Marina CFO

Fractional CFO for Marinas

A marina is four businesses tied to one dock — slips, fuel, service, and retail — each with its own margin and its own season. Run them as one blended number and you'll never know that the recurring slip income is carrying a fuel operation that barely breaks even. A fractional CFO untangles the four and tells you which one to feed.

Recurring slips, thin fuel, and everything between

Slip and storage income is the crown jewel — recurring, high-margin, and the thing that makes a marina financeable and valuable. Fuel is high-volume and thin. Service and retail sit somewhere in between and tie up parts inventory. Blend them and the steady dock revenue quietly subsidizes whichever operation is leaking, and you can't tell which.

A CFO breaks out the four, so you price slips to their real value, run fuel and service on their actual margins, and know exactly where the money is made.

The math behind occupancy, capex, and the season

Slip occupancy, revenue per linear foot, service-bay utilization, and fuel margin are the levers. Dock rebuilds, dredging, and lifts are major capital projects with long paybacks. And the season means cash floods in and drains out on a predictable curve you should be planning against, not reacting to.

We model the unit economics, the capex paybacks, and a seasonal cash forecast, so raising slip rates, rebuilding a dock, or expanding service each rests on a number instead of a hunch about how the summer went.

How Kaizen runs it

You get a senior CFO a few days a month on top of clean books that separate slips, fuel, service, and retail. We build the per-segment margins, track occupancy and utilization, run a seasonal cash forecast, and model rate changes and capital projects.

It's the difference between owning a marina and running one like an operator who intends to sell it well someday. That mindset tends to raise both the profit and the price.

What's included

Margin split by slips/storage, fuel, service, and retail
Slip occupancy and revenue-per-linear-foot reporting
Service-bay utilization and parts-inventory tracking
Seasonal 13-week rolling cash forecast

Dock, dredging, and lift capex payback models
Slip-rate and pricing analysis
Diligence-ready financials for a future sale
Monthly board-ready KPI and margin pack

Most marinas start with the 1-2-3 CFO™ Reset: Month 1 clean and segment the books, Month 2 stand up occupancy KPIs and seasonal cash forecasting, Month 3 the first real board pack.

Pricing

$4,000–8,000/mosenior CFO, fractional · scoped to segments and size · no contract

~$200K+/yrwhat a full-time marina CFO costs fully loaded, benefits and bonus included

Days, not a hiresenior CFO judgment a few days a month, on top of a real finance team

Decisions with mathrate and capex calls backed by segment economics, not a read on the season

Straight answers

We have a bookkeeper. Why a CFO?

A bookkeeper records; a CFO breaks out the segments, prices the slips, plans the season's cash, and models the capital projects. Many marinas keep their bookkeeper and add us for strategy.

Can you separate slip, fuel, and service margin?

Yes, and it's usually the first revelation. Each segment has its own economics, and splitting them shows which one is carrying the marina and which is along for the ride.

We're planning a dock rebuild. Can you model it?

That's a common reason clients call. We build the capex payback and cash-impact model so a major project is a funded decision, not a leap timed to a good summer.

What size marina is this for?

Usually multi-segment operations with real slip counts and service revenue. A small, simple marina with clean books may just need good bookkeeping and reporting — we'll tell you.

Free 20-minute books assessment

We'll show you the five things we'd fix first in your books — useful whether you hire us, hire someone, or do neither.

Talk to Sales

Or call us directly: +1 786 789 0969