Episode 58: Why CFO Strategy Isn’t Just for Big Businesses

  📍 Welcome to the Creative Minds Smart Money Podcast, where we turn financial confusion into creative confidence. I’m Samantha Eck, bookkeeper and fractional CFO for creative entrepreneurs. Each week I’m sharing my financial expertise and actionable strategies to help you build a thriving creative business. Plus, you’ll hear from industry experts who bring fresh perspectives on growing your business beyond the numbers. Because building a successful creative business starts with strong financial foundations. Your next chapter starts now.

 You are listening to the Creative Minds Smart Money Podcast, and today we’re gonna talk about why CFO strategies aren’t just for big businesses, but for every type of business in between. So I want to take a moment and start this off by saying, when I say CFO or even a fractional CFO, what do you picture?

What comes to mind? Because when I think of a CFO, I think of a man in a suit staring at charts in a glass conference room in the middle of a high-rise building in New York. That’s what comes to mind when I think of something like that. But what if I told you that CFO level strategy is exactly what you need as a creative service provider scaling past DIY finances, you need.

Clarity and a financial strategy that will give you that clarity. So that’s what we’re gonna dive into to today and I’m really excited to kind of get into this ’cause that’s a question I get a lot and some, something that a lot of people come to me and say, okay, well I understand that you say that you’re a fractional CFO Samantha, but what, what does that even mean?

Like what is a CFO? So here is what A CFO actually does. Here is what A CFO actually does. So the first thing they are is a strategic partner in decision making. And you might might be like, okay, Samantha, that’s a lot of big words.

Like what does that even mean? So by saying strategic partner in decision making, that means similar to like a consultant or a coach, a fractional CFO is going to give you data backed decision. Support, if that makes sense. So they’re a strategic partner who gives you data backed decision support. They’re going to help you understand why the decision you’re making is okay or not okay.

Either way, it. Kind of works out in your favor because they’re there to really help make sure that you feel confident in that decision. The other thing that they actually do is forecast cash flow and expenses. So forecasting is something that is very powerful. We’re gonna talk about that in a coming episode.

But I wanna just kind of like get onto the surface level of it. So forecasting helps you to predict the future instead of just relying on the past. This is something that we’ve talked about a couple times now where we don’t wanna rely on the past data. Yes, past data is important. You learn from past data, but if you wanna start planning for the future, you need to forecast.

You need to understand what’s coming in the future. The other thing they do is interpret financial trends. And you might be like, okay, well what does that even mean? So that specifically means that if you’re having ups and downs and ups and downs, and I look at that on a year over year basis, I’m gonna be able to utilize that and say, okay, you know, Elizabeth, we have short periods or we have downfalls.

At this period in the year, so from June to July, we have lower income. We know that we need to start planning ahead. We know that, that this is a slow period, or if we notice that your money goes up in July and August, we say, okay, the end of summer is our most profitable months, so we need to make sure that we plan ahead for the end of summer to make sure that we’re getting everything that we can out of it.

They also advise on pricing. Offer efficiency, team costs and timing of big investments. So what does that mean? That means that when we’re looking at that data and we’re utilizing that data, we’re gonna be able to tell you, okay, you know, your pricing just isn’t where it needs to be at. If you wanna hit your target of,

having a 25% net income at the end of the month, then your pricing needs to go up ’cause your expenses are super lean or whatever that is. You know, just making sure that that all looks good, as well as analyzing team costs to make sure that the team costs are where they. Need to be at if you can hire a new team member if you can’t afford your team members, things like that, as well as the timing of big investments.

So if you’re looking at a $5,000 course, A CFO is gonna be able to tell you if you can actually afford that or if you can utilize that. And that’s gonna be so, so, so, so, so vital. They’re also going to help you to create a system that supports you as a business owner. Now, obviously you still need that brain behind it, but they’re gonna help your backend just look really smooth so that.

When you are working on your financial systems, there’s just a lot of data there that they are able to assist you with. So now you might be thinking, okay, great, that sounds like it’s a lot of stuff that I don’t need right now, but I wanna talk about why this matters before you go big, before you’re someone who has a lot going on.

And of course a lot of, a couple of the things I already mentioned should have been like green flags to you. Like, whoa, like Samantha, I need that in my life. One of them is underpricing because there’s so many people that underprice themselves. So by looking at profitability, by looking at forecasting, by everything like that, it helps you to stop underpricing yourself and start being able to price yourself in a fair way that you can actually support yourself and your business.

It helps you to prep for slow seasons. Like I said, if I notice that there’s a trend where you’re consistently down in July and August, I’m gonna tell you that I’m gonna say, Hey, like. We have a slow season coming up, so we need to dial back any large expenses and go bare minimum. We wanna make sure that we at least break even next month.

So anything that is not essential has gotta go, or we need to make sure that we push extra hard to bringing in that extra money so we don’t have a dip. We also help you to avoid over hiring. So if you’re like, can we afford to hire this employee? If we’re looking at that and we’re saying, you know, the impact of that over the next six months is good, but then in the seventh month you’re gonna hit a wall and you’re gonna go into the negative.

That’s gonna help you to know, okay, maybe I can’t afford this person right now. I need to bring in another client, or I need to cut back elsewhere. It just gives you that flexibility to like really. Get to where you need in your business. And then of course it helps you to scale what’s actually working.

So it matters because if you don’t know what’s working, like how are you gonna grow your business it. So you really need to understand what’s actually working. Now, it might make sense to you to be like, okay, well I need to wait till I’m making five, six. Seven figures to even get this help. But if you’re waiting until then, it’s like waiting to hire a mechanic until after your car breaks down.

So you know, you see all the warning signs, you see the light come on, the check engine light come on, your car breaks down on the side of the road, which managed to get it running again, and you don’t actually contact that mechanic until your car is completely broken. It’s very similar to these CFO things.

