1906 – Navigating the Financial Landscape with Stephanie Skryzowski

Josh (00:00:05) - Hey there, a thoughtful listener. Are you looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients? Well, I've had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video you can watch with no opt in required, where I'll share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for over 15 years, and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for great guests. Go to up my influence. Com and click on podcast. I'd love to have you. With us right now it's Stephanie. Stephanie, you are a chief financial officer for nonprofits, and you are the founder and CEO of 100 Degrees Consulting.

Josh (00:01:18) - That's 100 zero Degrees Consulting. Com you are also the host of the Prosperous Nonprofit Podcast, which we'll talk about in just a bit. Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us.

Stephanie (00:01:31) - Thank you so much for having me. Josh, I'm super excited to chat with you today.

Josh (00:01:34) - Yes, absolutely. Well, we'll share just a bit about the work that you do, who you serve and what that looks like.

Stephanie (00:01:40) - Yeah. So we help nonprofit organizations better understand and use their numbers to make smart decisions, to grow their bottom line and more importantly, grow their impact. And we do that through CFO, financial strategy and bookkeeping services.

Josh (00:01:56) - I would imagine that, you know, a lot of the principles you talk about are fairly universal. So should someone be listening to us and you are with a for profit organization, keep listening because you all but but that said, Stephanie, I'm sure that there are some unique things that because of your background and your experiences you have that nonprofits might want to be aware of, you know, especially if they're thinking about retaining CFO services or professional financial services, that it would be helpful if someone does know the territory 100%.

Stephanie (00:02:34) - So, especially when it comes to accounting, like the technical accounting for nonprofits, it is a little bit different. There's a different tax return. That tax return is public information. And so there's accounting nuances for sure. And so our clients love working with us because we know and understand those very deeply. And almost more importantly, we understand that their priority is impact above all else. But what I will say is that actually, in the beginning of my company, we not only serve to nonprofits with CFO and bookkeeping services, but we serve small businesses as well. I'm a business owner myself, and so, so much of the work that we do with nonprofits around cashflow management and forecasting and budgeting and, you know, financial strategy that is certainly applicable to small businesses. And we did serve small businesses in that way for many years until we ended up selling off that part of our business to strictly focus on nonprofits.

Josh (00:03:32) - Yeah, okay. This is your world. And, you know, obviously, you know, you live, breathe, eat and sleep this world.

Josh (00:03:39) - Have there been any, say, headlines or major trends that you think that you know? For those of us who may not be watching this world should be aware of, like what's been going on in your world over the past couple of years.

Stephanie (00:03:53) - Yeah, that's a great question. Well yeah. You may have seen this, this was like huge news for the nonprofit space. But a lot of organizations are starting to get these one time transformational gifts is what they're being called. And so Mackenzie Scott who is the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, is notorious for giving away massive amounts of wealth and like $5 million at a time or $10 million at a time. So these huge chunks of money, a one time gift with no restrictions on it, which is very rare, most gifts to organizations, most grants have restrictions around them that, you know, we really have to track very closely, but she's giving away these massive amounts of money that are transformational for organizations. And so we've started to see that more and more in the space, which requires different financial management.

Stephanie (00:04:45) - Right. You get this, say, $5 million grant for your organization, and you got to really use that strategically or that's going to be gone really quickly. And I think this, you know, you can sort of apply that in the small business space too. You come upon a windfall of cash for some reason or another, maybe you have a really good year. And if you're not strategic with it, that cash is just going to, you know, fly away. So that is one sort of headline that we've been seeing in the nonprofit space as these transformational gifts. It's just really new, them coming in these large amounts one time and totally unrestricted.

Josh (00:05:17) - Yeah. Who wouldn't love a $5 million gift for their nonprofit. Let's say that there were you know some let's say large donors or some, you know, some sort of windfall comes in like what is that conversation like. Yeah, internally. And you know, if you're coming in providing kind of that financial leadership, I would imagine, you know, you might have some people like, you know, whoever is responsible for outreach and growth is like, I know where every dime of that needs to go.

Josh (00:05:47) - And so they're advocating for what they want, you know, operations, you know, they're kind of advocating for what they want. And somehow the CFO needs to come in and provide some guidance to let where does this money go?

