Ask the CFO Podcast
Join Fractional CFO Lowell Mora and experienced operators for live, practical conversations on the financial and operational decisions that actually move your business forward.
Live on Zoom | 1st & 3rd Tuesdays | Open Q&A included
Where Business Owners Get Better at Decisions
I'm Lowell Mora, a fractional CFO. Over the past 30-plus years I've worked inside privately held and family-owned businesses, advising companies from $5 million to over $100 million in revenue across manufacturing, construction, and industrial services.
Ask the CFO is a live, twice-monthly, interactive conversation where owners, operators, and finance leaders work through the decisions that actually move a business forward. Guests can ask questions and get answers on the spot. Not more theory. Not more information. Better decisions.
Each session runs about an hour, and it's built to be interactive, not a webinar you sit through. I bring in an experienced operator or advisor to talk through what's actually working, what isn't, and what they've learned doing the work. Then it opens up: guests can ask questions and get real answers, live.
Join Us
When: 1st and 3rd Tuesdays Time: 10 AM CT / 11 AM ET Where: Live on Zoom. The link is sent after you register.
Can't make it live? Register anyway. I send replays to everyone on the list, so you can catch the conversations you miss. Or stream as a podcast:
This is the room you want to be in
Most business leaders I talk to are not short on information. They are short on clarity. Every session is grounded in real situations, real numbers, and the way experienced operators actually think. We talk about cash flow, margin, pricing, team structure, growth, and risk in plain language, and we talk about how to make the call. Clarity creates confidence.
This is the room for you if:
You are making decisions that carry real weight, and you want a clearer way to approach them.
You value how other operators think, not just what they did.
You would like to have rather practical perspectives in real time from experts in their field
You want access to experienced voices you can actually ask questions to, live.
Register for Upcoming Sessions:
Most small construction and distribution businesses didn't choose QuickBooks because it was the right long-term system. They chose it because it was what they had when the business was smaller, and nobody has stopped to ask what it's costing them since.
The result is a familiar pattern: disconnected spreadsheets, manual workarounds, and a finance team spending more time reconciling data than using it. The technology hasn't kept pace with the business, and that gap shows up in slower decisions, more errors, and a team that's managing the system instead of the other way around.
In this session of Ask the CFO, Lowell Mora will be joined by Ketan Katariya, Founder and President of Klio Systems, to talk about how growing construction and distribution businesses can move past legacy technology and run a more streamlined operation.
The conversation will explore:
- Why QuickBooks and similar legacy tools tend to break down as a business scales, and what the warning signs look like
- What an ERP system actually solves that a patchwork of spreadsheets and add-ons can't
- A practical look at Acumatica and what makes it well suited to construction and distribution businesses specifically
- How to think about the cost and disruption of switching systems against the cost of staying on outdated technology
- Questions owners should ask before starting an ERP evaluation or implementation
About Ketan Katariya
Ketan Katariya is the Founder and President of Klio Systems, Inc., a full-service technology consulting company that provides small and mid-sized businesses with end-to-end technology solutions, including managed IT, cybersecurity, software development, digital presence, and ERP consulting. Founded in 2015, Klio Systems today serves clients across manufacturing, distribution, construction, real estate, hospitality, finance and accounting, and professional services. The company also owns and operates My ERP Partner, SnapLeased, and SnapConnect.
Ketan has 30 years of technology experience. Before founding Klio Systems, he worked for a nationwide law firm in debt management solutions within the residential mortgage industry. He is a computer engineer by education and lives in Naperville, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, with his wife and young children. His focus is technology enabled solutions that help businesses run better.
Connect with Ketan: LinkedIn | Klio Systems | My ERP Partner | SnapLeased | SnapConnect
Most business owners have a CPA for the business, a lawyer for the business, maybe even a fractional CFO for the business. Far fewer have anyone coordinating their personal financial life: their taxes, their estate plan, their liquidity strategy, the decisions that determine what they actually walk away with.
That gap is exactly where Blake Peterson spends his time. As a Senior Wealth Advisor at Carson Wealth and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor, Blake works with business owners and families who have outgrown simple financial solutions and need coordinated, proactive guidance. He describes his role as a financial quarterback, pulling together a client's CPA, attorney, and lenders so every piece of advice is working toward the same outcome instead of pulling in different directions.
In this session of Ask the CFO, Lowell Mora will be joined by Blake Peterson to talk about why the business decision and the personal financial decision are never really separate, and what happens when owners wait too long to treat them that way.
The conversation will explore:
- Why building wealth inside the business isn't the same as protecting it outside the business
- What a coordinated advisory team (CPA, attorney, lender, wealth advisor) actually looks like in practice, and what falls through the cracks without one
- How personal financial decisions, taxes, estate planning, liquidity, connect directly to business transition planning
- Why waiting until a sale or transition event is already underway is often too late to make the highest-impact moves
Blake Peterson, CEPA, is a Senior Wealth Advisor at Carson Wealth, Co-Founder of the Exit Advisors Coalition, and a Certified Exit Planning Advisor. He's based in Omaha, where he also serves on the board of Breakthrough T1D and is Past Chair of Keep Nebraska Beautiful.
Connect with Blake: LinkedIn | bpeterson@carsonwealth.com | (402) 829-1798
Want to Join as a Guest?
I invite experienced operators and advisors to be part of these conversations.
Great guests are typically:
Business owners or executives
Advisors working closely with companies
People with practical experience—not just theory
Why join:
Share your perspective with an engaged audience
Be part of thoughtful, unscripted conversations
Build relationships with other operators
Previous Conversations With Industry Experts
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