203 | Does Your Business Need a CFO? With Finance Expert Luke Boyenger

When Luke Boyenger’s family business went bankrupt in the 2007-2008 financial crisis, it ignited an unexpected passion.

After witnessing the painful closure of his father’s business, Luke began to look around at the other companies that survived the same financial crisis. What did they have in common? The answer came down to accounting and finances. 

Luke has since dedicated his career to mastering the art of successful business management. This mission led him to pursue a degree in accounting, secure his CPA license, and start a company of his own: Cruzumi CFO & Advisory, where he helps business owners increase profits and improve cash flow. 

The Strategic Value of Accounting

Many business owners view accounting as a necessary evil. But Luke says it should be a major value driver in the business, beyond just filing taxes. Understanding your finances allows you to make data-driven decisions about how to grow your business. Without that data, you’re simply guessing.  

As a business owner, it's easy to spend all day on busy work that doesn’t actually move the needle. Quality financial data helps you determine which tasks drive revenue and create value in the company–and which tasks don’t.

Your CFO (whether fractional or full-time) should be producing budgets, cash flow forecasts, and projections. They should meet with you regularly as a strategic advisor to help you build the financial roadmap to achieve your business goals.

When Should You Hire a Fractional CFO?

Luke is often asked about the best time to hire a fractional CFO vs. a full-time employee. In most cases, a part-time fractional CFO is the more cost-effective solution. But it doesn’t just come down to revenue–what matters is the complexity of the business. 

Some questions worth considering are: What stage of business are you in? What are your growth goals? How are you planning to achieve those goals? 

If you have a simple business model and modest growth goals, it makes sense to hire a fractional CFO. If you have a complex model, ambitious growth goals, and plan to sell your company or buy other businesses, a full-time CFO is probably worth the investment. 

Enjoy this episode with Luke Boyenger…

Soundbytes

3:29-3:53
“I looked at what happened in my dad's business, and I looked around and saw all these other businesses that did not go bankrupt during the exact same financial crisis. And I was like, Well, why? Why did they survive and we didn't? Something's different about their businesses than ours. And I knew just enough at that point to understand that it was something about accounting and finance.”

7:58-8:19
“So many business owners view accounting as a necessary evil or just want to do the bare minimum to be able to file a tax return. The only reason companies do accounting is they can file taxes. There's no other reason to do accounting other than filing taxes, right? No, that's not true at all.”

8:20-8:49
“Accounting should be a value driver in the business in terms of the quality of data and analysis and information that they're able to put in front of a business owner to allow them to make strategic decisions about how they're going to drive growth in a profitable organization that they're trying to build. Without that flow of really high-quality, timely data coming out of a well-built accounting function, it's impossible to do that.”

Quotes

“This is how I take the skill set that I've developed and deploy it in a way that's actually meaningful to me because I'm getting to work with business owners that I'm passionate about.” 

“Accounting should be a value driver in the business.”

“I want my pricing to be at about 25% of the value that we add.”

“Marketing works best when you focus it.”

Links mentioned in this episode:

From Our Guest

Website: https://cruzumi.com/ 

Connect with Luke on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-boyenger 

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