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Author: Ascent CFO

Are You The Bottleneck? A Founder’s Guide To Growth & Scale

It takes more than a spark of passion to start a business. Launching a new venture is a standout commitment that requires time, energy, and sacrifice. To get things off the ground, a founder often wears every hat.

At the beginning, a business has to start small with a lean team. In this stage, it’s natural for the CEO to have a hand in everything: finances, marketing, legal, product, operations, and so forth. But this approach can only last for so long. As we’ve said before—what gets a company off the ground isn’t what it takes to scale it.

Scalability creates a new context for leadership and organization. But for the founder who has been intertwined since day one, stepping out of the way can feel like abandoning their own creation. And that’s often where they become the bottleneck of their own company.

The hub-and-spoke model: It works (for a little while)

The startup phase of any company requires simplicity; this era is defined by limited resources and capacity. Consequently, a “hub-and-spoke” structure settles into place, where the founder is the hub and each team (or employee) represents a spoke.

In a hub-and-spoke model, information flows through the central hub, the founder.

The main benefit of the hub-and-spoke structure is efficiency. As the hub manages decision-making and resource allocation, the spokes deliver on goals and benchmarks. The spokes operate leanly by drawing on the hub—for resources, instruction, and decisions. This model keeps employees close to the founder’s vision, establishes culture, and upholds values.

The problem is: once you’ve become the hub, your company can’t operate without you. You bump up against the Theory of Constraints: “A business system’s performance is limited by its most critical constraint—the bottleneck.” If progress in your company stalls in your absence, the reality is: you are the number one constraint.

Signs that you might be the bottleneck of your own company

1. Employees turn to you for decision-making and direction.

If employees repeatedly come to you for instructions, or if getting your sign-off on every project is the status quo—you might have trained your team this way. Involvement in every aspect of your business might feel like a comforting form of control, but it creates a cascade of impact that ultimately restricts the growth of your business.

2. You’re too bogged down with low-level tasks to get the most important things done.

If you’ve assigned yourself as a touchpoint in every sphere, low-level tasks could be piling up. If you’re constantly behind and rarely able to tend to larger priorities, you’re probably the bottleneck. Distraction and procrastination are adjacent signs that you’ve gotten in your own way. 

3. You aren’t meeting sales and profit goals.

If you are the bottleneck in your own company, the numbers will eventually show it. When critical parts of the business are waiting on you, the pace of execution slows. Decisions are delayed, and the business can’t scale beyond your personal capacity. This inevitably puts a ceiling on your revenue.

4. Progress flatlines if you aren’t there.

Back to the hub-and-spoke model: if you’ve built your organization such that all progress hinges upon your approval, then your business will stall in your absence. It might feel like you have more control of your company, but growth will require that your employees are empowered to work without you.

5. You’re missing work-life balance.

When was the last time you took a vacation? If a founder is the bottleneck, then the entity cannot run smoothly in their absence. Understandably, this makes a founder hesitant to step away. If your personal life has shrunk with the demands of your business, it’s likely that you’re struggling to let go of control.

6. You’re the only person who can do a particular skill.

If you are the only person who can do a critical skill (like coding or product development), your company’s output is immediately limited by your availability. If you are wrapped up in specialized work, then you aren’t available to spend your time growing the business. It’s time to shift from the “doer” to the “leader.”

The new model: Becoming the CEO

If you’ve determined that you’re currently the bottleneck in your organization, what comes next?

Understand that things aren’t suffering because you lack the skill or capability. When it’s time to scale, a new model of leadership is simply necessary. Instead of thinking like a founder or an entrepreneur, it’s time to start thinking like a CEO.

Stepping into the CEO mindset means it’s time to spend less time working in the business, and more time working on the business. This doesn’t mean you resign from working on your company’s objectives; it means you adapt your management style to be less of a facilitator and more of an accelerator.

Immad Akhund, CEO of fintech company Mercury, describes this dynamic well: “As a CEO, you can apply pressure and improve things in a way that accelerates progress… In a system where you’re not a bottleneck, your progress continues on an upward trajectory even without you there, but the curve of that trajectory steepens when you are.”

But isn’t it easier said than done? You may be wondering. If you’ve been holding all the strings, surrendering control can feel scary or even like a threat to the well-being of your business. But every growing venture requires an evolving leadership model. So how do you get from here to there?

It’s about moving from efficiency to effectiveness.

Your guide to stepping out of the bottleneck position

Embrace delegation

The simplest advice for no longer being the bottleneck: Do less. The first step to evolving your management structure is honing the art of delegation. But delegation isn’t just offloading tasks (if it was that easy, you would have done it already).

Effective delegation is about giving employees ownership over the work they do. It’s about providing your team autonomy to make decisions and take action without reliance on you. Giving your teams independence means giving them responsibility—fueling motivation, adaptability, and productivity. 

But what if something goes wrong? The key is to prepare your employees for inevitable difficulties instead of trying to avoid them altogether. In this case, perfect is the enemy of good. Mistakes will be made, but the growth will be worth it.   

Hire smarter

Offloading work will be much easier if you trust the employees you’re handing it over to. Often, founders get stuck in the predicament: “It will take me less time to do it myself, than to train someone else.” But this is only a temporary salve. In the long run, others must be able to take over our responsibilities so that we can focus on higher-level tasks.

This also means identifying areas where you might be the only person with a necessary skill, which inevitably caps your potential. The objective is to replace yourself in that role by hiring or training another individual. Even if they only start at 70% proficiency, you are that much less the bottleneck of your organization.

Documentation

As a business gets up and running, a founder ends up with a lot of specialized knowledge living in their own head. So long as this is the case, your team will be dependent on you. Documentation externalizes this information—making systems, workflows, and rules all available to the team. Without it, no one can act independently. 

Documentation is about clearly articulating processes and ensuring that tasks are completed the same way every time. You are no longer the gatekeeper of key information, making the business more self-sustaining. Even better, documentation allows for clear measurement of progress and makes space for improvement.

AI tools make creating documentation a less arduous task for founders. By recording your screen, uploading the video to your AI tool of choice, and asking it to create a process document from it, you are quickly on your way to training someone on a task only you know how to do.

Create decision-making frameworks

A founder having to make all of the decisions is a common and serious bottleneck. Embracing the CEO role means setting up others to make decisions successfully without your input—and that’s where decision-making frameworks come in.

These frameworks allow individuals to make consistent and aligned choices. They help transfer smart judgment by creating structure. Some examples of decision-making frameworks include:

  • The 80/20 Rule: The 80-20 rule suggests that 80% of outcomes result from 20% of causes. By using this as a decision-making framework, CEOs can focus efforts and resources where they will have the biggest impact. For example, you may find that 20% of your customers drive 80% of your revenue and decide to direct resources to protect, grow, and replicate that high-value segment.
  • The 5 P’s: The five P’s stand for: Purpose, Principles, Priority, People, Plan. This is a widely accepted framework for project organization.
  • DACI Model: This approach provides a structure to role and responsibility assignment by determining: Driver, Approver, Contributors, Informed.

Your role is to create these frameworks, teach your teams how to use them, coach them through the early stages, and then step back

The financial bottleneck

When a founder has their hand in every pot, critical aspects of scalability fall to the wayside. Strapped for time and resources, a founder is likely making financial decisions without knowing the full picture, working out of static spreadsheets and outdated financial models. Over time, overseeing financial strategy alone can become a bottleneck as the business grows.

Transitioning financial leadership to an experienced professional is a key step on the path to scale. For many growing companies, hiring a full-time CFO isn’t practical or necessary, but bringing on a Fractional CFO offers a smart, flexible solution. A Fractional CFO is a part-time or contract-based financial executive who provides high-level strategic guidance without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.

They can take ownership of critical areas like pricing strategy, fundraising preparation, profitability analysis, and financial forecasting—allowing the founder to step back from day-to-day financial oversight that’s contributing to the bottleneck. At Ascent CFO Solutions, we specialize in connecting growing companies to the financial expertise they need, when they need it.

Often that looks like an outsourced CFO. But we can also support accounting process and infrastructure needs, capital and fundraising initiatives, financial modeling and cash flow forecasting, and M&A advisory. Whatever your current objectives are, we step in on a fractional or interim basis to get you from here to there.

Contact us and learn more!

The benefits of giving up control

When you are no longer the bottleneck in your own business, your time and capacity are freed up for the high-level tasks required for scalability. Instead of just trying to do things right, you’ll be able to focus on the right things. Making the switch from efficiency to effectiveness will benefit your entire company: 

  • Faster execution. When your teams aren’t waiting on you, projects can move forward and objectives will be met more quickly. 
  • Scalability. When you are no longer the bottleneck, the company can grow beyond your personal capacity. 
  • Employee satisfaction. When you empower your team to take ownership, they feel motivated and positive about their individual contributions.
  • Retaining talent. Similarly, top talent wants room to breathe and exercise their expertise; they don’t want to follow orders. Giving your all-stars autonomy is key to keeping them happy.
  • Higher innovation. Breaking away from the hub-and-spoke model increases problem solving across the organization, making space for new ideas to emerge.
  • Higher valuation. A company that is self-sufficient will be more attractive to investors and capital firms


Your entire business benefits when you actively remove yourself as the bottleneck. And so do you, individually. This shift allows you to focus on the growth of your company—the vision and the strategy. It’s hard to maintain a bigger perspective when you’re bogged down by low-level tasks.

