Business & Financial Advisory
ARTHUR S. LAZARUS, CPA - Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, FL
Financial Advisory Built for Business Owners, Not Just Investors
Most financial advisors in Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood are set up to manage individual portfolios and retirement accounts. If what you actually need is help fixing cash flow or planning an exit from the business, you're looking for something else. Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA business advisory works differently. We look at your company the way a CFO would; where cash is tight, how your capital structure is put together, where profit is quietly leaking out, and what your business actually needs to grow or eventually sell. No investment products, no managed portfolios, just financial strategy built around your business.
Tell us about your Accounting needs.
Schedule a 15-minute call with a CPA.
What to Know
Financial Advisor vs. CPA Advisory
Business owners mix these up constantly, and it leads them to the wrong kind of help. A financial advisor in Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood typically manages your investment portfolio, sells life insurance, and handles IRA or retirement planning. That's a real job, just not one Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA does.
What Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA business advisory actually looks at is the business itself; where margins are getting squeezed, how working capital moves through the company, what a realistic growth plan looks like for a privately held business. No investment products get sold here. No stock portfolio gets managed. No fee gets charged based on assets under management.
Every recommendation we make is grounded in accounting and tax fundamentals, not general business coaching. Think of it as the kind of financial leadership a CFO would give a company, capital structure decisions, cash flow forecasting, budget controls, without the cost of hiring a full-time executive.
If you need someone to manage your 401(k) or personal investments, you need a registered investment advisor. If you need someone to help your business make better financial decisions using your actual books and tax position, that is what this service is for.
What you get
What's Included in Business Advisory Services
Business advisory work gives you continuous, fractional CFO-level oversight of your company's financial health, not a report you skim once a quarter. Here's what that looks like month to month.
A lot of it comes down to cash flow forecasting. Our cash flow forecasting shows you what you'll have in the bank 30, 60, or 90 days out, so a seasonal slowdown or a hiring decision doesn't catch you off guard.
We also look at how your capital structure is put together, debt, equity, and credit lines, and whether it's funding growth without over-leveraging the business. On the operations side, we dig into margins, vendor contracts, and labor costs to find where profit is quietly leaking out, which happens more often than most owners realize.
If you're a few years out from selling or transitioning the business, that's worth planning for early. Succession and exit planning takes time: cleaning up financials, maximizing valuation, and structuring the business for a clean sale isn't something you do in the final six months before a deal.
Day to day, our business advisory service sets up KPI tracking specific to your industry, so margins, overhead ratios, and customer acquisition costs are numbers you can actually see instead of finding out about them after the fact.
improve cash flow
How do you improve cash flow forecasting?
Start with real numbers. A useful forecast is built from your actual receivables timing, seasonal revenue patterns, and fixed costs, updated monthly, not a generic model applied the same way to every business.
Real Problems Growing Businesses Bring Us
Growth Outpacing the Books
Revenue doubled but the reporting didn't. A lot of businesses hit a point where a spreadsheet and a bookkeeper can no longer answer basic questions about margin or cash position.
Debt Taken On Without a Plan
A line of credit or equipment loan solved a short-term problem, but nobody modeled what it does to cash flow over the next two years.
Seasonal Swings Mistaken for a Trend
South Florida's tourism and hospitality-driven economy means a strong Q4 can look like growth when it's really just seasonality. Forecasting has to account for the difference.
No Real Read on Margin by Job or Product Line
Overall revenue looks fine, but nobody can say which service line or job type is actually profitable and which is being subsidized by the rest of the business.
Succession Planning Left Too Late
A founder planning to hand the business to a family member, or sell it in a few years, without financials clean enough yet to support that transition.
Hiring a CFO Isn't Realistic Yet
The business needs CFO-level financial thinking but isn't at the size or budget where a full-time hire makes sense.
Who This Is For
Financial Advisory for Business Owners
Our service is built for ambitious business owners who have outgrown basic tax prep and standard bookkeeping.
Growing Companies ($1M to $15M Revenue)
You're scaling fast, and inventory, payroll, or a facility expansion has gotten past what a spreadsheet can keep up with. That's usually when financial modeling stops being optional.
Founders Planning an Exit
Selling in the next couple of years changes what your books need to look like today. We clean up historical ledgers and work toward maximizing enterprise value well before a buyer ever sees your numbers.
Capital-Intensive Operations
Trade contractors, logistics companies, retailers, medical groups. If your business carries real weight in equipment, inventory, or payroll overhead, that's exactly where this kind of oversight matters most.
Serving Fort Lauderdale
Serving Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, FL
Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA is based in Hollywood, FL, providing CFO-level business advisory for business owners in Broward County.
A lot of South Florida businesses are privately held and family run, growing fast without ever building out a formal finance function.
Add in a tourism and hospitality-driven economy where revenue swings by season, and it's easy for a business to look profitable on paper while quietly running into a cash crunch three months later.
That's the gap CFO-level advisory is meant to close, not by predicting the future perfectly, but by making sure someone is actually watching the numbers between filings, not just producing a return once a year.
Because business advisory, tax planning, and accounting all run through the same firm here, none of it happens in isolation from your actual tax position, which is not something a standalone advisory shop or a national brokerage branch can offer.
Based in South Florida and serving clients in Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, FL, Broward County, and all 50 states.
CFO Advisory
CFO Advisory Services for Small Business Fort Lauderdale
Growing businesses in Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood often reach a point where bookkeeping alone isn't enough. You need someone reading the numbers and telling you what they mean. That's where business advisory services from a CPA firm make the difference over a standalone consultant. Our CFO advisory for small business owners covers operational workflow optimization and financial alignment: uneven cash flow, pricing that hasn't kept pace with costs, hiring ahead of revenue, and financing decisions made without clear margin data.We work from your actual accounting records, so recommendations are grounded in what's really happening in the business.
Business & Financial Advisory
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between a financial advisor and a CPA advisory service?
A financial advisor deals with your investment portfolio, retirement plans, and insurance. At our CPA-based business advisory service, we analyze the way your business operates from a cash flow, capital structure, margin, and growth/exit standpoint based on your accounting and tax situation, not a portfolio.
Do you manage investments?
No. We do not manage stock portfolios, sell investment products, or charge assets-under-management fees. If you need that kind of help, a registered investment advisor is the right fit, not us. Our advisory work is entirely about the financial operations of your business.
What do business advisory services cost?
It depends on the scope, a one-time cash flow model looks different from an ongoing monthly advisory relationship. We quote a flat fee after a free consultation once we understand what you actually need.
How is this different from tax planning?
Tax planning is focused specifically on lowering what you owe and filing correctly. Business advisory is broader: cash flow, capital structure, profit leaks, and growth or exit strategy. Many clients use both together, since a growth decision almost always has tax consequences too. See our Tax Planning & Preparation page for how that side works.
Do I need a financial advisor or an accountant for my business?
If the question is about your personal investments or retirement, that's a financial advisor in Fort Lauderdale. If the question is about your business's cash flow, margins, debt, or whether it's ready to sell, that's what our business advisory service is built for.If your immediate need is monthly bookkeeping and financial statements rather than strategic advisory, our Small Business Accounting Services page covers that side directly.
Get Started Today
Book a Business Advisory Call
Tell us where your business is today and where you're trying to get it, and we'll put together a quote built around your actual goals.
Contact Us
Get in Touch
Office Info
Phone
Address
5184 SOUTHWEST 32ND AVENUE
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA 33312
Hours
Mon–Fri 8am – 6pm
Sat 9am – 2pm
Follow us
