CFOWise
Executive Powered SolutionsWhy CFOwise?
The only reason for us to exist as a firm is if we can add value to the professionals who are already convinced they would like to receive the benefits inherent to the part-time CFO industry. Our value proposition is based on the premise that we can help qualified executives find success as quickly and as effectively as possible.
The learning curve in this industry can be steep and expensive and it can take many years to master our industry’s best practices. As in any business or endeavor in which we engage, there are always more and less effective ways to reach success. Please find below a brief explanation of ways and means whereby we have and will continue to add value to our partners and CFOs.
PROVEN PROPRIETARY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT METHOD
Our industry is no different than any other – we need to generate leads, and then convert those leads into satisfied long-term clients. Although there are many potential options for marketing and selling our services, the most effective is the “seller-doer” model. This means that the professionals who deliver the CFO services should also be the people marketing and selling the services. Our clients hire us and our expertise, and the best way to convey that we can help them is by being involved in the business development process from the beginning.
Many who have an interest in being a part-time CFO are hesitant to take on the responsibilities of business development. This is understandable, and we often hear that people choose the finance and accounting discipline so that they don’t have to sell or because they think they are bad at sales. So, we should attend a sales training course or two and then we should be fine, right?
The challenge we have found with most professional sales training programs is that they are strong on philosophies and theories and short on practical, industry-specific guidance. In essence, someone who wants to be a part-time CFO that attends a sales training program will find it helpful but will still struggle with how to apply the principles to our industry in the most effective manner.
Our solution for this problem is to take the best research, methodologies, experience, and training and combine it into a cohesive and comprehensive sales and marketing method. This process has taken years and cost a lot of money to develop, and we are confident in the result. Our partners continue to benefit from our method, and we are pleased to say that we are the only firm that we know of in our industry with a proprietary business development method that was built from the ground-up and customized to our unique, dynamic, and growing industry and client-base.
The result of this proprietary system is this: we can take non-sales-oriented professionals and teach them how to develop their practices successfully. They will not feel like they are or have to become salespeople to accomplish very positive results. The most critical ingredient to our method is a qualified senior-level executive that commits to both the method and the hard-work and discipline associated with building a profitable practice.
START-UP TRAINING
When a professional joins our firm, the first order of business is to schedule the initial training day in Salt Lake City, Utah. During this initial day-long session, we will expose you to the entire CFOwise method. The standard format for this training follows this general agenda:
8:15am Arrive and get acquainted
8:30am Chapter 1 – Introduction & the Training Manual
9:00am Chapter 2 – Elements of the sales process
Noon Lunch
12:30pm Chapter 3 – Marketing process and activities
3:00pm Chapter 4 – Client service, operations, and admin
5:00pm Dinner
It is impossible to retain and implement all of the information after just one day. We have done two things to maximize both retention and implementation of the method and its core elements and principles – write a proprietary training manual and organize seven follow-up sessions. 
Several of the chapters of the training manual are referenced in the agenda above. The content of our manual, which includes over 150 pages of rich content, cites over 15 professional sources and documents, in tremendous detail, the most effective path to success as a part-time CFO. We reference this manual often and our new partners and CFOs will find that they need to spend a lot of time with the manual to master the program.
At the conclusion of the initial training we schedule the first of 7 follow-up sessions, all of which are facilitated through webinar technology. The purpose of these sessions is two-fold. First, it allows us to focus on one core element of our method at a time to more deeply understand it and learn how to apply it. Second, we implement each element between sessions and, via experiential learning, internalize each element to the extent that it becomes a natural part of how we think and operate.
In essence, the result of the follow-up sessions is that each partner reaches a comfort level with using our method and it becomes a natural extension of who they are and how they market, sell, and deliver our solutions. These sessions take 2-3 months to complete based on the progress of those involved in the sessions. The general outline for these follow-up training sessions includes:
Session 1 – Marketing system
Session 2 – Build trust
Session 3 – Find needs
Session 4 – Fill needs (Part 1)
Session 5 – Fill needs (Part 2)
Session 6 – The entire method – applied
Session 7 – Case studies and implementation
EARN WHAT YOU ARE WORTH
When it comes to pricing the services and solutions that we offer, many in our industry do not understand how to earn their true worth. Many of our partners were operating as independent part-time CFOs when they joined our firm, and they all struggled with earning their real value. This comes from a combination of under-pricing our services and solutions and failing to correctly present our value and cost proposition to our clients.
