.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
In a ideal world, you would come in for a
few hours or whatever that first month, and then how
would the rest of it work? Like? Is there a
maintenance level that you provide? Corely stuff you provide, So
give me in brief what that would look like to someone.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Right, So again, each company is going to be different,
but really two levels and I'm simplifying this, but sure,
really two levels of service, and you can pick one
or the other or both. So let's assame we're talking
about a company that we use an example earlier of
the finances or literally the bank statement that's i know,
(23:03):
much cashing. You know, that's kind of an extreme example,
so we use that one as a as our example.
So in that case, they don't have a P and
L or balance yout. They don't really know what's going
on other than you know, how much casting got in
the bank, and maybe in their head they've got kind
of a gut instinct of what's going on. So in
that instance, you know, you're going to have to come
(23:23):
in and create a structure that will allow you to
build a P and L, which is, you know, the
foundation of any type of forecasting or budgeting, you've got
to have that initial document. To get to that, you've
got to go in and take basically all their transactions
(23:43):
that you know are in their bank statement and create
what's called a trial balance, which is gonna have a
chart of accounts based of all the it's coding where
you know, okay, this is travel and this is you know, sales,
and it's basically you know, accounting one O one, right,
And so that base level of service would be something
(24:03):
like that plus reporting that goes with it, and that
reporting you would get through programs like Microsoft Power BI
that can do you know, anything at the like that,
but you've got to have the you know, the numbers format.
So that would be a basic level of service. And
the first time, that initial transition, that would be time
(24:29):
consuming because you've got to create something a structure that's
not there before. But then after you've created a structure,
you know, each month you're just really just updating you know,
the results, putting them into a P and L format.
And if you think back when I was talking about
the three levels of finance, that's really like the first
two levels combined. So it'd be like a fixed fee,
(24:51):
you know, for that service, almost like a subscription. The
second level of service, it's more like what that kind
of like that third level talking about before, where you're
sitting down with the decision maker and you're telling them, hey,
this is what's going on with your business, and depending
on if they wanted to have layout objectives, then you
(25:14):
talk about the progress each month of how are we
progressing versus these these objectives that we've laid out, and
if we're off course, what things can we change to
get you back on course? And so that would be
an in person review where the analogy I use is
(25:35):
that movie The Matrix. If you remember, they've got all
the data that's doing this right, you can't read it.
And so if you're not in finance, often people struggle
to you can give them twenty reports, but if they're
not a finance person, they're offering to me like, I
don't really understand what this is telling me. At that
second level is it's really about storytelling where you're taking
(25:57):
the information and you're telling the owner of a story.
You know, not in a fictional way, but this is
what's going on with your business, but you're translating in
a way that is easy for them to understand, you know,
Versus if you're just talking you know about data CE
credits is, they're going to be lost with that.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
So if there they already have quick books online for example,
they're already getting reports. You're at that stage already, but
you're able to tell them more than that what the
reports give them in numbers because you're looking at all
of it right holistically.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Almost that's correct. So you know a lot of companies
will have you know, don't have a controller, bookkeeper, you know,
maybe both of them. And so my previous life, I
had plenty of accountants that worked for me, and really
what their job and I'm simplifying and this isn't say
(26:55):
anything negative buy accountants. Like I said, I've worked in accounting,
but their job really is to tell you, Okay, this
is the number and this number is correct. But if
you ask them, well, okay that number is, that's a
number ten. Last year it was a five. Why did
it go from a five to a ten, That's really
(27:16):
not what their role is in most cases, and so
they're challenged to, you know, explain the why part of it, right,
And so that's where that's really where finance comes in
to explain what is going on.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
That's just report and that's just explain that. I would
imagine if from my point of view, you might explain
why that went from a five to ten. But you
should probably be able to give me advice on you know,
where can we take that from?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Now?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
You know why is this? I know the difference is there.
I knew it grew, maybe it maybe it grew for
this reason. But you might be able to tell me
how we can adjust that, right, I mean the whole
idea is you to provide guide it. So I'm almost
like a yeah, what do.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
You call it?
Speaker 3 (28:06):
A person that the accountability partner if you will in this?
