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How to Create Multiple Revenue Streams Featuring Hannah Smolinski

Hannah Smolinski is a CPA and the founder of Clara CFO Group, a virtual CFO agency providing small businesses with financial clarity and profit maximization strategies.

In today’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, you will learn how to turn your expertise into multiple active and passive revenue streams.

Hannah and I discuss:

  • Hannah’s career [00:40]
  • How Hannah found her business model [05:31]
  • How Hannah developed a recurring revenue model [07:03]
  • Her various revenue streams [13:04]
  • How Hannah started selling digital offerings [16:19]
  • The impact of Hannah’s business on her work/life integration [20:19]

Hannah’s experience working for one of the world’s largest accounting firms inspired her to make corporate expertise accessible to small business owners through fractional CFO services. She also hosts a YouTube channel with over 36,000 subscribers and uses the platform to help small businesses achieve financial success.

Learn more about Hannah at https://www.youtube.com/c/claracfogroup, https://claracfo.com, and hannah@claracfo.com.

Thank you to Our Sponsors:

The Smashing the Plateau Community

https://community.smashingtheplateau.com

Circle

https://smashingtheplateau.com/circle

Transcript
Hannah Smolinski:

One of the things that helped when I was thinking

Hannah Smolinski:

about my business was really trying to identify what does the

Hannah Smolinski:

client really need every month?

David Shriner-Cahn:

Welcome to Smashing the Plateau.

David Shriner-Cahn:

We help consultants, coaches, entrepreneurs, and small business

David Shriner-Cahn:

owners build their business after a long career as an employed professional.

David Shriner-Cahn:

We believe you should be able to do what you love and get paid

David Shriner-Cahn:

what you're worth, consistently.

David Shriner-Cahn:

I'm your host, David Shriner-Cahn.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Today on Smashing the Plateau, I'm speaking with the president of

David Shriner-Cahn:

Clara CFO group, Hannah Smolinski.

David Shriner-Cahn:

In today's episode, you will learn how to turn your expertise into multiple,

David Shriner-Cahn:

active and passive revenue streams.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Stay with us to hear all the details.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Are you building a community?

David Shriner-Cahn:

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David Shriner-Cahn:

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David Shriner-Cahn:

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David Shriner-Cahn:

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David Shriner-Cahn:

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David Shriner-Cahn:

Get a free 14 day trial of Circle at smashingtheplateau.com/circle.

David Shriner-Cahn:

That's smashingthetplateau.com/circle.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Now let's welcome, Hannah Smolinski.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Welcome Hannah Smolinski.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Hannah is a CPA and the founder of Clara CFO group, a virtual CFO agency providing

David Shriner-Cahn:

small businesses with financial clarity and profit maximization strategies.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Her experience working for one of the world's largest accounting firms

David Shriner-Cahn:

inspired her to make corporate expertise accessible to small business owners

David Shriner-Cahn:

through fractional CFO services.

David Shriner-Cahn:

She also hosts a YouTube channel with over 36,000 subscribers, and

David Shriner-Cahn:

uses the platform to help small businesses achieve financial success.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Hannah, welcome to the show.

Hannah Smolinski:

David.

Hannah Smolinski:

Thank you so much for having me.

Hannah Smolinski:

I'm excited to chat today.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Me too.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Tell me a little bit about your career and what led you to become a fractional CFO.

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I, started off at Big Four accounting.

Hannah Smolinski:

I did the whole very traditional, started out getting my accounting degree.

Hannah Smolinski:

Didn't really ever think I was going to do accounting, but I landed in accounting.

Hannah Smolinski:

I liked business and numbers seemed to work well for me.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I ended up in accounting and then did the, when you need to

Hannah Smolinski:

sit for your CPA exam, sometimes you go, and do a master's degree.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I did that as well, also in accounting, very exciting stuff.

