What People Think I Do-What I Really Do

On February 9, 2012 artist Garnet Hertz posted a five panel image collage on Facebook illustrating the different perceptions of what it means to be a contemporary artist (his profession). After just a few hours of posting, the meme was being shared almost 100 times per hour and soon became a viral sensation.

The “What People Think I Do” meme has universal appeal because it taps into what many of us experience when describing to others what we do for work. There is often a perception gap between ourselves and the rest of the world.

Being a Fractional CFO is no different.

“Fractional” C-Suite roles are especially confusing because the title is misleading.

A Fractional CFO is definitely not a fraction of a full-time large company (defined as anything bigger than a small company) CFO. I’ve worked with many large company CFOs and our jobs are very different.

Large company CFOs manage complexity at scale.

They oversee large teams of financial professionals and execute the long-term financial strategy for mature organizations.

Fractional CFOs help small businesses or startups in their early, growth stage of business.

Depending on the business’ stage or situation, a Fractional CFO could be closing the books or closing a multi-million dollar funding round.

One day your building a multi-year financial forecast and the next your helping the founder think through a major business initiative.

You have to be comfortable wearing a LOT of professional hats and switching between them sometimes on the hour.

Why Companies Hire a Fractional CFO

There are often very specific scenarios when businesses bring on a Fractional CFO, including:

• Raising capital

• Preparing for acquisition or due diligence

• Require a financial forecast or runway model

• Uncertainty over business finances

• Lack of confidence in books or financial structure

• Major growth initiatives that require strategic financial insights and planning

These are but a few examples.

Most often businesses hire a Fractional CFO when the founder is overwhelmed by some financial or strategic aspect of their business and need help.

What I Really Do - The Hats

The Financial Expert

Yes, there is a lot of time spent building spreadsheets, discussing financial ratios and translating complex financial concepts.

FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) is a core function all Fractional CFOs provide.

Building a model that describes the business in numbers and formulas the way a writer would illustrate it in prose is a must have talent.

As important, is interpreting what the numbers mean.

A scene from The Founder—a 2016 movie based on the real life story of how Ray Kroc (played by Michael Keaton) built the McDonald’s fast-food chain into a global empire—illustrates the point.

During the pivotal scene, Harry Sonneborn (played by B.J. Novak) upon reviewing McDonald’s financials explains to Ray Kroc—”You’re not in the burger business, you’re in the real estate business”.

Translating real insights from numbers is one of the most high value functions Fractional CFOs provide.

The Coach

For founders and business owners, financial clarity is often tied to emotional clarity.

A Fractional CFO brings structure, perspective, and calm, helping founders move from reactive decisions to proactive strategy.

As an outside contractor, Fractional CFOs provide an objective view to founders. They aren’t entrenched in office politics, personal friendships, or legacy decisions. They can give honest feedback without fear of stepping on toes.

Because Fractional CFOs work with multiple clients, they see recurring patterns in companies that are often blind spots for many organizations.

Often, they’re simply a sounding board. Someone the founder can talk to in order to think through a problem and arrive at their own solution.

The Operator

Building a business is challenging and all founders and owners often survive by deciding, “What do I have to let fail today?”

Often, in favor of finishing the product or closing a sale, the things that are neglected include building the systems and processes that support the business.

Unlike strategic advisors who stay high-level, Fractional CFOs get into the weeds, by:

• Evaluating, recommending and implementing the company’s financial tech stack—ie accounting, payment, HR systems, etc.

• Upgrading processes and procedures related to finance, accounting and back office.

• Troubleshooting operational data issues

They often create the operational backbone that allows founders to focus on growth, knowing the financial engine is running smoothly underneath. It’s not glamorous work, but it’s foundational to getting the business to the next level.

Biggest Challenge

The biggest challenge of being a Fractional CFO is stepping into a business where the financial foundation has already been laid—often hastily or incorrectly.

It’s a lot like being a building contractor brought in to fix a poorly done remodel. You discover structural issues hidden behind fresh paint: messy books, unclear revenue models, or systems that look fine on the surface but can’t support growth.

Before you can build anything new, you have to tear down what’s broken, shore up what’s unstable, and sometimes have hard conversations about what needs to be completely redone.

It’s not the clean slate many expect, but it’s often the most valuable and difficult work we do.

Most Valuable Skills

As mentioned before, Fractional CFOs must wear many hats and switch them frequently.

The most important meta skills supporting those hats include:

• Learning Curve - How quickly can they understand the business, people, etc.

• Problem Identification - How quickly can they identify the problem’s root cause

• Decision Frameworks - Do they know and can they apply decision frameworks across a variety of problems

• Data - Are they good at moving, cleaning, structuring, manipulating and communicating data

• People - They must be able to work with a variety of different founder archetypes and personalities

The Good and Bad

Satisfaction in any work ultimately comes down to the people your doing it with and whether the work provides purpose and opportunities for growth.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with really amazing founders and teams. I’ve also worked with groups that I couldn’t fire fast enough. The former types are transparent, high agency learners who embrace the chaos and have fun. The latter are opaque, mid-wits who value appearances over reality and complexity over simplicity.

Helping people build companies is incredibly rewarding and a lot of fun. It is also very humbling.

Mistakes, failures and mis-judgements are part of being in the proverbial arena of business. The plus side is I am constantly learning and able to apply those learnings to everyone I work with.

The Next Step

The role of a Fractional CFO is a unique blend of strategist, operator, and coach.

If you’re a founder struggling to bring order to financial chaos, or a seasoned professional considering this path yourself, remember: clarity is the most underrated growth lever in business.

The next step isn’t just about fixing the numbers. It’s about building the confidence to move your business forward with discipline, direction, and someone in your corner who isn’t afraid to tell the truth.

My goal with The Leap is to provide you each Saturday with the knowledge, tools and lessons learned to help you get started and keep going toward building your future. 

Whether you are making the leap to startups, solo-entrepreneurship, freelancing, side hustles or other creative ventures, the tools and strategies to succeed in each are similar.