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah? Yeah, Well that's the great thing about you know,
having a budget is that you've you've again we were
using examples earlier about you could apply to different parts
of your personal life. But having that objective. If you
don't have that objectives and you don't really know, it's
like driving a car. You're trying to get some of
(28:31):
gentle a mat Now you're right, you're going to struggle,
you know without that about that map too points in
the direction you're trying to get to.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
How does so that we've got here does technology play
a part in what you do as well? In financial
advisory when this type of field.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
So the remember earlier I was talking about the kind
of the three levels of not services, but you know
what finance does. And what's occurred over the last twenty
or more than twenty five years is that systems like
say SAP or hypering or work with these large rps
(29:13):
is they have really kind of flattened the org structure
of companies because what they've allowed is it's really like
an early form of AI is they automated tons and
tons of functions that before that would have been literally
like armies of people, you know, just doing kind of
(29:34):
mindless work almost. And so technology now some of these
small companies, you know, they're not going to have an
SAP or hypeering. But when we were talking earlier about
power where that that's like quick books but on steroids,
the kind of things that can do. But the reality is,
(29:55):
whether it be quick books or power BI, if you
don't have that basic level of the information formatted, you
can't the magic can't happen without that. So ultimately the
smaller companies, you know, you do there is some some
manual aspect of I got to I got to code
(30:15):
this expense you know correctly, you know, input it. So
the technology at a smaller company, you know, that doesn't
have an SAP or a hyperient or oracle is really
more in the you know, the reporting phase, the things
that can do once the numbers are formatted correctly. The
(30:36):
it's it's almost mind boggling now that the danger there
is you can have too many reports, right, so you
can have I can produce thirty forty reports, but it'd
be too much you know, information. And that's the so
when people talk about well I got quick books or
even got power BI, if you don't have someone there
to to interpret it for you to say, well, this
(30:58):
is actually what this is telling you is a very
limited value. Like we're again using the matrix example of
it is great, but if I can't take any actions
based off of it, then I don't really want to
do it right.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
And I can see that in a world where a
company might have two, three or four different credit lines
using them for a variety of reasons. With a financial plan,
it might come in and say why do we have
these two where your APR, your interest rate? Is this
you're actually utilizing the wrong credit line or you know,
I mean there could be a variety of things there. Right,
(31:34):
let's look a little bit at experience as a founding
member of Peatree Corners the City of Patrie Onaders since
twenty twelve. How is the involvement in local government influenced
your business perspective? Does that has that influenced it at all?
And you know where does that go?
Speaker 1 (31:54):
The thing that I kind of a not a comparison,
but an analogy is God was talking to someone about
this the other day. Where we started the city, you
know those in a you know, those an election to
whether to have a city, and then there was an
election to elect a council suddenly had seven people who
(32:15):
for the most part didn't know each other, right, And
I mean that was the city. There was no city staff,
there was no no anything. So the reason that's relevant,
it's almost like a startup where we're like, okay, we
need to find someone. It was like, you don't you
don't know what, you don't know. You had to go
find people to kind of help us get started. And
then there's those growing pains of whether it be the
(32:38):
relationships amongst the council or you know, finding the right
people from a staff standpoint to be part of a
city startup, because if you think about all the cities
in the country, very few new cities had that idea
of a new city. It's not unique to Georgia, but
you know, prior to say, like two thousand and five,
(32:59):
that wasn't so something that was happening here. So it's
that there's only certain people that want to take that risk.
I guess it's kind of like being going from a
big corporation to a startup. It's you've got to have
the right you know, mindset and you know kind of
firing your ability to do it. So it's being part
of something and seeing it grow from you know, literally
to seven others in a room one day, like meeting
(33:21):
each other to know what there is now. It's what
I envision starting a company would would be like. And
you know, maybe the comparisons aren't you know, the correlation
is not completely you know, accurate, but I would think
for sure there's some you know similarities, those same kind
(33:41):
of decisions we had to make about bringing the right
people in at the right time and you know, just
being able to get along because at a at a
smaller company, I would think those relationships are importance of
them are more pronounced because there's fewer people versus at
a larger corporation. Not that the relationships aren't important, but
(34:03):
you know, the success or the failure of the say
like working at the home Depo headquarters, is it going
to be based on you know, just a you know,
my relationship with some micros. There's four hundred thousand people
that worked there. Yeah. I think.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
I think part of it too is you're starting. You know,
the city started with just HMP, you know, with a
certain amount of revenue because it took over some of
that revenue being a city franchise, taxes, business licenses, but
you also grew into a budget and then as the
city grew financially. I know it's not a business, but
you all treated it to some degree as a business.
