Fractional CFO Services & Solutions
Trajectory-changing financial & operational support for smB service-based businesses
As a successful business owner, you want clarity about your finances, and you want confidence in your future. You want the financial components of your business to be thriving, organized, and fully aligned with the rest of your life. You’ve worked hard to build up and support your business, and now you need your business to fully support you, your family, and the life you want to live.
I can help.
As your Fractional CFO, I will provide ongoing support and guidance for the financial side of your business. I’ll help you manage cash flow, work to increase profitability, provide financial & operational analysis, help you develop new incomes streams, position you to scale, lay out relevant plans for repositioning (or pivoting) your services, provide projections & forecasts, create budgets, keep you GAAP compliant, track meaningful KPIs, create more efficiency, and help manage all the financial pieces.
And while these technical aspects are important, the largest benefit I can provide you as your Chief Financial Officer is peace-of-mind. You can have confidence that the financial side of your business is fully supported. And you can be assured that your business in on a healthy, sustainable path that is aligned with your unique lifestyle and goals.
Practically speaking, you’ll find that my role as a Fractional CFO for your company incorporates (and sometimes eliminates) other consultant roles like business coach, bookkeeper, tax strategist, tax filer, etc. Every client I work with is different, of course, so let’s talk about your specific business needs and goals.
What results can you expect?
Additionally, as we address your specific challenges, I will always keep an eye on increasing your profitability. Because I believe that profit is the most important marker of your business’ financial health. (For example, it doesn’t do you any good to increase your revenue, or to move into a bigger space, or to grow your workforce if your profit stays the same.)
To give you a specific idea of what you can expect in terms of profitability, over the past two years, the average year-over-year profit increase for my one-on-one clients has been 399%. And the median year-over-year profit increase for these clients over the same period has been 476%. Since I began offering Fractional CFO services, every CFO client that I’ve worked with has recouped far more than their investment into my services.
The areas I work with most often as your Fractional CFO:
Profit Margins:
- Gaining clarity as to your current profit margins
- Laying out options for how your profit margins can realistically be improved
- Providing a multi-step plan of implementation that will increase your profit margins
- Assessing the margins of what you can pay new hires, modeling out potential labor configurations, etc.
Pricing & Positioning:
- Conducting market research on your direct and indirect competitors
- Assessing the positioning of your company, and suggesting changes to strengthen it
- Creating models for price increase possibilities (along with data-driven attrition rates)
- Developing a detailed rollout plan for price increases
Cash Flow:
- Financial forecasting that accurately considers all aspects of your business and personal finances (income, expenses, loan re-payments, draws, taxes, required payments toward past accrued debt, etc.)
- Predicting cash flow for different scenarios you’re considering
- Pinpointing money leaks
- Budgeting
- Help with management of cash-on-hand
Owner Compensation:
- Assessing the ways you’re currently compensating yourself through your business and helping you potentially reconfigure this so you’re supporting all your goals
- Incorporating payroll, draws, distributions, retirement contributions, medical insurance, HSA contributions, and more
- Creating processes within your business that prioritize owner compensation
Pivoting and/or Re-Positioning of Offerings:
- Conducting market research
- Developing a transitional schedule and plan to pivot and/or re-position one of more of your service offerings
Scaling your Business:
- Determining the ideal size for your business (based on services you want to offer, the amount of revenue you realistically want to bring in, the ROI on different roles/positions within your business, etc.)
- Modeling out different timeframes for the process of scaling (to determine how fast you want to move)
- Helping put a logistical framework in place for the business to scale
Expansion:
- Analyzing the cost & labor out-puts needed to open a new location
- Forecasting & modeling the cash-flows and timelines for the new location to be cash-flow positive
- Helping you financially assess changing leases and/or the purchase of your own building
- Researching and financially modeling the addition of new income streams to your business
Tax Strategy:
- Assessing your business’ tax status and strategy
- Helping you determine which legal business structure makes the most financial sense from a tax perspective
- Assessing and projecting owed taxes for savings, profit, and cash flow purposes
- Optimizing your business tax deduction strategy on a continual basis (most business owners are leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table each year by failing to strategize in this way—and as you grow, this strategy should continue to evolve)
- Calculating estimated quarterly tax payment requirements as needed
- Some IRS and state audit support
- Filing your business tax return
Staff:
- Helping you determine & develop key new positions in your business
- Providing insight on pay scales for new hires, needed pay increases, bonuses, and more
- Developing employee incentive structures and commissions
- Tracking meaningful employee ROIs and KPIs as helpful and relevant
- Resolving any federal or state payroll tax issues
Accounting Records:
- Cleaning up your QuickBooks Online file (or getting your business switched over to QuickBooks Online)
- Streamlining (and clarifying) the way your business is capturing different income & expense streams
- Instructing your staff on needed accounting procedures
- Creating any needed, regular Journal Entry templates
- Making custom report templates
- Creating a system that differentiates multiple entities’ finances from each other in a GAAP compliant way
- Monthly bookkeeping and/or reconciling of your QuickBooks account (depending on our agreement)
If this service sounds like a potential match for you & your business, click the button below to schedule a free consultation.
