These days, for accounting firms to remain relevant, they must offer what businesses are looking for.
A 2020 survey by CPA.com revealed a startling fact: advisory services are companies’ most significant unmet need. That means if you continue to only offer traditional bookkeeping services, you are overlooking a potentially lucrative source of revenue.
Expectations that businesses have for accounting firms have increased dramatically in the last few years. Nowadays, enterprises want financial oversight that goes light years beyond the basics. They not only want someone to take care of their reporting but also a professional who can help them confidently steer their financial ship in the right direction.
The tragedy is that most accounting businesses have not kept up with the times. If you have not yet added CFO advisory services to what you are currently offering, you could be leaving loads of cash on the table that your competitors are ready to snap up in a heartbeat. That is why if you want to maximize revenues and keep the competition at bay, consider adding a fractional CFO service.
You may not want to expand because you think changing your business model is too risky. Or it could be that you do not see a reason to change and want to keep everything status quo. Whatever the reason, know that by adding an outsourced CFO option to what you are currently doing, you will create a profitable income stream with few downsides and many benefits.
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ToggleWhy Should I Expand My Service Offerings?
As an accountant, you provide an essential service. You file taxes for your clients to ensure they are legally compliant and tax liabilities are paid promptly.
You check that the books are blessedly free from errors to avoid annoying IRS auditors from paying your client’s business a visit. You diligently organize financial records, so stakeholders have assurance that the enterprise's financial affairs are in order.
The problem is that a lot of clients see what you are offering as merely a commodity—akin to hiring someone to trim the bushes or clean the floors. To them, accounting is a mysterious language only understood by glorified number crunchers.
This means they will never want to pay top dollar for accounting. That could all change if, instead of merely providing what business owners consider a basic service…
…you market yourself as an invaluable complement to the management team. Then, you can start charging premium prices for your efforts and make more money with fewer clients.
You do this by leveling up from only providing basic accounting to offering a CFO advisory service. That way, you can give business owners the expert advice they need to take their companies to new heights.
As an outsourced CFO, you will be able to translate the financial data founders view as baffling hieroglyphics into something they can wrap their minds around. You will help breathe vibrant life into their entrepreneurial vision, which can not only be much more profitable than offering basic bookkeeping services but incredibly rewarding too.
How You Can Help Companies
Most midsize enterprises are not able to justify hiring a full-time CFO. Besides the expenses involved, there is not enough work. The solution?
Hire a fractional CFO!
By doing so, a smaller company can get the keen expertise they need to improve the financial health of their enterprise in a cost-effective way. You will not only boost your value in the eyes of clients but will also be doing something you might find more gratifying than merely doing a company’s books.
Assistance That Goes Beyond Bookkeeping
Most mid-sized businesses employ bookkeepers who provide accounting services. While they might conduct basic analysis at the end of the year, they do not typically offer the in-depth advice that instills an enterprise with the confidence they need to boldly chart a course for success.
This means there is a vast untapped market of small companies looking for ways to maximize cash flow, minimize risk, and increase the overall value of their businesses without incurring the expenses of a full-time CFO. While these owners might be fantastic at what they do, they do not know how to keep a company afloat.
That is where you come in. With your keen expertise, you will maximize the chances that the enterprise will make it past the five-year mark—a point most small companies never get to see.
Just like a full-time CFO, you will be an extension of the management team, including becoming a sounding board to the founder and maybe even a trusted advisor. Because you will be working with so many different businesses, you will bring a wealth of experience and a diverse perspective to what you do, and this could help owners see things in a whole new light.
Improve Decision Making
You will beef up the decision-making ability of owners by getting them to ask the right questions so they can base decisions on hard facts instead of feelings. Your guidance will help founders avoid the kind of bad decisions that sink companies, making you an invaluable asset to enterprises. By delivering the penetrating insights companies need in an ultra-competitive landscape, you will help businesses reach their full potential instead of fizzling out in their prime.
Free Up Owners
As an outsourced CFO, you offer the expertise of a full-time CFO at a fraction of the cost. This allows owners to transfer the financial and administrative duties to you so they can work on other parts of the business.
Greater Flexibility
Using outsourced services lets organizations customize the level of CFO support to their exact needs. They can increase it when they require more and taper it off when they do not. This kind of flexibility is not possible with a full-time CFO.
Final Thoughts
At The Expert CFO, we offer the comprehensive training, state-of-the-art tools, and cutting-edge technology that will help your clients boost the profitability of their businesses. Best of all, offering the kind of advice that can catapult a company to its next evolutionary stage can be incredibly lucrative.
You do not even need to have an MBA or CFO experience to start a fractional CFO firm or add CFO services to an existing firm. That is because our training along with a support team consisting of CPAs with over 100 years of experience offering these kinds of services set you up for long-term success. You will learn how to use our proven systems and processes that will supercharge your ability to meet client needs and offer CFO services.
Let us help you generate the income you deserve—contact us today!
