Fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Helps Nonprofits Worldwide to Manage Their Money, with Stephanie Skryzowski

Stephanie Skryzowski is a Fractional Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for nonprofits and an entrepreneur. She created a company of fully remote CFOs (and other professionals) who help nonprofits around the world manage their money to make a more powerful impact on the people and communities they serve.

Stephanie specializes in helping nonprofits, where interpreting financial information correctly can mean the difference between an organization thriving or not. She helps them better understand their numbers and use that information to make smart decisions that will help grow their impact and their income. They get a fraction of a CFO (for a fraction of the cost!)...which is often all they need as they are still small and growing.

 She started working for nonprofits and leading international finance teams around the world, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, Nicaragua, Malawi, Mali, and Senegal.  She traveled around the world making sure the nonprofit's financial management systems and teams were strong.

She wants other women to know about the fractional leadership model, because it is applicable across so many industries. It can give women the opportunity to build their own business and control their time and money! She now has a team of 16 full-time employees serving hundreds of nonprofits around the globe at 100 Degrees Consulting.

Contact Info:

Stephanie Skryzowski - Guest
Stephanie's LinkedIn account
Stephanie's IG account
100 Degrees Consulting

Julie Berman - Host
www.womenwithcooljobs.com
Julie Berman's LinkedIn Profile
@womencooljobs (Instagram) 

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Transcript

Stephanie Skryzowski: 0:00

Our goal is to help the leader of the nonprofit whether that's the executive director or the CEO, the board, we help them see around the corner. So we can use numbers and we are projecting revenue. So incoming money or projecting expenses outgoing money, we're projecting cash like what's literally coming into and out of the bank 12 to 18 months in the future.

Julie- Host: 0:28

Hey, everybody, I'm Julie and welcome to Women with cool jobs. Each episode will feature women with unique trailblazing and innovative careers. We'll talk about how she got here, what life is like now, and actionable steps that you can take to go on a similar path or one that's all your own. This podcast is about empowering you. It's about empowering you to dream big and to be inspired. You'll hear from incredible women in a wide variety of fields, and hopefully some that you've never heard of before. Women who filled robots and roadways, firefighters, C suite professionals surrounded by men, social media mavens, entrepreneurs, and I'm so glad we get to go on this journey together. Hello, everybody, this is Julie Berman, and welcome to another episode of women with cool jobs. So today, I am so excited for you to learn about this really interesting job. I'm speaking with Stephanie's Krzyzewski, who's a fractional Chief Financial Officer, also known as CFO, and she works specifically with nonprofit organizations to help them manage their money, she helps them better understand their numbers. And then she helps them use that information to make really fantastic decisions. Because she works with the organizations that are still small and they're growing, they don't have the capacity, or the budget to work with a full time and to hire a full time CFO who most likely would have like all the things, the benefits and 401k and what have you. So she helps work with them. And she does it on a fractional basis, which means they take a fraction of her time. And she ended up doing this with several different nonprofits around the world. And then she kept having people ask her for her help. And she ended up then hiring more people and creating a business where she now has 16 full time employees that serve hundreds of nonprofits around the world. Because they realize like wow, this is pretty cool to be able to have this access to the CFO to get that person on their team and help them to serve right who they're serving to create that purpose and to fulfill that mission in the world. So it's so cool learning about this job. And one other thing that I point I wanted to point out here was that she wants other women to know about the fractional leadership model, because it's super applicable to so many different industries. And it can give women a lot of opportunities to build their own businesses to control their time to control their money. So I just thought this was so fascinating. I'd heard that word, fractional, in relation to other C suite roles, like, you know, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer. But I actually have never talked to someone who's done that and let alone like she's doing it in these different capacities where she's actually on one side, she's working as the fractional CFO, she's still helping some organizations in their day to day, week to week, month to month, you figure out what they need to do. And she thinks of her job, and her colleagues jobs as CFOs to really be the ones to look around the corner and to see what's coming to figure out how they can do things for the best interests of the organization and the people they serve. And then also she's doing it, she's wearing the entrepreneurial hat because she's running a business. So I just found this whole conversation so fascinating. And I love hearing about how different people run businesses. I give entrepreneurs so much credit I love hearing of course about new cool jobs. So I hope you enjoy this episode between me and Stephanie. If you know of someone who's like, oh, wow, they might be really interested in this as a potential career option doing like the fractional leadership model, if you know of someone who's into finances who's in that world. Or if you just know someone who you think this would be super inspirational to please make sure at the end of this, please send it to at least one person it means so much. It helps the it helps people see that there are so many opportunities. There's so many examples and oftentimes we You have to see things in order to know that it's possible for us. And this is one way to do that is to just know, right that there's all these cool jobs, all these cool possibilities. All right. Well, thanks for being here with me and enjoy this episode. All right, hello. Hello. So we are here in WomenwithCoolJobs with Stephanie screws, outski. So welcome to the show.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 5:20

