Clients, Coaches and Colleagues: Sheila Walker Hartwell's Business Influencers

In her interview on yesterday’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, Sheila Walker Hartwell discussed long-term personal financial planning for business owners, as well as how she built and shaped her own financial planning business, Hartwell Planning. Here, she provides a list of the people and companies who have influenced her and helped to shape her business’s trajectory:

1. “Long-time clients.”

Hartwell attributes part of her business’s development to the individual clients who have helped shape it. She writes that “their stories and the successful plans we created have helped build/expand the expertise and reputation of Hartwell Planning.”

2. Jane Cranston – Executive  Coach NY

“She has been a really helpful guide and counselor for me, because sometimes we do get caught up in our own little world, and we need someone like her to smash it… Together we took my business to a new level – expanded services, increased fees, created communications materials.  Jane was also the inspiration for the Lift the Burden of Debt: How to Climb Out of Debt and Stay Out in 10 Easy Steps program I wrote and published in 2009.”

3. Prenup for Lovers: A Romantic Guide to Prenuptial Agreements by  Arlene Dubin

“Our high-net-worth clients who are planning to marry need a prenup that embraces their relationship and protects their assets.” Hartwell identifies this text in particular as being useful to nurturing those values and working with those interpersonal dynamics.

4. Manhattan BNI Chapter 7

Of this business networking organization, Hartwell writes that “The camaraderie of 45+ members is a pleasure in my professional life.  While I don’t receive much new business from fellow members, I do have trustworthy colleagues to draw on for their expertise for my clients and can confidently refer clients to them.”