Accounting, tax prep, bookkeeping, even fractional CFO services — there are a lot of potential offerings you can provide for your clients. But for each of these services you must consider two important questions: “Do my clients see the value?” and “Is this service scalable?”

For accounting, tax prep and bookkeeping, the answer is no to both questions. For fractional CFO services, it is valuable, but — crucially — it is not scalable.

So, let’s break down what makes productized CFO services both valuable to your clients and scalable in your practice — and how that makes it the most profitable service you can offer. 

What Is a CFO Service for Small Businesses?

A CFO advisory service is where you meet monthly with a small business owner and explain (in language they can understand) what’s working and what’s not in their business. 

Then, crucially, you’ll give them a specific plan, that if they accomplish it, will ensure their business stays on track to be a growing and successful business. 

The benefits for the business owner are numerous, and some go beyond just the financial advice: 

A Typical CFO Workload

The True Value of CFO Services

Clients enjoy having a CFO advisor because you’re not discussing accounting, you’re discussing plans to improve their business.

They also love it because you’re giving small business owners peace of mind. They love the fact that someone who understands numbers and financials is keeping them on track towards being a growing and successful business. 

The CFO advisory methodology that we recommend — productized CFO services — is way more profitable than fractional CFO services because fractional CFO services require that you customize engagement delivery for each client. Each client will require that you reinvent the wheel on what they need.

To make matters worse, you can’t delegate or scale this work because it’s highly customized. You’re right back in the same trap of trading time for money. Yes, you’re able to charge more than tax or bookkeeping, but with fractional CFO work, the high price is required because you’re pouring in a ton of hours per client.

With CFO advisory services using a systems-based approach, you have the best of both worlds. You’re able to charge a lot for this service, but you’re only spending four hours of your time (or your employee’s time) per month per client. The margins are so much better.

But What About Your Existing Tax or Bookkeeping Services?

These services simply aren’t scalable. Scalable means that you’re able to increase your revenue without a substantial increase in costs. Whenever you take on a new tax or bookkeeping client, your revenue will increase, but so will the time either you or someone on your team require to do the work. This simply isn’t scalable as your time, and your employee’s time, is finite.

To make matters worse, tax and bookkeeping is seen, in the eyes of your clients, as a commodity — meaning most business owners don’t know the difference between a good accountant and a bad one. They think all accountants produce the same type of work — which means you won’t be able to charge that much more than the going rate. 

This is only going to get worse with the increase in software, AI and offshore accounting services eating into the market share.

To future proof your career and your income, you need to provide something that your clients want (which means you’ll be able to charge a lot for it) while also delivering it in a systematized fashion (which means you’re not back into the accountant’s trap of trading time for money).

Productized CFO services fit both requirements while also proving a valuable service to your clients — allowing you to work with less stress, have a better work/life balance and help your clients in a way that’s impossible for a bookkeeper or accountant to do.