Thank you so much for having me, Julie, I'm so excited to chat with you.

Julie- Host: 5:23

So I'm so excited because you contacted me because you have a really cool job. And this is something that I've heard about, but I really don't know too much about it. And I don't know how it works. And so you are a fractional Chief Financial Officer, also known as a CFO. And you do this for nonprofits. So I think this is such a particular niche. And so I'm really interested to hear about how it works specifically for nonprofits. And also, you're an entrepreneur, because you have your own company, where you actually employ a whole bunch of people to then do this. And so you guys help a lot of different nonprofits around the globe. So welcome to the show. And I'm so excited to learn about what this means to be a fractional CFO. Yes,

Stephanie Skryzowski: 6:12

I'm super excited to share because I feel like this sort of fractional leadership model is game changing for so many nonprofit organizations for so many businesses. So basically, what it is, is we are providing chief financial officer CFO finance services for nonprofits, but instead of being a full time employee, we are doing it on a fractional basis, meaning we're giving a fraction of our time to provide these services to nonprofits. And so that means that smaller organizations that probably couldn't afford a full time CFO, because as you can imagine, that comes with a six figure salary and benefits and all the things quite expensive, they can still access this level of financial management and rigor in their organization for a fraction of the price. And so from our side of things, then, you know, we have CFOs on our team that can serve 10 different clients, 10 different nonprofits all at the same time. And for a fractional CFO, it's really fun, because you get a wide variety of things to do. You're basically a CFO for 10 different organizations. So you get you're always doing something different always doing getting new challenges and things. So that's that's kind of in a nutshell, what a fractional CFO does.

Julie- Host: 7:30

Yeah, I love that. Well, my first question is always like, can you give us the brief explanation? So you did already? I love that. And I think like an interesting thing about you is like, not only do you have this background, as a CFO for nonprofits, where you are traveling all over the world, like I had, that you're traveling to some pretty, I mean, interesting places, and I have a list here, so I don't get them wrong. But places like you know, Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, Nicaragua, Malawi, Mali, Senegal, I mean, those are some places that right, like a lot of us don't end up going. And so I am so curious, like I, I want to ask you, you know, a little bit about like, how did you get into this, and especially the nonprofit world, I think, like one of the interesting things, and I just have this conversation, actually an in an episode that that actually is out today with women named Gretchen wit, because she was talking about how she truly loved all the people who understood the financial aspects and the details of running a nonprofit and like, because they were so different for her coming from the corporate world. And I thought that was so perfect to have had that conversation with her like, right before almost we were having this conversation, because she was talking about like some of the things she would have to literally have her. Her team explain over and over and over again. Well, this seems bad in the corporate world. But now you're telling me in the nonprofit sector, like these terms are these things are actually good, and like explaining the context. And it was just like, it seems so different. So I thought that was something that was so fascinating in the fact that you've been doing this for so long in this space. So I'm curious, like, can you tell us like a little bit about how did you end up becoming a CFO and getting into nonprofits specifically?

