Smarter Scaling, Fractional Finance and Creating Profit-First Businesses
Josh Keegan, is a founder of Ultimate FD, a chartered accountant, Amazon best-selling author and speaker who is quietly revolutionising how seven-figure entrepreneurs think about their finances.
His mission? Helping entrepreneurs scale smarter by focusing on the bottom line, not just the top. “Most entrepreneurs are obsessed with growth. They’re scaling businesses that don’t actually make much money. Our ethos is to get you focused on the bottom line.”
“Work smarter, and actually make more money.”
From spreadsheets to strategy
Josh runs Ultimate FD, a fractional finance director (FD) service that supports complex, fast-scaling businesses in transforming their finance function. While many entrepreneurs struggle to understand where their money’s going, Josh’s team gives them complete financial clarity — and a clear path forward.
“Our sweet spot is businesses that have hit the £1 million revenue mark and are realising they’re making less money now than they were at half a million,” Josh explains. “That’s incredibly common. They’ve grown headcount, complexity, and operations — but not profit. That’s where we come in.”
The three questions that change everything
At the heart of Ultimate FD’s approach are three deceptively simple questions:
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Where are you now?
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Where are you going?
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How are you going to get there?
That means building real financial visibility, mapping out what success actually looks like, and then using strategic forecasting to break it into accountable, measurable steps.
“You’ve got to make decisions up front. Not just grow and hope it all works out. The forecast becomes the roadmap and the accountability tool.”
Josh’s firm builds what he calls “world-class finance functions” by combining systems, people, and strategy. His proprietary model — The Four Professionals — includes a finance assistant, a bookkeeper, a finance manager and a tax accountant, forming a lean, high-impact team that can be tailored to any growing business.
From cancer scare to career clarity
Josh’s path into entrepreneurship was not your average journey. After training as a chartered accountant, he was working in corporate finance when he met a property investor and partnered to launch a letting agency. Just 18 months in, his business partner fell seriously ill with a spinal tumour.
“He gave me a list of everything going wrong in the business and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore’. I was 24. ”
“It was sink or swim”
Thrown into the deep end, Josh had to build a team, generate leads, manage operations and figure out how to make it all profitable — fast. But despite the agency doubling in size under his leadership, profitability remained elusive.
“I spent 18 months and over £60,000 trying to solve the problem. As a chartered accountant, I was frustrated that I couldn’t work out why the business wasn’t making money.”
Eventually, he cracked it. By creating a hybrid finance function using both local and international talent, he gained the clarity and control he needed. That became the basis of Ultimate FD, which he launched soon after selling the agency in 2021.
Scaling smart: lessons from the trenches
The growth since has been explosive. What began as Josh and one team member has now expanded to a fully remote team of eight, working across South Africa, Spain, the UK and the Philippines.
“We quadrupled our retainers last year. But it was tough — I was doing five roles, managing the team, and still delivering work.”
The business is now in a new phase, shifting focus from top-line growth to operational efficiency and profit margins. The next move is bringing more of their services fully in-house, allowing clients to get everything under one roof.
“Our goal is to be able to say: here are the four professionals you need — all within our business. It’s the all-in-one solution for scale.”
Giving back time, at home and in business
One of Josh’s proudest achievements is not business-related — it’s personal.
“When we had kids, my partner wanted to be a full-time mum. That was her choice, and being in a position to support that was huge for me. It’s not always been easy, but it was the right thing for us.”
That philosophy — of building businesses that buy back time — underpins everything Josh does. Whether he’s helping clients reduce complexity or free themselves from financial stress, the goal is clear: to help entrepreneurs live better lives.
What Josh brings to the Ministry
Beyond financial strategy, Josh brings a wealth of knowledge in business systems, team building, productivity and remote operations. He’s also a professional speaker and trains over 200 entrepreneurs each month through the Property Entrepreneur programme.
If you’re looking to:
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Optimise your finance function
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Build systems that scale
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Tap into high-performance remote talent
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Or just make more profit while working less
Josh is the guy you want to grab a coffee with.
What he’s looking for
“I’m really curious about how people are using AI. I’m using ChatGPT and a few other tools, but I haven’t found the silver bullet yet,” he says. “And sales and marketing. Always keen to learn more there.”
Outside of work
Josh’s world outside business is built around his family. With two young kids, football nights and gym sessions are his key ways to unwind, “It’s simple stuff really — family, friends, training. That’s the good stuff”.
You can find Josh on LinkedIn or, of course, say hi right here at the Ministry. Just don’t be surprised if he starts asking how profitable your business really is.
