John Machacek, Chief Innovation Officer for the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation, has worked with countless startups throughout our community over the years. He knows their ups, and their downs, but most of all, he knows the questions to ask them. Here are John Machacek’s 10 questions for Sarah West, Owner, Light Consulting.
1. Sarah, will you please tell me your elevator pitch for Light Consulting?
Absolutely! Light Consulting exists to help small to mid-sized businesses operate more efficiently, make better financial decisions, and ultimately lighten their load. We specialize in financial consulting, fractional CFO services, and executive coaching, providing businesses with the strategic guidance they need—all without the overhead of a full-time hire. Our goal is to make business feel “Lighter” by providing leaders with timely, accurate information so they can make the best decisions for their company’s future.
2. Who would you say Light Consulting is for, as in the target audience?
Light Consulting is for small to mid-sized businesses that want to grow and operate more efficiently. Our clients that fit best have a growth mindset and are eager to improve how they run their businesses. Many of our clients come to us when they are frustrated with how heavy the financial component of their business is or in a transition in/out of their finance team.
Business owners often will initially look at our rates and compare them to the hourly wage of a full-time hire, but they quickly realize they don’t actually need someone full-time. With us, they get expert guidance without the added cost of benefits, PTO, or the 40-hour work week commitment.
And as far as executive coaching, we work with business owners and leaders who want to grow both professionally and personally. Many of our clients are highly skilled in their industry but need help navigating leadership challenges, decision-making, and strategic planning.
3. Can you share with me some examples or most common ways you help the clients be more efficient or on a better path?
Aside from handling financial work and process improvements, there are three major ways we help businesses save money:
Tax Strategy – We make sure our clients are taking advantage of tax-saving opportunities they may not even be aware of.
Insurance Review – We assess their current plans and costs to find potential savings.
Financial Ratios – We help businesses align their financial ratios to industry benchmarks, ensuring their pricing, costs, and cash flow are optimized.
Part of what we do is highlight where things might be off-track and provide guidance. Over time, we’ve realized that some clients need us to be more candid—more direct—because making tough decisions isn’t easy. But when they know we have their best interests in mind, those hard conversations become invaluable.
4. I imagine that gained and trusted advice from having their best interests in mind, must be relatable as well to the fractional CFO work you help with. While accounting and finance can be more routine and transactional, the strategic, and maybe less common parts of finance, can be a different ballgame mentally. So they may really need that sage advice. Am I correct in that assessment?
Exactly. Being great at accounting doesn’t always translate into being a great CFO. Accounting is often very black and white and compliance-driven, whereas CFO-level decision-making is strategic and requires a different way of thinking.
We’re also seeing a shift in the industry. A lot of high-level finance professionals are retiring, leaving a gap in strategic financial leadership. Many small and mid-sized businesses don’t need a full-time CFO, but having someone like Light Consulting on retainer, knowing your business year-round, is incredibly powerful.
Beyond that, we help businesses access tax strategies and financing programs that many in-house accounting teams or small business owners wouldn’t necessarily know about. In fact, in the five years we’ve been in business, we’ve collectively helped our clients save or access over $50 million.
5. And could the same be said with the executive coaching Light Consulting does, in that you can’t really expect the leaders of the small businesses to know and act on a wide variety of information, especially as they’re doing normal day-to-day business?
That’s exactly why we do what we do. My sweet spot is combining financial expertise with strategic coaching, but our goal is to be the first call a business owner makes when they need help, whether it’s HR, insurance, finance, or legal matters. We take complex topics and make them “Light,” acting as an interpreter so business owners can make confident decisions.
We also help leaders define where they should focus their time and energy. One of the tools we use is the “Three Circles” approach:
Who God made you to be – We assess personality traits and strengths.
Your experience – What you’ve done and been trained to do; which doesn’t always align with personality assessments.
What the world demands – Many entrepreneurs create solutions for problems, but if there’s no market willing and able to pay for it, they struggle. We help them differentiate between market demands and general needs.
6. We first met about 10 years now through our time on the MSUM Business School Advisory Board, and back then you were doing corporate accounting. Can you tell me a bit about the thought that went into taking the plunge to leave corporate accounting to start your own business?
At the time, the company I worked for was going through a structural change, and I had the opportunity to become part of the ownership group. That got me thinking about my next step, and I saw three options:
- Stay and become an owner.
- Go work for a larger organization.
- Start my own business.
I had a lot of conversations with people I trusted and ultimately realized that choices #1 and #2 would keep me in a very defined role. Option #3 to go out on my own offered flexibility, variety, and the chance to build something.
Being a finance person, I ran the numbers and mapped out how many clients I’d need to make it work. Funny enough, my first client ended up being my former employer, who hired me to help with their transition. Within six weeks, I had replaced my previous income.
7. I believe that was in 2019. When looking at this almost six years later, what are some things that have changed compared to how you thought the business might look?
Originally, I planned to be a solopreneur. I was burnt out on managing people, and my business plan predicted I’d spend 50% of my time on financial consulting and 50% on coaching. That quickly shifted to about 90% financial work and 10% coaching because the market clearly needed financial expertise.
Now, I have a team of 13 people, and while our company focus is still 90% financial and 10% coaching, my personal time has shifted— about 60% of what I do is now coaching.
Entrepreneurship is harder than I expected, but it’s been worth it. Many businesses don’t fail because of lack of passion; they fail because of all the operational complexities. That’s a big part of what Light Consulting helps with— taking care of the “boring stuff” so entrepreneurs can focus on what they love.
8. On somewhat of a separate note from Light Consulting, a few years ago you added Dale Carnegie of North Dakota and NW Minnesota as another business you own. Will you please tell me more about that as well?
Sure! I initially got to know Dale Carnegie when its previous owner was a client of ours at Light Consulting. Around that time, my business partner, Melissa, was helping part-time with Dale Carnegie and ended up taking the course herself. It was life-changing for her, and she became passionate about the program.
Meanwhile, their owner was looking to transition out of the business. I knew it was a great company, but I didn’t have time to run it myself. Melissa, who had been praying for a sign about her next step, saw that sign—literally, she asked for butterflies and started seeing them everywhere. From there, things moved fast. Thanks to Bremer Bank, we secured financing quickly, and Melissa took over as President while I handled the ownership side.
Owning Dale Carnegie has also helped me as a consultant—it gave me firsthand experience in buying a business, and dealing with valuation, culture shifts, and employee transitions. Now, I can share those insights with clients looking to buy or sell a company.
9. If you could go back in time to Sarah from the past, what kind of hindsight advice would you give yourself?
Oh, so many things, yet I wouldn’t change it, because if I didn’t make those mistakes, I wouldn’t have learned the lessons I needed. I guess, listening to the Holy Spirit, others call it intuition, before things escalate to a problem or a crisis. For almost everything that hasn’t gone well, I can look back and say here were the 3-5 signs I should have listened to and chose NOT do something.
10. What can we do as a community to help you and Light Consulting succeed?
Let us help, we’re only one call or email away.
About John
John Machacek has been helping local startups with the Greater Fargo Moorhead Economic Development Corporation since prior to his position with the GFMEDC. Before joining the team, Machacek was the VP of Finance & Operations at United Way of Cass-Clay and a business banker at U.S. Bank.
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