Hannah Smolinski:

But it did allow me the education to sit for my CPA exam, and it also allowed me

Hannah Smolinski:

opportunities to, get a great internship with a Big Four accounting firm.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then I started on that path in the Big Four.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I'm sure some of, a lot of your, people who have been in corporate kind of

Hannah Smolinski:

understand the Big Four, either whether it's in consulting services or it's in

Hannah Smolinski:

accounting, it's a churn and burn model.

Hannah Smolinski:

You work there, they, hire tons of staff when you first start

Hannah Smolinski:

and then they hope that there's going to be attrition over time.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I ended up kind of being spit out of the system where I actually opted out

Hannah Smolinski:

about five years in because I needed more work life balance, surprise . So

Hannah Smolinski:

it was time to do something different.

Hannah Smolinski:

And, I loved working in public accounting.

Hannah Smolinski:

I loved my coworkers and everything, but I just needed more balance.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I ended up working for a small engineering firm when I left.

Hannah Smolinski:

And that's where I really started to get really aware of everything

Hannah Smolinski:

that small business owners really needed with their finance.

Hannah Smolinski:

And it was actually really different from a corporate, background.

Hannah Smolinski:

And, it was, yes, you need, you need finance, but in small business,

Hannah Smolinski:

there was more, I wouldn't say more nuance, but there's just, different

Hannah Smolinski:

needs and much more focus on cash.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I just realized that there was an opportunity there to start

Hannah Smolinski:

consulting after I was working for a small business for a while I

Hannah Smolinski:

realized, hey, I could probably do this for some other companies too.

Hannah Smolinski:

So about five years into that business, I was like, maybe it's

Hannah Smolinski:

time to start something on my own.

Hannah Smolinski:

And that's where Clara CFO group was.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And did you go fulltime right away in your

David Shriner-Cahn:

own, into your own business?

David Shriner-Cahn:

Or did you start something on the side?

David Shriner-Cahn:

Build it up a little bit and then leave your job.

Hannah Smolinski:

I did the side by side, so I was definitely

Hannah Smolinski:

working for the other company.

Hannah Smolinski:

I was actually about 32 hours.

Hannah Smolinski:

I wasn't quite full time with them.

Hannah Smolinski:

And so it gave me a little bit of free time.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then my evenings were spent developing my business and on the side.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I probably did them side by side for a good year and started to build

Hannah Smolinski:

up a client base for my business.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then I ended up transitioning out of my role with the small business

Hannah Smolinski:

and kept them on as a client actually.

Hannah Smolinski:

So that was actually a nice kind of soft landing into, full-time

Hannah Smolinski:

consulting is when I had a healthy client base at that point in time.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So how do you have a conversation with an employer

David Shriner-Cahn:

and say I want to leave, but I also still want to work for you.

Hannah Smolinski:

Really it came down to, value and the skills I was bringing were,

Hannah Smolinski:

what I was really best at was the finance and the advisory side on the finances.

Hannah Smolinski:

And what I had the conversation was actually, my skillset was more expensive

Hannah Smolinski:

for doing that type of consulting work.

Hannah Smolinski:

But they were basically under utilizing my skills and they could have hired in

Hannah Smolinski:

a less experienced and honestly cheaper person to come in and do everything else

Hannah Smolinski:

I was doing in the business at the time, because I was doing administrative work

Hannah Smolinski:

and I was helping with sales and I was the person who was like, running errands,

Hannah Smolinski:

if someone needed to have an errand run.

Hannah Smolinski:

So we actually were able to bring in an administrative, more administrative

Hannah Smolinski:

focused person, and then it allowed me to sit more in that higher

Hannah Smolinski:

level, strategic advisory type role.

Hannah Smolinski:

And, it cost them less overall kind of with the whole package after doing that.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I sold it based on, you're going to be getting more time from

Hannah Smolinski:

somebody else and it's going to cost you less in the long run.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So it was actually a solution that was a win-win.

Hannah Smolinski:

Yes.

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I try to do that wherever I can, because I, I believe that

Hannah Smolinski:

there's, win-wins all over the place.