What’s more, this shift can take away the stress and burnout that you might have normalized in over-controlling the company. You can take a vacation from time to time and even enjoy running your business, instead of merely surviving it. 

The bottom line

With as much time and passion you’ve poured into your company, it’s understandable that you want to stay at the center.  

But as a company grows, so does the CEO role itself. Your job is no longer about doing it all, but about building a business that works without you. That means stepping out of the bottleneck and fully into leadership. The irony is—the more you let go of control, the more you grow. And as they say, anything that’s scary and exciting is worth doing. 

That said, you don’t have to do it alone. The best CEOs and leaders know when to ask for help. When it comes to financial expertise, we can support your every step to growth and scale. At Ascent CFO Solutions, we are here to customize a solution that supports your business as a whole and your vision for what it can be. 

Using Fractional CFOs to Help Your Healthcare Practice Thrive

Do you ever wonder if your medical practice needs a chief financial officer? What if you could have the strategic financial guidance without the full-time executive price tag? Today’s guest explains how fractional CFOs are helping healthcare practices thrive while letting providers focus on what matters most, patient care.

This is episode #166 of the Thriving Practice with Tracy Cherpeski featuring Lizette Peña, Fractional CFO at Ascent CFO Solutions.

Introduction

**Tracy:** Welcome to Thriving Practice, the podcast for healthcare providers who are masters of two worlds, exceptional patient care, and savvy business ownership. I’m your host and guide, Tracy Cherpeski. If you have ever felt like you’re running a three-ring circus instead of a medical practice, you’re in the right place. We understand the unique challenges you face, the constant balancing act between providing top-notch care and managing the business side can leave you feeling stretched thin, perhaps questioning your decisions and even wondering if this is really what you signed up for.

If there was a way to not just survive, but truly thrive, would you explore it? To feel energized about your practice, confident in your business acumen and deeply fulfilled in your career? Well, that is exactly what we’re here to help you achieve.

Each episode of Thriving Practice brings you conversations with successful healthcare entrepreneurs and industry experts who’ve navigated the same choppy waters you’re in. They will share battle-tested strategies to streamline your operations, boost your decision-making confidence, and reignite your passion for your work. From staff management and marketing to strategic financial planning to achieving work-life harmony and more, we dive into the practical insights you need to grow or scale your practice.

Our goal is to help you create the rewarding career you envisioned when you first hung out your shingle. So if you’re ready to stop merely keeping your head above water and start riding the wave of success, hit the subscribe button now. Join us on Thriving Practice, where we prove that outstanding patient care and business excellence are not mutually exclusive. They’re the perfect prescription for a fulfilling career. Welcome to Thriving Practice. It’s your time to turn your challenges into triumphs and your practice into a beacon of success. Let’s dive in.

Meet Lizette Peña, Fractional CFO

**Tracy:** Welcome back. It’s me Tracy. We have had several fractional CFOs on the show over the years because I believe their creative entrepreneurial approach to finance is exactly what healthcare practices need. Each brings their unique perspective and methodology, and today’s guest is no exception. Let’s be honest, you did not spend all those years in medical school to become a financial expert, yet as a practice owner, you’re expected to make critical business decisions while providing excellent patient care. That is where today’s guest shines.

Lisette Peña is a CPA with over 30 years of experience and is now a fractional CFO with Ascent CFO Solutions, a fractional CFO firm based in Boulder, Colorado. After years in public accounting and private industry, Lisette discovered her passion for helping mission-driven organizations use business as a force for good.

In this episode, we explore how fractional CFOs help healthcare practices thrive by providing high-level financial strategy without the full-time cost. Lisette shares practical insights on managing cash flow, understanding key performance indicators, and making data-driven decisions. She also explains why sometimes paying vendors quickly isn’t always the best strategy and how to balance the clinical and business sides of running a practice.

So whether you’re struggling to keep up with the financial demands of your practice or simply want to optimize your business operations, this conversation offers valuable insights for healthcare providers at every stage of practice ownership. What I particularly appreciate about Lisette’s approach is her understanding of the unique challenges healthcare providers face as entrepreneurs. So let’s dive into my conversation with Lisette Peña about using fractional CFO services to help your practice thrive.

**Tracy:** Lizette Peña, thank you so much for coming on the show. I’ve just so enjoyed chatting with you the last couple of minutes, so I’m excited to share your story. And welcome into the show.

**Lizette:** Thanks, Tracy. Yeah, it’s exciting to be here. And I’m happy to participate and share some wisdom.

What is a Fractional CFO?

**Tracy:** Awesome. Well, tell us about Ascent CFO solutions first. And then maybe tell us, you know, how you came to decide that being a fractional CFO is the path that you wanted to take.

**Lizette:** Yeah. Ascent CFO solutions is a fractional CFO firm. We’re based in Boulder, Colorado, but we serve clients all over the country. So it’s funny because I just started a new client this week, so now I officially have a client in three time zones. So it’s fun because most of my clients I have met in person, and so it’s really evolved to we can do a lot of work remotely, but we can also help our clients in person and go to their offices if that’s really what they need.

So I, my background is as a CPA. I’ve worked as a CPA for 30 years and I started my career in public accounting. So doing audits and tax returns and some business consulting and it was really when I started working with a particular client that was a worker owned cooperative and mission-based a certified B Corp that I really realized like wow there’s really a different way to do business and to actually use your business as a force for good and that was when I really left public accounting and went to work in a private company as their director of finance.

So as a fractional CFO, I’ve been able to combine my experience of working with inside a company as their director of finance and really knowing what goes on the day-to-day, managing cash flow, making decisions, risk-based and contracts and managing employees and teams and providing leadership support, as well as doing accounting. And that was something that I really didn’t understand just working in public accounting as an auditor, because you really only see the end product like the financials at the end of the year and you go once a year.

So that really helped me combine those skill sets of coming in once a year and really diving deep and quickly from a strategic standpoint and understanding the risks of an organization and then being able to apply recommendations and just some knowledge from those two viewpoints. So it’s really been kind of a fun marriage of those two skill sets that I’ve been working as a fractional CFO.

**Tracy:** What I’m kind of hearing is like when you get to combine the two, like I have an MBA, but I’m not an accountant, but my vague recollection of accounting is it’s, you know, a lot of times it’s historical and you don’t get to be as strategic, but it sounds like you also get to take like your understanding of how it works and apply that to the strategic side, you know, when you get to work with that, with your clients, with, you know, you’re talking about leadership support and, you know, with their teams and everything. So I would imagine it’s pretty fun. It sounds fun to me.

**Lizette:** Yeah, it’s sometimes I, we kind of joke, it’s like, wow, I didn’t know accounting could be so exciting. There are just sometimes that hard decisions need to be made or hard conversations need to happen. I think accounting has really evolved from what we all thought it was when we went to college and we were learning, you know, debits and credits and balance sheet and income statement. But that’s just the basics. Like with any profession, I suppose, that’s just really the foundation.

And it’s what you do with that information and really apply that to help your clients succeed. And really just knowing and seeing like, okay, well, I’ve seen this before, I’ve seen it work well. And then I’ve seen it also not work so well. And just really having that, that knowledge to be able to, that fountain of knowledge to be able to draw on.

And that’s the other cool thing about Ascent CFO is that it’s a team of about 30 of us. So we’re at different levels, we have folks from senior accountant, accounting manager, controller, CFO. So there’s just different levels that we can all help support each other. We’ve all worked with different industries. We have different focuses and we can say, hey, has anybody ever seen this issue or can anyone recommend a payroll provider? Like there’s just so much wealth of information that we help each other draw upon and can help our clients succeed with that knowledge.

Why Work With a Fractional CFO?

**Tracy:** I love that. And I think one of the things that I see supporting the clients that we work with when they bring in a fractional CFO is, yes, a provider owner is a business owner, but they often don’t have business training. And so, all of that responsibility for the business on top of the responsibility for the clinical side of the practice is huge. And there’s already enough pressure as there is.

And something that we’ve seen over the years, given the option between taking care of something that’s urgent or imminent clinically and something that’s urgent or imminent business-wise, they’re always going to default to clinical. So I’m curious if you can help explain for our listeners, like why would they wanna work with a fractional CFO? Like that sounds, it sounds big and it sounds expensive. So to, you know, why would it make sense to work with a fractional CFO as opposed to like maybe hiring somebody in and like we were saying as we’re warming up, you know, why can’t the practice manager just do this?

