Sarah Patterson is a Fractional CFO who provides financial leadership, strategy, and analysis to companies ready to grow or pivot.
I partner with CEOs and their leadership teams to provide the financial leadership and analysis they need to make business decisions grounded in numbers. These are typically companies with $3m to $50m in annual revenue who need the oversight and analysis of a CFO on a fractional basis.
I free CEOs up to focus on developing and running the company, providing peace of mind knowing that the financial bases are covered.
I bring clarity to the financial situation. How profitable are you? How has your profitability trended over time? What are your main revenue and cost drivers? We come up with metrics that quantify the success of the business, and then we track them against your goals.
I’m your financial sounding board. You have to make a thousand decisions every day–now you’ll know the financial implications of the big ones. My mission is to help small business owners thrive.
At the Strategic Level
What is your overall strategy and vision for your business? What’s working? What’s not working? What do you think drives your profitability? What does your optimal company look like one year from now: customers, employees, office space, market share, gross revenue?
We’ll get these ideas up on a whiteboard to see exactly what we’re aiming for, what the dart board looks like. Then we map the vision to a set of goals. “Our company will make $3m in gross revenue next year.” “We will win 5 new retainer clients in Q3.” “We will achieve a 20% profit margin next year.” The goals become a foundation for creating a budget, which is a critical leadership tool.
At the Planning & Analysis Level
I establish a set of financial reports and a dashboard of metrics that show the current picture of the business. We create a projection for the year: your benchmark for measuring actual performance. My analysis will show the most (and least) profitable aspects of the business, whether your pricing is right, whether resources are well-utilized, and what sales quotas should be. We may also create a staffing model to determine how to scale the business over time.
We’ll look at the story behind the numbers – both past and future. I know that scaling is a chicken-and-the-egg phenomenon. It’s important to clarify the steps and be as proactive as possible during a growth (or decline!) period.
At the Tactical Level
I build financial models. I have tools I customize for your business, and I create the new ones you need.
If you worry about your cash balance going negative, I have a tool that will project your cash flow and ending cash balance 6+ months into the future. If you need clarity around your sales efforts, I have a model that will track your pipeline and sales vs. quota. This helps you understand what a healthy pipeline looks like so you’ll make your margin goals (or stay afloat).
They say the devil’s in the details; diving into the details reveals critical risk factors so you can navigate from a place of knowledge and power.
“Having worked with Sarah on a number of assignments, I’ve found her to be thorough, to bring valuable critical thinking to any situation, and to reliably make it happen: done well and on time. I welcome her unique mix of crisp analytical thinking and creative ideation. She is great working inside the company as well as with clients and influentials outside our firm. I highly recommend Sarah Patterson.”
John Mallen, JMC
Who are EssJay Clients?
Companies who are:
generating $1 to $15m in annual revenue
employing 3 to 75 employees
run by a CEO or business partners who wear too many hats
professional services businesses (this is my wheelhouse but I do work outside this vertical)
Business owners who are:
extremely intelligent, worldly, ambitious
multi-talented with broad and deep capabilities
motivated by a strong sense of purpose
driven to have a positive impact on the world
just nice people