If you’ve been around here a while, you know that I love to share practical tips to growing your organization’s impact and income through solid financial management.

I also love to share the behind-the-scenes look into running this business. I absolutely LOVE the work we do, but it’s not always easy and I feel like I’m constantly being presented with learning opportunities to help me grow into a better leader. Since this month marks four years in business, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting lately and wanted to share my biggest business (and life!) lessons learned:

1. Don’t take things personally. I care so deeply about our clients that when something doesn’t go perfectly right, it sits like a brick in my stomach. I’ve lost sleep and challenged my own self-worth at times because someone had a clarifying question about a bank reconciliation. Now I focus on doing my absolute best and know that that’s enough.
2. Don’t let fear hold you back. I have said yes to clients I knew were a bad fit, didn’t speak up when clients were months late in paying invoices (and lost a lot of money), let employees who weren’t a good fit stay on way too long, all because I was afraid of having a difficult conversation or scared a client might leave. (Spoiler alert: when I stood up in courage and took action, things turned out JUST FINE.)
3. What’s right for someone else is not necessarily right for you. As an entrepreneur, you’re responsible for your own professional development, so I’ve spent countless hours devouring information from online business “experts” and entrepreneur “gurus”. While I picked up some useful information along the way, it actually just distracted me and made me feel like my business and life didn’t stack up. Now I focus solely on things that truly bring value to my business and me, and not just what everyone else is doing.

Thank you to YOU, for being a part of this amazing tribe of purpose-driven leaders. Your positive attitude, selflessness in service, and dedication of your life and work to helping other people and inspiring and humbling to me.

I’d love to know the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a leader this year! Leave a comment below and let me know.

PS – Reminder! We created a fun quiz to help you figure out which of these finance pros you need to elevate your organization. Everyone loves a quiz, right?

Entrepreneurs: Take your quiz here! >>>

NonProfits: Take your quiz here! >>>

I love this month. Not only do we get a fresh 90 days to finish out the year strong, but it’s also a celebratory month for me personally. My husband and I just celebrated our nine year wedding anniversary (woohoo!) and this business, 100 Degrees Consulting, celebrated its FOURTH birthday!

Four years ago this month, I sent out my very first email asking nonprofit leaders around the globe if they needed help with their financial management. I was terrified to hit send, but to my great surprise people responded and thus began this journey.

One of the great joys of running this business is partnering with companies, masterminds, and associations to share knowledge and insight on how to better understand, use, and communicate your financials to drive your impact and your income.

During these sessions (which I’ve been doing a TON of lately!), I almost always get asked:

What’s the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant and a CFO?

I’ll break it down for you super quickly today, but even better: we created a fun quiz to help you figure out which of these finance pros you need to elevate your organization. Everyone loves a quiz, right?

Entrepreneurs: Take your quiz here! >>>

NonProfits: Take your quiz here! >>>

• Your bookkeeper manages the daily transactions in your business. She enters your bills, invoices your clients, reconciles your bank accounts, and makes sure the numbers are accurate and booked to the correct categories. She probably knows Quickbooks Online like the back of her hand.
• Your accountant is your tax guru. She understands IRS requirements, business structures, different forms to file, and annual deadlines. She files your taxes and is often a CPA. In nonprofit organizations, your accountant may be your auditor or whomever files your 990.
• Your CFO is your strategic finance fairy godmother. We review and analyze your revenue, expenses, and cash flow, and draw insights and trends from those numbers, giving you more information to make smart decisions for your business. We help with forward-thinking to help grow your impact and income.

Where’s the missing piece in your organization?

PS – Funny story on our humble beginnings four years ago. This photo is my very first headshot. I took it myself by hanging my big, fancy camera from a tree branch in my backyard. I clicked the self-timer button and jumped around the branch about 75 times until I got something halfway decent. Progress over perfection, right?

It was a real honor to sit down with Rank & File for their podcast to talk about financial literacy.

We talked about the financial details you do need to be focusing on monthly (and those you don’t), the three reports you must have and what you must be looking at within them, all so you can continue to grow your revenue and your social impact.

Check it out!

After you are done listening check out my article on the same topic in issue #15 of Rank & File magazine.

