The FP&A’s Guide to Winning in the Fractional CFO Galaxy

“I am definitely starting to see more people with an FP&A background becoming fractional CFOs.”   Michael King, founder of The CFO Accelerator, coaches hundreds of  fractional CFOs and accountants in building “6 and 7-figure advisory firms”.   King arrives on the bustling fractional CFO scene at a time when demand for part-time finance chiefs working for several companies is  higher than ever. In King’s words in the next decade a small business having a fractional CFO will be just as common as bringing in a bookkeeper as hiring fractional CFOs becomes the “cost of doing business” at small and medium-sized enterprises. And according to King, those with an FP&A background have a significant advantage.   “FP&A really gets people ready for those CFO technical skills. So when I think about FP&A, I'm thinking about things like forecast projections, budgets and models, and data management, alongside communications across functional divisions within a business. And that's a huge part of what a fractional CFO has to understand”.   Covered in this episode King’s path from being a navy nuclear engineer to a fractional CFO leader The essential skills you need to be a fractional CFO When should an SMB choose a fractional CFO  Why budgeting and forecasting are “everything”  The key to using the fractional CFO position to connect the strategic goals of a business Why people in finance must learn to love sales When to move away from a fractional CFO and appoint a full time finance chief  Why cash flow is always “the first” and most important metric for any fractional CFO service Why you only need a small number of clients to “make a killing” as a fractional CFO How the Fractional CFO space will explode in the next decade “regardless of the economic picture” Fractional CFOs need to be “operating as far away from the decimal as possible” to be successful The process of adopting kids as the thing few people know about Michael     Watch the full show on YouTube Read the full transcript and blog   Follow Michael King on LinkedIn  Follow Paul Barnhurst on LinkedIn Follow Datarails on LinkedIn FP&A Today is brought to you by Datarails, the FP&A platform for Excel users. Episode links  The CFO Accelerator podcast with Michael King The CFO Report (Youtube channel) The The 5-Minute Fractional CFO Newsletter