#160 - Natalia Zacharin: Master Your Numbers, Fix Your Books & Build a Profitable, Scalable Business

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You can't hire for what you want to be in six months.

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You have to be the business that you are today.

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Welcome back for another great episode.

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We're going to keep this one tight and short because we know the moment that we start
talking about CFOs and finances on business, we have a tendency to get bored.

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However, what I'm going to tell you is that Natalia today is going to make sure that we
are not bored about this subject.

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So, we have the CEO of Zachary and consulting.

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She helps business owners turn their numbers into strategy, clarity, and confidence.

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She's grown her firm from a small startup into a multimillion dollar business, earning a
spot on the Inc 5000 list.

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Beyond bookkeeping and accounting, Natalia teaches entrepreneurs, which is a ton of us,
how to think strategically about cashflow, profitability, and scaling their business with

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intention.

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Natalia, welcome to the show.

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It is great to have you here.

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Thank you so much, Mark.

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I'm super excited to be here.

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I'm excited to have you turn what's a boring and sometimes mind numbing part of our
business.

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And it's the, I'm, you gotta have it.

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You have to understand the finances and the cashflow, but at times it wears us out.

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Those of us that are salespeople and we have these visions for our lives and we have all
this charisma.

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It's like, do not slow me down to deal with all that.

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But then you're here to rescue us and say, if you don't get that together, you're not
going to be able to fulfill your vision and your dream.

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So this thing started for you, I believe in 2019.

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That's, yes, correct.

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You are a self-taught, what's become a brilliant financial mind helping entrepreneurs and
business owners.

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How the heck have you become a self-taught expert in this area in just six short years?

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think it's a combination of uh that door opened for me and I opened it.

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The opportunity presented itself.

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I was desperate to change my life.

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I wasn't getting opportunities in the corporate world.

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In fact, I was getting demoted and struggling to make ends meet and I got sick of the
struggle.

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um And then I just start seeing, uh I think it's the way my brain works also.

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So some of us,

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are wired to see things differently and I can see patterns in numbers.

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So numbers to me are almost like a plumbing in a household.

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Seeing like where things are a little bit stuck, where things are slow, where things are
flowing really well.

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So for me, it's almost like a picture in my mind when I see numbers.

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And you said, I'm going to open the door.

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and I'm gonna open the door.

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And I did not know that what the opportunity was going to be.

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I was just kind of like, well, you know, I can move in this direction and see what happens
and just put one foot ahead of the other and kind of see what happens.

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And I never really had any expectations.

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And I think that's why I wasn't, and I think that's why I continued because I didn't have
all these huge expectations.

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I had no idea what was gonna happen.

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So I was very open to it.

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So how did you convince yourself to get started and keep going though if you didn't have
expectations?

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So I was being demoted in my job and I was looking for other opportunities and no one was
hiring.

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I couldn't even get an interview.

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At that time, I was in my late 40s, single mom.

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I had been struggling on and off financially.

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And I met this guy who is now my fiance and he owns his own accounting firm.

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And I'm sitting with him in a coffee shop and he says to me,

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Why don't you start your own business and it never even occurred to me as an option never
I'd have been a W to my entire life and it wasn't even something like you know, like if

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you're a chef and you're Fantastic at cooking it makes sense that maybe you want to open
up a restaurant So I was never an accountant.

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I had no experience.

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I was a salesperson a million years ago for Reynolds That was like 30 years ago now and
then I was a stay-at-home mom for several years and then I was an invoicing clerk

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So exciting!

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And he said, why don't you start your own business?

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And I said, doing what?

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And he said, well, how about bookkeeping?

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And I thought, hey, you know, like I could figure out bookkeeping and just sell it on the
side and make some extra cash.

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And that's kind of where the idea started was I just thought it'd be a side gig to make a
little bit extra money.

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So tell us that transition then from the side gig to then having this idea that I see this
potential and what it can really be.

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This can only be a full-time career, my job, but look, maybe how it'll change my life.

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What happened because so many people do start with a side gig or a side hustle, but they
find it almost impossible mentally to have this jumping off point.

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I knew that I would have to give up my job.

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um I was still working full time.

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I was working on getting clients and working through this little eight week program on how
to start your own business.

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Cause I didn't know anything about starting businesses.

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So I would do that in the night and the evenings, weekends at lunch hour.

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So basically I was working a lot more than I ever had before and making less.

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And it got to the point.

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mid-year where I wasn't making enough to have a jumping off point, but I was overwhelmed
that I couldn't do both anymore.

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And so I had actually listened to a friend who had, was giving a lecture and she was a
recovering meth addict.

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And she was talking about just burning the bridges of the past and moving forward and how
the universe will align with you.

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And I was like, well, that sounds a little bit woo woo, but I don't really have any other
options.

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So I'm just going to go ahead and quit my job and try to do this a hundred percent of the
time.

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Because if I can get a couple of clients by doing this part-time, I should be able to get
a couple more clients and at least make ends meet doing this full time.

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And so in August, 2019, then month I turned 50, I quit my job and I, by November, I
tripled my client load, which wasn't a lot.

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It was only 12.

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But it sounds like a lot when I say tripled.

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Well, upon, but before that, know, two or three months before that 12 was a lot.

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12, yes, 12 was the difference between me being able to pay mortgage and my expenses and
not being able to pay them.

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So it just, took six months to really figure out, can I do this?

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Can I sell and will someone buy from me?

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And then when I started getting that confidence that it's possible and I just have to get
better at closing people and that's just a skill then I went all in.

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Yeah.

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You know, that place that you were at when you asked yourself, can I?

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See now you already knew that you were already capable and you could.

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What do you think happened in our lives?

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We'll get into the minutia of the business, but what, there's so many people that are
asking the same question.

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Can I, and what I know so often and I'm like, well, of course you can.

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What happened then?

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did that change for you at 50?

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Because I know you said you didn't have any other option, but here's how I know you did.

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Maybe your brain said you didn't, but you could have accepted just continuous repetitive
positions being in employee places.

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True.

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I think part of it was I was tired of struggling and I wanted to thrive.

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And I was like, if I can't figure this out now, I'm getting to the point where I'm never
gonna figure it out.

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So this is it.

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And I didn't want to struggle anymore.

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I had been struggling for years.

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So I'd been single mom since 2012.