**Lizette:** Yeah, that’s a great question. And, you know, honestly, there’s some organizations that do better with a fractional CFO and some others that want to have a person in house. So let’s talk about those two different situations.

So the opportunities of working with a fractional CFO really gives you access to someone that has a varied skill set, right? So we have a whole team of a fractional CFO. People have different focus points and different backgrounds, like so many, many years to draw upon. Whereas if you just hire one person, you have that one person’s background that’s going to be on your team. Now that’s not to say that there’s anything that’s detrimental, but again, you’re just kind of limiting your advice that you’re getting from that CFO just to that one person.

But the other thing about working with a fractional CFO is that it’s, you have more time, right? So you’d think that there’s limited time because this person is only going to be working on your account, you know, a certain amount of hours, but the focus time that you’re going to get from that person is pretty dedicated. And you can kind of rely on that.

And so what we usually do with our clients is we’ll have weekly check-in meetings. So there’s always something that recurs. And so you always can plan for that. You kind of eliminate the back and forth with a lot of questions or emails throughout the week. Like you could save things that are not urgent or imminent and talk about those in your weekly discussions. I like to have one on one specifically with the CEO or the practice director because there’s usually conversations that you want to have with just that person. And then it’s also important to be part of an accounting team meeting that whether you’re either managing that practice’s accounting team for them or if you also have a fractional accounting team.

So everyone’s staying on point with deliverables, deadlines, reports, KPIs and information that the practice manager needs to have on a timely basis. So it’s really staying put with deadlines and appointments that you have set because I think as a fractional CFO, we’re managing several clients. So you have to work in a cadence as opposed to, I mean, I know when I was working as the director of finance, you kind of get pulled in 100 different ways, and then you had your HR hat on, and then you had other things that you got drawn into.

So I think it’s a little bit easier for me as a fractional CFO to be able to have those boundaries, and the client is more willing to have those boundaries for you, right? Because they don’t want you spending time working on things that maybe you can help, but maybe it’s not really what you’re best suited for. So it helps have clearer boundaries with what you’re here to help with, and you can really focus on that skill set and provide that value for them.

And the other thing about a fractional CFO is that sometimes you can monitor or control the number of hours that you’re working with a client. Like usually when I start working with a client, there’s a lot more hours at the onset, right? You’re trying to get to know everyone on the team and really dig around and figure out what’s going on. Where can I really provide value?

And then once you get that cadence going, sometimes there’s another professional that I could bring in that maybe be at a lower rate, right? because my goal will be to provide the most value and to work at a level that is best suited for the client to be very conscious of cost because that’s, you know, any money that is going to go towards any outside fees is really money that needs to be allocated properly and just included as part of a budget. So, yeah, so it kind of helps to have that, the differentiation.

Key Financial Metrics for Healthcare Practices

**Tracy:** I mean, I think there’s so much value in that, right? And even it speaks to your integrity to say, like, hey, there might be somebody who I can bring in at a lower rate who’s going to get the things, you know, once you understand what your client needs to get the proper things done, still have high value and still be mindful of cost. I mean, of course, we want our numbers people to be mindful of cost, but it doesn’t always work out that way, right? So I’m sure that that’s encouraging to our listeners to hear like, oh, so it doesn’t have to cost an arm and leg to do this.

You mentioned KPIs. And I’m curious about what are some of the metrics and KPIs that specifically a medical or health care practice owner wants to really know so that they can go and take a look at them, obviously, maybe even prepare in advance for your weekly meetings. But to have a really good handle on so they know how to make strategic decisions.

**Lizette:** Yeah, that’s a great question. And a lot of that’s been evolving. And I feel like that’s one of the things that I was able to do when I start with a new client. It’s always good to put fresh eyes on things. So just like, what have we been getting information on? What have been or what of our metrics, are they even relevant anymore? And so really taking a look at that.

And what I’ve found for the practices that I’ve been working with, and again, different practices are going to have different needs, right? Like if you compare a dermatology practice to a low-income clinic, you’re going to have different metrics, right? Because one is going to be more revenue. It’s going to have higher revenues. The other clinic is gonna be dependent on grants and other types of funding.

But from just a patient-centric type metric, I would say that one of the things that’s really been helpful for my clients is really looking at your cancellation and no show rates and understanding like, why are we having these blocks of time that were set for these appointments and then the folks aren’t showing up. And so that really helped us dig into, and again, this is nothing to do with accounting, has more to do with business, but it helped us understand that we needed to get better at the prepatent check-in, like following up and reminding people.

And I know we all hate to get those robo calls about the appointments, but I finally understand like why it’s important because a missed appointment is a missed revenue opportunity for our practices. So really ensuring that we have a handle on why do we have what is our cancellation rate and no show rate? How does that trend out? Is it relevant to the time of year? Do you serve a lot of teenagers or students that maybe in the summer you’re going to see more or less of them because they’re on vacation or not? So those kinds of things really help you understand your staffing and just how you’re doing with your patient service.

The other thing that I think is important to know is what your payer mix is. And again, this may not be relevant for all types of practices, but if you’re accepting insurance, it’s really helpful to know, what is my mix of Medicare/Medicaid patients? What is my mix of private pay patients, and then how many patients are we seeing that are just paying their own bill? And why does that matter? Well, because it kind of matters of how much money you’re going to be able to generate from those visits and how you’re filling up those appointments. So really understanding the payer mix. And that also triggered for us like, “Hmm, maybe we need to look at or contracts with our payers, our insurance companies, to make sure that we were current and billing as much as we could possibly get paid by these insurance companies.

**Tracy:** Yeah, and stay on top of that because it changes frequently, right? And insurance, I mean, I have yet to work with anybody or speak with any provider who’s like, you know what I love the most is the insurance structure, right? So, but it is what it is. It’s the system that we have, you know, to work with. So it’s really important, you know, we recently interviewed somebody who’s very, very specific niche specialty is coding and just how incredibly important it is to hire a professional who’s a certified coding professional, right? And like to the tune of millions of dollars left on the table if things are done correctly, right? So I think this is the biggest headache that we hear from most of our clients, too. It’s like, “Oh, start talking insurance in their eyes roll and their steam comes out their ears,” you know.

**Lizette:** Right. And I think that’s when you said it correctly. It’s like you really want to have someone on your team that’s really good at that, that knows what they’re doing. And I think there’s a whole other set of KPIs for that whole team, which is the revenue cycle management team, right? So that’s going to be like the claims denied. Can you track that? Are we getting better at this? Are we seeing the same types of reasons coming up for our claims getting denied? And then also just collections like days to get paid. That all gives you insight into how are we doing with our revenue cycle.

Cash Flow Management Tips

**Lizette:** Yeah. So those are all specific to practice areas, but there’s also some KPIs just for general business purposes that I think are important for healthcare practitioners to keep an eye on. And one of those, which is one of the other things that I noticed when I first started working with a recent client, was how quickly you were paying your payables. Like, you know, if you’re accepting insurance, it’s going to take a while, right? It’s going to take a month or however long or 90 days sometimes to get paid. But you really want to try to marry your payments out to your vendors to match the timing of when the money’s coming into the practice so that you’re not…

And I’ve seen it even with non-clinical practices. I’ve seen it with construction and another industries where we’re so anxious and we want to pay our vendors on time, which is so great and very admirable. But you have to be careful that you’re not paying too quickly, right? And then you’re sending out all your cash and then it’s a struggle to meet payroll. So really managing that cash flow, understanding your cash flow is and what’s your cash burn for the month.

Understanding that and then working with that accounting team so that they’re really managing their payables like if somebody if your vendors giving you 30 days to pay take it. It’s okay, right if they’re giving you 60 days to pay really it’s okay to take 60 days to pay because it’s because as long as it’s not costing you interest or anything like that, but I’ve just seen time and time again where folks kinda like the accounts payable, folks just wanna get it off their plate, they wanna get it paid. But then you have other constraints, right? Now you’ve used that money and maybe you needed to use it to stock up on some pharmacy supplies or anything like that. So you really wanna be able to have your CFO to be able to have a handle on on what your cash flow is and managing that properly.

**Tracy:** If there’s anything I’ve seen in my nearly 15 years of doing this, it has been so much fear around money, fear or scarcity or wanting to hide and run away from it. But it’s so, what I’ve seen happen with our clients is it’s so empowering to understand how it all works because then the stress levels come down and clear thinking comes through, better decisions are made. Sometimes they end up recovering more and ending up with a better profitability in the long run.

I can imagine that it’s like a soothing bomb at some point, maybe not in the beginning, but once you get into that cadence that you were speaking of that you must see your client’s stress levels just drop and come and confidence increases. This is something that you see a lot too, is like it’s hard to be a provider and a business owner. Those are two very different hats to be wearing and there’s often less confidence with the business side.