Stephanie (00:06:03) - Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I know, and it's a really interesting conversation because you get this large gift and then suddenly everybody in the organization thinks like, oh, we're rich. We're all getting raises now, right? And in some cases, yes, that definitely happens. And it's well deserved. But as the CFO, we're really like, okay, how can we align this, you know, this tranche of money with our long term strategic plan? And how can this money serve our long term strategic plan in the highest and best way possible? And sometimes it means deploying some of that cash immediately towards programs or towards some like low hanging fruit, really high need areas, and then holding on to some of that cash for future needs. And so, you know, a couple organizations that I've worked with have had this, you know, have had the great fortune of receiving some of these one time gifts and deployed a portion of cash up front and then have a plan for deploying chunks of cash into future years to basically, you know, help with future year needs.

Stephanie (00:07:03) - And so just, you know, being part of that strategy is, is really interesting. And I think it just speaks to the long term sustainability of the organization. And really that's what a CFO is here for, whether it's in a small business or a nonprofit. Like we want to help that organization be around, be healthy, be thriving as long as possible.

Josh (00:07:23) - I don't know if you ever get, you know, questions are on this, but let's say a nonprofit is they say, well, Stephanie, the number one thing we need to do is increase revenue. do you do you have ideas on that or feedback on that or observations or experience with that that, that you could provide, you know, maybe. Well, I've seen, you know, some organizations do this and this seems to be working well today. Any any thoughts immediately come to mind.

Stephanie (00:07:49) - Yeah. Yes. So a couple things. First of all, really understanding what is currently working in your organization. So again small business parallels right here.

Stephanie (00:08:00) - So if you're not a nonprofit listener stay with us. Because thinking about what's already working and figuring out how we can double down on that, I feel like oftentimes we can get very, you know, distracted shiny object syndrome where we just sort of want to chase, like the next thing or we see what our neighbor is doing and that looks cool. So we want to do that. But what's most important and what I like to encourage is leaders to figure out what is working in your organization right now, and how can we do more of that first? And so once we've got our efforts deployed towards that, if there's still other things that we want to do that we need to do that could increase our revenue. I've actually seen some really interesting models lately where nonprofits are using earned income. And so they're basically charging, you know, other entities, other people for services or for intellectual property. Maybe they have a framework that they have used to build their organization, and they can license out that framework and bring income into the organization.

Stephanie (00:08:59) - And so using earned income streams is something I've seen lately, which is really interesting and definitely a little bit unique and disruptive in the nonprofit space.

Josh (00:09:10) - Stephanie, tell me a bit about your consultancy, 100 Degrees Consulting. And again, your website is 100 degrees consulting. Like who's on the team? What do you do? Like how are you different from other professional financial solutions providers and and support?

Stephanie (00:09:26) - Yeah. So we are a team of 15 full time employees and we are a totally remote company, which is really fun where our East coast to West Coast in the United States, we have a couple employees overseas as well. And I think what really sets us apart is that we understand our sector. We understand our market so deeply. and other accounting firms, maybe they serve nonprofits, but they also serve construction and they also serve healthcare and all these other industries. And so nonprofit is just a piece of what they do. It is all that we do. And so we have a deep knowledge, deep expertise, deep connections in that space.

Stephanie (00:10:04) - And I think the common thread between all of our employees, I absolutely love our team is that everybody really cares. Like we care about all of our clients. We care about their missions. and we love just being, you know, a tiny little part of the impact that these organizations are having on the world.

Josh (00:10:22) - Yeah. Any trends that you've been seeing about, you know, kind of CFO ING, in general.

Stephanie (00:10:28) - Yeah, that's a good question. I am seeing the more people, more business owners being more familiar with the term fractional CFO. And basically what that means is that you have a CFO, but it's a fraction of their time, right? And you're paying a fraction of the cost, which is a huge benefit to to small business owners. So you can bring a CFO on and get that high level strategy and expertise without having to pay a six figure plus salary and benefits and all the things. So that's what I'm just seeing, like even very small, almost like micro business owners who are only making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year are wanting CFO strategy and expertise to help them create a forecast and manage cash flow and grow their business.

Stephanie (00:11:14) - And so I'm just seeing the term be even more used. And even really small businesses bringing on fractional CFOs.

Josh (00:11:21) - Yeah. And you know, I just looking at your LinkedIn by the way you're very good LinkedIn follow. And you mentioned this about how nonprofit CFOs are actually in short supply and that fewer students are pursuing accounting degrees and even fewer are actually taking that to the nonprofit sector. So, I mean, there's some supply and demand issues going on. Maybe you could just share just a bit about careers in financial leadership. And, you know, if there's anyone listening that maybe has a child that's in college and they're considering it, or, you know, maybe they're interested in taking a bit of a, pivot professionally. maybe I'll just give you the stage to kind of advocate for, you know, why, you know, kind of financial leadership is a great role or a great career.