Stephanie Skryzowski: 9:20

Yes. So I will say I did not wake up or even graduate from high school or even college thinking like I want to work in finance at nonprofits. It was one of those things that I fell into probably like many of us, but I actually since I was 12 years old, I wanted to be a lawyer, and not for any particular reason other than I wanted to wear fancy suits and work in like a pretty courtroom. And it seemed like a cool, powerful job. And so I basically went to college thinking I was going to be a lawyer, did my internships with a district attorney and a law office and all these things and then after, you know, when I was about to graduate college, I was applying Paying for jobs. And I basically Googled best law firms in the world. And the one that popped up, like at the top of the Google results, I was like, Okay, I want to work there. So I applied as a legal assistant at this law firm. And to my surprise, I got the job. And so a few weeks after college, I moved down to New York City. And this law firm was in a 45, floor height skyscraper in Times Square. So I'm like I am, like, I'm living, I'm living the dream. Now I'm wearing my suit and my heels, and I loved it for like about a month, and then very quickly, decided, like, I don't think this is for me the work, I just really wasn't connecting with it. The clients, one of my clients that I was assigned to was Playboy, I'm like, this is really not like in alignment with my values. Like, I just, I don't think this is for me. But I didn't know what was for me. So I said, Well, I'm just gonna stick it out until I can like, figure out what's next. And so while I was there, though, I was assigned to work with a partner, who had formed a nonprofit that was working in Afghanistan. So this woman was incredible. She had a road trip through Asia and through Afghanistan, in the 60s, and had really just like, formed this love for the country. And after that, Afghanistan was sort of engulfed in three decades of war. And so by this time, in the early 2000s, like all of the farmers land had been basically decimated. So all of these farmers that used to be earning a living through their farm based businesses, they couldn't anymore because they had their land was just decimated. And so she started this nonprofit, to help farmers rebuild these farm based businesses. And so I was helping her they the the organization, the nonprofit was sort of like a pro bono client of the law firm. So the law firm would basically pay to staff time and things to help out this nonprofit. So I got to do some research and help out events and things like that. And eventually, a position opened up for like an Operations Coordinator at this nonprofit. And I was like, I think this is it. And so Operations Coordinator in nonprofit world pretty much means you do literally everything, you're wearing 15 different hats. But I loved it. I'm like stuffing envelopes, I'm picking out pictures for the website. I'm doing the bookkeeping, I'm helping out at fundraising events. But it was there that I really honed in on the finance piece of things. And I loved it, I had always been really good at math. But I didn't know what to do with that in high school. I was like, I don't want to be a math teacher. So I guess math is not for me. And I just really landed on the finance piece. So anyway, that's it sort of turned into that that's working in finance at nonprofits. And I was at this, this Afghanistan nonprofit for several years, and then went to another nonprofit, where they were building schools and running education programs in all of those countries that you listed before around the world. And so I was responsible for the global finances, the finance teams in each of those countries. So I would get to travel and support the teams. And the big piece for me was like connecting this work that I love to like, give me a spreadsheet, I am a happy woman, like I'm, you know, happy to kind of tinker around in my spreadsheets and do financial analyses, but connecting that to the impact that I'm seeing on the ground. 1000s and 1000s of children, were now able to attend primary school in their rural communities where they're living in Nepal, or in Malawi, because of the work that this nonprofit is doing. And so sort of like connecting, connecting the work that I really liked the analysis and the financial, the financial peace with the impact was like it just stuck. I was like, Okay, this is it. I figured it out. And so that is the very long story. How I started thinking on to be a lawyer and ended up in nonprofit financial management.