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So it had been a long haul of my mom helping me and because I couldn't make my mortgage
payment and my mortgage was cheaper than getting an apartment and my house was falling

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apart around me because I couldn't afford to hire anybody to fix it.

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And so it was just this ongoing where like if the dog got sick and it cost me 500 bucks,
that was six months of paying $500 off if I could.

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And I was just tired of this struggle.

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And I really was like, I need to figure this out.

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And if I can't figure it out and I didn't ever, and I know a lot of people are like, well,
why didn't you marry someone with money?

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I didn't feel like that was an option because it came out of a bad marriage.

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I wanted to do it myself.

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you.

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Um, what would you go back and tell in 2012 and 13 in the beginning of that single mom
moment?

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Do you think that you needed to travel that journey all the way through to 2019 and all
that struggle, or would you now go back then and tell that Natalia something?

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I think I needed to go through that struggle to get to where I am today.

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I can see the path now from everything that I've been through to now and how that's helped
develop who I am.

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But I think the one thing that I would tell myself going backwards is to believe more in
myself.

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I always had feelings that I could do more and I could figure out more.

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But the world and people will keep saying, no, you can't, no, you can't until you just
say, yes, I can and you just do it.

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All right, and now we're here in 2025, giving this to advice to all us business owners
that have books that are a mess and a disaster.

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Oh yes, I know they have books that are mess and a disaster because about 95 % of new
clients have books that are a mess and a disaster.

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Um, how does that first conversation go when you reach out to someone, whether you're
prospecting them or they find out about you through a referral, um, the best ones are the

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referrals, right?

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Um, but where does that conversation start?

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I start by asking them what's been going on and what are their challenges and why are they
talking to me?

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Because that's a great way to start any kind of sales call.

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Because sales is psychological, it's not intuitive.

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you do want to dig in and understand what their needs are um and then fill in with what
you have the solution.

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um So it's always like where you've been and where do you want to go?

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And most...

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Most of the people that we talk to have no idea financially where they stand.

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And even if they have good financials, they have no idea how to interpret those to better
their situation or to get to the next level.

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Do you find you hear these same repetitive categorized problems?

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Like when you ask the question, you already now know like here's the two or three things
that are going to come.

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I a hundred percent know when I'm asking the question, what the answer will be at this
point.

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I've talked to thousands of people at this point.

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Um, and I'm still in sales.

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love sales.

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do have a sales team, but I'm still in sales.

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So I love having my pulse on what's happening out there with, um, entrepreneurs with
business owners and, um, and explaining to them that they, even if they decide not to work

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with us, like here's the way it should be.

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If you work with someone else.

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So I don't need you to work with us, but I want you to know what your next steps are so
you can make better decisions.

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When people ask you advice, like if I were to ask you three or four questions, is the
context necessary on the category of sales volume of a business?

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Is it like zero to a million, a million to two million, two to five million?

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Or do you give different answers about strategy based upon those segments?

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Or does it all apply generally for everyone?

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There are certain metrics that are universal.

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uh Revenue is the metric that drives everything else.

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And if you want to grow revenue and improve profit and improve cash in the bank, usually
that has something to do with the revenue also.

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So a lot of the metrics are based on that, but every industry is very different.

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the strategies that we would tell, for instance, uh a restaurant owner or a pharmaceutical
business owner,

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is going to be different than someone who owns a marketing agency.

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Very different.

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Why is that?

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Because the generation, the margins, the cash flow, it all comes differently?

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Is that why?

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Yes, because some businesses, like if you're in a service-based business, you don't really
have cost of goods sold.

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And the cost of goods sold is really going to drive the strategy differently.

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For instance, like a restaurant will have a very high cost of goods sold.

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Also, a restaurant will have a lower labor cost, but a service-based agency will have a
higher labor cost.

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So all those things play into where we want them to be.

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Now, I don't like industry standards.

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the friends in the typical counting firm grows eight percent a year and they are about
twenty percent profitability and i'm like that's blow that out of the water.

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I don't look at benchmarks i want us to blow those benchmarks out of the water.

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Is the first step asking someone what your problem is, but then the second step is it
asking like, what are your goals?

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Does that matter?

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Like, what do you want to do?

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What do you want to do?

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That always matters.

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The exit strategy or the strategy of like what we're going to do in the next couple of
years is really, really important.

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Like, do you want to sell this?

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Is it sellable?

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Is it something that you can create as an asset?

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That's going to make a really big difference in what we're planning on doing and also what
services we want.

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So for instance, if you're just self-employed, like if you are a heart surgeon and you are
basically self-employed, you're 1099 and you don't really need any employees, you're not

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going to...

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hire other heart surgeons, that's just what you do, but you have your own LLC, that's a
totally different model and that's not sellable.

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um But you can still build wealth.

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Whereas if you're building and scaling a company with employees and they keep reproducing
what you're doing, um for instance, like, I don't know, in an IT firm, uh then that could

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be a sellable asset.

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And maybe you wanna sell it in a couple of years, maybe you don't.

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but it's good to start working on what does that look like to make it sellable because
that's going to make a healthier business also and a more profitable business.

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We all like profit.

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Yeah, we all want to build wealth.

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thing.

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Yeah.

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Yep.

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And you need profit.

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You need profit to do that.

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Um, if you were going to start a different business for everything that you've seen over
these past six years, if you weren't going to have your accounting and accounting

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consulting firm, if you weren't going to be a financial coach, what business would you
start?

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Oh, I would actually start a landscaping business.

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am a plant fool.

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I, uh, so in my past life or, uh, or my, uh, my second life, I feel like I live nine lives
because I'm, uh, uh, I love what I do here, but I also have hobbies and other things that

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I really enjoy doing.

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And one of them is plants.

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And, um, I wanted to be a master.

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I was a master gardener for quite a bit of time and I wanted to work as a landscape
designer.

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Uh, and then I.

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I was accepted into George Mason University um when I was a single mom, but I decided to
opt out because in the years that it would have taken me to get that degree and then

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there's no certainty or guarantee that you're even going to make a lot of money, I had to
go right into just working.

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So I'd go back and open up a landscaping firm.

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um So what do we do then to tell people to chase their passion?

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There's we're not I'm not Sam.

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It's a question.

205
00:15:55,482 --> 00:15:58,508
It's like hey would your advice be to chase your passion or not?

206
00:15:58,508 --> 00:16:05,472
Yes, I don't know if, so some people say chase your passion, the money will come.