(34:37):
Right you didn't spend money you didn't have, or if
you did, there was a reason. You knew where the
revenue might come in from, whether it was a grant
or a loan or whatever it was. I got to
say that the city has overall done it responsibly. So
has any of that informed the way you know or
have you used your experience there you know, working with
(35:01):
that type of finance too.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
So you know, the analogy I use sometimes with people
is like the city council relationships. Heay to the city
manager is similar to in a company a border of
directors to a CEO, so that you know, being a
role you know, because I was never on a board
of directors at a company that you're going to be
(35:25):
way up and probably older than me normally, you know,
to be in that role of coming up with the
policies and then in trusting someone to execute those, it
definitely gives you a different perspective you're running an organization
because my career had been on the implementing people's policy,
(35:47):
taking that director romon high and implementing it and you know,
bringing it to some results. So to have that perspective
from the other side has been I think good because
you know, I sit there and think about not too
many people get that opportunity to be on the other
side of the you know, the table if you will,
(36:07):
to come up with policies, and that's trust other people
to find the right people to enact those and make
them successful.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
Going from other experiences, your military service as a naval
officer has that also provided any any experience that you've
drawn on. Excuse my black teat.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
No, you're okay. That was a little more tricky. I
think the thing that where that part comes in, and
this was really more about, you know, the why of
you know, I wanted to get into this type work
because when I was making the decision to leave Corporate America,
(36:53):
you know, I was in a position from a career standpoint,
financial standpoint, a personal standpoint of kids rolling off the
payroll of right, and there's an opportunity here to to
do something different. And I did a I don't know
if you know what a SWAT analysis is, but strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
(37:14):
threats like a SWAT analysis. As myself, I thought, what
is it that you know, now, in this situation where
I don't have as much responsibility as far as taking
care of other people, Like what really bring me, you know, satisfaction,
fulfillment besides just you know, helping a company get that
EPs each quarter. And you know, the common theme is
(37:37):
I've looked at all these different things I've been involved in,
you know, I looked at my military experience, looked at
serving on the city council, I looked at the twenty
years I coached kids sports. All three of those things
we think of, how the heck are those three related
to each other. But the common theme, because each one
of those brought me satisfaction in different ways, was that
(37:59):
you helping other people. In each of those instances, you're
serving other people. You're making other people either successful or
in the case of you know, the military is really
about you know, serving the nation, but it was doing
stuff for other people again differently, and I thought, how
do I take these skills that I've built up over
(38:21):
twenty five years and you know, do that in a
way where I can help other people be successful. Because
one of the things I would constantly hear from small
business owners is we were kind of talking about it before,
where they're really good at you know, that making the
pencils or whatever it is, but they struggle finances. That's
(38:42):
that's not what their expertise is. And a lot of
instances can't afford, you know, to bring somebody in, or
they don't they don't need someone full time. And as
I learned more about that industry, I thought, I think
this could really feel that the impulse if you will,
you know, I've got about how can I help other
(39:03):
people be successful? And in a way where you go in,
you take this person's got their whole life's work tied
up in this business, and they're hard and soul in it,
and the bit to go in and help them eliminate
or alleviate some of their pain points that are preventing
them from being successful. That really appealed to me much
(39:25):
more than well, I'm just going to go back into
I'm going to call it the matrix of corporate America.
We're just going to you know, get that EPs up
three cents. You know, you get to a certain point
in life, like I'd really like to be a focus
more on giving back, just like with the city Council.
It pays eight thousand dollars a year an occasional free
(39:46):
T shirt, But you just have a great sense of
satisfaction when you go out to the town Center and
you see like the playgrounds and stuff we've built out there,
and you see all those people enjoying themselves. You think,
you know, I had some all part of bringing that
joy to these other people. So it's that same Yeah,
(40:07):
I want to do the same thing, but just different. Yeah,
industry now.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
And I can see that I mean you've brought a lot.
You're passionate about the things you do. We were talking
about a little bit about the industries that you're passionate
in the areas of of like CrossFit and stuff. So
you know a person that's driven that way, and that's sharing.
I mean, you're doing the Memorial Day challenge for kids
(40:36):
on the Fort pain which is our obstacle course. That's
probably one of the best in the in the city,
if not the best. So I can see that, I
mean giving back to the community and all that, and
working with entrepreneurs, stoughtup businesses or even just businesses that
have been around for a while, providing them with information.
(40:58):
And you're right, some people either they think they can
afford it, but they really can't ignore it, right because
if they're going to grow their business, they really need
to know what those numbers mean. And you know, I
mean you're right, bank statement or even a quick book report.
I mean, fine, so you can see your business is growing,
(41:18):
you can see its profitability, but you may not see
the things that are coming which those numbers can tell you.