Julie- Host: 13:55

Yeah, I love that story. And it wasn't that long. Well, yeah, I love that. I think that's so fascinating that you know, it just so happened that with you, you kind of got intrigued, and then you were following along, right? And like, Oh, I wonder, I wonder where this is like, and I think that's so interesting about how you always liked math, but Right, the job that you could think of was a math teacher, right? And like, that's why I do this podcast is is exactly that, right? It's like, okay, there are so many more jobs, and we can even ever imagine. And I'm always surprised by how many cool jobs there are out there. And so I think that's just so awesome that you also planted in a place where you love so much and you can make such an impact. So I want to ask you a little bit about like, for your job that you have now because I know you also like you're running a company. And so you're, you know like you have all this background experience of like the day to day, but are you doing the day to day like CFO work now or Are you in the job of like, overall running the company? And then you have other CFOs? who are doing the kind of like day to day oversight, all those nuanced pieces? So I'm curious about like how that is, if you can speak to that a little bit and kind of share about that.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 15:18

Yeah. So I started the company eight years ago. And when I started eight years ago, it was me only and I was doing the CFO work for a handful of nonprofits. But then we started getting I started getting more referrals, and people would talk about my services. And so more and more nonprofits kept saying, Hey, can you do this for us? And so I didn't realize that at the time, but I was sort of at a crossroads where I could have said, No, I don't have capacity right? Now, let me recommend you to somebody, or I'll reach out when, when I can help you. Or I could have said, Okay, well, let me hire people to help me out and be able to serve more nonprofits. And again, I didn't realize that that was really even a decision. I was just like, well, I got to help everybody. So we've got to hire. And so that has kind of been the trajectory over the last eight years, as we've continued to get more nonprofits coming to us. And I've continued to hire. And so these days now, I would say I do still have clients. So I still work with four clients that I've been with for like five years. So the thing about our business is that having a fractional finance team is not something that really ever ends, right? Like you're going to be working with us for a very long time. And so the clients that I work with now, I've been working with these organizations for like five years, and so I do still have that small handful of nonprofits that I work with. And then the other part of my job is really wearing the CEO hat and being the owner of a company, which is pretty different than being a nonprofit CFO. So it's funny, like the way that you phrase that I hadn't really thought about it, but I am like, kind of wearing two quite different hats.

Julie- Host: 17:02

Yeah, yeah. And that's kind of like what one of the questions I had when I was doing research on what you do. Because I think, yeah, it's so fascinating about just the job, you know, of a CFO and then doing that fractionally in those roles and responsibilities. And then I also love that you talk about very specifically, like, because you're coming in, and they're not hiring, like a full time person, that you are still helping them make these really important decisions, and still helping them to get their financials and their ducks in a row. But that in addition to that, you are also running a company and like doing all the pieces of that, which I have not done, but I have family members who have, you know, run companies and stuff. And so I see that and I'm like, Oh, wow, that's a completely different skill set. You know, doing that. So I was very intriguing. And I'm curious, like for you how, and I know you're a mom, too. So how have you, I guess like, managed the, sort of the the responsibilities like do you segment your days up and say like, today, I'm in CFO mode, and I'm going to be wearing my CFO hat and like kind of do things in that way. And then like other days, you focus on being the CEO, and I know you know, you have a podcast and so you are doing things to like to keep your business thriving as well, which is like also a whole other a whole other set of skills. So I'm just curious, like, how do you actually organize your schedule? And what kind of skills do you feel like that takes to be able to do that?

Stephanie Skryzowski: 18:44

Yes, so it definitely requires a lot of like, mindset shifting like, Okay, I've got my CFO hat on now. Okay, I finished this analysis, great CEO hat and a while I would say probably like three years ago, I had virtually no like defined way that I was managing any of it, it was just like, sure anybody can schedule any meeting on my calendar whenever I'm bouncing all over the place. And I will say I am a pretty like quick in or like I move quickly. I'm pretty organized. So it was like, Okay, I was staying above water, but I certainly was not at my most efficient by any means. And so today what that looks like is I have you know, structured days when I will take meetings and other days when I will not take any meetings because I really need that white space to block off for either client work like client projects, or CEO work, whether that's working on the podcast or writing or speaking or things like that. And so limiting my time periods where I will take calls has been like the number one game changer for me and then beyond that in my whitespace is when I batch my work and So I'm not going to go through for example, if I have 20 emails in my inbox that need addressing by me, maybe some of its client stuff, some of it CEO stuff, I don't go one by one I pull out, okay, there's four emails from this client, okay, I'm gonna sit and do this client's work. What else do I need to do for this client this week and kind of go down the list. And so I tried to, I tried to batch it that way. And of course, weeks are different where client work is less than CEO work, it's more or vice versa. But I will say batching work and then limiting the availability. And my calendar has been the biggest the biggest sort of time management, not even a hack, but what has really helped me stay organized.

