In this insightful episode, Mike Straza, Owner of Straza Consulting, shares how he provides Fractional CFO and COO support to Visionary CEOs to help them scale. If you and your leaders are frustrated by skill, technical, or knowledge gaps, you won’t want to miss this episode!
You will discover:
– How to find the right for you and your organization
– How and when a Fractional Executive can help you dramatically scale your organization
– The difference between a Fractional CFO and a Fractional COO and how to know which one you need
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome, welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. And here with us today is yet another high demand coach and the one and only, Mike Straza, with over 25 years of experience, Mike specializes in helping CEOs and business leaders to overcome operational challenges by identifying critical gaps in operations and financials, he develops tailored strategies to accelerate growth. His proven approach delivers results within just 90 days, putting businesses back on track toward their goals. Growing a business isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon, and Mike will help his clients get them back on track. Well, Mike, so excited to have you here. I love you. Just the conversations I get to have on almost a daily basis now with folks who help folks scale. It’s just a ton of fun, and particularly founders, particularly CEOs. And the question that I have for you, kind of out of the gate here, is in the work that you do, what are some of the responsibilities that you see overwhelmed CEOs take on their shoulders that shouldn’t really belong to them at all.
Mike Straza
Yeah, a lot of that is, well, thanks Scott for having me on. Yeah, the CEOs as all the years I’ve worked with CEO startups from Season CEOs on beyond. Is the great thing about CEO they’re the, usually, the visionary of their company. They’re the one that came up with the idea. They’re the one that’s like, we’re going this pathway. We’re going this direction. And the thing is, is, like, that can only take you so far, and then you need some of the other basics. And it’s like, when you’re first to start up your lean, everybody was like, I’m gonna do it all. We’ll have like, two or three people, and they do everything. Well, after a while, there’s only so much time in a day, and you can only do so much. So what a CEO really needs is somebody that can basically help them with the daily processes, the financials, because they have something they’re in a they’re in a spot for a reason. They’re a visionary. They have this amazing idea I’m there to execute and help them figure out how to make it happen, how to make it real, how to continue to do it without basically burnout or losing employees or things like that. So that’s kind of the start of that idea.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. One of the things that I’ve found is both kind of a benefit and a challenge for early stage founders is they’ll go out and, you know, there’s various hiring strategies, you know, they’ll look for a pulse or a relative or, you know, like, but basically, we attract folks in those early stages that folks that think very highly of us, right? They’re attracted by our vision. They want to be part of it. And so many times, when you look at early teams, you have a group that’s that you may not be the most skilled, but they’re the most committed, right? And there’s so much that you can overcome just through that commitment. But one of the challenges that I found as you start scaling up, as the problems get a little bit bigger, as they start happening faster, that the founder in particular, just feels more and more and more of the weight of that of their on their shoulders, right? And they feel less and less able to delegate some of that. And it can feel trapping right? It can feel like it’s all down to us. If we can’t do it, this whole thing’s gonna fall apart. So kind of in light of that challenge, what’s the solution, and when should you start pursuing a solution for that?
Mike Straza
That is a, that’s a tough one. The solution is always hard because you always have to, as a, you know, fractional CFO, CEO coach, there’s a lot of things, you know, I wrapped into what I do is, the thing you have to think about is, okay. The CEO has gotten to where they’re at, and it’s great. They’re not they’re still successful, but like you said, they bring in family, they bring in friends, and they’re loyal, and they do the work because they can get that done, but they might not be the experts in that area. And times what, when I’ve come in or worked with some of your consultant or just help coach them through it is okay. Let’s look at how you’re organized, how what the foundation is, what the skill levels are, and that can we teach and coach those people in your organization to be able to do the level you need? Because when you first start, sometimes the complexity of your business, it’s very simple. But then as you’re getting bigger, and you’re, you know, you have assets, you’re, you know, have a building, you have, you know, all these different things, it becomes very complicated. And if they don’t, if people don’t have the experience what to do or handling anything from taxes to government, you need somebody there that really has that experience. And that’s where, again, it’s that tipping point of like, is it $1 amount? Is it a scale thing? Because it’s, you know, money, revenue, versus scaling to a certain size. Those can be very different, and that’s where sometimes you can see where we’re growing really fast, but we’re losing lots of money, and that could be inefficiencies on what they built. It based off who is running it, and it’s now fault of their own. They just don’t know how they’re just doing the best they can because they like that CEO. They’re that’s their family member, or that’s their friend, and they’re like, they don’t want it to sacrifice so then that’s where you have to determine based off certain numbers in where you’re at and how you determine when to bring in somebody.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right! One of the challenges that I see this where it comes to a head, is we’ve got folks that are our leadership team, right? They’re leaders in the organization, but they’re really managers, right? If you give them the kind of the small problem and say, go tackle, They’ll crush it. They’ll do it again and again and again, and it’s magical. But you throw something new into the works, there’s just like, well, just seems to melt down every time. And so there tends to be this kind of overabundance at some stage, of managers, but a lack of, you know, like true executives, folks who are thinking at an executive level. But the the challenge with that is like, Oh, I can’t afford executives, right? We’re still small business, small business. Budget. Is there another way? Is it? What’s the solution there?
