James Bartlett
- Area President
- Northeast Ohio
Jim has a unique background including Naval aviation, large and small companies, and starting up and running entrepreneurial businesses. Jim has deep experience in leadership, business strategy and planning, team building, digital marketing planning and execution, process development and standardization, operational improvement, and acquisition due diligence and post close execution.
Jim's passion is talking shop and solving problems with entrepreneurs and small business owners. He understands at a deep level the challenges and victories that come from owning and operating an entrepreneurial business. From leading a team, setting goals, executing plans, dealing with issues, and celebrating success, Jim is a strong business partner who loves to help people be more successful.
Before FocusCFO
Over the last 20 years, Jim started up three unique businesses: two sporting goods e-commerce retailers and a wine related branded products company. He successfully sold two of these businesses, while one failed to reach viability. Earlier in his career, Jim hunted submarines in the North Atlantic for the US Navy, directed acquisition integrations for a large office supply retailer, ran production and fulfillment operations for a high-end food cataloger, and ran nationwide fulfillment operations for a large multi-national B2B industrial parts distributor.
- What is your favorite way to spend free time? My wife and I love watching soccer at just about any level. We're still super fans of our kids' high school teams, college club team, local semi-pro team, and of course MLS, NWSL, and the Premier League. And, I am my own landscaper at home, so I spend quite a bit of time mowing and landscaping.
- What is your favorite movie? I'm all about the scary AI / post apocalyptic future and action flicks. Terminator, The Matrix, Transformers (the 1st one), Dune, Gladiator. My guide: if I care about the characters in the end, I'll probably like the movie.
- What is at the top of your "bucket list"? Three years ago, it was buy a sailboat and sail across the Atlantic. Having bought a sailboat and owned it for three years, I've changed my goal (and sold the boat). Now, we want to buy a powerboat and cruise the Chesapeake and ICW.
Other Interests
What attracted you
to FocusCFO?
After a wonderful 36 year professional career and the sale of my last business, I decided it was time to do something different. I wanted to give something back to the small business community and entrepreneurs, but I didn't know how. I was introduced to FocusCFO and as soon as I met Brad and several others on the FocusCFO team, I knew I had found the right place.
What's been awesome about FocusCFO is the people and the culture. It is a team of really smart, talented, friendly, and incredibly collaborative professionals. FocusCFO has a deep talent pool across all our Area Presidents and CFOS, and anyone can call upon that knowledge and experience pool when a client needs a unique solution or answer to a domain-specific question.