What I offer
Experienced management support in strategy, operations, finance, and data: from a first review to a monthly part-time role.
Business consulting for SMEs — Small and Medium-sized Entities
Experienced management support. Entrepreneurial mindset.
ABBO SME Consulting helps small and mid-sized companies grow with a measurable strategy, run efficiently, and base decisions on information — focusing their resources on what creates value for their customers.
- 22 yearsin finance and management: 5 in audit and consulting, 17 inside companies
- 13 yearsas manager and director, most recently as CFO with responsibility for a P&L (profit and loss statement)
- Around 10projects over a 22-year career: three SAP FICO implementations as key user, mergers and divestments, and e-invoicing
- AIoptional: the analysis is supported with or without AI, as you prefer
Why outside help
Daily operations come first.
Finance, strategy, and process improvement — with or without AI — wait while daily operations take all the owner's time. I bring the time and the experience to move them forward.
How it is delivered
You work with one person, directly, with no layers in between. Services run from five days to twelve weeks, with scope and price agreed in writing first.
Who it is for
Companies of about ten to a few hundred employees in Germany, Europe, and Latin America, with management in English or Spanish.
The problems
Growing companies do not need more complexity.
They need structure, process, and information — and a focus on what matters. These situations are common in growing companies.
Does this sound familiar?
Growth has stalled, and nobody can say where the money is made.
There is a strategy. It is not in the budget, the KPIs, or anyone's objectives.
There are numbers, but no management information, and cash still comes as a surprise.
Processes live in people's heads and in spreadsheets, and the systems do not talk to each other.
Prices have not been reviewed in years, and part of the last increase never stuck.
Past technology purchases never paid off, and now everyone talks about AI.
Germany in 2026, in four figures
- About 2/3of an announced price increase is realized, on average, by B2B companies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
- About 282,000skilled-worker positions in German SMEs went unfilled (calculated), on average from July 2024 to June 2025 — 71.7% of the roughly 393,000 unfilled across Germany.
- 39.6 daysfrom invoice to payment in Germany: 32.1 days of agreed payment terms plus 7.5 days late.
- 57%of companies in Germany with 20 or more employees use AI — and 59% of them say they are not exploiting its potential at all.
Sources: Simon-Kucher, B2B Price Increase Study 2026 · KOFA / IW Köln, KOFA Kompakt 04/2026 · Creditreform, Zahlungsindikator winter 2025/26 (via retail-news.de) · Bitkom, September 2026.
Start here
Two ways to start.
Each starts with a written proposal.
Financial Health Check
- The problem
- The numbers arrive late, and nobody acts on them.
- What I do
- I review your accounting export, bank statements, and open items. Tax matters stay with your tax advisor.
- Typical deliverables
- A traffic-light rating of six areas
- The three costliest findings, each with an amount
- Three recommendations with date and owner
Fractional CFO with decision-ready reporting
- The problem
- Cash comes as a surprise, and decisions wait for the numbers.
- What I do
- I read your numbers against the plan every month and prepare the decisions with you.
- Typical deliverables
- A one-page report by the 10th business day, once your books are closed
- A 13-week cash forecast
- Decisions, each with an owner and a date
The exact scope, deliverables, and timing are agreed in writing in each proposal.
What you receive
What the monthly report looks like.
One page, on the 10th business day. Read the headline, the traffic lights, and the cash view.
- The headlineThe one thing that matters this month, in a single sentence.
- The traffic lightsResult, cash, and receivables, each with a short explanation.
- The cash viewCash balance and a 13-week forecast, with the next step.
Also, when the problem is somewhere else
The same way of working, applied to strategy, operations, or data. One or two services each; the rest is scoped in the proposal.
Strategy & Growth
A strategy you can explain in five minutes, with numbers behind it.
- Measurable Strategic PlanThree to five objectives, each with a KPI and an owner, and the model underneath. Six to eight weeks.
- Pricing, Margin & Business CaseA margin bridge by customer and product, and a price process tracked monthly. Four to eight weeks.
Operational Efficiency
Core processes mapped, redesigned with your team, and measured before and after.
- Efficiency ProjectOne flow of work — selling, buying, closing, delivering — measured, redesigned, and measured again. Eight to twelve weeks.
- Operational ScorecardA one-page scorecard with definitions and targets, and the weekly routine run once with you. Four to six weeks.
Data & AI for Business
Management data that reconciles, dashboards that are read, and AI only where it beats a simple rule.
- Data & AI Opportunity AssessmentWhere the manual work is, what it costs, and what to automate — ranked by return, with a go/no-go each. Two to four weeks.
- Management Dashboard & AutomationA dashboard reconciled to the accounts, refreshed on schedule, and handed over documented. Four to eight weeks.
Does your need not fit any of these? I will shape a solution around it.
Ask for a tailored solutionWhat I do not do
- Bookkeeping, VAT returns, payroll, year-end accounts, and tax advice
- Legal advice and legal assessments, audits, investment advice, and brokering loans, financing, or insurance
- Marketing execution, large-scale market research, and strategy without numbers
- IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, replacing your core system, or selling software
How I work
Seven stages, from first question to measured result.
Every engagement follows the same seven stages. The last one shows whether the work held.
- 01Understand
- 02Diagnose
- 03Prioritize
- 04Design
- 05Set up
- 06Implement
- 07Measure
The simplest thing that works
Sophistication is a cost, not a feature.
I prepare, you decide
Every recommendation shows its assumptions.
Nothing sold that is not needed
No software resale, no commissions.
- BeforeScope, output, duration, and price in writing.
- DuringA regular check-in and a written record of decisions.
- At the endWhat changed, what is open, and how your team continues.
Short answers before the first call.
Is ABBO SME Consulting a company?
It is the name under which I, Rodrigo Abarca, work as a freelance business consultant (Freiberufler) in Munich. You contract with me directly, and I do the work myself — nothing is handed to a team behind the name.
Do we have to buy software?
No. If a tool is needed, you buy it under your own license, and I take no commissions. Anything I build for you comes with a right of use, as set out in the terms.
Is this tax or financial advice?
No. This is business and management consulting. Taxes and the year-end close stay with your tax advisor, and legal questions with your lawyer.
How do you handle our data?
Your originals stay in your systems. I work with copies on an encrypted computer, or in the EU storage of Microsoft 365 if you agree, under a data processing agreement signed first. Copies are deleted within 90 days after the engagement, except records the law requires me to keep. Details in the privacy policy.
Next step
Start with a conversation.
A 30-minute introductory call, free of charge, in English or Spanish — or a short message if you prefer to write first.