Your job description is broken

"I want a Fractional CFO who can:

• Advise on tax strategy for complex transaction deals in a legally evolving industry

• Manage daily accounting including tax, financial statements, and reports for business partners

• Manage our internal finance team

• Help obtain credit line financing from banks

• Support and collaborate with all other departments of our company"

^ Request for services from a potential new client last week.

They likely already have lots of interest in the role from other FracCFOs.

But here's the thing:

This job description is broken.

Here's why:

1) It mixes Tax Advisory with operational financial tasks. Big No-No. In my experience, the best tax advisors - especially for complex, evolving industries - tend to be specialists who read code constantly and deal with the evolving regulations every day. They don't have time/patience/skills for operational management tasks. This can frustrate founders who think their Tax Specialist-style CFO isn't being a "team player".

2) The best Finance Operators spend their careers optimizing for smooth finance ops flow. Many have a general understanding of tax code and read up on changes, but they're not the best tax advisors. They also might not be best at Financial Strategy so may fall flat on impactful reporting. This is often leads to founders getting frustrated with their CFO and thinking they're "incompetent".

3) This role has multiple points of collaboration and management (daily accounting & reporting, internal finance team, company departments, banking relationships, etc). This begins to smell like it might be better suited for full-time role rather than a Fractional CFO. Collaboration and management means meetings, meetings mean time, time means increased cost for an individual Fractional setup. Likely, you'll want a Factional team with mixed levels, or one full-time individual supported by a team of fractional specialists.

Luckily, I shared these issues with the founder,

And we're popping on a call this week 😅

What support do you wish you had at your company?

Before going out and buying it,

From one of the millions of new Fractional providers who would be glad to take your money,

(But don't have the experience to know how their unique skills fit the needs of your business),

It might help to check with a higher-level expert first!

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