Mike Straza
Yeah, well, a lot of it is, like, you said, you have management. There’s some people are very task oriented. They’re like, I can do these tasks. It’s like, okay, I know. I need to do this, this and this, so they’ll check off every box, and that’s great. You need people that can do that. But then when there’s a higher level and you’re saying, How do I how can I for an executive that’s where fractional is becoming something very common, people are hearing for many different reasons, and what you’re doing is you’re paying the fraction of the cost for someone to come in as an executive level that has the experience to be able to say, look at an organization and really quickly understand what’s going on and be able to move the pieces or provide that extra part of the vision that needs to be executed. And that’s how I look at my what I do is I kind of look at everything as an operation side of things and a financial side of things, and seeing, okay, here’s what you want to do. This is where you need to go, and this is how you’re going to do it, and this is the building blocks to make that happen, and we still have the task people, but we’re going to figure out how to either bring them up, raise their level of competency, or bring someone else in. But that’s overall that’s going to save you the money so you can afford a C level executive, either part time or full time.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right? Right? So two of the most common roles I see, particularly in the startup world, are fractional coos, chief operating officers and fractional CFOs, chief financial officers. But if this is the first time you’ve started a company, how do you know which one you need? What are the differences between those two? Should you get one before the other How do you know how to navigate that?
Mike Straza
Again, it’s what you’re looking at is like, what is your operations? I mean, again, what is your company? What is the core of your company? What do you do? Is it a service you’re providing? Is it, you know? Again, what type of service is it a widget? Is it a, you know, you name it. You know, it’s a healthcare whatever you’re trying to do, and you have to decide, okay, what is important? Of course, finances are always, I feel as one of the most important faces like, that’s what makes everything go. If you don’t have finances in order, you can’t have operations. And, of course, you can’t have operations without finding you know, they go all hand in hand. But if it’s like truly getting the numbers understood and what you can and cannot do and how to leverage your money is very important. Sometimes you can get someone like me a dual role where I do both of them, because I’ve been in both of those worlds, and I operate that way. So I understand what operations these I know what the financial side need is, and vice versa. So it’s like, I can see how they connect, and then see how that connects to the CEO and what they’re wanting to accomplish. So that’s where, yeah, if you can afford both, get them both. If you can’t, I would probably go CFO first, fractional CFO. And would have that, that person has ability in the operations side, and that a lot of it is this more of understanding how people work and how something needs to be executed and completed.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, when you’re thinking about the two roles, what would you say are the biggest challenges that each solves so fractional COO, if someone’s sitting there saying, Hey, I have this problem. That’s something that would be best suited toward CEO now, there’s not just one, but what would be a good example?
Mike Straza
Well, a lot of it is, and I deal with this on a regular basis, even when I’m in a CFO role. But a CEO role is communications, communications across the company, communications to your your vendors, to your clients, to whoever that is, the end point you have that in making sure everyone understands what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, and then putting processes in place in the operational side. So when you are communicating information or passing information back and forth from goods and services, it’s. Earlier. It’s, it’s a strong foundation that you have, you know, either it’s through a, you know, some type of app, or some other thing that you can really track it with. So then that is something very helpful, is really putting something together. Because before, let’s say people like, oh, we’ll just, I’ll just write this out, or I’ll put it on my tablet, and then it just like, where does it go? Where is it stored? Who’s doing, you know? How do people know that’s there? So some of the obvious things is, it’s truly communications, which will build on all the other things for operations.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. And then for CFOs, what would you say are some of the biggest challenges that a CFO can come in and help you iron out?