**Lizette:** Yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s just not, it’s not everyone’s skill set, right? We can’t do all these things. And that’s really one of the things that I’ve seen like a difference between those practices and even businesses in general that succeed is those leaders that realize that and that’s okay. And then they delegate and trust in those others to help support them in those areas that maybe they either don’t have time or just don’t have the skill set to really manage that. I mean, that’s why we all a diverse workforce is so important because we also bring something different to the table.

Overcoming Resistance to Fractional CFO Services

**Tracy:** I would imagine that your clients, do you ever like when you first meet with someone have they already decided or are they kind of like yeah, I don’t know I heard about this or somebody said I should talk to you and you know, do you do you get resistance?

**Lizette:** Yeah. Yeah, we do. And actually, it’s sometimes not only on the offset at the beginning, sometimes it continues, right? I think, like you said, I think there’s a lot of fear around money and some of the discussions. Like, unfortunately, you know, it’s like, I feel like, why do I, why am I always the one that’s bringing this bad news? I feel like, but it’s not bad news, right? It’s really just informing what the facts are and how are we going to react or what are we going to do with this knowledge?

So I feel that we get different types of clients. Some have already made up their mind that they want to work with a fractional CFO and they come with a referral from another client that’s had a really good experience. And then others just are at a point where their CFO internal has just left and now they have no other place to turn. We’ve seen both extremes.

And so really, it’s just important to build that trust from the beginning and to listen, which is what I try to do is like to listen to what are the issues that they’re trying to solve. What are the problems that they’re carrying that they don’t need to anymore because they have other things to worry about and that they can like hand that off and say here, Lizette, I need you to help me with this and I need to know that it’s in good hands and I don’t need to worry about it anymore.

And so that’s really when I think the relationship and the bond can form when that CEO or that practice director has that trust and that openness to share. What are the concerns? Because if there is a closed personality or they don’t feel like this is going to work or anything like that, then that’s going to become a difficult relationship. It’s like with anything, right? You’ve got to have that trust from the beginning on both parts that you’re telling me everything so that I know all facts and then I can make the best decision for the organization and then guide you to make your best decisions. And that’s really just a win-win situation, working together, trusting, and then asking questions.

Letting Go and Focusing on What You Do Best

**Tracy:** Yeah. I think it’s also important to just remind our listeners that just even if you’re pretty business savvy and you’re finance savvy, your brother’s a CFO and informs you or whatever, this is all well and good, but just because you could doesn’t mean that you should. And I think this is a really big key piece to send home from my perspective is if you want to keep loving what you do, you do not do it 24 hours a day.

It’s important to be able to turn it off at the end of the day. And if you’re going home and you’re working on your financials or you’re still charting or whatever and your day becomes a 16 or 17 hour day at some point that will catch up with you in a not positive kind of way. And one of the keys to what we want for our clients and what we want for our listeners is that freedom.

One of the reasons that any business owner goes out on their own, but especially providers who go out on their own, is because they were looking for the freedom. And It’s many things, oftentimes it’s control over their time or control over their earning capacity or an ability to spend more time with patients, to be more patient-centric. And I promise you that letting go of some of these duties and handing them over to a very capable professional or a team of professionals will buy you so much more brain space and so much more energy that it will, at the at least it’ll come out in the wash, but most of the time you come out ahead financially for it. And if it’s not the money you’re concerned about, then think about your trust, your energy and your stress levels.

**Lizette:** Perfectly said. Yep, I see that all the time. It’s just, you know, it’s difficult, right? Because you’re said, you’re doing, this is your baby. It’s your own business. You want this to work, and you want it to go in a certain way, and that’s okay. It’s just really being that kind of like that servant leadership where you’re really trusting in others, giving all of you in a way that is not in a controlling way.

But there’s so many great resources out there to help you. It’s more of a personal development standpoint that I see that really holds some of us back. Even as CFOs, I see it as well, right? Like you really want a CFO that is a team player and that isn’t going to work, they’re going to want to, like I was saying, you’re going to want someone at a lower level to be able to, if there’s work that they can do, you would want them to do it.

And then you’re developing up that next level of individuals that are going to work up. And then you’re teaching another generation with new ideas, more technology. So there’s just so many benefits of being open to trusting in folks. But again, you have to, there’s a lot of things involved with that, right? Like you have to hire the right people. You have to have a good interview process.

There’s so many things that you could be spending your time on and then you let the CFO worry about financial statements, board reports, metrics, because there’s so many other things in a practice that really, you could be providing more value to.

**Tracy:** Yeah, and I think that speaks to, you mentioned personal development and a little earlier, you talked about the leadership support and I imagine that this is a big part of it, right? Part of being an effective leader is learning where to let go, learning when, how, and to whom delegation and, you know, the listening and learning, which I know physicians and practitioners are very good at. How many years of school do they have? You know, like, so I know that this is already a skill that they possess.

Something that we sometimes notice with our clients is it’s like, oh, I didn’t realize that all this stuff I already do clinically, I can take over here as the business leader, so I don’t have to learn an entirely new skill set. And usually it’s just a matter of saying like, well, you already do that. You already do it with your clinical team. Now you just need to understand the bigger picture of what you wanna do with your business admin team and how are they gonna go and do that?

So, if you’re a listener and you’re going, wow, this sounds really great, but that first six to eight weeks of working with a CFO, fractional CFO sounds I’d rather, you know, poke on needles in my eyes, have faith, because I think that, you know, ultimately this working, I mean, I’m a big fan of fractional CFOs for many businesses, especially for healthcare practices, because, you know, no money, no practice. I mean, that’s just sort of the end of the end of story, right? So to be able to free up your time and energy as a provider to be more strategic with your business and to kind of turn that piece off and go back to providing the highest level of care possible, which is probably why you went into this in the first place, you know.

**Lizette:** Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it’s been, it’s really rewarding to hear some of those patient stories, right? Because as the CFO, you’re kind of always behind the scenes or you’re working with the back office, but this, but really hearing about how the fact that now the front desk now has a good check-in process and they’re confident and comfortable, and so they’ve created a really calming environment for their patients to come in and getting five-star reviews.

That’s what makes a difference. It’s not whether or not some of these metrics that we’ve talked about, but still healthcare organizations are the core of an impact and mission-driven organization. They’re dealing with humans, such an important thing, our health, like if our health isn’t good, that’s like, you know, we can’t do anything else. So it’s such an important job, such an important service that they’re all providing.

So it’s just really a great opportunity to leverage those others around you that have other skills so that you can be left to do what you do best, whether that is seeing patients or coming up with a new way to, um, a new care or I don’t know, but like something that will help you and free you from some of these business things that, you know, is not really what, I don’t know, just something that will help you get to the next level in your practice.

**Tracy:** Yeah. To be at, you know, performing at the top of your licensure. I mean, that should be the goal, really, yeah. Yeah, well, you speak my language. I’ve so enjoyed our conversation. I’m curious if there’s anything that we haven’t talked about that you really wanted our listeners to hear today.

Data Visualization

**Lizette:** One of the things that we’re really excited about at Ascent CFO is our data visualization platform, Insights by Accent CFO, that we’ve been using with some of our clients. And it’s really just a fancy way of simplifying some of these KPIs that, you know, we’ve usually just done in Excel charts and stuff. So we’ve really been able to just make it more fun and exciting, right, to have them clean and simple.

And so if you could check out our website, ascentcfo.com, it talks a little about, a little bit about the data visualization. And I think that is, is important, important because we can get inundated with data and just facts that not everyone likes to see numbers on charts or a list of numbers. So, just trying to find a unique way to present information to business owners and their leadership team.

**Tracy:** An actual visual, right? So, you can literally get a picture of what’s going on.

**Lizette:** Yeah. Like a dashboard that’s just kind of…

**Tracy:** Yeah. I love that. That sounds pretty cool. So you said it, but let’s say it again, where can people find you if they want to learn more about this?

**Lizette:** Yes, they can go to AscentCFO.com. And there’s a link there that you could go to and see our data visualization and also talks about our you know, what we’re excited about and what our expertise is.

**Tracy:** Perfect. We’ll make sure that’s easily clickable in the show notes as well. Lizette Peña, what a wonderful conversation. Your passion is palpable and your commitment to like supporting these mission-driven professionals and helping them, you know, do better at business so they can go back to doing what they do best and providing, you know, the best level of care possible is just really commendable. Thank you.

**Lizette:** Thank you, thank you. It’s really rewarding to do this work. Thank you so much.

**Tracy:** Thanks again for coming on.

Key Takeaways

**Tracy:** I really enjoyed my conversation with Lizette Peña about the positive impact of a fractional CFO and what they can do for your healthcare practice.

My few takeaways from our discussion:

  • First, understanding your KPIs, your key performance indicators. From no-show rates to pair mix, it isn’t just about the numbers, it’s about making informed decisions that improve both patient care and practice profitability.
  • Second, cash flow management doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Sometimes simple adjustments like strategically timing your vendor payments can make a huge difference in your practice’s financial health.
  • And finally, remember that being a great healthcare provider and a savvy business owner are not mutually exclusive, but you don’t have to do it all yourself. Working with professionals like Lizette allows you to focus on what you do best, providing excellent patient care, while having confidence that your business is being strategically managed.

