Fulton Advisory

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the co-founder and CEO of Circa Interactive. We’re a higher education enrollment marketing company that works with universities around the country to improve their results on the marketing side. We mainly focus on graduate online education.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fulton Advisory?

We were at the point in our growth when we needed to be savvier on the finance side. The infrastructure around those decisions wasn’t in place. We didn’t need to hire a full-time CFO, but we needed the talent and experience that goes along with that title. Our financial reporting and strategic business decision-making needed that time and care. We decided to hire someone to come in on a fractional basis to fill that role.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our relationship has evolved over the two years we've worked together. After positioning some areas of our business and installing accounting best practices, they switched to forecasting. We needed to be savvier at budgeting and forecasting a number of our business areas on an annual basis. We set up a number of different forecasts and budgeting models to help drive business decision-making. Fulton Advisory also created monthly scorecards to measure business health.

Additionally, they helped us with a bit of light bookkeeping. As we were already working with an accounting firm, Fulton mostly adjusted some of our practices to make sure we were doing things the way we needed to. In some areas, we needed to reclassify things based on how our business was changing. They work a lot with our accounting firm.

Finally, last year, we went through a merger, and Terry (Founder) and the Fulton team played a big role in helping us navigate that situation successfully.

What is the team composition?

We worked with Terry, who I believe had a couple of folks working underneath him. Terry has become a key part of our business and a close friend. He’s about as dependable and capable as you’ll find in this world.

How did you come to work with Fulton Advisory?

We found them on a freelance platform — we were aiming to hire a big four accounting firm resource who was looking for work hourly, as-needed work on the side.

We interviewed Terry over a couple of weeks, along with some others, and he stood out because of his demeanor and experience. It was a pretty easy decision after the interview process. We worked with him through the freelance platform and then transitioned off that platform when he opened Fulton Advisory.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $100,000 with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since April 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We measured them based on our ability to be within our annual budget forecast, and every year Fulton has been involved, we’ve been within $20,000. The full budget is around $7 million, so Terry's ability to understand our business and forecast accurately is spot on. He knows our business and is a good strategic advisor.

The big metric, though, has been Terry’s help and guidance while we navigated our acquisition. His leadership on the project stood out. We exceeded the number we were looking for.

How did Fulton Advisory perform from a project management standpoint?

Terry is extremely professional and on top of everything. He manages the Fulton Advisory team well. We probably drive him crazy by being late most of the time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Fulton Advisory, as a whole, comes to the table with a lot of different experiences. It’s not a pure numbers-and-dollars type of engagement with their business savvy and international background. We’ve made back every dollar we’ve spent with Terry and his team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I know it’s probably frustrating to hear but I don’t have a single critique. It’s been nothing but a great experience.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Terry and his team have meshed very well with my co-founder and me. We all have similar mentalities about how to run a business and how to treat people. That type of alignment is really key.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m one of the co-founders of Socratik, a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Fulton Advisory?

My partner and I were lacking the financial and business strategy experience. We were looking for a third party to guide us when it came to financial decision making and how to best position ourselves for growth.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Terry (Founder) and his team deliver monthly reports for us. He also delivers a monthly financial overview, which he calls a scorecard. It is a bite-sized analysis of our invoicing, financials, and accounting. He also gives us recommendations on where things are heading and other business decisions.

For financials, he tracks all of our credit cards, bank accounts, and invoices together for us to take a look at spending over the year. We will give Terry updates about what’s in the pipeline and what’s going on with our business. He has helped determine if we have enough budget to hire and came up with our billable rate to ensure we’re profitable. We do a lot of goal setting for forecasting and projections.

What is the team composition?

We mainly work with Terry, but we recently started engaging with his accounting and tax partner.

How did you come to work with Fulton Advisory?

An agency we admire recommended them to us. They have a similar structure to us, and we share a lot of resources. They’ve had such a great experience working with Fulton Advisory for multiple years. We already had a lot of confidence in their capabilities before we even talked to them.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in January 2020. Since then, we’ve grown our business with them.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Terry serves as an extension of our team. He is very invested in our business. The engagement started with them acting on a consulting basis, but now, we do all of our tax and accounting work through them.

Our profit margins have remained where we want them to be, with our business scaling up. We’ve grown almost 50% in terms of overall revenue, and Fulton Advisory definitely had a huge part in that.

How did Fulton Advisory perform from a project management standpoint?

Terry and his team were extremely responsive. I usually receive an email from them the same day I have a question. They’ll quickly hop on a call any time to talk. They’re very organized, flexible, and accountable.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed with Terry’s knowledge and experience. It’s easy to tell that he’s a true expert in financial consulting for businesses. It feels like he’s seen it all and that nothing is surprising to him. He always has a response to my questions. He has that strategic vision to help companies look ahead.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m very happy with what we’ve gotten working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Fulton Advisory is invested as if they’re part of the team. Give them as much context and information about your business to the point where if they were joining your internal team, they would be caught up to speed. The more information they have, the better context and advising they can do. Embrace them as a team member.