Hannah Smolinski:

So you just kinda need to work and find the angle and usually

Hannah Smolinski:

we can find something to work.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Yeah, no, that's really good.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So then you went into your own business and tell me a little bit about how

David Shriner-Cahn:

you landed on your business model.

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I definitely tested out a number of things for a while because I wasn't

Hannah Smolinski:

exactly sure how to sell my services.

Hannah Smolinski:

I think when we all start, we're all trying to figure out what does the

Hannah Smolinski:

market really need and what are we selling and where do I fit in all of it?

Hannah Smolinski:

And I knew the market needed CFO services, but I had a hard time

Hannah Smolinski:

selling them at first because I didn't know how to talk about it.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then I also had a really, challenging point, of trying to make sure that I

Hannah Smolinski:

didn't get myself roped into bookkeeping engagements, because when people hear,

Hannah Smolinski:

Hey, you're doing accounting on the side, everybody thinks that means that you're

Hannah Smolinski:

going to do their accounting for them.

Hannah Smolinski:

And, really identifying that we weren't doing the accounting and

Hannah Smolinski:

actually like sitting in a more higher level strategic advisory,

Hannah Smolinski:

type service took a little while.

Hannah Smolinski:

So that took a while to suss it out.

Hannah Smolinski:

But I knew, that the role would be ongoing.

Hannah Smolinski:

So it lent itself really well to a recurring revenue model where,

Hannah Smolinski:

a client hires us on a retainer.

Hannah Smolinski:

And we have a set amount of work.

Hannah Smolinski:

We do every single month because with accounting things change every

Hannah Smolinski:

single month, you get a new set of financials every single month.

Hannah Smolinski:

And so that ended up working really well with that recurring revenue model.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Yeah, one of the things that I hear a lot from

David Shriner-Cahn:

professionals in their own business, when they're trying to shift into

David Shriner-Cahn:

a recurring revenue model is how do I know how much time is actually

David Shriner-Cahn:

going to take me to do this?

David Shriner-Cahn:

How do I know what kinds of deliverables I'm actually going

David Shriner-Cahn:

to be able to produce each month?

David Shriner-Cahn:

How do I price it?

David Shriner-Cahn:

How do I price it in a way that it's not too low?

David Shriner-Cahn:

And also how do I price it in a way that's not too high and I'm

David Shriner-Cahn:

over promising what I can deliver.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So there's often a lot of fear around changing a business model or pricing model

David Shriner-Cahn:

from one that might be project based or time based into a recurring revenue model.

Hannah Smolinski:

One of the things that helped when I was thinking

Hannah Smolinski:

about my business was really trying to identify what does the

Hannah Smolinski:

client really need every month?

Hannah Smolinski:

What do they need?

Hannah Smolinski:

And if I broke that down, I started to see trends where I knew that

Hannah Smolinski:

every single client would need, for example, a budget every single year.

Hannah Smolinski:

So we're always going to do an annual budget.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then we know, Hey, a forecast needs to be updated pretty much

Hannah Smolinski:

every month because assumptions change decisions are being made.

Hannah Smolinski:

New clients are being brought on and you know, revenue

Hannah Smolinski:

forecast can definitely change.

Hannah Smolinski:

So when I noticed at that point, I understand what does the client need

Hannah Smolinski:

every single month then I could back into, what does a package look like

Hannah Smolinski:

that I can really sell that I know I can deliver over and over again.

Hannah Smolinski:

So it ended up for us that when with a client that's typically under a

Hannah Smolinski:

million dollars, we can start to see, we know what we need to do

Hannah Smolinski:

at the beginning of the project.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then we know that on a monthly basis, once we get that first bit

Hannah Smolinski:

established on a monthly basis, we have a really good sense of what that's

Hannah Smolinski:

going to, be on an ongoing basis.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I was just talking with my staff earlier today and I was like, for

Hannah Smolinski:

this type of client, we know that we can spend four to six hours every

Hannah Smolinski:

single month on this type of client.