“I honestly cannot think of a better or more important investment I have made in my business—or in myself.”
It really is difficult to say enough about Erin, the quality of her work and the way she goes about it. After somehow managing to survive in business for over 30 years with almost no professional financial guidance, Erin came in and 1) helped me put things in the best possible professional order, 2) opened my eyes to resources and opportunities I had no idea existed, 3) helped me to a much better understanding of a number of issues related to my own mindset/self-imposed limitations around my business and money, and 4) supported me emotionally and intellectually as I made important decisions about growth and investment. You will find that she is both smart and proactive. If she commits to working with you, she will be all in and expect no less from you. I am better in more ways than one for my association with her, and I honestly cannot think of a better or more important investment I have made in my business — or in myself. If she seems a good match for you or your business, I cannot recommend her highly enough.
–Barry Nash, Barry Nash and Company
“Bringing Erin on was the biggest blessing for me personally and the business.”
I had the pleasure to work with Erin during a time when I considered my business to be at a “low”. The compounding struggles of the pandemic had me feeling defeated, and bringing Erin on was the biggest blessing for me personally and the business. Erin embraced ALL facets of business ownership – the tangibles (finance, operations) as well as the intangibles (beliefs, morale, personal emotions). In doing so, she managed to validate, educate and empower me as a person, which in turn empowered me as a business owner. She has laid the foundation for CLEAR and EFFICIENT financial strategies to help not only bring the business out of the “low” – but now speeding into a new “high”. I am feeling extremely confident with where the business is heading. THANK YOU, Erin. My gratitude is endless.
–Joyce Bertulfo, Revyve
“Thanks to Erin we are in track to have our highest grossing year ever!”
As a 15-year owner of a design and branding agency, I’ve experienced many successes, but with that also comes opportunities for support and growth. I wanted to be more in control of our finances and intentional with the money we made. I truly felt like my team and I had taken as far as we could on our own, and we were lacking the clarity needed to know what actually was the “right” next moves. It was time to bring someone in that could give us a deeper understanding of the “numbers” that could help take my business to the next level. Most importantly, what they meant, how to interpret them and how we could actually use that information to better plan for the future. That’s where Erin comes in. She works with us on regular basis to make key decisions that impact our business in day-to-day operations, helps us make informed (and smart) decisions based on our long-term financial goals and set new goals for the future based on opportunities we would not have seen otherwise. Overall her communication, guidance and insight have exceeded our expectations. I would highly recommend her to anyone with a business that isn’t quite large enough to hire an in-house CFO, but still wants the peace of mind, expertise and direction that a CFO can provide. It has made a world of difference in my business, and my money mindset. Thanks to Erin we are on track to have our highest grossing year ever!
–Kristin Moses, DesignGood
“There’s no doubt in our minds that having her on our team has allowed us to earn more money, stress less, and create a clear vision for the future.“
We’ve been working with Erin as Virtual CFO for more than a year, and she’s been a huge asset to our company as we’ve been working through some major transitions (not to mention COVID!). She’s been our biggest cheerleader, our financial guru, our rock, and our accountability partner. There’s no doubt in our minds that having her on our team has allowed us to earn more money, stress less, and create a clear vision for the future. She’s made financial decision-making simpler and has helped us focus on the big picture instead of getting lost in the details. Erin offers an experienced outside perspective that would have been impossible for us to attain otherwise. We feel lucky to have had the opportunity to work with her and know that she will continue to be a part of our major business decisions as we move forward.”
-Thriving ATX Business Partners
Some additional important details:
- My Fractional CFO service tends to be of greatest value & fit to service-based business owners who are currently generating between $400k/yr and $5M/ yr in revenue.
- I only partner with a few clients in the role of Fractional CFO each year, and I value the personal interactions that I have with these clients. I have a small team that helps with things like administrative tasks, market research and bookkeeping, but I’m the person who will be directly working with you.
- My availability to take on new Fractional CFO clients fluctuates. Many of my clients work with me for a couple of years, so I only take on a new client when I have an opening.
- Hiring me is a significant investment, and I am proud to share that every business I’ve worked with has recouped far more than their investment into these services. Your price will depend on the specifics of your business needs.
MEET YOUR FRACTIONAL CFO, ERIN
Erin Armstrong is a Chief Financial Officer, Business Coach and licensed Tax Strategist who is on a mission to financially empower business owners. Her unique, comprehensive approach integrates all the financial aspects of your business (such as profitability, cash flow, budgeting, tax strategy and accounting practices) with an emphasis on developing a positive money mindset so you can move forward in a confident, proactive and empowered way.
Over the past 12 years, Erin has worked with hundreds of businesses across the country as a Chief Financial Officer, Accountant, Tax & Financial Consultant, Business Coach, and Professional Speaker. She’s also led business financial workshops in many major cities throughout the US. Erin is an Enrolled Agent licensed by the IRS. She lives with her husband and daughter (and their two dogs) in the Dallas area.