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Home  /  CFO & Advisory Services  /  Business financial planning

A plan with real numbers behind it.

Turning what you want the business to do into a financial model that shows whether it can, and what has to be true for it to work.

Business financial planning in Cedar Park, TX

Most business plans are a narrative with a spreadsheet stapled to the back. The numbers are built backwards from a target rather than forwards from the operation, which is why they rarely survive contact with the first quarter.

Financial planning starts from how the business actually works. Unit economics first, then capacity, then cost structure, then the funding required to bridge the gap. What comes out is a model you can test assumptions against rather than a document that gets filed.

  • A model built on your unit economics

    What one sale, one job, one customer, or one property actually contributes after real costs, which is the foundation everything else scales from.

  • Multi-year projections with stated assumptions

    Profit and loss, cash flow, and balance sheet projected together, with every assumption written down so it can be argued with and revised.

  • Scenario and sensitivity testing

    Base, better, and worse. Which single variable the plan is most exposed to, and what happens at the point where it breaks.

  • Funding and structure analysis

    How much capital the plan requires, when it is needed, and what the realistic options are, including the option of growing slower and funding it yourself.

What people are usually planning for

A planning engagement almost always has a specific decision behind it.

Deciding whether to grow, and how fast

Expansion, a second location, or a significant hire. Growth consumes cash before it produces it, and the plan shows how much and for how long.

Approaching a lender or an investor

They will test your assumptions. A model built properly, with assumptions you can defend, is a materially different conversation from a spreadsheet of hopes.

Preparing to sell or exit

Buyers look at clean books, provable margin, and how much the business depends on you personally. Most of that takes a year or two to improve, which is why the planning starts early.

How a planning engagement runs

  • 1

    Understand the current position honestly

    Historic performance, unit economics, cost structure, and the real constraints. A plan built on flattering history is worse than no plan.

  • 2

    Define what you are actually trying to achieve

    Growth, stability, a saleable asset, or getting your time back. These lead to genuinely different plans and owners are not always sure which they want.

  • 3

    Build and test the model

    Constructed so assumptions can be changed and the effect seen immediately, then stress tested against the things most likely to go wrong.

  • 4

    Agree the plan and the checkpoints

    A written plan with dated milestones and the specific numbers to watch, so you know within a quarter whether it is working.

Planning in the Austin business environment

The Austin, TX metro has grown quickly, and so have its costs. Businesses in Cedar Park, TX, Leander, TX, and Georgetown, TX planning expansion are working against rising rent, competitive wages, and customers who have absorbed several years of price increases. A plan built on pre-growth cost assumptions will look achievable and will not be. Clients in San Diego County face a comparable cost picture and get the same treatment. Tim is a real estate investor himself, which shapes how he thinks about capital commitment and holding costs.

Planning questions clients ask

  • How far ahead should a small business plan?

    Three years is usually the practical horizon. Year one detailed and monthly, years two and three at a coarser level. Beyond that the assumptions carry more weight than the arithmetic.

  • Is this a business plan document for a bank?

    The financial model is the part a bank actually scrutinizes, and we build that. If a full written plan is needed, we work alongside whoever is drafting the narrative so the two agree.

  • What if the model shows the plan does not work?

    That is a useful outcome and worth what it cost. It is considerably cheaper to find out on a spreadsheet than eighteen months into a lease.

  • Do I need a fractional CFO as well?

    Not necessarily. Planning is a defined project. A fractional CFO engagement is ongoing. Plenty of clients do the planning work once and take it from there themselves.

Related advisory services

Fractional CFO services

Ongoing senior support once the plan needs executing.

Read about it →

Cash flow analysis and forecasting

The near-term cash view underneath the longer plan.

Read about it →

Budget versus actual reporting

How the plan gets held to account month by month.

Read about it →

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Have something you are trying to decide?

Book a consultation and describe it. We will tell you what modelling it would take to answer the question properly.

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