Mike Straza
It’s really making sure you understand the numbers. A lot of places that I’ve worked with in the past, is people know, hey, I got money in the bank. Okay, what does that mean, how long, how is your How long is your you know your burn rate. What is your burn rate? What is how long do you have? You know, you feel financial crisis. Are you? You have six months in reserves. You have 12 months in reserves. What does that mean? How do you pay for people and having that understanding of the numbers and making sure they’re being categorized correctly, and you’re making sure that you’re not forgetting something there’s the numbers, tell a picture, help support what you’re trying to do. And if you don’t have that in place, it’s very hard to make decisions. How do you scale? Do you cut back? Do you, you know, hire more people. Do you all those things? That’s where the CEO says, like, Hey, can we do this? Well, yeah, what are you wanting to do? What is the what’s the vision for the next so many months? Yes, we have that money. We have that cash reserves, or we’re going to get it from here. And how to balance that?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, one of the biggest side effects I’ve seen of having someone great in that seat, fractional, full time or otherwise, is a lot of founders. Very few founders have done formal education around, like an MBA or something like, yeah, right. It’s just, it’s almost two entirely different groups somehow. But a lot haven’t. And so they find themselves at this point where there’s a lot of money moving around, but, you know, they don’t really know how to read a P and L. They can’t even quite remember what the letters p and l stand for, right. And and this imposter syndrome kicks in right. Of like, hey, if I don’t understand the P and L, I must be a bad business, man or woman. And one, that’s just patently false, right, right? And two, you don’t have to stop there, right? You can find help in that place. And so one of the side effects I’d be interested to see if you’ve had this similar experience, but one of the side effects of bringing in a great CFO, again, fractional full time otherwise, is just confidence. Yeah, right. Just confidence. I mean, sleeping better at night, you know, making better decisions. Have you found that to be the case?
Mike Straza
Yeah, I think a lot of it is when you bring in a CFO, a fractional one or a permanent one, there’s just the feeling of the weight is lift a little bit off. The CEO is knowing that things are going the right way. This person is going to let me know ahead of time they foresee possible things that could happen, adjust and why the CEO is doing other things, and they’re still fully involved. And that’s something people have to understand. CEOs have to understand you’re still fully involved. You’re still making the decisions, but now you have someone that sits right next to you and says, Hey, by the way, here’s what I’m seeing, here’s what the projections are, here’s what you know, do you want to do this? We’re going to do that. So then that weight of trying to think, to do it all, and none of us can do it all. That’s why we all have our specialty, our area, our niche, that we fit in. And I think that’s where a CEO can rest easy and knowing that I can count on this person to take care of this stuff and tell me when I need to do this or this, and I can still decide at completely opposite direction, but at least I have the facts and I have the understanding of what the numbers are, and that’s something a fractional CFO would do, or CFO, it’s like, explain it. Have that this, it’s okay to ask questions, and it’s the neither one should feel bad about sharing and feeling, you know, it’s okay, it’s we’re all learning. Yeah, that’s a great thing.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, couldn’t agree more. So, like, there’s a question that I like to ask all my guests, and I’m gonna fire it your way here as well. What would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Mike Straza
Oh, wow, that’s always a interesting question. It’s like, what is the biggest secret that yo, that you want people to know or not people to know.
Scott Ritzheimer
What you want me know, yeah.
Mike Straza
Yeah, it just it. I don’t know. I just feel like it really boils down to everyone is like stepping back and pausing and listening to who you’re, who your employees are, who you’re working with, looking for the experts, being okay with that and communicating and really stopping and listening and doing that, I think we get such a rush about things and what we’re doing, and we just need to focus. And I think so many more people be successful. And it shouldn’t be a best kept secret. It’s like it’s not, but we just don’t do it. We don’t exercise that of really. How do we care more? How do we share more? How do we make sure that we’re communicating clearly so people are truly doing the job they are there for?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yes, I love that. I love that. Mike, there are some folks listening, and it’s just been like, what they like. They can’t believe that this exists, right? Is it just exactly the right thing at the right time? And they want to know how they can reach out to you and find out more about the work you do. How can they do that?
Mike Straza
Yeah there’s two ways you can reach out to me, LinkedIn, of course, if people are on LinkedIn, they can find it on Michael Straza on LinkedIn, I’m out there all the time putting content, or just, you know, you know, taking requests or meetings, whatever. That direct message, and also you can go to my website, is consultstraza.com in Yeah, I have a form you can fill out. You can find a little bit more about me and what I do and how I do that. And, yeah, that’s those are the two easiest ways. And I respond really quickly to people. I love helping people. That’s something I like doing, is I want to see them succeed. I want to be more successful than me. So I’m trying to figure out, how could I do that? Let me help you. So.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. I love it. Well, Michael, thanks for being on and sharing with us today. Love. Love this conversation. It’s awesome for those of you watching and listening and know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation, as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Mike Straza
With over 25 years of experience, Mike Straza specializes in helping CEOs and business leaders overcome operational challenges. By identifying critical gaps in operations and financials, he develops tailored strategies to accelerate growth. His proven approach delivers results within 90 days, putting businesses back on track towards their goals. Growing a business isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon, and Mike will help his clients get back on track.
Want to learn more about Mike Straza’s work at Straza Consulting? Check out his website at https://www.consultstraza.com/ or connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstraza/
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