Julie- Host: 20:40

Yeah, no, I appreciate you sharing that, because I really was very curious. And it makes a lot of sense, because then you can just like literally focus on one specific area at a time, and not have the interruptions of people calling or taking a taking a moment to write an email, or whatever the case is. So I appreciate that. And I'm curious, like, going to the, I guess, like your job as a CFO and really focusing in on that part. What is like, I guess the high level things, you know, that fractional CFO is going to help with? And what kinds of things I guess, are they concerned about, you know, when they are helping a nonprofit, like, kind of what are what are those things for people who really aren't? I mean, I know in general, chief financial officer has to do with finances and money, but I don't know really beyond that. So can you kind of give us like a an overview of what what that actually means what you do day to day or week to week? Yes.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 21:40

So our goal is to help the leader of the nonprofit, whether that's the executive director, or the CEO, the board, we help them see around the corner. So we can use numbers and we are projecting revenue. So incoming money or projecting expenses, outgoing money, we're projecting cash, like what's literally coming into and out of the bank 12 to 18 months in the future. And so they've got this sort of visual of like, what does our financial picture look like in six months? Okay, now, we can make some decisions based around that. And so a lot of our job is around forecasting. And so again, that's just sort of mapping out planning, using our best guesses as to what is going to happen to our money in the future. And so, you know, nonprofits get their funding from a lot of different sources, but some get money from, from governments from the US government or others, from foundations, from individuals from corporations. And so there's a lot of money coming in from a lot of different places. Some of it is small amounts, some of its big amounts, some of it is committed for multiple years. And some of it is one time. And so really wrapping our head around all of that, organizing it all into Excel, basically, and mapping it out. So the nonprofit leaders really have a vision of like, okay, here's what's coming down the pike, can I afford to hire a couple new people that we really desperately need? Can we afford to start this new program that we want to run? And so I would say that's kind of our primary job and a lot of the other work that we do sort of stems off of that. But it's really Yeah, helping leaders see around the corners, and they can make really good decisions and increase their program's impact.

Julie- Host: 23:24

Yeah, that's a great explanation. I like that idea of seeing around the corner. And yeah, it's interesting to like I hadn't thought about the idea of Yeah, like, sometimes they have these grants that come in, right, and then maybe there are multiple year grants. But then if one person just gives a big donation, right, like $10,000, from their estate, that that's a one time thing. So that's super interesting to think about those different dynamics. And I'm curious, like, as someone who's usually a CFO, like in that position, what kind of education do people usually come in with? Like, is it more that it matters that you have some sort of undergrad but it doesn't have to be a specific one? Is it usually a particular undergrad or even grad degree? And then like, what are those kind of other key experiences or education pieces that you often like look for or that are required to do this job? Because I am imagining like, I'm someone for instance, I don't love Excel. And it just baffles me like I'm like, if I have to use it, you know, I'm desperate to organize it. And I wish I knew better, but like, I love that people love it so much because I can see how be so so magical. Yeah, so I was just curious, like, what are those those sort of particular pieces that really big someone successful in this role and that really help being able to be especially like a fractional CFO, maybe if they're, if you can see if there's distinctions with that versus is just a CFO in general full time. I'm curious if there are if there are distinctions. Yeah,