Hannah Smolinski:

And that always, almost always is, going to work out just fine.

Hannah Smolinski:

Now at the beginning of the project, that's where we have the most uncertainty.

Hannah Smolinski:

So for us, we actually do a recurring revenue model, but

Hannah Smolinski:

we also have a setup fee.

Hannah Smolinski:

So we charge that at the very beginning, which helps offset any

Hannah Smolinski:

up, really, wild swings and hours.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then we also very specifically say these things are out of scope.

Hannah Smolinski:

So if we get into your books and they're way messier than we ever

Hannah Smolinski:

expected, then we're going to like, put that back to a bookkeeper, or we're

Hannah Smolinski:

going to bring some money on that.

Hannah Smolinski:

That's not our responsibility to absorb, but it's their responsibility to absorb.

Hannah Smolinski:

And so I think once we started to identify, we know you need these

Hannah Smolinski:

things because people are coming to us because they don't know what's

Hannah Smolinski:

going on in their financials and they're looking for an expert.

Hannah Smolinski:

And so as the expert, we can say, we know you need these things, and

Hannah Smolinski:

we're going to deliver on these things for you every single month.

Hannah Smolinski:

So it lends itself really well in the recurring revenue model.

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So I think what you've raised a really important point,

David Shriner-Cahn:

which is you've gotta know your scope for what's included and what's ex

David Shriner-Cahn:

excluded from a particular offering.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And I think that's also hard for people in the beginning to figure that out.

Hannah Smolinski:

Oh, and I've made tons of mistakes.

Hannah Smolinski:

Let's not, , let's not pretend like I didn't get burned a number of times from,

Hannah Smolinski:

a way under bidding, a project or way underestimate the amount of time it took.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I do think there, it does take a number of tries to really get it right.

Hannah Smolinski:

And, I think the more you do something, the better you get at knowing the time

Hannah Smolinski:

that it's going to take, and you can put your best estimates out there.

Hannah Smolinski:

I would always say if you're going to set some estimates, add 50%, and

Hannah Smolinski:

then maybe charge your hours from there, because there's always

Hannah Smolinski:

going to be learning along the way.

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah,

David Shriner-Cahn:

so what did you do when it turns out that you weigh

David Shriner-Cahn:

under bid in terms of how much value you provided or how long it took you?

David Shriner-Cahn:

What you do in those situations in the beginning?

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah.

Hannah Smolinski:

I definitely underbid a couple of my very first clients.

Hannah Smolinski:

And this was when I was still doing some accounting for clients as well.

Hannah Smolinski:

I just would come back to them with conversations and say, Hey, like I had

Hannah Smolinski:

bid this project based on assuming your monthly close was going to take 10 hours.

Hannah Smolinski:

It actually took 20 hours.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I don't anticipate that changing because of efficiencies.

Hannah Smolinski:

Like I'm as efficient as I can get.

Hannah Smolinski:

And where we need to change the scope of what this is.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I think part of that is also understanding, you always have to

Hannah Smolinski:

be a little bit, if you're going to increase your prices, you have to

Hannah Smolinski:

hold your client with an open hand.

Hannah Smolinski:

Because you have to be willing for them to walk away when you increase

Hannah Smolinski:

your prices, but you also need to know like that you need to be true

Hannah Smolinski:

to yourself and what your value is.

Hannah Smolinski:

If you're going to have a price increase discussion, you also need to be aware

Hannah Smolinski:

that maybe they won't like it and maybe they'll think, Hey, we can go

Hannah Smolinski:

and find services cheaper elsewhere.

Hannah Smolinski:

At the end of the day, that's not a bad thing.

Hannah Smolinski:

because then you could go out and find a client and price it

Hannah Smolinski:

correctly the next time around.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I think you have to just be, you have to be willing to, with the consequences

Hannah Smolinski:

of what happens on a price increase.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Yeah, no, that's very wise.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So at this point, what are the different kinds of offerings

David Shriner-Cahn:

that you have in your business?

