The conversation
We talk about where the business is and what is getting in the way.
The gold is in your numbers.
Fractional CFO advisory for business owners who want a real path to growth.
Most businesses do not fail. They run out of cash.
Most businesses have less than four weeks of cash to survive and no clear roadmap to grow. They just cannot see it yet. My work is to dig into your finances and give you cash flow control and a real path to growth.
Approach
A clear read on your business, from three angles.
01
Where your business is today
Its performance and financial health, measured rather than guessed at.
02
Where it is going
Cash flow, forecasts and scenarios you can actually plan around.
03
What needs to change
The moves that improve profitability, cash flow and the quality of your decisions.
Services
Three services, one objective
Better financial decisions, stronger performance, and less uncertainty as your business grows.
A structured review of your financial statements: profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow.
What you get
Where the business stands today. Margins, cost structure and working capital, set out plainly.
The KPIs that matter for your type of business. And exactly where you sit on each of them.
The pressure points in your finances. Identified, with a number on each.
A written summary of the findings. What they are costing you, and what fixing them is worth.
Everything in the diagnostic is measurable. You get specific findings, in plain language, that you can act on.
TimeframeOne to two weeks.
To beginOne hour of your time and your last twenty four months of statements.
How we work together
From first conversation to measurable outcome.
01 02 Financial Diagnostic
One hour of your time and twenty four months of statements. I do the rest.
03 The findings
A written summary: what is working, what it is costing you, and what fixing it is worth.
04 Growth Partnership
Forecasting, budgets, two calls a month, and a measurable outcome agreed in writing.
05 Exit and succession
As the business changes, the work changes with it.
Nothing starts until the diagnostic tells us both what we are actually solving.
Most owners already suspect where the problem is.
What they lack is the measurement to prove it and the time to fix it.
I start by reading the financial statements properly. Not the compliance view your accountant files, but the operating view: where margin is actually made, what working capital is tying up, which costs are structural and which are choices, and how many weeks of cash the business really has.
From there the work is straightforward. We agree what needs to change, we put numbers against it, and we track whether it worked.
Why owners work with me
- 01
You deal with one senior person. No layers, no junior staff, no rotating consultants.
- 02
Everything is measurable. You get specific findings in plain language rather than general advice.
- 03
The diagnostic comes first, so we both know what we are solving before anyone commits to an ongoing arrangement.
- 04
I commit to a specific, measurable outcome for the initial term, agreed with you in writing before we start.
About Me
I am Michel Marchelli, founder of Tenfold.
I bring seventeen years across banking, government and business education. I started Tenfold because I kept meeting owners running good businesses on incomplete information. They knew their trade, their people and their customers. What they did not have was a clear view of their own numbers, and nobody senior enough to help them read it.
That is the job. I sit alongside the owner as the finance person the business could not otherwise justify hiring, and I stay long enough to see the decisions through.
Built deliberately small.
Who I work with
Tenfold is a fractional CFO practice based in Canberra, working with owner led businesses.
The name is about multiplication. Put capable hands on a business's numbers early enough and the return compounds, in cash, in confidence and in the quality of every decision that follows. Money left sitting in a business nobody is watching does none of that.
Fractional CFO networks rotate consultants through a standard playbook, and for some businesses that works. Here the same person reads your numbers every month, so nothing has to be explained twice.
Owner led businesses turning over between $1 million and $10 million, in any sector, that are growing or seriously thinking about it. Usually the owner is a specialist in their field who has ended up doing the financials after hours, and knows something needs watching without being sure what, or where to look.
Construction businesses carry high working capital demands, tight margins, and lumpy cash flow tied to project milestones. I help owners get clear on their true job costs, manage retention and progress claims, and build the cash forecasting that keeps projects from stalling.
Development finance is complex — land acquisition, construction drawdowns, presales, and settlement timing all have to align. I work alongside developers to model scenarios, stress-test feasibilities, and keep lenders informed with the reporting they need.
Fleet businesses live and die by utilisation rates, fuel cost exposure, and debtor days. I help operators understand their real cost per kilometre, price contracts properly, and build the cash buffers that absorb the unexpected without stopping the wheels.
Labour hire has a brutal cash cycle — you pay wages weekly but collect invoices in thirty to sixty days. I help labour hire businesses structure their facilities, manage payroll timing, and price their margins to survive growth rather than be killed by it.
Producers carry slow-moving inventory, seasonal revenue, and capital tied up in barrels and equipment. I work with owners to smooth cash flow across the vintage cycle, understand true product profitability, and plan for the capital their next stage of growth will actually need.
Michel has been a great addition to Aryal Technologies as our fractional CFO. He brings clear commercial thinking to every conversation and helps us make smarter decisions about how we structure and grow the business. He's practical, straight talking and genuinely invested in our success. Having him in our corner has given us real confidence in our numbers and our direction. Highly recommend Michel to any business looking for experienced financial leadership without a full time hire.
Jeevan Aryal
Founder & CEO, Aryal Technologies
The questions owners ask first.
A chief financial officer working with your business part time. You get senior financial capability at the level a larger company would employ full time, for the hours your business actually needs.
Your accountant and bookkeeper record what has already happened. A fractional CFO uses those numbers to decide what should happen next — cash, pricing, hiring, and the questions that change the next twelve months.
I work with owner led businesses turning over between $1 million and $10 million, in any sector, that are growing or seriously thinking about it. If you are turning over enough that a wrong call actually costs you, it is worth a conversation.
It depends on the scope. The Financial Diagnostic is a fixed starting point. The Growth Partnership is scoped to the hours and decisions your business actually needs, not a full time salary.
One hour of your time and the last twenty four months of financial statements — the reports your accountant already has. That is enough to begin the diagnostic.
The review stands on its own. If we continue into a partnership, we agree the cadence up front. There is no long lock-in for the sake of it.
Yes. Canberra is home, but the work is remote-friendly. If your numbers are in order and we can talk regularly, location is not the constraint.
You get a clear picture of where the business stands and what would move the numbers. From there you can keep running it yourself, or we talk about an ongoing Growth Partnership if that is useful.
Start with the diagnostic.
The Financial Health Review is where we begin. It gives us both a clear, measurable picture of your business, and it is the foundation for everything that follows.
Give me one hour and your last twenty four months of financial statements, the reports your accountant already has, and I will take it from there.
The businesses that grow aren't luckier than yours. They just had someone watching the numbers sooner.
No rainbows. The gold is in your numbers.
