In this episode, James Kennedy sits down with Irish fractional CFO Shane Spellman, founder of Spellman Profit Partners, to unpack how a buy-side, board-level investment lens can transform SMB decisions day-to-day and at exit. Drawing on Shane’s time leading return-on-investment and M&A support at Kerry Group, they cover capital ranking, integration pitfalls, and why “you can do anything – but not everything” should guide every owner’s roadmap.
About Shane Spellman
With a background in accounting and a master’s in financial services, Shane built his career across banking, insurance, and ultimately Kerry Group, where he supported €300M+ annual capex and bolt-on acquisitions. He later business-partnered with HR, bringing hard metrics to “softer” investments. Today, through Spellman Profit Partners, he helps scaling companies (roughly $5M–$50M revenue) sharpen focus, protect cash, and maximize exit value – when he’s not hanging onto the peloton in road races.
What You’ll Learn
- Capex That Pays Back: How to rank competing projects by ROI, payback, and strategic fit – then sequence them against limited cash and limited founder time/energy.
- Buy-Side Lessons for Sellers: The diligence details (pensions, working capital, cash-like items) that can erode value – and how a sell-side CFO mindset claws it back.
- Efficiency Before Expansion: Why operational yield is often the fastest, most controllable “win” versus chasing new product lines or markets.
- Cost Control as Culture: Moving beyond “use it or lose it” budgets to owner-led accountability and return-based spending across departments.
- Quantifying the “Soft” Stuff: Turning HR investments into measurable returns using metrics like Empty Chair Time (vacancy + ramp) and retention economics.
Episode Highlights
- “Anything can be justified standalone. The job is prioritizing what returns fastest, returns most, and actually matches strategy.”
- “On exits, watch the split between economic value and cash value – we recovered ~$500k a buyer hadn’t priced as cash-like.”
- “You have revenue dreams and expense realities – focus the team where you control the outcome.”
- “Budgets don’t spend money, people do. Give leaders accountability for outcomes, not just a ceiling.”
- “If cash isn’t your limiting resource, time and energy are. Treat them like capital.”
More about Shane’s role
Shane helps founders who’ve outgrown “hero mode” install simple, ROI-driven operating rhythms:
- Capex/initiative ranking and payback tracking
- Exit prep (quality of earnings, working capital, cash-like item defense)
- Post-deal integration guardrails and synergy tracking
- Cost control programs that preserve speed (no bottleneck CFOing)
- People-ops business cases (TA, L&D, retention) tied to P&L impact