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah, so our main core offering is the virtual CFO services.

Hannah Smolinski:

And so those are recurring revenue projects where we come

Hannah Smolinski:

on and, average time with those clients is at least three years.

Hannah Smolinski:

So we're looking at where we come onto the team and we're serving

Hannah Smolinski:

them one on one, every single month.

Hannah Smolinski:

But I have a couple other revenue streams, which is slightly different from probably

Hannah Smolinski:

other people providing CFO services.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I have a YouTube channel, which was mentioned, I think in the

Hannah Smolinski:

intro where we are putting a lot of free education up on YouTube.

Hannah Smolinski:

And with that, I have income coming in from YouTube AdSense.

Hannah Smolinski:

So that makes me a little bit, so probably the range between what

Hannah Smolinski:

is recurring revenue, from one on one services is about 80 to 85% of

Hannah Smolinski:

the total income in the business.

Hannah Smolinski:

And the other portion is made up of these other things.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I've got AdSense coming in, I also will sell things like workshops

Hannah Smolinski:

or even worksheets in Excel.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I'll make a worksheet.

Hannah Smolinski:

let's say it's like how to calculate your estimated taxes for your small business,

Hannah Smolinski:

and that worksheet will sell, like I'll probably sell two or three of them today.

Hannah Smolinski:

Just because I have a video that's actually sitting out on

Hannah Smolinski:

YouTube and people watch it.

Hannah Smolinski:

And especially when estimated tax time comes around, that

Hannah Smolinski:

video gets pulled up and a lot of people will buy that spreadsheet.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I have that and digital workshops that I have done where I've, recorded

Hannah Smolinski:

a training and then I can sell the recording over and over again.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then I've got affiliate commissions.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I like right now I have a QuickBook series and I'm an affiliate of QuickBooks.

Hannah Smolinski:

So with my YouTube channel, that's driving some affiliate revenue as well.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Long term for your business, what would you like it to?

David Shriner-Cahn:

Like, how would you like it to develop?

David Shriner-Cahn:

Because if at this point it's 85% from one on one services, where are

David Shriner-Cahn:

you thinking you want to take things?

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah, I would like to get to closer to a 50, 50.

Hannah Smolinski:

And that seems like aggressive, but because I do want to grow and scale

Hannah Smolinski:

the agency side of the business as well, but really with YouTube, it's a

Hannah Smolinski:

really interesting platform, there's a lot of opportunities for monetization.

Hannah Smolinski:

And even if you're not monetized with AdSense, you can still be monetized

Hannah Smolinski:

by selling a course or you can, do the affiliate revenue thing, which

Hannah Smolinski:

affiliate revenue really kicks in when you get like good volume

Hannah Smolinski:

coming in on videos and whatnot.

Hannah Smolinski:

But I would like to see that grow.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I do think that will happen a lot through potential courses.

Hannah Smolinski:

So we've got some, we've got some plans to grow on that side where we're

Hannah Smolinski:

able to come in and provide really, targeted courses to certain industries

Hannah Smolinski:

that will help them with their overall financial understanding and planning.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Was there a particular trigger that encouraged you to get

David Shriner-Cahn:

started selling digital offerings?

Hannah Smolinski:

I think what happened, I think the first offering I sold was

Hannah Smolinski:

actually, because of P P P so the paycheck Protection program was why

Hannah Smolinski:

my YouTube channel really took off.

Hannah Smolinski:

I was helping people understand that program.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then with that, I was selling, no I wasn't selling, I was giving away

Hannah Smolinski:

for free a spreadsheet that was helping people calculate their PPP loan amounts

Hannah Smolinski:

and their potential forgiveness amounts.

Hannah Smolinski:

And that grew my email list basically from, a couple hundred

Hannah Smolinski:

people to over 10,000 people.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Wow.