Stephanie Skryzowski: 25:06

you know what? Yeah, there definitely are. So I would say there's not necessarily any education requirements for this role. What I will say is like looking at the people on our team, the CFOs, and the bookkeepers on our team, many of them have an undergrad degree in accounting. And some I'm trying to think about everybody, I can't remember everybody, but some have a degree in accounting, I don't like I have no degree in accounting whatsoever. A few people have master's degrees in also in accounting, I have a master's degree in nonprofit management. So it's an MPA, it's a Master's in Public Administration is sort of like the degree title. And then I focused on nonprofit management. And I think a couple others on our team might also have an MPA. But that's certainly not required by any means. I would say, one thing that is important is experience inside a nonprofit, because, as you mentioned earlier with the other woman that you are interviewing, there is a difference between corporate accounting and nonprofit accounting. There are different rules that we have to follow even different ways on how we like input revenue into the accounting system, there's rules for how nonprofits need to recognize revenue. It's called revenue recognition. So there's different ways that we do it, then the corporate world does it. And so having some sense of you know, some experience in the nonprofit sector is certainly helpful to kind of understand the nuances part of of Nonprofit Finance, but I would say it's definitely there's no particular degree required. And then what makes someone successful as a CFO versus a fractional CFO? That is a very good question. Because I will tell you that we have hired people over the years, who I'm sure in their nonprofit roles were incredible CFOs. But when they're stepping when they're stepping into this fractional CFO role, it didn't really work out for them. Because you can't really go super deep on any one organization, because you've got 10 different clients to work with. You don't have the capacity to like, learn every single little detail, in fact about their programs and their team and their history and all the things like we're here to do one job, and that's the financial management. But there's just not the time to go deep. And so that has been hard for people not to be able to go deep. And then there's also a really high level of organization that's required when you're in a fractional role, because I happen to love it. But also, instead of having one boss, you kind of have like 10 bosses, right? There's 10 Different executive directors that might need something from you. And so you have to have really good organization and prioritization skills, and just using that critical thinking to understand like, Okay, I have five emails from five different clients right now. Which one should I prioritize? Which one is really important? And how do I kind of map out my day to factor this all in? And so the CFOs, on our team that have been really, really successful, are self starters. And they're really organized, and they understand prioritization and have really good communication skills. Because you're also communicating with a wide variety of people. Again, it's not just like, you interview with one boss, and you're like, Oh, I love this person where it's going to be great. It's like, you have 10 Different people you're going to be working with, and you might like some more than others. So yeah, so that's what I would say is kind of the difference between a full time CFO and fractional. Yeah,

Julie- Host: 28:47

that makes so much sense. I mean, I think it's interesting, too, because there's like, I think what I typically think of as someone who's good at finance, might not necessarily be a good communicator, although you would hope that they would be right, because like, I can imagine that there's some times that you don't want to just get into the nitty gritty terminology and the jargon and abbreviations, but that you actually have to be able to explain more in layman's terms that, like certain things are happening or not happening. So I can imagine that would be a really necessary skill, but it's not what's always going to come to mind like, at least for me, right? Unless I'm digging down. Yes. And I think like, also, to your point, like the fact that you'd have 10 different bosses, who you're speaking to and like that ability, and ironically, somewhat related is I keep trying to teach my kids this because we have grandparents who live different sets of grandparents and family who live here. And then we have us who lives here in the Phoenix area, and we all have different sets of rules, right? And our household we have different expectations. We have different ways that we communicate with each household, right and the people in the household is individuals. So it's like I've been trying to teach this sort of slowly, this idea of like, when we communicate or when we're in different environments, we have to approach them with a different with a different awareness. So that's a very, maybe inappropriate or appropriate, hopefully, no, that's perfect. No one's like, Oh, I'm so offended here. You're comparing your children. But like, it's that idea of changing your communication style, right, based on who you're speaking to, and also what they're asking of you. And yeah, like, what their organizational culture is their norms. And my guess is like, they're in different countries, they have different ways of communicating to the all those nuances in those layers that aren't necessarily super obvious at the beginning.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 30:47