207
00:16:05,472 --> 00:16:08,278
I don't know if I believe that this wasn't my passion.

208
00:16:08,278 --> 00:16:12,766
I chased it to build something to help me survive.

209
00:16:12,766 --> 00:16:14,287
And now it's become my passion.

210
00:16:14,287 --> 00:16:17,069
So you don't necessarily have to be passionate about something.

211
00:16:17,069 --> 00:16:18,950
You can become passionate about it.

212
00:16:18,950 --> 00:16:20,851
I'm a true believer of that.

213
00:16:21,011 --> 00:16:25,644
And I don't know if everybody's passion is going to make them money, but there are
strategies to make money.

214
00:16:25,644 --> 00:16:33,802
And so you're gonna have to do things that maybe are counterintuitive or you don't like
doing if you want to be a business owner and if you want to be successful.

215
00:16:33,802 --> 00:16:37,665
We all have to do the things that we're uncomfortable with and get out of our comfort
zone.

216
00:16:38,194 --> 00:16:44,211
And it's usually the things that we're the least comfortable with and we really don't
wanna do that are most important things to do.

217
00:16:44,494 --> 00:16:46,774
So passion helps to get over that.

218
00:16:47,714 --> 00:16:49,715
Give me a strategy then to make money.

219
00:16:50,734 --> 00:16:58,166
strategy to make money, I would say you have to have a market that wants what you're
selling.

220
00:16:58,894 --> 00:17:00,140
product market fit.

221
00:17:00,140 --> 00:17:01,070
Yes.

222
00:17:02,191 --> 00:17:02,991
Yes.

223
00:17:02,991 --> 00:17:04,651
And don't worry about competition.

224
00:17:04,651 --> 00:17:05,472
My goodness.

225
00:17:05,472 --> 00:17:13,234
Everybody with a computer can be an accountant and they are these days.

226
00:17:13,274 --> 00:17:19,876
If there's a barrier to entry, certainly helps, but then you will also have that barrier
to overcome.

227
00:17:19,876 --> 00:17:23,417
And usually the barrier to entry is either going to be education or money.

228
00:17:23,417 --> 00:17:28,344
um So that could cost you a lot of money and you're starting.

229
00:17:28,344 --> 00:17:33,506
below zero at that point to overcome whatever you've had to do in that barrier of entry.

230
00:17:33,506 --> 00:17:35,597
So you do have to consider that.

231
00:17:35,597 --> 00:17:45,311
But if there's no barrier of entry, meaning you could just pick up a computer, learn a
couple of things, and become a bookkeeper, which a lot of people do, then there's a lot of

232
00:17:45,311 --> 00:17:46,742
competition.

233
00:17:46,842 --> 00:17:56,256
But then you have to, the only way to be successful in that is to really understand your
value and understand what problems there are out there so that you're a solution for them.

234
00:17:56,760 --> 00:17:59,541
So you are a financial coach.

235
00:18:01,730 --> 00:18:05,451
What does your brain tell you that responsibility and that role is?

236
00:18:06,168 --> 00:18:09,259
That responsibility is a couple of things.

237
00:18:09,259 --> 00:18:15,150
I truly believe that a financial coach or uh it's a fractional CFO, everything is led by
the numbers.

238
00:18:15,150 --> 00:18:22,322
The numbers just tell us a story of what's happening and, and give us a measurement of
success.

239
00:18:22,322 --> 00:18:23,213
It just gives us data.

240
00:18:23,213 --> 00:18:24,203
That's all it is, right?

241
00:18:24,203 --> 00:18:25,343
It's just data.

242
00:18:25,343 --> 00:18:30,184
And, uh, there's a couple of things that go into that.

243
00:18:30,225 --> 00:18:31,375
The numbers are really important.

244
00:18:31,375 --> 00:18:32,375
The data is really important.

245
00:18:32,375 --> 00:18:36,140
The trend is really important, but also we talk about mindset.

246
00:18:36,140 --> 00:18:45,513
And we talk about focus because as a business owner, you are getting pulled in a million
different directions and understanding and validating that this is going to be the most

247
00:18:45,513 --> 00:18:54,936
important step that you need to do to make the biggest impact and having someone that
helps to focus you in and pull really back in to do that and maybe do the uncomfortable

248
00:18:54,936 --> 00:18:56,877
thing like reaching out to people.

249
00:18:57,477 --> 00:19:00,288
That's where the coaching comes from also.

250
00:19:00,984 --> 00:19:05,347
So you know, lot of therapy, what are you talking about?

251
00:19:05,347 --> 00:19:05,898
Right.

252
00:19:05,898 --> 00:19:06,478
Yeah.

253
00:19:06,478 --> 00:19:06,899
Yeah.

254
00:19:06,899 --> 00:19:10,622
Um, so you invoked a fractional CFO, right?

255
00:19:10,622 --> 00:19:15,225
Cause that that's what you are in a combination of financial coach and all the other
things building your business.

256
00:19:15,445 --> 00:19:22,010
Give us a simplistic way to understand for the business owner that's struggling with books
and thinking they need some accounting help.

257
00:19:22,010 --> 00:19:23,481
What is a fractional CFO?

258
00:19:23,481 --> 00:19:27,170
Because they're probably not making enough right now.

259
00:19:27,170 --> 00:19:28,771
to pay a full-time CFO.

260
00:19:28,771 --> 00:19:31,093
That's a very expensive role inside of a company.

261
00:19:31,093 --> 00:19:32,725
And then what is a fractional CFO?

262
00:19:32,725 --> 00:19:40,212
And then we can talk about, then how do we know when we need to go from a fractional CFO
to a true in-house on-site CFO?

263
00:19:40,312 --> 00:19:41,483
Yes.

264
00:19:41,483 --> 00:19:47,485
So let's actually start with the true uh full-time onsite CFO.

265
00:19:47,485 --> 00:19:55,209
A business that's getting over 10 million in gross revenue, uh obviously it's going to
also depend on your profit because it's a very expensive position.

266
00:19:55,209 --> 00:20:04,052
But that's when we start getting close to wanting to have an in-house financial
department, including at that point probably a controller.

267
00:20:04,052 --> 00:20:07,454
And as you get over 15 or 20 million, you want to definitely have a CFO.

268
00:20:08,044 --> 00:20:11,277
because that person is going to get you to that next level.