Hannah Smolinski:

Basically like that one spreadsheet.

Hannah Smolinski:

And so what that made me think was like, wow.

Hannah Smolinski:

If people get spreadsheets for free, maybe some people might

Hannah Smolinski:

want to buy some spreadsheets too.

Hannah Smolinski:

so let's test that out.

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah.

Hannah Smolinski:

Let's test that.

Hannah Smolinski:

That, that's the thing with some of the stuff it's like, why not?

Hannah Smolinski:

throw it up there.

Hannah Smolinski:

If nobody buys it, don't spend too much time on it where it's

Hannah Smolinski:

going to be a huge loss, test it.

Hannah Smolinski:

If one person buys it, maybe two people will buy it, but, my products

Hannah Smolinski:

have always been, and the products that have always done well, have

Hannah Smolinski:

been based on what people are asking for and where people have questions.

Hannah Smolinski:

So any product I build it's because somebody has expressed a need

Hannah Smolinski:

for it at some point in time.

Hannah Smolinski:

And so that's, ideally you have a customer and then you build a product,

Hannah Smolinski:

not the other way around, you build a product and then you get a customer

Hannah Smolinski:

that tends to not work so well.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I've done that too.

Hannah Smolinski:

And then net doesn't sell and then I wonder why.

Hannah Smolinski:

yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Congratulations on everything you've built and the way

David Shriner-Cahn:

you've started to diversify your business.

David Shriner-Cahn:

If you are advising someone who has a, not an accounting or finance

David Shriner-Cahn:

related business, but a, totally different professional services, niche.

David Shriner-Cahn:

What would you advise?

David Shriner-Cahn:

when it comes to building multiple revenue streams and building

David Shriner-Cahn:

recurring revenue and passive income?

Hannah Smolinski:

I would say that there's a lot of opportunities

Hannah Smolinski:

for really easy entry into this space of selling anything digital.

Hannah Smolinski:

and then probably you're already doing something from a marketing perspective

Hannah Smolinski:

that you might be able to transfer into something you can actually sell.

Hannah Smolinski:

So a lot of us as consultants, we're giving workshops, or

Hannah Smolinski:

we're doing things for free.

Hannah Smolinski:

We're doing speaking engagements, we are teaching on a topic because

Hannah Smolinski:

if you're consulting on something, it means that you have a knowledge

Hannah Smolinski:

base that maybe other people don't.

Hannah Smolinski:

So how can you take that knowledge base and think about what type of

Hannah Smolinski:

product could I bring to market.

Hannah Smolinski:

And ideally that product is at a pretty base level because you don't want to take

Hannah Smolinski:

your clients who might be paying you a hundred thousand dollars for a consulting

Hannah Smolinski:

gig, and then take that knowledge base and give that away for a hundred dollars.

Hannah Smolinski:

We're not going to do that, but maybe you can sell something, that's the first 10

Hannah Smolinski:

tips to get into whatever, a like teaser into the first things you would need to

Hannah Smolinski:

know before you need your services, or maybe just really high level information,

Hannah Smolinski:

or if you have a workshop recorded or you want to do a workshop, go and, put that

Hannah Smolinski:

into a place that you can be monetized.

Hannah Smolinski:

A lot of people will spend 50 to a hundred, to $200 on some education.

Hannah Smolinski:

And if they know you trust you, they'll be buying your products.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I think there's a lot of really quick entry ways into making money

Hannah Smolinski:

that we have incredible opportunity right now with all, everything that,

Hannah Smolinski:

all the tools that we have access to.

David Shriner-Cahn:

We sure do.

David Shriner-Cahn:

congratulations on, on what you've built Hannah, at this point, now that you've

David Shriner-Cahn:

been in your own business for a while.

David Shriner-Cahn:

What has that done to your work life integration?

Hannah Smolinski:

I'm still working probably more than I would like

Hannah Smolinski:

to be, but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Hannah Smolinski:

I think one of the biggest game changers for me is bringing on another me.

