Serving Austin and Central Texas
Fractional CFO and CMO — Fort Lauderdale and South Florida
Local Fractional provides partner-led fractional CFO and CMO services to South Florida businesses generating $2M–$50M in revenue. The Fractional CFO Partnership is a flat $5,000–$10,000+/month retainer (with a lighter $2,500/month Fractional Executive Advisory tier for businesses with clean books, and a Fractional CMO Partnership at $2,500–$7,500/month), delivered remote-first across Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Miami. Co-founders Chris Gauvin and Taber Wetz lead every engagement directly.
Dallas-Fort Worth based. Austin is right down I-35. Same hands-on approach, no matter which Texas city you call home.
Why would a South Florida business hire a CFO from Texas?
It should matter far less than who does the work. We are a Texas firm, we do not keep an office in Florida, and South Florida engagements run remote-first with travel for board meetings, lender conversations and diligence — the things that genuinely warrant being in the room.
What is worth interrogating is seniority and continuity. A great many firms match you to a consultant from a bench, and the person who wins the engagement is not the person who runs it. Every Local Fractional engagement is led personally by a founding partner — Chris Gauvin or Taber Wetz — with controller-level support underneath where the books need rebuilding rather than just reporting.
Cloud accounting means a remote CFO sees precisely what an in-office one would. What determines whether the arrangement works is cadence — a standing session where decisions get made — rather than proximity. See how the engagement model works; we price on scope rather than postcode.
Two things do genuinely differ here. Seasonality is severe and largely predictable, which makes it modellable if anyone builds the model. And no state income tax removes a line from the planning without touching the questions that actually decide whether a business is healthy.
The South Florida Business Landscape
South Florida runs on four engines that behave very differently on a balance sheet: construction and real estate, marine and hospitality, healthcare, and a fast-growing base of financial and professional services that arrived with the past few years of relocations.
Construction and marine businesses carry the classic contractor problem in an acute form — job costing and work-in-progress schedules that nobody has reconciled, so the P&L reports a margin the jobs never earned. It is the single most common thing we fix, and it usually changes pricing decisions within a quarter.
Hospitality and tourism carry severe seasonality. That is not a problem in itself; a predictable season is forecastable. It becomes a problem when the forecast is a trailing twelve-month average, which flatters the top of a season and misleads exactly when cash planning matters most.
The relocation wave brought companies with staff and customers spread across several states. Multi-state payroll and nexus obligations arrive early in that situation and are usually addressed late, which is an expensive order to do them in.
South Florida Areas We Serve
The tri-county area and the Treasure Coast are served as one market on identical terms — no travel surcharge, and no difference in access between a Las Olas client and one in Jupiter. The Gulf coast is a genuinely different market and is treated as one.
Fort Lauderdale & Las Olas
Marine services, yachting, hospitality and the professional services around them. Project accounting and seasonal cash timing drive the finance workload, and both are routinely handled on instinct.
West Palm Beach & Palm Beach Gardens
Financial services, family offices and the businesses that serve them, plus a steady stream of relocated companies. Multi-entity consolidation and multi-state nexus are the recurring asks.
Boca Raton & Delray Beach
Technology, healthcare and professional services with an unusually high proportion of owner-operators who have exited once already. Exit readiness comes up early here and is treated as a programme rather than an event.
Miami & Coral Gables
International trade, logistics and consumer brands with cross-border exposure. Currency timing and customer concentration carry most of the cash risk, and neither is visible on a standard P&L.
Hollywood, Pompano & Broward County
Construction, specialty trades and home services. Job costing and work-in-progress schedules are almost always the gap between the books and reality — see our construction and contracting practice.
Jupiter & the Treasure Coast
Marine, light manufacturing and owner-operated services businesses. Frequently first-time CFO engagements where the immediate need is a close that closes on time and a 13-week cash view.
Sarasota & the Gulf coast
A different market rather than an extension of this one — healthcare, professional services and a large retiree-serving economy. Demand is steadier through the year and the seasonal profile is genuinely different from the Atlantic side.
Ecommerce and consumer brands, region-wide
A recurring blind spot: a blended acquisition cost that hides one channel subsidising three, and inventory decisions made on gut. See our ecommerce practice.