269
00:20:11,277 --> 00:20:19,604
The problem with being a CEO or being the owner is that you can't do everything and you
will have to do everything in the beginning, but as you grow and scale, there's gonna be

270
00:20:19,604 --> 00:20:26,810
people between you and your other people that you have now to keep building you up and
getting you to that next level.

271
00:20:26,810 --> 00:20:36,497
In the interim, because not all of us can go from zero to 10 million overnight, and some
of us never do, it's a very, very, very small percentage that do,

272
00:20:36,974 --> 00:20:45,394
But in the interim, you have someone that's on a fractional level, meaning that it's not a
full-time employee.

273
00:20:45,394 --> 00:20:46,354
It's not an employee at all.

274
00:20:46,354 --> 00:20:50,154
It's a contractor, so you don't have to pay benefits or taxes.

275
00:20:50,314 --> 00:21:02,394
And instead of paying an over $200,000 to $250,000 salary and up for a CFO, you're now
paying a teeny tiny percentage of that.

276
00:21:03,014 --> 00:21:06,454
When does it make sense to hire a fractional CFO?

277
00:21:06,702 --> 00:21:09,562
that depends a lot on where you're headed.

278
00:21:09,562 --> 00:21:14,122
So I'd say if you're at a million dollars and up, that's always a good time.

279
00:21:14,282 --> 00:21:20,422
If you are smaller than that, but you are scaling, then you can hire sooner.

280
00:21:20,422 --> 00:21:23,862
So we're actually seeing people hiring us sooner and sooner, earlier and earlier.

281
00:21:23,862 --> 00:21:27,722
I have a couple of clients in a $350,000 gross revenue range.

282
00:21:27,722 --> 00:21:34,842
And then we also have clients up through 35 million in gross revenue range too.

283
00:21:35,182 --> 00:21:44,042
The great thing about having a fractional CFO that you don't have when you're hiring
someone in-house is that they get to see a lot of different companies in different

284
00:21:44,042 --> 00:21:48,142
industries and they start seeing patterns of what works.

285
00:21:48,142 --> 00:21:56,962
Instead of just being stuck in one industry and one company for multiple years, we can
start seeing what's happening in the economy and the mindsets and the strategies that are

286
00:21:56,962 --> 00:22:00,602
working across multiple people in multiple industries.

287
00:22:00,602 --> 00:22:02,840
And so we start working on those patterns.

288
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:05,982
And I think that's what makes us better and better and better at what we do.

289
00:22:06,870 --> 00:22:17,346
On your internal meetings for your team, um are there some consistent themes about
mistakes that you see business owners continuously making?

290
00:22:17,346 --> 00:22:25,939
Yes, first of all, hiring up uh the problem with hiring a bad bookkeeper or someone that
doesn't really know how to do bookkeeping well is that the business owner doesn't know.

291
00:22:25,939 --> 00:22:30,410
They don't know how to read their financials, so they won't know the financials are wrong.

292
00:22:31,090 --> 00:22:33,341
that is the foundation of everything.

293
00:22:33,341 --> 00:22:39,193
If you don't have good financials or up to date consistently up to date financials, you
can't make decisions.

294
00:22:39,193 --> 00:22:39,853
You just can't.

295
00:22:39,853 --> 00:22:44,064
You're kind of making decisions on a hunch rather than on data.

296
00:22:44,232 --> 00:22:47,404
And, and as we know, hunches can be really emotional.

297
00:22:47,404 --> 00:22:50,636
they, um, you'll, you'll look at the cash in the bank and you think you're doing great.

298
00:22:50,636 --> 00:22:52,305
And then in a week, your cash is all gone.

299
00:22:52,305 --> 00:22:53,568
You're like, happened?

300
00:22:54,049 --> 00:22:55,180
That's not a good indicator.

301
00:22:55,180 --> 00:22:57,391
Um, so there's no planning involved.

302
00:22:57,391 --> 00:23:03,255
Um, so that's one of the things is, is not having a good or consistent bookkeeping.

303
00:23:03,255 --> 00:23:13,722
Um, another thing is, I think entrepreneurs or business owners don't understand that
they're that profit and cash are two different things.

304
00:23:13,832 --> 00:23:18,655
Um, they, they do impact one another, but they're completely different.

305
00:23:18,655 --> 00:23:23,328
So you can show like a $200,000 profit and only have 5,000 in the bank.

306
00:23:23,328 --> 00:23:24,988
And you're like, what happened?

307
00:23:25,249 --> 00:23:34,434
And that is a consistent question that I have of like, we're showing that we're profitable
and I all these taxes now, but I don't have any cash.

308
00:23:34,434 --> 00:23:36,596
And that could be for several reasons.

309
00:23:36,596 --> 00:23:39,017
Usually it's because it's not on the profit and loss.

310
00:23:39,017 --> 00:23:40,894
Um, so the cash.

311
00:23:40,894 --> 00:23:44,315
is actually showing on the cash flow statement or on the balance sheet.

312
00:23:44,315 --> 00:23:46,316
I know we might be getting a little boring right now.

313
00:23:46,316 --> 00:23:47,456
No, go into it.

314
00:23:47,456 --> 00:23:48,036
Yeah.

315
00:23:48,036 --> 00:23:50,507
But basically that's like, you have gold credit card debt?

316
00:23:50,507 --> 00:23:53,578
Do you have a bunch of loans and you're paying principal on those loans?

317
00:23:53,578 --> 00:23:56,079
um Are you taking distributions out?

318
00:23:56,079 --> 00:24:05,061
um And so all of those little things add up or personal expenses even that are going
through the business, all those little things add up and that's where your cash is going.

319
00:24:05,061 --> 00:24:07,222
And then cash flow.

320
00:24:07,222 --> 00:24:09,833
it's actually something you might have more control over than you think.

321
00:24:09,833 --> 00:24:13,766
That's basically the money going in as opposed to the money going out.

322
00:24:13,766 --> 00:24:18,188
So what you want to do is improve or increase the money coming in your revenue.

323
00:24:18,188 --> 00:24:19,889
Can you get that faster?

324
00:24:19,889 --> 00:24:22,110
Can you make it as a subscription?

325
00:24:22,271 --> 00:24:24,492
Can you have, you know, do on receipt?

326
00:24:24,492 --> 00:24:27,443
Can you just take their payment method and charge them when you're done?

327
00:24:27,443 --> 00:24:31,866
Like how can you improve your cash coming in and then your cash going out?

328
00:24:31,866 --> 00:24:33,697
How can you slow that down?

