Onward with usOnward — with us
Done
with you.
Fractional CFO and COO work, and capital placement, for owner-run businesses doing $1M–$20M. Stationed between the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania and New York. Working nationally.
A fractional CFO/COO engagement with Onward is part-time senior operating help: the weekly numbers get built, one operating problem gets fixed, and the paperwork gets into the shape a lender will fund. It is delivered by one person — Joshua Gilmore — start to finish.
Nobody's underwriting your business. They're underwriting your paperwork.
You built a business doing seven or eight figures without a CFO, without a COO, and without a system. That worked. It stops working right about the point you need capital, because your paperwork doesn't look like your business.
A consultant hands you a plan. A broker shops your file and doesn't care what's behind it. I do the operating work that makes the file fundable, then I place the file. Same person, start to finish.
- I$1,500
Fundability Review
A Fundability Review is a written assessment of what a lender will see in your file before you apply — financials, debt schedule, credit posture, collateral and use of funds — naming the specific defects that would get you declined.
Credited in full if I place the file. Sold nationally.
- II$7,500
30-Day Operating Engagement
The 30-Day Operating Engagement is a fixed-scope month that produces exactly three things: a working scoreboard, one executed operational win, and a dated 90-day plan.
A scoreboard. The five to eight numbers that run the business, built and populated, with a weekly rhythm to update them.
One executed win. Shipped, not recommended.
A 90-day plan. Sequenced, owner-assigned, dated.
If the scoreboard isn't built and the win isn't shipped by day 30, the fee comes back. Bookkeeping cleanup, software builds, hiring support and legal coordination are available, scoped and priced separately.
- IIIper month
Fractional CFO / COO Retainer
The retainer is ongoing part-time CFO and COO capacity at one of three published levels, billed monthly.
Three tiers so you pick instead of negotiating. Three-month start, then month to month on 30 days' notice. Four clients at a time, maximum — published, and it's why the answer is sometimes no.
Cadence$3,500Weekly scoreboard review plus async access. You run it; I check it.
Operator$6,500Two sessions a week. I own one or two initiatives.
Embedded$10,000About a day a week. I own a function you hand off.
- IVFee disclosed
Capital Placement
Capital placement is packaging your file and placing it with third-party SBA, term, line-of-credit and equipment lenders. Onward is not a lender and does not put its own capital at risk.
The fee is agreed and disclosed to you in writing before a file moves anywhere.
Up to $500K unsecured. No collateral, no upfront fees. See where you stand before you apply anywhere.
Get prequalified
in writing
How is this different from a consultant?
A consultant's deliverable is a recommendation. Mine is a scoreboard you're using, one thing already shipped, and a dated plan — in 30 days.
Can you just get me the money?
Sometimes. That's what the Fundability Review answers. If the file's ready, I place it. If it isn't, placing it puts a decline on your record and burns a lender relationship for both of us.
We're doing fine.
Probably. Tell me the gross margin on your last ten jobs and I'll go away.
What does capital placement cost?
The fee is agreed and disclosed to you in writing before a file moves anywhere. Onward is not a lender and does not put its own capital at risk.
Who do you work with?
Owner-run businesses doing roughly $1M to $20M in revenue, nationally. Trades, fleet and home-services contractors are the majority of the book.
The review.
Twenty minutes on the phone first, so we both know whether it's worth $1,500. Leave your details and I'll call you.