Services Available to South Florida Businesses
Fractional CFO
Cash flow planning, forecasting, and strategic financial leadership.
Fractional CMO
Revenue-focused marketing strategy and brand positioning.
Exit Planning
Sell-side advisory and buyer-ready positioning.
72-Hour Cash Flow
Complete cash flow analysis delivered in 72 hours.
SMB Acquisition
Buy-side advisory and financial due diligence.
Industry Specialists
HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, professional services.
What does a fractional CMO do for a South Florida business?
A fractional CMO owns the question most growing companies cannot answer: which of the marketing spend produced profitable revenue. Positioning, the offer, channel mix, funnel maths, and the discipline of killing what does not work. It is an executive seat, not an agency retainer.
This is a separate discipline from the finance side, led by our marketing partner rather than a CFO wearing a second hat. It runs on its own or alongside a CFO engagement, and the pairing is where it compounds: marketing knows what it spent, finance knows what came back, and putting both facts in one report is a surprisingly rare capability.
South Florida's marketing market is crowded and largely agency-shaped, which is precisely why the distinction matters: a CMO owns the outcome rather than delivering the campaign. The recurring shapes here are hospitality and marine businesses competing in a saturated visitor market, consumer brands whose blended acquisition cost hides one channel subsidising three, and professional-services firms whose lead flow depends on three relationships.
The Fractional CMO Partnership runs $2,500–$7,500/month depending on scope. See how the fractional CMO engagement works, or read about the CFO side if finance is the more urgent gap.
Fort Lauderdale & South Florida — Common Questions
What fractional CFO services are available in Fort Lauderdale, FL?
Monthly close and management reporting, 13-week cash-flow forecasting, budgeting and variance analysis, KPI scorecards, lender and board reporting, pricing and margin work, and exit or sale preparation. Engagements run as a fixed monthly scope rather than an hourly rate, so the cost is predictable from month one.
Do you have an office in South Florida?
No, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. We are a Texas firm serving clients across the country. South Florida engagements run remote-first with travel for board meetings, lender conversations and diligence. Cloud accounting means a remote CFO sees precisely what an in-office one would; what determines whether it works is cadence, not proximity.
Do you serve West Palm Beach, Boca Raton and Miami as well as Fort Lauderdale?
Yes, on identical terms across the tri-county area and up the Treasure Coast. There is no travel surcharge and no difference in access between a Las Olas client and one in Jupiter. We also work with businesses on the Gulf coast, in Sarasota and Naples, which is a genuinely different market rather than an extension of this one.
Does Florida's lack of a state income tax change the finance work?
It changes less than people expect. No state income tax removes one line from the planning, but it does not touch the questions that actually decide whether a business is healthy — whether the close is reliable, what cash looks like in thirteen weeks, which service line earns and which quietly does not. Where Florida does bite is multi-state exposure: businesses with staff or customers in other states pick up nexus obligations early and usually address them late.
We are a seasonal business. Can a forecast handle that?
It has to, or it is not a forecast. South Florida seasonality is severe and largely predictable, which makes it modellable — but only if the model is built on a real seasonal profile rather than a trailing twelve-month average, which flatters the top of a season and misleads badly at the bottom. Getting that right is usually the single biggest improvement to a seasonal book's cash planning.
Can you help with a sale or sell-side process?
Yes. Exit readiness is years of work rather than a transaction, and the finance side of it is mostly unglamorous: clean books, a defensible quality-of-earnings position, customer concentration understood before a buyer finds it, and management accounts that survive diligence. Starting eighteen months out is worth considerably more than starting at the LOI.
Do you offer fractional CMO services in South Florida as well?
Yes, and it is a separate discipline led by our marketing partner rather than a CFO wearing a second hat. It runs alongside a CFO engagement or entirely on its own. South Florida's marketing market is crowded and largely agency-shaped; what a CMO adds is ownership of the outcome rather than delivery of the campaign.
How much does a fractional CFO cost in Fort Lauderdale?
We price on scope rather than on location, so South Florida rates match our Texas rates. Most engagements land well below the fully loaded cost of a full-time CFO once salary, bonus, benefits and payroll taxes are counted.
Ready to Talk?
No pitch, just a conversation about your business and where you want to take it. We will figure out together if there is a fit.
Book a Free ConsultationOr email info@localfractional.com