If you’d like to learn more about Lizette and Ascent CFO solutions, you can visit their website at ascentcfo.com. This is where you can check out their innovative data visualization tools that make financial metrics actually enjoyable to review. We’ll see you next time.

Improve Your Healthcare Practice’s Financial Health and Profitability

Schedule a confidential consultation with a Fractional CFO today.

Will a Private Equity Firm Buy Your Company?

Seasoned entrepreneurs and CEOs will agree: taking a company from an idea, to a product market concept, to $25 million in revenue is one thing. Making that $25 million dollar company a $100 million dollar company is something else entirely. As corporate strategist and author Jim Collins shares in his book Good to Great, a good company becoming a great company requires an expert mix of leadership, strategy, culture, and discipline.

Taking a small company to middle-market or enterprise levels is a conversation of scaling—whether that means international expansion, technology, capital, or all the above. That’s why, at this stage, owners and CEOs often consider a private equity (PE) firm as the next step.

A PE firm can inject the expertise, investment, and resources that can take a business to the next tier. But what makes a private equity firm interested in buying?

What are private equity firms looking for? 

Above all, private equity firms are focused on scalability. A target company is one with the potential to grow significantly with access to the right resources—whether that’s capital, talent, strategic connections, or new opportunities. Typically, PE firms invest in profitable and cash flow positive companies, often financing the deal with debt leverage to create big returns with less capital. But there are additional factors that will place a business on the radar of a PE firm:

Growth potential

Private equity firms target companies with a clear potential to scale, particularly in terms of revenue. More specifically, they seek opportunities where they can generate significant growth and strong returns within a shorter time frame—around four to seven years. Leveraging their capital, expertise, and strategic guidance, they’re looking to turn a $25 million company into a $100 million or even $150 million company. As they determine growth potential, external factors like untapped markets or emerging demand are also considered.

In addition, PE firms consider whether the growth trajectory could lead to a viable IPO in the near future. The possibility of taking a company public is a particularly attractive outcome, giving the firm another reason to consider the investment.

Industry alignment

PE firms are rarely generic in their approach to growth opportunities, and will instead maintain a thesis surrounding their funds. For example, a firm might raise a $500 million fund to acquire a number of businesses in a specific industry—like SaaS, AI, or biotech. The firm may even have multiple theses, depending on its size. 

It’s also possible that a firm already operates with leadership and a portfolio of companies upholding a general thesis. They may allocate their funds toward a specific industry, like environmental science or climate tech or healthcare. It’s not unusual to see a firm with a focus on a market vertical, which will naturally influence how a firm strategizes future investments. 

Portfolio synergy

Similar to industry alignment, private equity firms may also assess how a target company fits within their existing portfolio. Firms often leverage synergies that exist between a target company and their other holdings, identifying opportunities for cross-collaboration and shared resources. In this way, a PE firm has the ability to unlock opportunities that a CEO or founder wouldn’t have envisioned for their company.

Leadership opportunity

A PE firm brings more than capital to the table. These firms are also looking for ways in which new leadership could take a company to scale. PE firms often bring experienced leaders who’ve grown companies to middle-market or enterprise levels before, helping to fill gaps in expertise and ensure the leadership team can execute on strategic goals. 

Red flags: Signs a company may not be ready for PE investment

Turning an idea into a company with $25 million in revenue is a big success. But in the eyes of a private equity firm, that win doesn’t guarantee scalability within the ideal timeframe. What red flags might give PE firms pause when evaluating potential investments?

Red Flag #1: Growth potential

Private equity firms deal in growth potential, which means there’s little room for question here. PE firms need to see a clear strategic path where their deployment of money and assets can generate a return on investment in the near term. And the return they’re expecting is high: anywhere between 50-200% within the 3-7 year window. It’s important that a target company can demonstrate this level of market opportunity.

Flag #2: Market concerns

PE firms are going to assess market opportunity as a potential limitation on scalability. If the company is operating in a saturated market, and there’s no immediate opportunity for an acquisition or merger, it’s unlikely to spark interest. Similarly, highly volatile markets can pose challenges, making growth unpredictable. (On the flip side, emerging or innovative markets may signal long-term potential, so this factor can depend on timing and positioning.)

Flag #3: Operations

Ultimately, a PE firm relies on management to execute their strategy. A team that lacks experience or has high turnover could raise a red flag. A firm will weigh the existing leadership and operations of a company and how that might uphold or detract from growth potential. Operational questions are also taken into consideration: Are reporting systems up to date? Are the operations unnecessarily complex, or subject to a high degree of regulatory scrutiny? 

What financial metrics will a private equity firm analyze?

When evaluating a new investment, private equity firms carefully analyze a wide range of operational efficiency metrics to assess growth potential. They hone in on the metrics most relevant to the company’s industry. For example, if the firm has their sites on a SaaS business, they’ll examine metrics like the SaaS Magic Number, gross revenue retention, or customer retention.

Beyond industry specific metrics, private equity firms will always analyze the balance sheet, assessing the company’s assets, debt, leverage, and equity growth over time. Further, they want to see the company’s financial health in full: 

  • Are the books in order? 
  • Are there historical trends in terms of growth? 
  • Are the drivers of that growth clear?
  • What is the market acceptance? 

A target company must be able to articulate these answers, backed by data and reporting.

This is where the importance of an experienced and strategic CFO comes in. At Ascent CFO Solutions, we help provide Fractional CFO support for companies at this stage of growth. If a small business is considering a private equity strategy, they have to be able to demonstrate an unquestionable growth trajectory—why not work with a CFO who has done it all before? 


Common misconceptions surrounding private equity investments

For small businesses looking to scale, it’s important to clear up a common misconception: the difference between a PE and venture capital (VC) firm. VC firms tend to be more hands-off, offering high-level guidance and support. In contrast, a PE firm will be much more prescriptive. PE firms are usually heavily involved, offering precise strategic direction to ensure the company meets critical targets within a specific timeframe.

If a company deviates from the growth trajectory, the PE firm will intervene. They may bring people in, or even make changes to the leadership team; whatever it takes to keep the business along the trajectory intended with the investment.

Also noteworthy is that the distinction between PE and VC firms has become less rigid over the last several years. Historically, PE firms are more likely to buy majority stakes (more than 50%) in later-stage companies, whereas VC firms invest minority stakes (less than 50%) in earlier-stage companies with the hopes that they grow. But some PE firms are starting to act more like VCs, taking minority interests in high-growth companies initially, making earlier bets. As the landscape evolves, PE firms may be looking to tap into growth without necessarily taking a controlling interest. 

Ready for a private equity investment? What to do next.

If a small company feels viable for a private equity investment, preparation is of the essence. As mentioned, it’s imperative to articulate a detailed trajectory of growth to a PE firm that is incredibly adept at analyzing the financials and performance of a business. The house must be in order: clean financials, strong reporting, and a clear growth story. It’s okay to have weaknesses, but there should be a plan in place to address them.

Having a seasoned CFO can make all the difference at this stage of the growth journey to help prepare financials, track metrics, and shape the growth narrative. Beyond financials, an expert CFO should be able to advise across departments, ensuring the company is ready for the scrutiny PE firms bring.

You can read more about our strategic services here. If your company could benefit from the support of a fractional finance professional, reach out to our team

But what if a PE firm isn’t the right fit?

A private equity investment isn’t the only strategy for scaling a company. Other strategies—such as organic growth, debt financing, venture capital funding, or strategic buyers—can also take a business to the next level. While private equity may be ideal for businesses ready to scale quickly and substantially, these alternatives may be a better fit for companies at different stages or with different objectives.

Consult a Fractional CFO to strategize and execute your best path forward. 

You Might Not Need A Full-Time CFO Yet—Here’s Why

As a company accelerates into the early growth stage, new challenges and priorities arise. Many founders have met this initial success through mentorship, affordable junior talent, contract bookkeepers, and internet advice—an admirable accomplishment. But alongside this growth comes complexity, and the need for an elevated expertise. 

Whether it’s Series A fundraising, risk management, or strategic forecasting, this complexity often prompts startup founders to question: Is it time for a full-time CFO? Founders want to think big-picture, but might lack the nuanced perspective—and hiring a veteran CFO full-time isn’t the only solution.

Enter: The Fractional CFO

A Fractional CFO is a part-time or contracted Chief Financial Officer who provides strategic oversight and high-level expertise without the full-time commitment. 

For most companies in the early stages of growth, hiring a full-time CFO who has spent a decade in Fortune 500 companies isn’t realistic or even fiscally responsible. An affordable hire would likely be someone far less experienced. What does a company at this stage actually need? Someone who can guide their financial strategy and ensure they have the capital, resources, and direction for sustainable growth. That’s where the Fractional CFO comes in.

Yes, it’s true this option comes at a fraction of the cost. But those who say Fractional CFOs are for people who can’t afford to hire a full-time CFO are missing the full picture and the many benefits.