329
00:24:33,697 --> 00:24:35,630
And that doesn't necessarily mean

330
00:24:35,630 --> 00:24:44,718
um decreasing your expenses but sometimes that means can you have terms with some of your
vendors that you can slow down cash so you have an opportunity to pay a little bit later

331
00:24:44,718 --> 00:24:49,326
or instead of paying something off right away using debt to your advantage.

332
00:24:49,326 --> 00:24:51,494
So there's like a lot and that's why it's so confusing.

333
00:24:51,494 --> 00:24:58,070
There's a lot of like little leavers that just you could just tweak that lever just a tiny
bit and it'll make a really big difference.

334
00:24:58,092 --> 00:24:58,633
wild, it?

335
00:24:58,633 --> 00:25:04,940
Because you can be talking about the same money coming in and all this kind of goes into
cash flow management, does it not?

336
00:25:05,038 --> 00:25:13,971
cash flow management and then looking at one of the other biggest things that I see all
the time is too much labor cost and the revenue can't sustain it.

337
00:25:13,971 --> 00:25:16,414
That happens over and over and over again.

338
00:25:16,876 --> 00:25:18,029
What happens there?

339
00:25:18,029 --> 00:25:20,052
How's the labor cost?

340
00:25:20,052 --> 00:25:22,766
How's that become outpaced on the revenue coming in?

341
00:25:22,766 --> 00:25:25,708
ah That is going to be for several different reasons.

342
00:25:25,708 --> 00:25:29,472
Reason number one, your pricing is not in scope.

343
00:25:29,472 --> 00:25:31,173
So your pricing is not good enough.

344
00:25:31,173 --> 00:25:32,134
It's not high enough.

345
00:25:32,134 --> 00:25:35,997
Maybe you're doing extra things that weren't even in the engagement.

346
00:25:35,997 --> 00:25:38,879
Maybe you're not charging enough for whatever you're doing.

347
00:25:38,879 --> 00:25:41,140
Maybe you're selling something, you're not charging enough.

348
00:25:41,181 --> 00:25:43,523
You have to look at your gross profit.

349
00:25:43,523 --> 00:25:44,704
there's a lot of...

350
00:25:44,704 --> 00:25:48,306
you start at the top line, like is it a pricing problem?

351
00:25:48,807 --> 00:25:52,820
Or maybe you don't have enough revenue, enough clients coming in.

352
00:25:52,918 --> 00:25:55,200
Um, that's, that could be one of the problems.

353
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:59,654
Another problem could be not having the right fit in the, in the right seat.

354
00:25:59,654 --> 00:26:11,315
Uh, people talk about that a lot, but as a small business owner, you're, you have to, you
don't have an, you know, you can't just hire people because it was your, um, son's

355
00:26:11,315 --> 00:26:13,396
girlfriend and you're trying to help them out or something like that.

356
00:26:13,396 --> 00:26:18,761
You have to hire people that are extremely efficient, really good at what they do and very
productive.

357
00:26:18,761 --> 00:26:19,766
And so if that.

358
00:26:19,766 --> 00:26:27,048
If your pricing is good, but your labor cost is too high, that could be an efficiency
problem, even if they're salaried.

359
00:26:27,048 --> 00:26:29,569
So it doesn't matter if they're hourly employees or salaried.

360
00:26:29,569 --> 00:26:39,682
If they're not getting the job done quickly, accurately, and efficiently, that's going to
drive up your labor cost also, because they can't get the job done as quickly as someone

361
00:26:39,682 --> 00:26:40,822
else.

362
00:26:40,822 --> 00:26:43,073
So those are just a couple of things that we look at.

363
00:26:43,073 --> 00:26:47,746
And we're not human resources specialists, and that's definitely not something that I want
to get into.

364
00:26:47,746 --> 00:26:52,712
But we can see in the numbers that there's a problem here and that's where that
conversation starts.

365
00:26:52,712 --> 00:26:58,728
And through that conversation is where we start getting into the nitty gritty of what is
actually happening.

366
00:27:00,142 --> 00:27:04,549
How far out have you found that forecasting is really practical and pragmatic?

367
00:27:04,549 --> 00:27:05,911
Like how far out?

368
00:27:05,911 --> 00:27:11,008
We have these quotes of three years, five years, seven years, but man, a lot of things
change and they change fast.

369
00:27:11,138 --> 00:27:16,800
I think three years, five years, seven years is good to know like what's your goal and
your stretch goal.

370
00:27:16,861 --> 00:27:20,802
I eh don't know if you can actually forecast that far out.

371
00:27:20,802 --> 00:27:21,993
It depends on the industry.

372
00:27:21,993 --> 00:27:32,447
Like if you're in manufacturing and maybe that is the, or if you have a uh sales cycle
that takes a year to close, then you probably want to forecast further out.

373
00:27:32,447 --> 00:27:37,470
Most of us have a very quick sales cycle and we don't have manufacturing that we have to
wait for.

374
00:27:37,470 --> 00:27:38,698
uh So.

375
00:27:38,698 --> 00:27:43,539
I would say forecasting for 12 months is probably sufficient.

376
00:27:43,539 --> 00:27:55,633
What we want to see is in three to six months, if something happens, like you lose your
biggest client or you hire this new person, what happens in three to six months that

377
00:27:55,633 --> 00:28:07,046
either improves or decreases your profit or your cash so that now you have time that if
you can see you run out of cash, now you have time to make changes before you run out of

378
00:28:07,046 --> 00:28:07,916
cash.

379
00:28:09,561 --> 00:28:18,154
How often these plans you put together with your clients, how often do they follow the
path and they come to fruition the way that they were thought or intended?

380
00:28:19,384 --> 00:28:21,105
think it depends on the person.

381
00:28:21,105 --> 00:28:31,120
So we've had where we have a plan and the plan is you need to hire because you can't scale
and you told me you want to scale.

382
00:28:31,761 --> 00:28:35,302
like if you're telling me you want to do this, that's going to be the plan.

383
00:28:35,623 --> 00:28:41,060
So we meet every single month and you're not hiring and you're not scaling and you have
all these excuses.

384
00:28:41,060 --> 00:28:44,077
I'm going to call you out on that or my CFO is going to call you out on that.

385
00:28:44,077 --> 00:28:46,268
And is that what you really want?