It's almost like being a futurist with it right, or
or a you know, being able to tell the future
with numbers if you will, but and those old numbers
don't lie to a degree. So giving back to the
(41:39):
community as a business leader, as a political leader, I mean,
that's I know, that's part of what you do. The
relationships you're building with burn, the ships financial. I mean,
you just started out, this is your first few months
of business, and you want to be able to give
the feedback that you can to them. So tell tell
(42:00):
me what you know? What what do you look ahead?
What's your company's long term goals? Well towards the end
of our interview here, so I just want to know
where you think you're going, where you want to be
in a couple of years, what type of clients, what
industry may be, Where do you want to be tell me.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
So one of the things that I've done, you know,
as I was learning about other companies that play in
this space, you know some of their limitations, whether it
be bandwidth or skill set. One of the things I
did is I reached out to a lot of formal
colleagues and said, hey, would you be interested in going
on this journey with me? I don't quit your job,
but you know, would you like to partner with me
(42:44):
on this, and literally every person I reached out to
like yes, I would love to do this with you
that they were very excited about it. The reason that's
relevant is, you know, gives us a scope of skills
in bandwidth that I would argue most of these other
companies just don't have because they don't have access to
(43:05):
these people that I have worked in companies. The reason
I mentioned that, you know to your question is you
know some of these folks that are really you know,
fired up about you know, doing the business. Initially, I
was just I'm just going to do it myself and
take them four or five six customers you know that
are compelling stories. But as these other folks really wanted
(43:27):
to get involved, you know, I've been rethinking that we'll
just see how things go. But you know, it could
be that things take off and we're able to some
of these folks come on board, we might you know,
make it a bigger plan. I just wasn't expecting the
level of response I got about how excited people wanted
to you know, to do this as well. So that's
(43:49):
tv D Obviously, I will just see how that that goes.
But you know, this is a you know money is
a very personal thing, whether it be or you know,
our personal money or businesses money. It's really about trust
and obviously, you know you've got to build that over time.
So I'm anticipating that you know, it's going to take
(44:12):
several months where hey, you got in four people, they
have moved into this space, and you're spending a whole
lot of time meeting with people and just telling them
what I'm doing and you know, getting the word out
that I'm here to you know, get involved to help
people be successful. So we're just we're gonna have to
wait and see how that goes. Sure, sure, see what
(44:33):
kind of growth opportunities are. But the Pe Street corners
as over, I want to say about twenty five hundred businesses.
They're not all in the space that I'm looking to
get involved in, but it's a great location you know,
to be in in terms of this for sure, for sure,
and we're growing city so it's never ending. We've been
(44:53):
speaking to Alex right with Bring the Ship's Financial just
start up of his own anouncement with City Piece Corners
here as well. Alex, I appreciate you being with us.
Can you tell people where they can find more information
about you your website to you know, contact info. Yes,
so website is just like the company. I ain't burn
(45:16):
the Ships financially. Got that up a few weeks ago,
and that's probably the best place to go. You just
got my contact info and some of my partners contact
info in there, and yeah, that's it's gonna have all
my info. I was going to say you can go
to the city website, but at this point that's everything
(45:39):
you would.
Speaker 3 (45:39):
Need would be on the company it is, and in
fact on the home pays is a phone number, email address,
and a schedule of consultation button. So it is Burn
the Ship's Financial dot com that you shore all of
visa and check out Alex right and his team and
the services that provide. Soa hang with me for a second, Alex,
(46:02):
but everyone else, thank you for joining us. Appreciate your support.
Appreciate the support of ev Remodelinginc. Dot com and Voxpopular
as well for supporting our podcasts as well as the
magazines and the digital work that we do, newsletters and
all that and the journalism that we produce. So thanks
again to everyone. Alex appreciate you being here and if
(46:24):
you have, if you all have any comments, leave it
in the comment box depending where you are, YouTube, Facebook,
or just email Alex and we'll be able to answer
your questions.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Thank you, thanks for listening to Peachtree Corners Life with
Rico Figliolini. You can listen to the show wherever podcasts
are found, like iHeartRadio, Spotify and Apple Podcast. Leave us
a review too, it helps others find the show as well.
(46:55):
Don't forget to like our Facebook page and YouTube channel
for notifications of our life live simulcast video streams of
the show. Catch our other podcast shows at Living in
Peachtreecorners dot com. In fact, you can listen to our
other popular show, The Capitalist Sage, a twice a month
podcast about and four businesses. The show brings you interviews
(47:16):
with business owners, leaders and subject matter experts find what
you need to meet today's challenges that every business owner faces.
Check out the show at The Capitalistsage dot com.
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