Entrepreneurs, founders, CEOs, and business owners in our target market are results-focused. We have repeatedly been able to position ourselves with our clients to generate results beyond their imagination while earning premium fees. We teach our partners how to accomplish this in our start-up training, and it is reinforced in the follow-up sessions.
LEVERAGE TIME INTO ADDITIONAL REVENUE STREAMS
One of the major mistakes that professionals in our industry make is to cap their earning potential to just their own billable time. It is in the best interest of our partners that we not restrict them in this way, but rather that we empower them to build their practices to the size and scope they desire. Our firm is unique in its approach to this challenge, and it is imperative that any professional joining this industry understand this before they associate with a CFO firm.
CFO UNIVERSITY
Another unique aspect of our firm is our commitment to bettering ourselves through one or more monthly sessions of our CFO University. Through webinar technology our partners and other experts present on topics relating to our internal processes and methods as well as a variety of other topics, including: KPI best practices, corporate bankruptcy, advanced retirement plans, advanced tax strategies, client retention, monthly reporting packages, and more.
We video-record each CFO University session. All previous sessions are available to our existing and new partners to download as needed. Self-improvement should be a life-long quest, even professionally. This theme sets the tone for each of these sessions.
MARKETING INNOVATION
We have embraced social media and everything that it does to create opportunities for us to find and serve our clients. Our approach towards social media and social networking is unique and without parallel in our industry. For example, our cutting-edge bi-monthly e-Newsletter provides a powerful way for our partners to consistently add value to their network, and we always seem to find clients through this effort. We provide actionable data to each partner that helps in their overall marketing efforts.
COLLABORATION WITH CFO PEERS
We use a powerful collaboration and file sharing platform called a Wiki. This tool helps us connect with and call upon our partners and peers when we face an industry or problem outside of our experience and knowledge-base. This element of our firm empowers us to confidently serve our clients and ensures we deliver superior solutions and results.
TOOLS AND RESOURCES FOR FINDING & SERVING CLIENTS
Our Wiki acts as a real-time virtual storage facility wherein we warehouse all of our documents, tools, and other resources that help us find and serve our clients effectively. Some of these tools include: successful marketing letters, marketing worksheets and templates, videos of marketing and sales presentations, successful seminar and workshop templates, find needs forms and worksheets, client checklists, financial model templates, business plan forms, loan amortization programs, and more.
In addition to the Wiki, we also subscribe to a database of financial information for companies of all sizes, in all regions, and in all industries. This tool helps us to find new clients as well as better serve our existing clients. One impressive feature of this database is a valuation estimation program that we have used for many of our clients. The company that we pay for access to this tool also offers up to 8 free hours CPE credit-earning opportunities each month, a valuable resource for those who need to document their continuing education.
MENTOR AND SHARE
Research shows that seasoned executives in the second half of their careers value the opportunity to pass along the knowledge they’ve gained. In fact, many mark this as a higher priority than compensation. We have a structured, formal mentoring program as well as a lot of informal mentoring and sharing that takes place as-needed.
PROFESSIONAL INSURANCE
In today’s litigious society, it would be unwise to practice in our industry without appropriate coverage. Although we do not anticipate using it, E&O coverage is in place and covers all partners and CFOs. A unique element of our firm is that this cost is included in the cost of being part of our firm.
CREDIBILITY
Upon joining our firm, our partners are immediately part of something much bigger than just themselves. In addition to the website, business cards, corporate email, and professional marketing materials, the collective experience of the firm helps our target market more quickly gain a comfort-level with us. We are able to more effectively and more quickly build trust with others when they understand we are not a sole-practitioner.
BUILD EQUITY & A QUICK ROI
Our firm represents a ground-floor opportunity in a growing industry that has proven to be fairly recession proof. Each of our partners has the opportunity to build their equity position in the firm through tenure and their efforts to improve the firm. With a minimum up-front cost to get started, our partners and CFOs can regain this initial cost in as few as 30 billable hours.
If you desire to learn more about this opportunity, we invite you to learn more about our industry and watch a video messagedirected to help qualified professionals better understand our industry and our firm. We also invite you to read amd honestly answer the questions listed on the Can We Help You page of this career section of our website.
Once you have reviewed this information and you are interested to take the next step towards learning about this opportunity, we invite you to submit an application. We treat all submissions confidentially and you will receive a response with one business day. We look forward to hearing from you.