386
00:28:46,869 --> 00:28:49,088
So there's sometimes that, but

387
00:28:49,088 --> 00:28:53,581
If they're following the plan, tell me, I want to grow a million dollars next year.

388
00:28:53,581 --> 00:28:57,744
We plan that out, taking into consideration any kind of seasonality.

389
00:28:57,744 --> 00:29:00,967
uh You know, what is the average client cost?

390
00:29:00,967 --> 00:29:02,017
How many clients do they need?

391
00:29:02,017 --> 00:29:03,989
How can we make it more predictable?

392
00:29:03,989 --> 00:29:05,269
What does the marketing look like?

393
00:29:05,269 --> 00:29:06,571
Are we getting a return?

394
00:29:06,571 --> 00:29:07,952
How many people are they talking to?

395
00:29:07,952 --> 00:29:08,872
How many leads do they have?

396
00:29:08,872 --> 00:29:09,683
How many are they closing?

397
00:29:09,683 --> 00:29:11,715
Like those are all numbers and all data.

398
00:29:11,715 --> 00:29:13,856
So we can actually plan that out.

399
00:29:13,856 --> 00:29:15,567
And then every month we look at it.

400
00:29:15,567 --> 00:29:16,782
And if they tell me,

401
00:29:16,782 --> 00:29:21,042
I want to have an average of 25 calls a month and they only hit 20.

402
00:29:21,042 --> 00:29:29,462
Now we know that we need to go down the line and look at the marketing and see what's
going on there or down the line and see like maybe that is seasonal and next month they're

403
00:29:29,462 --> 00:29:33,102
going to have 35 calls because it will fluctuate.

404
00:29:33,102 --> 00:29:35,182
But overall, it's really been helpful.

405
00:29:35,182 --> 00:29:45,172
We had a client that lost over a million dollars and I think it was like 1.5 million
dollars like overnight in business because one of their bigger clients

406
00:29:45,172 --> 00:29:49,083
merged with another client and they left them as a marketing agency.

407
00:29:49,184 --> 00:29:54,305
And so the plan was, what do we need to do to do damage control?

408
00:29:54,305 --> 00:29:57,296
Because yes, you can make up a million dollars, but it's going to take a while.

409
00:29:57,296 --> 00:30:01,267
And right now you've got all these people that you're paying and all these expenses that
you have.

410
00:30:01,267 --> 00:30:06,390
And how do we do damage control so you don't end up being in the hole?

411
00:30:06,958 --> 00:30:12,546
$120,000 a month service service income just going away

412
00:30:12,546 --> 00:30:13,726
Going away.

413
00:30:13,887 --> 00:30:16,719
And the biggest thing is that was a uh marketing agency.

414
00:30:16,719 --> 00:30:17,830
So was a lot of labor.

415
00:30:17,830 --> 00:30:27,967
We had to go through every single person and cut them and have a skeleton crew because you
can't hire for what you want to be in six months.

416
00:30:27,967 --> 00:30:33,500
You have to be the business that you are today with taking into consideration where you
want to be in six months.

417
00:30:33,581 --> 00:30:35,122
And that's really painful.

418
00:30:35,122 --> 00:30:40,185
And that's why like people need a lot of support and things will fluctuate over time.

419
00:30:40,406 --> 00:30:41,446
So.

420
00:30:41,464 --> 00:30:45,664
there's going to be different things that pop up that people need help with and support
with.

421
00:30:45,826 --> 00:30:52,680
So you chose one of the most difficult things, if not the most difficult avenue to help
and work with business owners on.

422
00:30:54,562 --> 00:30:57,484
Probably, I'll tell you why I chose it.

423
00:30:57,885 --> 00:31:01,622
So I remember the story, I was like, yeah, I can do bookkeeping.

424
00:31:01,622 --> 00:31:03,309
I didn't know how to do bookkeeping.

425
00:31:03,309 --> 00:31:04,971
I sold my first client.

426
00:31:04,971 --> 00:31:10,135
I sent out like a LinkedIn message and someone responded and I talked to him and he
closed.

427
00:31:10,135 --> 00:31:12,517
And then I was like, shoot, now I need to learn bookkeeping.

428
00:31:13,738 --> 00:31:16,380
I went on YouTube and I taught myself bookkeeping.

429
00:31:16,401 --> 00:31:17,941
He's still a client.

430
00:31:18,502 --> 00:31:20,904
One of my favorite clients still.

431
00:31:20,904 --> 00:31:21,525
And what...

432
00:31:21,525 --> 00:31:23,246
uh

433
00:31:23,246 --> 00:31:29,611
happened was when I was doing all those sales calls, again, product market fit, right?

434
00:31:29,611 --> 00:31:33,404
I'm asking these questions, you know, what do they do to evaluate profitability?

435
00:31:33,404 --> 00:31:34,650
Do they have any financials?

436
00:31:34,650 --> 00:31:41,321
And they're like, well, the bookkeeping is, you know, great, I need that, but I don't
understand what to do when I have my financials.

437
00:31:41,321 --> 00:31:46,165
And so that was a recurring question over and over again, like I need to improve my
profit.

438
00:31:46,165 --> 00:31:47,486
I don't have enough cash.

439
00:31:47,486 --> 00:31:48,857
I need to know what I need to do.

440
00:31:48,857 --> 00:31:51,009
Like when I, when can I hire someone?

441
00:31:51,009 --> 00:31:52,258
What does that look like?

442
00:31:52,258 --> 00:31:54,619
And so all these questions kept coming up.

443
00:31:54,619 --> 00:32:05,702
in 2021, January, 2021, so two years exactly from the day that I got the first client, I
rolled out the CFO engagement.

444
00:32:05,962 --> 00:32:08,883
And the way I learned was through my own business.

445
00:32:08,883 --> 00:32:13,434
I truly believe in hiring coaches and masterminds.

446
00:32:13,434 --> 00:32:20,706
And I do that all throughout my life because if you want to get from point A to point B,
the fastest way to get there is to have someone to show you.

447
00:32:20,830 --> 00:32:23,201
Um, and that's what the CFO engagement also does.

448
00:32:23,201 --> 00:32:32,513
So I have my own masterminds also that I go to, um, learning a lot, reading a lot, uh,
and, building my own business as well.

449
00:32:32,513 --> 00:32:36,094
Um, and was I great in 2021 when I first started?

450
00:32:36,094 --> 00:32:39,335
No, but I still was better than who was hiring me.