Bonus: Sign up for a membership to Rank & File and receive 20% off using code 100DEGREES15 for an annual membership.

Since this Saturday, September 21st is World Gratitude Day, I wanted to take a quick moment and thank you all! Thank you for being a purpose-driven leader who is creating good in the world and making a positive impact on people around the globe. Thank you for being a part of this little tribe of leaders who care about financial sustainability and understand that knowing your numbers is the only way you’ll still be around in a decade. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for supporting this business of mine.

Well then. Excuse me while I wipe away my tears of gratitude.

A couple weeks ago I shared a primer on building a forecast for Q4. As October 1st looms closer, I want to make sure you’re set up for success, especially if you’re feeling a little stuck. So I thought I’d pop in and give a couple more tips on forecasting.

1. Stop striving for perfection. Don’t worry about trying to accurately predict, to the penny, what’s going to happen in Q4. One of my favorite goal-setting gurus, Lara Casey at Cultivate What Matters, always says: Progress not perfection. And in this case, put some educated numbers on paper and then get hustling!

2. Recruit the team. If you have a team leading different functions of your organization, recruit them to create your forecast. We do this with one nonprofit client of ours – each quarter, the department heads all review their own budgets, create their quarterly forecasts, and then we compile everything together. Recruiting your team ensures greater accuracy and buy-in.

3. Use a consistent model. In other words, don’t reinvent the wheel with a brand new spreadsheet. Use the same template as your financial statements or budget and make this process easy on yourself.

I love forecasting because it gives us an opportunity each month or quarter to relook at

our goals and start fresh. Go forth and conquer Q4!

I just got back from a two-day solo business retreat, and it brought so much clarity to my business, 100 Degrees Consulting that I wanted to share exactly how I did it.

A Bit of Background On My Solo BusinessRetreat

I have a team of people who help with client work, marketing, and business administration. However, I don’t have a business partner or anyone who helps create the future vision for my business; that’s all on me as the Founder and CEO of 100 Degrees Consulting.

The intention behind the solo retreat was to get me out of my day-to-day work mode to be able to think bigger, strategize, and work on big projects that are more difficult to accomplish in the typical 2-3 hour chunks of time I have in my regular schedule.

Surprisingly, I found myself two whole days without client meetings, big projects or deadlines, or major family responsibilities, so I decided it was the perfect time to get away. Here’s exactly how I carved out 48 hours for myself and my business AND came home feeling re-energized and productive so that you can give yourself and your business the same gift.

When to Go on A Solo Business Retreat:

It’s important that you have no obligations during the time you want to get away. Even just one client meeting, call, or project will distract you from the creative, strategic, big-picture headspace you’re trying to create, so clear that calendar!

Where to Take a Solo Business Retreat:

I know entrepreneurs who fly themselves halfway around the world for a solo retreat, but I wanted to make the absolute most of my time away and not spend it traveling, so I chose somewhere close to home. My criteria were that the space had to be wildly inspiring and outside of my norm – so, like, a Hilton Garden Inn wouldn’t cut it for me.

I started looking up AirBnbs within a two-hour drive, and Toronto had tons of gorgeous apartments available on my dates, so Toronto it was. The drive was the perfect amount of time to digest a few business podcasts I’d been saving, but not long enough to stop for gas or the bathroom or waste half a day in the car.

I also wanted to make sure I found somewhere with lots of conveniences. For me, that’s mostly centered around parking and food delivery! I didn’t want to deal with annoying street parking or cooking, so as long as off-street parking and Uber Eats were available, I was good. I literally had every single meal delivered directly to my door for two whole days, and it was awesome.

What to Do While Riding Solo:

About a week before my trip, I opened a Google Doc and started listing out every single thing I might want to get done while there.

The list included everything from “relax, read, journal” to goal setting, reviewing metrics, doing intensives with my team, writing five months of emails, updating my online course, planning two launches, etc. I held nothing back and listed out every possible BIG task I could think of.

I started to narrow it down by thinking about my typical work week, schedule, habits, and how I work best. I cut anything that was easily doable during my regular week (e.g., team meetings).

Then, I prioritized what was left into A and B categories.

Here’s what made the cut!

