FRACTIONAL CFO FOR CREATOR & MEDIA COMPANIES
You get one shot at a capital event.I get creator and media companies ready for the moment a buyer, investor, or lender starts reading the books. Raise, sell, acquire, or keep scaling, with numbers that hold up in the room.
Nearly 20 years in media finance and accounting. PwC, HBO, NBCUniversal, Amazon Advertising.
Took a media company through its sale as CFO, and closed the deal myself after the CEO left.
Trained as a CPA, now inactive.
Every owner I work with can name their gross margin and EBITDA. None of them could at the start.
I'm Rita Ono. I work with owners of creator and media companies getting ready to raise, sell, acquire, or scale. I have seen the same pattern in almost every studio, network, and content business I work with. The company looks fine on paper, and the owner cannot answer the questions a buyer or investor is about to ask.
THE REAL PROBLEM
Every owner I work with has the same blind spot.
Most finance problems in this industry are visibility problems.
Your bookkeeper records what already happened. Your tax accountant files the return. Neither one shows you which parts of the business are building value and which are draining it.
You cannot scale what you cannot see. You cannot sell what you cannot prove. You cannot acquire another company without knowing your own numbers first.
Once an owner can finally see the business clearly, the guessing stops and the decisions get easier.
WHY I’M DIFFERENT
You have already hired for this.
By the time a deal is in view, you already have people for the money. A bookkeeper, a tax accountant, a business manager, and a banker to run the deal. Every one of them does their job well. None of them makes the company worth more, or leaves you with options when the moment comes.
01
Bookkeeper
Records what already happened and keeps the books on cash basis for taxes. It only looks back, and the numbers a buyer will question all start here.
02
Tax accountant
Files your return and works to lower this year's tax bill. That work says nothing about what the company is worth or where it makes money.
03
Business Manager
Pays the bills and looks after your personal cash flow, taxes, and investments. Their job is to protect what you take out. What the company is worth is not on their list.
04
Investment Banker
Runs the deal and works to close it, for a success fee. They come in once it is already live and work with the company as it is. Getting it ready before that day is not what they do.
WHAT I DO
I run the finance side of your company the way a full-time CFO would, without you hiring one. I build the books around how the business really makes money, move you to accrual, and put the right people under me to run the day to day. You end up knowing which shows and clients make money and what the company is worth. It also means you are running the business on real numbers today, not just getting ready to sell it. So whether you raise, sell, or keep building, you know what the company is worth and you get to choose.
THE 4 PILLARS THAT DECIDE WHAT YOU'RE WORTHThe businesses that scale profitably, attract capital, and give their owners options all do four things right. Most creator and media companies miss at least two. They don't realize it until they are bleeding cash or facing acquisition interest they aren't ready for.
The four pillars are the core of my Readiness Method.
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Weak positioning shows up as compressed margins and unpredictable revenue, and buyers and investors price it into your multiple. I find where it's costing you enterprise value before someone uses it against you in diligence.
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Revenue that grows while your margins don't tells a buyer your model needs you in every deal. A scalable model earns a defensible multiple. A custom one gets valued on EBITDA at best.
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Service revenue with no IP, no recurring contracts, and nothing that builds on itself is the lowest-multiple revenue in M&A. I find which of your revenue a buyer or investor will pay for, and which they discount to zero.
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You're paying expenses before clients pay you, and you can't see which projects make money. Fix this and you get real-time clarity on your margins, and financials an investor would take seriously.
HOW TO WORK WITH ME
Start where you are.
How we work together depends on what you are getting ready for. Some owners come to me with a deal already in motion. Others just want their numbers to finally make sense. Here is each way in.
Capital Readiness Retainer
$10,000-$15,000/mo
The finance leadership that gets you ready to raise, sell, or acquire.
This is for you if you want to run the business on numbers you trust, with no deal on the horizon. You always know which projects and clients make money, what you can afford, and where to put your next dollar.
I get your accounting done right so you never have to think about it, build you a forecast and a budget you can plan against, and send monthly reporting that tells you what's happening. We meet to pressure-test your biggest calls, and I'm a text away in between when one can't wait.
Who this is for: owners running complex creator and media businesses who want a finance partner in the room, not just a monthly report.
Strategic Finance Retainer
$5,000/mo
Ongoing financial leadership, no capital event required.
This is for you if you're getting ready to sell, fundraise, or acquire in the next year or two. Work with me and you get there knowing exactly what your company is worth, with numbers that hold up, and you choose your outcome instead of taking what you're handed.
I step in as your CFO for the whole stretch. I rebuild your books around how you make your money, move you to accrual, and put the right finance people in place under me. You get a forecast that holds up, a clear twelve-month view, and a monthly report that makes sense without anyone explaining it. And I take you out of the approval chain, so the business stops running through you.
After a raise, I stay on as your reporting and board work pick up. After a sale, my job is done and I hand off cleanly.
My fee is for the finance leadership and the work that comes with it, the forecast, the reporting, the strategy. The bookkeeping and controller work is billed separately, through your team or a partner I bring in and manage.
Who this is for: owner-led creator and media companies doing $5M to $30M, with a deal live or likely inside two years. Six-month minimum.
Capital Readiness Diagnostic
Starting at $5,000
See where you stand, and what to fix first.
This is for you if you want to know exactly where you stand before you commit to anything, or if you're earlier in your growth. You walk away knowing what a buyer or investor would find, what it's costing you, and what to fix first.
I go through your books the way they would, rank your risks in the order they'd come up, and give you a plan to fix them with a staffing recommendation, all in plain language. The roadmap is yours to keep. Run it with me, with your own team, or with someone else.
Who this is for: any creator or media company that wants clarity first, earlier-stage included.
This is for you if an investor or buyer is already at the table and your books aren't ready for them. I get your numbers in order fast, so you can face diligence without losing the deal or the price.
It's the diagnostic and the fix in one, on a deadline. I scope it to your timeline and the state of your books.
Who this is for: a live deal that can't wait.
Sprint
A buyer is already at the table and the financials aren’t ready.
Fee line: Fee only. I don’t take success fees or a cut of any deal.
Ready to build a company with options?