451
00:32:39,335 --> 00:32:41,056
Cause I was really focused on that.

452
00:32:41,056 --> 00:32:44,957
Um, and now, and now I'd say we're actually really great at it.

453
00:32:44,957 --> 00:32:49,278
It's been, you know, we're five years in, uh, four years and four years.

454
00:32:49,794 --> 00:32:50,054
Yeah.

455
00:32:50,054 --> 00:32:55,004
you, there's these, all these stats about businesses surviving beyond three and beyond
five, you get over five.

456
00:32:55,004 --> 00:32:56,726
You're pretty much here to stay.

457
00:32:57,422 --> 00:33:01,142
Yes, even though you might not feel like it sometimes, but yes.

458
00:33:01,198 --> 00:33:05,310
The good news is, is you actually have a, a, a true choice then.

459
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:09,869
Yes, it's no longer a matter of I need to make money because I need to survive.

460
00:33:09,869 --> 00:33:12,984
Now it's I want to build this because we're making a difference.

461
00:33:12,984 --> 00:33:14,417
There you go.

462
00:33:14,417 --> 00:33:17,662
Are there times when you don't accept and hire a client?

463
00:33:18,636 --> 00:33:30,335
Yes, if they're really rude or unprofessional, that's happened really rare, but it has
happened, I'd say less than 1%.

464
00:33:30,335 --> 00:33:35,039
Usually we've already hired them, didn't know we gave them a chance and then they're just
screaming at us.

465
00:33:35,039 --> 00:33:37,721
It's not worth it to do that.

466
00:33:37,721 --> 00:33:43,325
With taking into consideration that most people that start businesses are gonna be a very
high A type.

467
00:33:43,886 --> 00:33:53,013
person that's gonna be kind of emotional, taxes and money is very triggering, they need to
get things done and they're gonna be a little bit short sometimes.

468
00:33:53,013 --> 00:33:59,238
So that's fine, I mean, like that happens um and they're gonna be more assertive than the
average person.

469
00:33:59,238 --> 00:34:08,485
And so we already, know that, but someone that's really rude or mean or uses foul language
is like screaming at us like, you know, life's too short.

470
00:34:08,785 --> 00:34:09,838
Go find someone else.

471
00:34:09,838 --> 00:34:10,599
go through that.

472
00:34:10,599 --> 00:34:24,731
Um, when, when you have friends that you take the CFO hat off and the financial coach,
financial coach hat off if you can, and you go to one shore, you're having a glass of wine

473
00:34:25,032 --> 00:34:29,435
and they ask you, they say, Hey, I really want to start a business.

474
00:34:30,276 --> 00:34:32,098
What advice do you have for me?

475
00:34:32,098 --> 00:34:37,062
They're not asking you just as the CFO brain or just, but just in general, like, should I?

476
00:34:40,466 --> 00:34:42,988
A hundred percent entrepreneurship is not for everybody.

477
00:34:43,249 --> 00:34:51,776
So I would say first, you're going to be making less money and working more than you ever
have in your entire life for probably the first one to two years.

478
00:34:51,776 --> 00:34:57,521
Uh, you have to be come almost obsessed with it to survive.

479
00:34:58,002 --> 00:35:05,028
And, um, and you have to keep learning and you have to get really, really, really good at
sales.

480
00:35:06,290 --> 00:35:07,070
And.

481
00:35:07,500 --> 00:35:13,113
What occurs in my brain though, is that how many people do you interact with?

482
00:35:14,374 --> 00:35:21,017
Doesn't matter if they're running their own business or if they're an employee, how many
people want to improve and change their life?

483
00:35:21,097 --> 00:35:22,888
What percentage do you think?

484
00:35:23,694 --> 00:35:25,774
I think it's a very low percentage.

485
00:35:27,034 --> 00:35:35,934
Now it feels like it's a higher percentage because my life revolves around working with
business owners and entrepreneurs and masterminds.

486
00:35:35,934 --> 00:35:38,894
So they do want to improve because they're in those groups.

487
00:35:39,094 --> 00:35:43,634
But before I became an entrepreneur, I felt like I was the outlier and no one got me.

488
00:35:43,634 --> 00:35:44,974
And people were like, you're so intense.

489
00:35:44,974 --> 00:35:46,094
Why are you so intense all the time?

490
00:35:46,094 --> 00:35:47,454
It's so annoying.

491
00:35:47,454 --> 00:35:52,494
I can't help that I'm intense because if I'm going to do something, I'm going to be all
in.

492
00:35:53,694 --> 00:35:55,309
But what do you know what that percentage is?

493
00:35:55,309 --> 00:35:56,757
I think it's really low.

494
00:35:56,972 --> 00:35:57,712
Yeah, I don't know.

495
00:35:57,712 --> 00:36:03,124
I just wanted to get, know, your perspective from all these different people in different
places and we're all in different locales.

496
00:36:03,144 --> 00:36:07,305
I just know that I see there's a lot of people that they feel stuck.

497
00:36:07,565 --> 00:36:08,595
Just in life, right?

498
00:36:08,595 --> 00:36:10,536
And I think you've running, but they feel stuck.

499
00:36:10,536 --> 00:36:13,667
They feel like they don't have the opportunity that they wish they had.

500
00:36:13,667 --> 00:36:19,648
Um, they do look around and they, they're comparing themselves and they think other people
are living better lives than them.

501
00:36:19,648 --> 00:36:25,826
So I'm not saying that they're willing to do the necessary work to change your life, but
that was just, that's, that's interesting that.

502
00:36:25,826 --> 00:36:28,441
How many people actually think that they want to improve their lives?

503
00:36:28,441 --> 00:36:30,304
You don't think it's a big percentage.

504
00:36:30,382 --> 00:36:31,742
I don't think it's a big percentage.

505
00:36:31,742 --> 00:36:36,942
think a lot of people don't they have excuses or stories that they tell themselves.

506
00:36:36,942 --> 00:36:40,242
So when I look at, I just came back from my mastermind.

507
00:36:40,242 --> 00:36:53,958
I go every once in a while to their in-person training and they have it up on the screen
that 95 % of business owners won't double year over year.

508
00:36:54,606 --> 00:36:58,066
And why, and then there's like this huge list of excuses.

509
00:36:58,066 --> 00:36:59,686
have children that I need to spend time with.

510
00:36:59,686 --> 00:37:00,826
have a spouse.