Top benefits of a Fractional CFO for an early-stage company

A full-time CFO can command not only a high salary, but also expensive benefits, bonuses, and likely even an equity package. Beyond the cost savings, consider the other important benefits that come with a Fractional CFO:

Strategic focus

A Fractional CFO is hired to work on higher-level items. Their dedicated hours are spent on strategic concerns like pricing models, FP&A, fundraising planning, and profitability optimization, ensuring the company’s growth continues on an upward trajectory.

Applied expertise 

Something every business owner should understand—Fractional CFO work attracts individuals in the prime of their career; those who have worked in Fortune 1000 or high-growth companies, in multiple startups, and across industries. Fractional CFOs adapt their expertise to the company’s needs to provide the right information at just the right time.  

The perfect fit

CFOs with high-level expertise look for work that excites and challenges them, and the strategic potential of an early-stage company can meet that criteria. That said, an experienced CFO likely wouldn’t be challenged enough in a full-time role at an early-stage company as it would likely include the less-strategic responsibilities of an accountant and controller.

The key to sustainable growth 

As a company grows and faces increasing complexity, it’s natural to look for an expert to step in as soon as possible. But before you do, it’s important to consider your options.

At Ascent CFO Solutions, we step in to fill in all the gaps that come with a company’s growth—including the Fractional CFO role. Our full-stack financial team can also step in with controllers and accountants to close the books, produce monthly financials, process payroll, manage payments, and complete bank reconciliations. At some point, every growing company needs a long-term, proactive approach to running their business—and we can help.

3 signs that a Fractional CFO may be a better fit

  1. The cost of a full-time CFO strains resources. If hiring a full-time CFO means straining resources or selecting a less experienced candidate, consider a Fractional CFO.
  2. Strategic input is needed, but not every single day. If the company can manage administrative financial operations with an accounting manager or controller, hiring a Fractional CFO to focus on the big picture insight and strategic guidance could be very cost effective.
  3. A full-time CFO wouldn’t feel challenged in the full-time role. Experienced CFOs look for work that challenges them, like managing investor relations, doing strategic planning, and scaling operations. If a significant amount of the full-time CFO’s role would consist of administrative tasks, a Fractional CFO, paired with a full-time Controller would likely be a better fit. By hiring a Fractional CFO who focuses on strategic work, the company can attract a higher caliber professional. 

Growth is exciting: Let’s fill in the gaps!

The early stages of business growth are full of excitement and possibility. Instead of struggling to keep up with the growth, or making big decisions quickly—simply reach out.

Our financial team provides the expertise you need, when you need it.

Is Your CFO Prepared to Help Sell Your Company?

M&A activity is an exciting milestone for a startup or small business to reach. Having interested parties court you for a potential sale is a dream scenario for many founders. However, not all small and medium business CFOs are prepared to successfully manage an exit.

Ascent CFO Solutions has put together a list of questions to help evaluate if your current CFO is up to the job or if you need to bring in someone with additional experience. 

  1. Does your CFO have previous M&A Experience?This question sounds basic, but it’s critical. No amount of aptitude, good attitude or willingness to learn (all great qualities in more junior staff) is a substitute for M&A transaction experience. Ensuring your CFO has experience in IPO’s, private equity transactions, or major fundraising rounds is advisable. If your CFO does have relevant experience, dig into that experience to learn more about their role in the deal, what they learned and what they’d do differently if given the opportunity. This will give you insight into whether or not they are the right fit for the task.
  2. Has your CFO kept up with clean and accurate financial reporting?Sometimes companies move at rapid speed and key housekeeping tasks such as timely financial reporting and well-documented processes can unintentionally be deprioritized. Although this is a reality for many businesses, it’s never a best practice. Infrequent and disorganized financial and KPI reporting is a red flag that your current CFO isn’t ready to take you through an acquisition process. Due diligence on the part of the acquiror will likely be a thorough and intense process. Having a CFO that keeps clean financials as a standard operating procedure for your business will go far in lowering the stress and length of the due diligence process.
  3. What perception and level of confidence do your Board and investors have of your current CFO?Stakeholder management is one of the most important skills a CFO can lend a company during M&A activity. You should critically evaluate if your current CFO has done a good job of this by evaluating their ability to manage existing, high-level stakeholders such as investors and your Board of Directors. This should give you an important data point when deciding how to proceed.
  4. Has your current CFO proven they can handle complex tax and legal issues?During an exit, financial issues are often inextricably tied to complex tax and legal issues. The CFO who guides you through your M&A activity should be well-versed in assessing tax implications of various exit scenarios and work well with the company’s legal counsel to manage risk. A CFO’s ability to anticipate and mitigate risk in partnership with legal can mean preparing for M&A issues such as structuring earn-outs, shoring up financial liabilities and preparing for possible layoffs.

There’s a lot to consider when deciding if your current CFO is prepared to help sell your company. There’s no “perfect” CFO that checks all of the boxes. That’s where Ascent CFO Solutions comes in; we can help fill any gaps in experience with your current CFO and finance and accounting teams as much or as little as your needs require. Contact us for a free consultation with one of our experts.

Navigating Turnover and Challenges: How Ascent CFO Solutions Guided Reside Worldwide Through a Financial Rebuild

About Reside

  • Company Size: <150 employees 
  • Industry: Commercial Real Estate and Technology
  • Products + Services: Ascent CFO Solutions’ Interim CFO and Controller Services

Reside Worldwide, Inc. is the leading provider of professionally operated and managed global alternative accommodations with a portfolio of premier hospitality brands including Manhattan’s The Beekman Tower, Rochester MN’s Broadway Plaza, Puget Sound based ABODA by Reside and furnished private military accommodation provider OnBase Suites. Additionally Reside provides technology to the managed global accommodations marketplace with end-to-end technology management platform 3Sixty.

The Task and Challenges

Reside’s senior management team contacted Ascent CFO Solutions as they were preparing to make changes to their finance and accounting teams in 2023. Reside faced multiple complex challenges including:

  1. Leadership: The need for an Interim CFO to quickly assume leadership onsite in Reside’s Bellevue, WA offices.
  2. Operational Excellence: Leadership and execution for critical tasks such as board and investor reporting, bank reporting and partnering with Deloitte’s audit & tax consultants. 
  3. Talent Advisory: Interviewing and vetting permanent CFO replacement candidates as well as filling open headcount and backfills of recently departed employees.

The Solutions

This project was staffed by Ascent CFO experts Paul Harrison (Interim CFO) and Diane Georgia (Interim Controller). Paul, Diane and the Ascent CFO support team worked closely with Reside’s senior management team to plan this engagement to ensure a seamless transition. One element that was important to Reside was that Paul and Diane be initially onsite once a month at their Bellevue, WA offices full time. Ascent CFO provides onsite services and was happy to accommodate. 

Once arriving in Bellevue, Diane and Paul got to work.

1. Leadership

Upon the start of the engagement, the finance & accounting department at Reside had experienced over 300% turnover in staff in the prior year. This presented multiple operational and cultural challenges for Diane and Paul. From a practical standpoint, this meant there was almost no historical or tenured knowledge within the organization regarding key processes or previous decisions. The few staff that remained weren’t comfortable speaking up about problems because of the department’s previous culture.

Diane and Paul had a big challenge ahead of them to help the current staff feel empowered in their roles so they could do their best work. On day one, daily problem solving meetings were implemented with the leaders of the treasury, accounting and FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) functions. These meetings were supplemented with individual meetings to deep dive on specific challenges. Additionally, Paul and Diane worked with other departmental leaders to improve the frayed communications between those departments and the finance and accounting department. This involved constant monitoring of email and messages to provide quick feedback when questions arose. Finally, praise and recognition became part of the norm to encourage the team to stick together.

2. Operational Excellence 

There was a laundry list of critical processes and tasks that needed to be addressed by the Ascent CFO team.