Stephanie (00:12:12) - Oh, I love that. Such a good question. Well, I'm sort of an unlikely finance person because I thought for years, all through middle school and high school and college, that I was going to be a lawyer and a high powered lawyer in Manhattan was my dream.

Stephanie (00:12:27) - And I sort of stumbled into the nonprofit sector and then really landed on, you know, finance. and so it, you know, I did not have a degree in finance to start out, but I was really good at math, and I liked sort of connecting the dots. And so I would say, you know, my first thing is like, number one, you don't necessarily need an accounting degree to manage the finances of a small business of a nonprofit organization. Yes. There are things that you need to know, right? And accounting degree can come in helpful. But if you don't have it and you're thinking about a pivot like you mentioned, you don't necessarily need it. I think there needs to be a lot of logical savvy, and you need to be good with numbers and excel and all the things, but it's really a lot of strategy and less like true math. So I think that piece is one thing. You don't necessarily need that degree. And I think there's so many things that you can do.

Stephanie (00:13:23) - I mean, just on our team, we have bookkeepers who are the ones that are sort of in the day to day of QuickBooks, reconciling accounts and really in more of the nitty gritty, type work. And then our CFOs are really sitting on more of the strategy side, like, yes, they definitely need to be able to check the bookkeepers work and make sure everything balances. That piece is very, very important. But they're also helping our clients see a bigger vision for their organization and putting numbers behind that vision. And so if you are a strategy person who's good with numbers, I think that CFO role, is a really, really fun job because we're basically like creating a financial plan to help people achieve their dreams, to help people achieve that big impact. That's the way I look at it, and it's so much fun. so yeah, I think there's a lot of opportunity, whether you like, love the nitty gritty or whether you love the big picture. there's definitely opportunity working in finance, for sure.

Josh (00:14:28) - Told me about your podcast, The Prosperous Nonprofit. To our friend that's listening, you can just do a quick search in your podcast app right now. Again, the prosperous nonprofit with Stephanie. Stephanie, what do you talk about on the podcast?

Stephanie (00:14:43) - So I love to have conversations with leaders who are doing things in the nonprofit sector in new, innovative, disruptive, entrepreneurial ways. In many ways, the nonprofit sector is kind of old school, and we've sort of been doing everything the same way for decades. And where that has gotten us is that our nonprofit leaders are burnt out. We have a lack of funding, and our system is kind of broken in many ways. And so I'm having conversations with leaders who are shaking things up and who are doing things differently. So we're not just talking about finance. One thing I love about the show is that I ask every single guest, what does a prosperous nonprofit look like to you? And I get a different answer every single time. It's my favorite question to ask because it's usually never about money.

Stephanie (00:15:31) - Like the answer is almost never actually about money. It's about taking care of our people. It's about the impact that we're having in the world. And so, yeah, so those are the conversations that we have. And then I pop in every now and then for, for solo episodes on things that I'm working on or some finance tips. Nothing too technical, definitely no accounting language. just lots of conversations with amazing leaders.

Josh (00:15:54) - And then someone that's listening to our podcast, maybe because they did some searching for you, they found this podcast, they want to hear you and the interview chair. And you know, they're interested in seeing how you may be able to help them. You know, obviously it would go to 100 degrees consulting. Com and and what would you recommend kind of those next steps be.

Stephanie (00:16:14) - Yeah. So I mean real easy. There's a contact form on the page to, to get in touch with us and we, we would set up a call to learn more. but I do also have a resource that could be really helpful as well.

Stephanie (00:16:26) - We do a ton of work around budgeting and forecasting and cash flow management. That's a huge challenge of a lot of nonprofit organizations, and they don't know where to begin. Like, it is their worst nightmare to open Excel and just have to stare at a blank Excel screen and try and put together a template. So I have a I've got a free template at 100 degrees consulting Comcast, and there's a budgeting in cash flow management, template on there that that you can use if you want to check that out.

Josh (00:16:54) - Awesome. Stephanie Ski, founder of 100 Degrees consulting, fractional CFO in the nonprofit world. Your website 100 degrees consulting.com. Stephanie, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us.

Stephanie (00:17:08) - Thank you so much for having me. Josh, I appreciate you.

Josh (00:17:17) - Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit up my influence. Com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world.

Josh (00:17:34) - We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from. I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt in or email required, where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100% inbound in your industry over the next 6 to 8 months, with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to up my influence. Com and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning. That's right, seven days a week you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed. I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes every single day.

Josh (00:18:47) - Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur movement.