511
00:37:01,186 --> 00:37:03,966
I have to, I have health issues.

512
00:37:03,966 --> 00:37:05,286
I don't have the money.

513
00:37:05,286 --> 00:37:06,506
I don't have the time.

514
00:37:06,506 --> 00:37:08,846
I don't know how to do this.

515
00:37:08,986 --> 00:37:09,646
Yeah.

516
00:37:09,646 --> 00:37:12,406
I didn't have any advantage either, to be honest.

517
00:37:12,406 --> 00:37:13,886
None of us have an advantage.

518
00:37:13,886 --> 00:37:18,446
have, some of us are a little bit better at some things than others, but most of us don't
really have any advantages.

519
00:37:18,446 --> 00:37:20,186
Certainly not across the board.

520
00:37:20,186 --> 00:37:24,526
And the difference is that the person who gets level.

521
00:37:24,754 --> 00:37:29,458
is uh they're more self-aware, I think.

522
00:37:29,458 --> 00:37:32,461
They don't allow those stories to hold them back.

523
00:37:32,461 --> 00:37:37,344
They know that they are the only common denominator in every choice that they've ever made
in their life.

524
00:37:37,865 --> 00:37:51,156
And they are very consistent um and have maybe even a tougher skin with uh getting yelled
at, getting nos all the time, having to figure things out.

525
00:37:51,156 --> 00:37:54,654
So none of us really truly have an advantage.

526
00:37:54,654 --> 00:37:58,167
And if you think someone did, they actually did not have that advantage.

527
00:37:58,167 --> 00:38:02,780
They just kept trying and trying and going and then iterating, right?

528
00:38:02,780 --> 00:38:08,946
Like looking at what they did and looking at without judgment and understanding how can
they improve that.

529
00:38:09,794 --> 00:38:10,395
So good.

530
00:38:10,395 --> 00:38:14,301
So tell us who, um, Natalia's ideal client is as you're growing your business.

531
00:38:14,301 --> 00:38:17,416
And if you say you don't have an ideal client, we're for all of them.

532
00:38:17,416 --> 00:38:17,917
Okay.

533
00:38:17,917 --> 00:38:18,628
Right.

534
00:38:18,628 --> 00:38:24,326
But who, uh, did you give a high five to your team and you're like, all right, we're
executing our goals.

535
00:38:24,326 --> 00:38:25,688
Who's your ideal client?

536
00:38:25,688 --> 00:38:28,809
So for bookkeeping anybody, right?

537
00:38:28,809 --> 00:38:29,729
Everybody needs bookkeeping.

538
00:38:29,729 --> 00:38:39,502
For fractional CFO services, I would say typically if you're at half a million and up,
definitely if you're at a million and up and if you're planning on scaling, you really

539
00:38:39,502 --> 00:38:42,303
want to, scaling, not just scaling, but improving.

540
00:38:42,303 --> 00:38:44,864
uh Let's call it improving.

541
00:38:44,864 --> 00:38:50,964
Improving your profit, understanding your numbers at a much deeper level and
understanding.

542
00:38:50,964 --> 00:38:57,539
what next steps you want to take every single month in your business uh and having someone
holding you accountable.

543
00:38:57,539 --> 00:39:05,184
So if that's you, we would love to work with you and really help you to understand and
move forward faster.

544
00:39:05,184 --> 00:39:11,108
And honestly, some people hire coaches and us together because we're a little bit
different.

545
00:39:11,148 --> 00:39:17,592
We are strictly very, very uh numbers oriented.

546
00:39:17,592 --> 00:39:18,673
We're looking at the money, right?

547
00:39:18,673 --> 00:39:19,928
We're looking at the numbers.

548
00:39:19,928 --> 00:39:22,283
whereas other coaches don't look at the numbers as deeply as we do.

549
00:39:22,283 --> 00:39:27,944
um But it's, yeah, I think that any of those would be great.

550
00:39:28,290 --> 00:39:30,362
What's your moment you're going to leave us with?

551
00:39:30,362 --> 00:39:38,358
What big statement you're like, I'm going to go on this podcast and I want to leave them
with this idea of you, the human, your business.

552
00:39:38,358 --> 00:39:44,372
Like what's your, what's your final message that if it's the last time we'd hear from you,
even though some are probably going to call you.

553
00:39:44,674 --> 00:39:45,535
Yes.

554
00:39:45,535 --> 00:39:49,648
So first I wanted to tell your audience that we do have a special page just for them.

555
00:39:49,648 --> 00:39:50,439
So we'll leave that.

556
00:39:50,439 --> 00:39:52,521
I'll send that to you so you have that in your notes.

557
00:39:52,521 --> 00:39:52,931
Awesome.

558
00:39:52,931 --> 00:39:56,324
To check that out because there's some giveaways there also and how to get in touch with
us.

559
00:39:56,324 --> 00:40:03,861
But we actually talked about this before we started recording was that quote that I read
as a child that still sticks with me.

560
00:40:03,861 --> 00:40:11,617
And I don't remember the exact words, but it was something to the effect of if only the
birds with the best voices sang, the forest would be silent.

561
00:40:11,617 --> 00:40:12,482
And so

562
00:40:12,482 --> 00:40:17,586
You don't have to be fantastic about uh or like the expert in what you do.

563
00:40:17,586 --> 00:40:22,090
You become the expert over time and then just do it.

564
00:40:22,090 --> 00:40:23,171
It's action.

565
00:40:23,171 --> 00:40:25,293
It's just keep doing it and keep moving forward.

566
00:40:25,293 --> 00:40:29,226
Even if it's just one tiny step ahead, don't get overwhelmed.

567
00:40:29,226 --> 00:40:31,818
Break it up into little steps and just keep moving forward.

568
00:40:32,600 --> 00:40:34,012
Thank you for that message.

569
00:40:34,474 --> 00:40:35,576
Have an awesome day.

570
00:40:35,576 --> 00:40:36,538
Thanks for joining us.

571
00:40:36,538 --> 00:40:38,280
Natalia Zacharin.

572
00:40:38,362 --> 00:40:45,074
We're going to tag in, give you all the love and all the things, but thanks for doing what
you do and spending a little bit of time to make us a little bit better today.

573
00:40:45,090 --> 00:40:46,963
Thank you so much for having me, Mark.

574
00:40:46,963 --> 00:40:49,016
was really nice to get to know you.

575
00:40:49,841 --> 00:40:50,825
Thank you.