  • Forecasting: Reside’s Board of Directors had a forecast that did not align to the bottom up forecasting prepared by the FP&A team. Paul worked with the FP&A team to provide a single source of truth forecast for executive management.
  • Investor Reporting: Investor reports were constantly late and lacked consistency. Previous reports contained errors and didn’t tie back into the previous and current year’s numbers.
  • Annual Financial Audit: Ascent CFO partnered with Deloitte to conduct Reside’s annual financial audit. To bring the audit to completion, Diane worked with the team to reconcile all balance sheet accounts and propose a long list of adjustments in order to correctly state the financial position at 3/31/2024 (year end). This needed to be done to obtain a clean opinion from the auditors and allow the staff to start the new year with accurate accounts.
  • NetSuite: Reside had implemented NetSuite in April 2023 and the transition to this new system caused a lot of stress for the team. Diane worked with the team to ensure their policies worked well with NetSuite.  
  • Banking Relationships: Paul took the lead on working with Reside’s banking partners. Paul walked the bankers through the transition and established regular reporting, communication and management of lines of credit.
  • Balance Sheets: There had been no reconciliation of the company’s balance sheets since the previous year’s audit.
  • Tax Returns: Reside’s tax returns were due just 8 weeks after the project began. Diane worked closely with Reside’s in-house team as well as Deloitte consultants to get all of the data ready so taxes could be filed on time. Additionally, Ascent CFO supported Reside in their 2022 and 2023 German VAT returns.
  • Bank Audit: Reside was past due on their semi-annual bank audit from KeyBank.  Diane worked with the team and completed the audit to Key’s satisfaction.
  • Accounts Payable: The existing AP team was not performing at the highest level. Cash had not been reconciled for months and the existing team needed guidance on how to complete this task.  Diane worked with the existing team to develop a streamlined approach to reconcile cash before the audit began. This entailed backdating Accounts Payable transactions to the period in which they were incurred, booking journal entries to remove the effects of the changes and then pushing the transactions into the current reporting period for reconciliation.
  • Vendor Reconciliations: There were three large-scale vendors who all claimed Reside owed them significant sums of money at the start of the engagement. Because there was not a process or clear historical records in Accounts Payable, Reside had the challenging task of validating each claim individually to determine if they did in fact owe on any given invoice and communicate with each vendor.  Diane worked with one of the vendors directly and supported the team for the other two vendors.  This entailed regular communication with the vendor to assure that their statements were being worked on since they had not been communicated with for months prior.

3. Talent Advisory

Talent Advisory services are key to many Ascent CFO engagements, including the Reside engagement. Ascent CFO offers full talent advisory services including recruitment, screening, interviewing and offer package creation to clients. In this case, Ascent CFO supported Reside on two fronts; the first being the staffing of the Reside accounting and finance department. The second being the search for the next Reside in-house CFO to take over at the end of the Ascent CFO engagement.

Staffing the Team

When Ascent CFO began working with Reside, there had been significant turnover in addition to multiple open roles that needed to be filled with qualified staff.  Paul and Diane proposed to the executive team an updated organization structure for the finance and accounting departments. Working with Reside’s HR and Recruiting teams, job descriptions were created, positions posted, interviews conducted and new team members were hired in short order.  

An added layer of complexity was the resignation of the treasury manager, a senior accountant and the payroll manager shortly after the project began. This required Diane and Paul to act quickly and think creatively given the other staff members were already fully utilized. This entailed adding two other Ascent CFO resources on an interim basis and Paul/Diane absorbing some additional tasks.

In total, Paul and Diane helped Reside hire 6 net-new staff and reorganized several other existing staff into revised roles to help move the company into the future.

CFO Search

In this case, Ascent CFO partnered with Reside’s Human Resources team and an external recruiting firm to achieve the goal of hiring Reside’s next in-house CFO.

Paul was responsible for interviewing CFO candidates and providing guidance and recommendations to Reside’s senior leadership team. After interviewing numerous candidates, Reside decided to hire Dan Duryea in March 2024 to lead the finance and accounting functions of the company under Paul and Diane’s recommendation.

Here’s what Dan had to say about working with Ascent CFO:

“The Ascent CFO team provided a fresh set of eyes on our processes and procedures in an ever-changing environment and drove process improvement across the entire business. They were able to shepherd the business with a steady hand and shift the culture away from jumping from fire-drill to fire-drill while putting a focus on the long term strategy of the department and overarching company goals. I cannot say enough about our partnership with Ascent CFO and, in particular, Paul and Diane’s leadership. I highly recommend their team for not only Interim CFO and Controller level positions, but also fractional and project-based work. I look forward to partnering with Ascent CFO again in the future and have already recommended their services to several other colleagues who have been extremely impressed with their willingness to jump in and roll up their sleeves in unique situations.”

— Dan Duryea, CFO, Reside

Fractional CFO vs. Interim CFO: When is the Right Time to Engage?

Startups and small businesses will often reach a point in their revenue growth journey when it’s beneficial to bring in outsourced expert financial talent at the CFO level.

Strategic initiatives, timely projects, and talent gaps can arise that require someone to step in with dedicated effort and specialized knowledge beyond what is currently available on the team. 

Fractional CFOs and Interim CFOs are two types of outsourced CFO talent. Which type does your company need? It depends on the circumstances and how much support your team requires. Familiarize yourself with the terminology by learning what each role entails and when your company might enlist each type of outsourced CFO. 

What is the difference between a Fractional CFO and Interim CFO?

Both Fractional CFOs and Interim CFOs are outside contract resources but they have different purposes and strategic value.

Fractional CFO

A Fractional CFO manages a company’s financials on a part-time and often long-term basis when the needs of the company don’t require full time support. Oftentimes, Fractional CFOs are brought in during times of transition, which could include: 

  • Experiencing rapid growth
  • Dealing with cash flow challenges
  • Preparing for an exit
  • Raising capital
  • Merging with or acquiring another company
  • Preparing for an audit, Quality of Earnings (QofE) or due diligence process

Fractional CFOs can be hired as supplemental resources to augment existing financial teams. They focus on high-level strategic initiatives and projects, and when hired proactively, they can help head off financial issues and pitfalls before they become significant problems. 

Fractional CFOs have multiple clients and work flexible hours as much or as little as clients require. Fractional CFOs are equipped to provide guidance on matters such as accounting systems and processes, financial reporting, financial planning and analysis, capital fundraising, mergers and acquisitions, banking and credit line management, data visualization, cash flow forecasting, budgeting, and more.  Ascent CFO Solutions’ clients find immense value in both the practical and strategic advice Fractional CFOs bring to drive their business to the next level of growth. 

Interim CFO

In contrast, an Interim CFO is the best choice for companies who know they need full time support and leadership for a discrete period of time before a permanent team member returns or takes over. Interim CFOs can be beneficial for companies in many scenarios including:

  • Team members going on parental leave or taking a leave of absence
  • Running an M&A process on either the sell-side or buy-side
  • Transitioning from a junior financial founding team to senior expertise
  • An inflection point of needing full-time financial leadership while searching for a permanent hire
  • Leading a large, later stage fundraising rounds such as a Series B or Series C round
  • Crisis management such as CFO turnover or leadership changes

An Interim CFO is equipped with the same skill set as a Fractional CFO. However, given the full-time nature of the role, they can be involved in a wider variety of tasks. Companies are typically beyond the startup phase to merit the full-time support of an Interim CFO.

Ascent CFO Solutions offers both Interim CFO and Fractional CFO services to startups, small businesses, and high-growth companies of all types. Our CFO bench includes financial professionals with a variety of industry backgrounds including SaaS, manufacturing, CPG, technology, healthcare, e-commerce, professional services, real estate, construction, nonprofits, education, and more.

Contact us today for a free needs assessment to discover if a Fractional CFO or Interim CFO solution is right for your business.

Managing Cash Flow During the Slow Season

By Pam Wismer, Fractional CFO, Ascent CFO Solutions

This article was originally published in Construction Business Owner Magazine.

The very mention of fluctuating cash flow can cause anxiety for construction company owners. Without sufficient planning for a slow season, even seasoned businesses may find themselves in a cash crisis from time to time. While weather can be an obvious culprit for midsized general contractors — particularly those in nonresidential construction such as commercial, road and highway, or heavy construction — a slow season can also be related to factors such as project life cycles, regional labor shortages, or a poorly quoted or scoped job. In severe circumstances, a company must be strong enough to survive the cash drought without becoming insolvent and remain well-positioned for new projects as the market improves.

Consider these tips to financially prepare for and navigate an unexpected slow season.

Even the Best Plans Require Review

A well-managed job-level forecasting model allows a company to anticipate future cash ebbs and flows. Jobs rarely go exactly as planned, often facing unexpected challenges. But there are many factors a company can control: job design, cost adjustment sales contract clauses, pay-when-paid subcontractor contract clauses, site management and supervision, business processes that provide current and accurate information, efficient billing practices, and invoice collection practices are just a few. Investing time and effort into a well-thought-out forecasting model should be a priority even during the busy season. Waiting until business slows down is too late to implement cash strategies that can mitigate an impending cash crunch.

Consider This Cautionary Note

Without a forecasting model, a company may experience uncontrolled growth. During this phase, companies often envision endless opportunities and ramp up personnel and expenses in anticipation of the continued rise. However, uncontrolled growth can lead to operational inefficiencies and financial strain. The use of forecasting software (much like project management and accounting software) and incorporating input from project managers, the finance team and other key stakeholders can greatly enhance the accuracy and efficiency of forecasting. Creating scenarios — best, worst and most likely — will assist in strategic discussion and decisions. These scenarios provide insight for short, medium and long-term planning. During the chaotic busy season, it may seem unrealistic or counterintuitive to divert attention to processing fundamentals, but having efficiencies in place when the slow season arrives will prove to be time well spent.