If you are underpricing yourself, if you are. Hurting yourself on slow seasons. If you’re hiring people without actually having the data back decisions, that’s really when it’s going to hurt you. You. Needing strategic support doesn’t mean that you are bad with money or that you can’t handle things. It just means you’re doing things you’ve never done before.

And of course you’re gonna need help with that because again, like I’ve talked about before, you are in your zone of genius with whatever you’re doing in your business. And my zone of genius is helping you figure this kind of stuff out. What do CFO services look like for solo printers or small teams?

So first of all, a fractional CFO could include monthly cashflow forecast, like I said, with monthly cashflow forecast. We’re trying to make sure that you still have money in your bank at the end of the month, but also that you don’t overreach based on how much you wanna keep in the bank. So if we’ve already built that three month buffer that we’ve talked about before.

We wanna make sure that we keep that in the bank and we wanna make sure that we’re not overextending, we give you financial analysis delivered in absolute plain English. So this is something I used to do a lot for a lot of my clients, and I didn’t even realize that this was kind of fractional. CFO slash advisory is just giving my clients this really detailed analysis and advice and breakdown into their business in a way that makes sense to them because I want them to be able to succeed.

So. You can see how impactful and like powerful that type of financial analysis is. Then we also have KPI dashboards and you might be like, okay, Samantha, well, I can see KPI dashboards in QuickBooks or Xero, or whatever it is. But I wanna mention that KPIs are not just numbers based on your financials. We can also be looking at KPIs as the number of clients that you’ve held for.

A certain amount of months, we can be looking at a whole bunch of different things, and it really depends on your industry because KPIs per industry will really just show you different things. And then of course we offer profitability audits. So showing you what offers are most profitable. So if you have a thousand dollars social media retainer and you know you have $300 in software costs for that social media retainer, and then you also have a contractor that works specifically with that social media retainer.

And you’re only making, okay, let’s say at the end of the day you only make $200, that’s 20%. Is that something that you’re satisfied with or are you looking for more profitability on that offer? So we’re really just trying to get down to the nitty gritty and understand like. How we can utilize this data.

And then of course we have strategic planning for launches, pricing, team growth, just making sure that everything that you’re doing in your business that requires some sort of financial tie in is backed by data because we don’t want you to have to do that. Now, of course, there’s a little bit of a plugin, my.

Pinnacle Pie packages is the higher pa, highest package that I offer offers that deep financial analysis, if that’s something you’re looking for. However, if you are just looking for a cashflow forecast or KPIs, or you just want a profitability audit or something like that. I offer all of these services separately.

They’re called a la carte services. This is something that I can do for you separately. Now, I can’t guarantee the accuracy of these reports if I don’t do your bookkeeping myself, but I want to be able to give you a cashflow forecast. I want to be able to do all of these things with you so that you can have these CFO tools at any size of business.

Okay, so we’ve talked about what A CFO is, what they can do for you, all types of things, but I wanna explain to you how it can feel when you have someone in your corner who understands these numbers on a deeper level than just looking at them and saying, Hey, like. You made money last month. First of all, you’re gonna sleep a little better.

And I know that sounds like weird to say it like how do you know I’m gonna sleep better? Because you’re gonna know what’s coming next month. So if you have a retainer and you have, you know, six clients and we know that you have $10,000 coming in next month. We know that you’re gonna have that. We’re gonna look at your fixed expenses, everything like that.

We’re gonna understand what’s coming in. Again, I don’t wanna get into that. We’re gonna talk about that in an episode really soon. You’re gonna stop second guessing every money decision. So similar to when you have good bookkeeping with a CFO in your corner. You’re really not gonna second guess that damn thing because you’re just gonna know exactly what’s going on in your business.

You’re gonna feel. Like a leader, not just a freelancer anymore. So this is that step where you’re taking it from freelance copywriter, freelance social media manager, whatever it is, a freelancer into that leadership role to become that CEO. And I wanna make this clear. This is not just for teams, it’s not for anybody.

You can be a solopreneur and utilize these services and witness the power of them just. Because you’re solo, it doesn’t mean you have to have a team. You don’t have to have a team to witness the power of A CFO. And of course, like even if you’re not planning on hiring or something like that, you could still benefit from a cashflow forecast, from a profitability audit.

And if you’re hiring like contractors, like a website designer or someone who’s helping you with your funnels or marketing someone who’s gonna be consistent, that’s something that you want to have predicted so that you know what’s gonna happen. And then of course you stop wondering if you’re doing it right and move forward with confidence.

You want to be confident in your business, and that’s all I ever want for you is for you to walk away and feel that confidence and like you’re ready to just go ahead and run your business like the true CEO you are. 📍 So, CFO strategy isn’t about spreadsheets. We’re not looking at spreadsheets here. We wanna look at.

Scaling with intention and looking at our numbers and planning ahead for the future. So if this is something you’re interested, of course, feel free to book a discovery call with me and we can chat about what kind of CFO services would look like for you and your business. Okay. If you enjoyed this episode, please like it, comment, share it with someone you know, will love it.

And of course, get on social media and share the podcast. Let people know that we’re here so they can find out more of us. If you have ideas for our topics for future episodes, leave a suggestion using the form in the comment box below. As always, and like I’ve been saying the past couple episodes, we will not be having any more guests as of next year.

So. Whatever you guys wanna hear me talk about, let me know. ’cause I, I, I am realizing now that you guys really enjoy hearing from me and hearing about these fractional CFO and bookkeeper strategies and things like that so that you guys can grow your businesses. And I wanna know what you wanna hear from me so that you can continue to do so.

As always, I wish you the best week ever and we’ll see you next week. Farewell fellow travelers.