Hannah Smolinski:

Another me and client service.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I've been able to hire somebody who I trust, to work with clients one on one

Hannah Smolinski:

and then, and frankly, she does a better job in a lot of ways, because she's

Hannah Smolinski:

not pulled in 27 different directions, like I am as the, business owner.

Hannah Smolinski:

But when, as I'm bringing on client serving professionals, Being able to

Hannah Smolinski:

alleviate some of the client pressures a little bit is definitely changing my work

Hannah Smolinski:

life balance in a good way or integration.

Hannah Smolinski:

I like that better.

Hannah Smolinski:

and I'm, I have a child, so I want to spend time with her.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I always end my Workday during school times.

Hannah Smolinski:

I always try to end my Workday at three o'clock because that's

Hannah Smolinski:

when she gets off the bus.

Hannah Smolinski:

And I wouldn't be able to do that if I was still working in public accounting.

Hannah Smolinski:

So

David Shriner-Cahn:

That's for sure.

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah, definitely not, it's always a joke when they were

Hannah Smolinski:

on, flexible work arrangements, quote, unquote, it just meant that you were still

Hannah Smolinski:

working the same amount of time, but just getting paid less, which was the joke was

Hannah Smolinski:

like, nobody's going to go and do that.

Hannah Smolinski:

No, at least when I left, that's what it was like.

Hannah Smolinski:

So I think.

Hannah Smolinski:

Now I have, I will use my time in the evenings, in the weekends sometimes

Hannah Smolinski:

just so I can make sure that I get those hours when she's home from school.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Sounds great.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Hannah, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Where can people go to get all these great resources that we

David Shriner-Cahn:

talked about during the show?

Hannah Smolinski:

Yeah, so you can check out the YouTube channel.

Hannah Smolinski:

So that's at Clara CFO group, C L A R A CFO.

Hannah Smolinski:

And that's where a lot of those videos who are really trying to help people

Hannah Smolinski:

with how to build a successful small business from a financial perspective.

Hannah Smolinski:

And you can also go to the website it's claracfo.com, and then if anybody

Hannah Smolinski:

wants to reach out to me directly, my email is Hannah@claracfo.com.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Sounds great.

David Shriner-Cahn:

We will include all of these things in the show notes.

David Shriner-Cahn:

My guest today has been the president of Clara CFO Group, Hannah Smolinski.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Thank you, Hannah, for joining us.

Hannah Smolinski:

Thank you so much.

David Shriner-Cahn:

When you visit the Smashing the Plateau website at

David Shriner-Cahn:

smashingtheplateau.com, you'll find a summary of each episode, along with

David Shriner-Cahn:

the links we mentioned on the show.

David Shriner-Cahn:

In today's episode with Hannah Smolinski, we learned how to

David Shriner-Cahn:

turn your expertise into multiple active and passive revenue streams.

David Shriner-Cahn:

How do you feel about your business?

David Shriner-Cahn:

How would membership in a caring collaborative community help you

David Shriner-Cahn:

work toward your goals faster, with fewer costly mistakes, a community

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own private communication platform?

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Where accountability partners are part of the structure, and where templates,

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A community dedicated to empowering consultants who are determined to

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build their businesses following long careers as high achieving employees?

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If you are committed to getting your consulting, coaching, or small business

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don't want to do it alone, consider applying to become a member of the

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Smashing the Plateau Community.

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Want to know if belonging to a community is right for you?

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Schedule 15 minutes with me to find out, go to smashingtheplateau.com/15.

David Shriner-Cahn:

That's smashingtheplateau.com/15.

David Shriner-Cahn:

I'm David Shriner-Cahn.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our show.

About the author, David Shriner-Cahn

David is the podcast host and community builder behind Smashing the Plateau, an online platform offering resources, accountability, and camaraderie to high-performing professionals who are making the leap from the corporate career track to entrepreneurial business ownership.

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