Priority A

1. Goal setting – September, then the current year, then 5-year goals
2. Write September through January content
3. Plan coaching program January launch
4. Record masterclass for Master Your Nonprofit Numbers funnel
5. Make big website updates (adding calls to action, rewriting content, adjusting pages)

Priority B

1. Plan Master Your Nonprofit Numbers launch
2. Revamp Master Your Nonprofit Numbers course
3. Records videos for MYNN launch

Priorities are set, now…

How to Get it Done:

I arrived to the AirBnb on Sunday evening and after I placed my dinner order, I dove right into goal setting. I sat out on the balcony, enjoyed the fresh air and started planning September using my PowerSheets. Pro tip: don’t burn yourself out too early into your retreat! I spent the rest of the night relaxing and organizing myself for the morning.

Since I had gone to bed at 9pm the night before, I was up at 6am and ready to roll. Because I already had a document that listed out my major priorities for my time away, I was easily able to dive in without getting distracted by email or wasting time figuring out where I should start.

That being said, I was flexible with myself. I didn’t feel like recording a masterclass first thing so I wrote email content for several hours before busting out the camera to record the masterclass.

Now, You Might Be Asking…

What If I Don’t Finish?

If you’re anything like me, you might be worried that you will walk away not having finished everything or perhaps with MORE on your to-do list from all of your brilliant brainstorming. Both were the case for me! I didn’t get to anything on my Priority B list and added at least three things to my to-do list.

Give yourself grace! I walked away refreshed and rejuvenated, with a clear plan for my focus for the rest of this year and 2020. Part of that clarity included actually NOT pursuing anything on my B list right now. So, I’m glad I didn’t waste time on it!

What About the Fam?

I am very lucky to have regular childcare for my girl on Mondays and Tuesdays, which is why it was an ideal time to go away. I didn’t have to worry about finding coverage for those days since they were already taken care of. My husband wasn’t traveling, so he just had to cover dinner and bedtime duty solo. I am wildly grateful for a support system that allows this!

What’s Next?

I certainly plan on doing another solo business retreat next year, but for now, I have the clarity I need to really focus my efforts on what will bring the greatest return for me personally and for my business, so I’m off and running!

What do you think?

How would getting away for a couple of days to work on your business change things for you?

(Need a tool to help you map out your revenue and expenses while you’re on your business retreat? Grab our Profit Playbook here!>>>)

In my last few posts I’ve opened up and shared my story about how I felt completely torn between my career and motherhood, how it was really hard for me to accept help, and how I feel like I’ve (finally!) found the perfect balance for my family, my business, and myself.

You saw, though, that it wasn’t an overnight fix. It wasn’t easy to grow my revenue, spend less time on nitty-gritty client work, and more quality time with my family.

I attribute where I am today to just two things: hiring a coach and putting in the work.

I’m SO thrilled to share with you today something I’ve been dreaming up for months:Amplify Your Accounting Agency

Amplify is a six month coaching intensive for high-achieving business owners who want to scale their service business by building an agency and expanding their services, so that they can earn more on a schedule that gives them the freedom they crave.

If you want to build a predictably profitable business that fulfills you and sustains your family, you need a proven, straightforward plan and high-touch feedback from someone who has been there, done that.

Hint: that someone is ME!

​If you’ve built a solid service-based business that has a process or funnel to consistently bring in clients, systems in place to execute the work, and are ready to relinquish a little control to hand work off to a team, then you might be a perfect fit for Amplify.

During our six months together, we will:

1. Clearly define your goals and create an achievable road map to accomplishment. I’m an Enneagram 3, so achieving goals is totally my jam.
2. Define your role as CEO of your company. Maybe you started as a freelancer but in order to achieve your big vision of growing your company, increasing your revenue, and ensuring you don’t work round-the-clock, you need to step into the CEO role. I’ll show you how.
3. Lay out clearly defined action steps. Many entrepreneurs I know have big dreams but aren’t sure which steps to take when. This coaching program has a flexible but defined structure intended for you to get from point A to point B.
4. Provide accountability. We will check in regularly to make sure you’re handling your current portfolio of work and setting in place the building blocks to AMPLIFY!

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>> Head here to fill out the application!

I can’t WAIT to help you AMPLIFY!