Over the past 23 days, I have spent 67 hours coaching Fractional CFO firm owners inside my masterminds. These firm owners are generating annual revenues ranging from $100,000 to over $2,000,000.

I took nearly 40 pages of notes along the way. I spent several hours analyzing my notes and realized that there were 3 problems that kept coming up time and time again.

And these aren't just nuisances - these problems were causing firm growth to stall and profitability to tank.

The wild thing is that these issues existed with firms generating $100,000 just as often as they did for firms generating over $1,000,000.

Today, I'll share those problems with you and break down the exact advice I gave to those firm owners on how they can kill those issues once and for all. 

Let's dive in.

Problem 1: The Golden Handcuff Trap

One of the most common problems my mastermind members had is what I call the Golden Handcuff Trap.

Here’s how it plays out:

The firm owner takes on client work themselves. On the surface, this feels like a smart enough move. It keeps margins high, cash flow healthy, and the business running lean. But what actually happens is the firm owner ends up working in the firm instead of on it.

Instead of focusing on prospecting, sales, team building, and system creation, they’re neck deep in client deliverables. The business stops growing, and the owner starts to feel like they’re doggy paddling across the ocean.

Why It’s So Dangerous

Every client you personally take on adds weight to those handcuffs. Each month you continue serving those clients, the “price tag” to break free gets higher.

The only two keys to unlock the handcuffs are:

1. Give up clients - which feels like a revenue and profit hit.
2. Work longer hours - which usually leads to burnout.

Neither option feels good. But those are the only ways out if you’ve built yourself into the bottleneck of your firm.

The Real Choice You Have to Make

If you’re happy running a smaller firm where you personally do the client work - fantastic. There’s no problem with that. But if your vision is to build a scalable firm that grows beyond you, then you’ve got to recognize the cost of the Golden Handcuffs and start planning your exit from client work sooner rather than later.

The longer you wait, the more expensive and painful the exit becomes.

The Path Forward

Start by deciding what role you want for yourself: Fractional CFO or CEO of a Fractional CFO firm.

If you want to be the CEO, you’ve got to start handing off client work ASAP. Begin with small steps like offloading routine tasks to your team, empowering them with clear expectations, and giving yourself back time to focus on sales, hiring, and growth.  

Eventually, you'll need to hand over the client work as well - which leads us to problem 2...

Problem 2: The Fear of Handing Over Clients

The second issue that came up repeatedly is the fear of handing over clients.

I get it.

I used to think that I was the only one who could give my clients the best service.

Handing a client over to another CFO on your team can feel like playing Russian roulette with your reputation.

One firm owner in my mastermind even said:

“I know that I deliver a high-quality service if I do the work. Am I supposed to just hope that my team will do a good enough job?” 

My answer? Absolutely not.

The Real Problem Here

This isn’t actually a quality problem - it’s a leadership problem. If you hire mediocre people without processes and procedures, then yes, quality will suffer. But if you hire great people, give them the right playbook, and set up a quality assurance process, there’s no reason your clients can’t get a world-class experience without you being in the weeds.

How to Do It Right

The path forward has three parts:

1. Hire great people: Don’t settle for average. Look for CFOs who not only have technical chops but who also know how to lead clients and drive outcomes.
2. Build systems and processes: Document how things should be done. Create templates, procedures, and workflows that ensure consistency across every client engagement.
3. Put a QA process in place: Trust but verify. Have a structured way to review deliverables and client interactions so you can catch issues early and continuously improve.

I can tell you from experience - once you get these three pieces in place, things will

Why This Matters

Until you hand off clients, you’ll never fully escape the Golden Handcuffs from Problem 1. Delegating client work is not just about freeing up your time - it’s about creating a scalable firm that can grow beyond your personal capacity.

Problem 3: The Wrong Price Anchor 

The third problem I kept seeing is what I call the Wrong Price Anchor. 

Most Fractional CFO firm owners are selling services instead of outcomes. Here’s what that looks like:

On sales calls, they’re talking about:

• Forecasts
• Monthly reports
• Calls and check-ins
• Charts, graphs, and KPIs

All fine things, but here’s the for real real: buyers don’t care about your reports.

What they care about is outcomes. They care about whether you can help them make more money, improve margins, reduce risk, or unlock growth. 

Why This Destroys Profitability

When you anchor your pricing to services and deliverables, you instantly cap your perceived value. Buyers mentally compare you to any other consultant or someone slinging reports. And that means they push for lower prices - which leaves money on the table every single month.

But when you anchor to outcomes, you completely change the conversation.

A Better Way to Sell

Let’s say you’re talking to a company doing $10M in revenue at 5% net profit. Industry average in their space is closer to 15%. That means there’s an extra $1M of potential profit sitting on the table.

Which conversation do you think has more power?

• “We’ll provide 2 monthly calls and a heck of a CFO Report.”
• Or: “We’ll help you close the gap between where you are and industry average, which should unlock $1M in profit over the next 12–18 months.”

One positions you as a consultant. The other positions you as a CFO helping them solve a million-dollar problem.

That’s the difference between charging $5,000/month and $15,000/month. 

Let's Anchor Elsewhere

To fix this, you’ve got to change how you talk about your work. Stop leading with deliverables. Start leading with outcomes. Dig deeper in your discovery calls. Ask questions that uncover the real problems and the real dollars at stake. Then, price yourself in alignment with the size of the problem you’re solving.

This is how the best firm owners consistently command premium pricing - and why their margins stay fat while others struggle to make a living.

Wrapping It Up

These three problems collectively could be costing you hundreds of thousands (if not millions!) of dollars a year.

The good news is that they're all solvable.

Which one are you going to tackle first?