Do I Have to Offer CFO Services to Succeed as a Bookkeeper?

Are CFO Services Worth Offering?

Here’s what I have to say about offering CFO services: it’s not that CFO services are not valuable. It's not that you can't succeed by offering them. These services would absolutely be right for a specific group of people—but they’re not right for everyone.

Moreover, they are by no means the only way you can succeed in your bookkeeping business.

When we pull back all of the layers, all people are really seeking when they're looking at doing independent CFO advisory work is the ability to make enough money to feed their family, live their life, pay their bills, save for the things that they want, and the ability to do it more autonomously. And while CFO services can be lucrative thanks to their higher price point, they don’t necessarily translate to autonomous, steady income the way people expect.

The Cons of Offering CFO Services

Higher Turnover

If you're thinking about CFO advisory, you're probably an analytical person. And when you’re that kind of person, it’s easy to look at bookkeeping and realize that while it’s simple and scalable, it’s also low-level. It’s low-paying in a per client sense.

When I was first starting out, I realized that if I wanted to make $5,000 a month, I would have to sign 15 clients. That feels like a lot when you’re first starting out—in fact, it can feel impossibly far off when you’re new and unsure.

However, signing 15 clients turned out to take only about a year or two—and I very quickly surpassed that once I was ready to take on more.

Still, when you’re starting out, it can be easy to look at that lower rate and higher number of clients needed and say, “That’s going to take too long, if it’s even possible. I need to find a way to make more with fewer clients.”

That’s where CFO packages begin to look very tempting. When you can sell a $5,000 package to just one or two people, it feels a lot more doable…but the truth is, that higher price typically comes with higher turnover.

When someone is hiring a CFO, they’re usually bleeding money all over the place. They’re hiring you because they need solutions. But in my experience, it doesn’t take long for them to decide the $5,000 fee for your services is one expense they can do without.

Counterintuitive? Maybe. But it happens. And trust me, it is much easier to replace a bookkeeping client who drops off your roster than a CFO client. Far more people need and are willing to pay for bookkeeping than CFO services.

This is not to say they are not valuable or are not needed—it’s just to say that it’s much harder to tackle turnover with CFO services than bookkeeping services, and that can cause a lot of stress when trying to maintain your monthly income.

Less Time Freedom (Potentially)

When you're thinking about starting a business of your own, you’re often looking to have more freedom in your schedule. But when you sign someone at that kind of price point, you do owe them a certain amount of communication and availability in order to provide value equal to the investment they’re putting in.

This doesn’t mean you’re at their beck and call 24/7, but it does mean you have more of an obligation to move stuff around to take care of things for them if needed. With bookkeeping, it’s less urgent, less intense, and less of an obligation to move your life around for your work.

Higher Stress

When you have all your eggs in only a couple baskets, your business life will likely become much more stressful. When you’re first starting out, it’s already easy to fall into the trap of overpromising in your offers to try and convince people to sign, and that pressure only doubles when you have high-ticket offers like CFO services.

You can end up overcommitting yourself to get people to sign, and once they’ve locked in that offer, you’re obligated to continue providing that level of service. That can bog down your capacity in a hurry.

And even if you don’t overcommit yourself, as I said earlier, losing a client becomes a far  more stressful event when you only have a couple on your roster.

What’s the Alternative?

Now, certain people working in certain situations can absolutely benefit from offering CFO services. However, far more people will benefit from following an alternative route to making a living via bookkeeping.

How can that work? Tune in to Episode 10 of Profits + Prosecco to find out!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Season 2 of Profits & Prosecco is HERE! Kick off your newest podcast addiction (or celebrate its return!) and listen to Episode 1 now: https://open.spotify.com/show/4dB0ZE8JaxqrkImm3Ifxrb 

Sick of imposter syndrome keeping you stuck? Join the new + improved BECOME A BOOKKEEPER now: https://www.katieferro.com/become 

Want a peek behind the curtain into LIBBY, my program all about what it really takes to have a simple and scalable (and successful) bookkeeping business? Get access to my free, on-demand four-part series, 6 Secrets to a Simple, Scalable Bookkeeping Business: www.katieferro.com/6-secrets

Learn how to take your bookkeeping skills and turn them into a business that allows you to replace (or surpass) your corporate salary, be present for your life, and profoundly impact your clients without selling your life in the process by joining Life by the Books (LIBBY).  

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