Continued Focus & Reaction to Details

A forecasting model remains effective only when using the best available information of the last updates. As with any forecasting, ongoing maintenance and consistent, accurate updates are necessary to achieve long-term visibility into potential cash flow issues. Even with operational excellence, unplanned changes (change orders, equipment and supply chain delays, subcontractor issues and inflation) need to be evaluated and updated as either critical or noncritical job updates. In addition, unavoidable or surprising delays in customer payments may cause a domino effect. Clear and transparent communication with both customers and vendors about realistic payment expectations is essential for effective planning.

While job costs and estimates are included in the forecasting model, other company costs such as overhead payroll, benefits, business insurance, rent, legal and tax payments need to be addressed as well. It costs money to run a company! While jobs are active, margins are built into contracts to support these additional costs. But what about when jobs are inactive?

Preparations and plans need to be developed for gaps in project life cycles. Hoping to land the next big contract may not be enough to eliminate the slow season impact. Data visualization is a fantastic way to take the guesswork out of the massive data available to construction companies. Data visualization techniques are visual representations in the form of charts, graphs and diagrams — usually in an executive dashboard — that allow teams to quickly digest data, trends, key performance indicators (KPIs) and forecasted cash flows to make informed decisions.

Rainy Day Fund

There is little argument over the need for a cash reserve at all companies, in all industries. But how much? Wouldn’t cash be better reinvested into the company, used for large asset purchases or placed in outside investments?

This decision-making can feel like a tightrope, finding balance between investing in the future and saving for a rainy day. In cases where lenders are involved, debt covenants may dictate cash reserve. But for all others, a good rule of thumb is keeping a cash reserve between three and six months of expenses. This reserve may need to hold the company over during the slow season, so it is critical to understand the entire universe of cash inflows and outflows.

Armed with a current forecasting model and data visualization highlights, a company can see the expected excess and shortfall months. It can be tempting to pay cash for large asset or equipment purchases during cash excess months, but often the better choice is financing these purchases and funding the cash reserve. Transfers to the cash reserve account in the cash-excess months (while not jeopardizing the overall cash plan) is one strategy to build and maintain a cash reserve. Alternatively, a percentage of each invoice can be transferred to a cash reserve account, which spreads the transfers out and may feel less painful.

The reserve account might be held in a money market or even staggered certificates of deposit (CDs). Consult with a banker or financial advisor for the most lucrative alternatives.

Correcting Course

Another valuable item in the business toolkit is the 13-week rolling cash-flow model. This is particularly useful for companies heading toward or currently experiencing a cash crunch. This very detailed view of cash inflows and outflows allows management to navigate on a daily and weekly basis and identify priorities (and where borrowing funds may be needed) with ease. By utilizing the current accounts payable and accounts receivable aging, payroll requirements, any debt service payments and automatic bank pulls, a “sources/uses” forecast can be created down to the day. By relying on these three important tools — forecasting model, data visualization highlights and the detailed 13-week model — strategies to extend the cash runway can be implemented.

Operational efficiency is always a great place to start prioritizing improvements with an immediate impact. Possible areas for improvement include processing change orders quickly, negotiating accounts payable/rent/debt payment terms, considering borrowing options, invoice financing, limiting purchases of additional inventory and encouraging early payments with discounts. In addition, an evaluation of employee versus subcontractor status and the pros and cons of maintaining fixed overhead are worthwhile exercises.

Planning for the slow season in the construction industry is not only about survival, but also about positioning the company for long-term success. By implementing forecasting models, maintaining clear communication with stakeholders and building a financial cushion, companies can weather any storm. As challenges arise, the ability to adapt quickly, manage cash flow meticulously and make informed decisions will set the company apart.


Pam Wismer is a Fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with Ascent CFO Solutions, partnering with leadership teams to give them clear visibility into how to drive growth in their businesses. With more than 35 years of professional finance experience, including nearly 15 years in the construction industry, Wismer truly enjoys helping business leaders overcome financial challenges.

How Ascent CFO Solutions Unified and Streamlined Emergenetics Global Financials

About Emergenetics

  • Company Size: <100 employees globally 
  • Industry: Learning and Development Consulting Services
  • Products + Services: Fractional CFO + Insights by Ascent CFO

Emergenetics knows what it takes to help individuals, consultants, corporate organizations, nonprofits, K-12 and higher education groups across the world build inspiring and inclusive workplaces to attract and retain top talent. In 2019, Emergenetics was scaling their business and knew it was time to bring in expert financial help and began working with the team at Ascent CFO Solutions.

The Challenges

Emergenetics came to Ascent CFO Solutions with 3 distinct challenges: 

  1. Five QuickBooks instances for each of their global entities operating in 3 currencies; USD, Euro and SGD.
  2. A time-consuming expense management process.
  3. No way to visualize the right financial information for the right people at the right time.

The Solutions

1. Five QuickBooks Instances + Insights = One Elegant Solution

Given the complexity and global nature of Emergenetics business, they were a natural fit for Insights by Ascent CFO. Built on top of PowerBI and other tools, Insights allows Ascent CFO clients to unify and visualize their financials from multiple data sources.

In this case, Ascent CFO Solutions took Emergenetics’ five QuickBooks instances that spanned three currencies (USD, Euro and SGD) and unified all of the financial data into a master file with a static currency rate applied. This allowed Emergenetics to roll all of their financials globally into a single view using USD. 

Prior to the consolidated view Insights gave Emergenetics, they were constantly building time-intensive manual reports to extract the necessary information about their financials. 

Now that Insights displays current and relevant financial information, it frees up more time for Emergenetics staff to spend on projects and activities to grow their business.

Bonus: Ascent CFO customized Emergenetics Insights views to match their colors, fonts and brand.

2. Expense Management Inefficiencies 

The addition of Insights to Emergenetics allowed them to streamline their expense management process.

Prior to working with Ascent CFO, the Emergenetics expense management process was a resource heavy, report driven activity. Each department leader would be emailed a static report with their team’s expenses from the previous month by the Emergenetics controller. They would then have to go back to the controller with questions, requests for more data and any issues the report uncovered. Ultimately the old expense reporting process wasn’t always accurate, helpful or dynamic. 

With the implementation of Insights, department heads now have access to a live view of their team’s expenses. They can drill down into specific expenses to uncover and resolve issues in real time instead of having to wait for a report to be sent to them. 

““Insights has been a game-changer for us, saving our company approximately 10 to 15 hours of monthly report generation. This efficiency boost has not only been fantastic but has also led to increased satisfaction among department leaders. They now manage team expenses seamlessly, eliminating the need for time-consuming back-and-forth emails to resolve issues.””

— Marie Unger, CEO, Emergenetics

3. The Right Information for the Right People

The third challenge Emergenetics brought to Ascent CFO was the lack of ability for specific employees and executives to see current and relevant financial information. 

Ascent CFO’s analysts got to work building customized, dynamic financial data visualizations for executives, the CEO and the Board of Directors using advanced permissioning so that Emeregenetics could ensure both transparency and data protection. 

  • The CEO Report

    Emergenetics CEO Marie Unger previously had to send individual requests for financial reports to her controller and Ascent CFO Jodi Mercer. This old way of doing things was inconvenient for all involved, time intensive and created a lag between when Marie needed information and when she received the information. Ascent CFO built Marie a custom dashboard using Insights that puts all of her business-critical financial information in one location that she can access anytime that is convenient for her. The numbers update in real time so she can be assured she always has the latest and greatest data to help her make critical business decisions. 
  • The Board Report

    Ascent CFO worked with CEO Marie Unger and the Board of Directors to build a custom Insights view that allows the board to see relevant, real-time financial information about the company.Prior to Insights, financial reporting for the Board was a very time-intensive, manual process. Just like the reporting for the executive team and department leaders, reports for the Board were static and lacked the appropriate level of information. Insights allowed Emergenetics to visualize the company’s financials for the Board using customized graphs and charts instead of just columns of numbers. Visualizing the information in this way helps to contextualize the numbers, allowing the Board and Emergenetics executive team to have richer and more meaningful discussions about the company’s financials.
  • Leadership Reports

    As previously mentioned, Emergenetics came to Ascent CFO with 5 QuickBooks instances. Within each QuickBooks instance were five to six individual departments. This meant there were 25+ unique departments across 10+ leaders needing access to their team’s specific financial information. Using row-level security practices, analysts at Ascent CFO visualized each department’s data to ensure leaders have access to their team’s financials, but not the financials of other teams or data not relevant to their role. The impact of giving department leaders at Emergenetics access to live financials has resulted in the executive team’s ability to drive greater accountability across the company.

“Working with Ascent and our customized Insights financial data reports has allowed us to tackle challenges head on, improve our team’s collaboration and drive our company into the future.”

— Marie Unger, CEO, Emergenetics

In Summary

In partnership with Ascent CFO and the Insights product, Emergenetics accomplished:

  1. Self-service financial data reporting and visualization
  2. Huge efficiency gains for expense management and reporting
  3. Unification of financial data across 5 global QuickBooks instances and consolidation of currency to USD.