Yeah, that's so true. And because often we are, we're the one finance person, there's nobody else. And a lot of times, we are, say, presenting the financial statements to the board of directors, and maybe a couple people in the room will be familiar with the terms and things but mostly not. And so we really have to keep that in mind. You gotta read the room. And like, understand, where are people coming from? What's the most important information they need to know? Like, we probably don't need to go line by line through the balance sheet. But they probably want to know, like, Oh, we're gonna run out of money in four months if we don't raise some more kind of thing. And so being able to communicate that, yeah, is is huge. That's another, I'm glad you pointed that out. Because that is a huge requirement. And actually something we talk a lot about in the hiring process, while when we're hiring. It's like, what's your experience communicating financials to people who are not numbers, people? And the other thing I will say, kind of related to that is that, you know, I feel like, there's sort of I don't know if it's a stereotype, but like, numbers, finance, people, accountants are like introverts. And I think that's actually largely the case for our team. I think our team, we've asked this question before, and I think for the most part, we do all identify as introverts. And so this job is really interesting, because you are largely, I won't say on your own, but you're, you're kind of doing your own thing, you're not required to like be with people all day long, or we are all remote. And so that's kind of nice that it's like, Alright, I'm just here, my home office, I'm doing my thing. But being able to sort of turn it on when we need to speak to a board or present to a group of people about our financials, I think is really important. But yeah, I just think that the piece about introvert extrovert is, is interesting, because that's kind of what you think. And that really is how our team identifies but are still able to present the financials to to non numbers, people when we need to,

Julie- Host: 32:41

yeah, which is such an important skill. It's like, I think so many of us if we went to school, or like grad school, undergrad, whatever, like even trade schools, like you have those teachers, and you can just tell, they're insanely smart, and they definitely know what they're talking about. But they really shouldn't be teaching. Like, you just can't understand what they're talking about. You know, and, and so I love that that's something that you guys also think about as as your hiring, but then also like, as, right, as you're working with people, I think that part is so key. And even something like for me that I've noticed in doing interviews now is like, some people are just really skilled at communicating what they do in more basic language. And yet, they can flip also and speak with other people in that profession in a very, in a very, you know, like high level way where they've put in all those words and right, they can have those conversations, but for the rest of us, they can explain it. And we understand. So I'm always appreciative of that. And so it now like shifting a little bit, you know, away from the CFO, and to kind of like CEO hat, how have you found like, I always am so fascinated by people who have started businesses, because it is such like, I have such respect for entrepreneurs. I think that it's like often something that's talked about, and like we see it on Instagram, or we see it on these places. And like there's all these actual really difficult parts are like hard parts that you're trying to figure out as you go along. And you know, it's like, you get to this level, and you're like, Okay, I figure out this next thing. So I'm curious, like, how has that journey been for you? Because it's it started like, it seems like it started out I should say that you just kind of like landed in this place of like, oh, I need to help more people, but you weren't expecting to maybe start this business. So how has that been for you, transitioning to that place where you are running a business as well as doing the role? And like, Do you have any suggestions for especially when people are maybe getting started? Like if there are people listening to this and they want to start becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business like if you have any of those lessons that you learned maybe the hard way or things that you did right from the beginning? Is there even any, like CFO tips that you would put into place that people might might be able to learn from?

Stephanie Skryzowski: 35:08

Yes. Oh my gosh, so many there have been so many lessons. Oh, my goodness. Well, I will say the one thing that has sort of worked out for me, and then I'll get into all the lessons learned, but is that I've always been very open to whatever's next and not really having a prescribed like, this is what my business must look like, this is what I must do. This is how it must go more just like, Okay, well, let me try this next thing, let me take this next step up and kind of see what happens. And there are definitely times when I've taken two steps up and one step down and, and whatnot. But just sort of being open to the journey, and not having an end result in mind has been very, very helpful to me. And that's kind of led us to where we are now. But the hard lessons along the way, man, I will say one of the things this is like not the most exciting thing. But in the very beginning, I basically Googled to find all of my like legal contracts online, and just use templates and things. And it was fine for the first few years, because you're thinking, Well, I'm nice, and everybody I work with is so nice, and like nobody's gonna do anything to hurt each other. Until that one thing happens until like, maybe somebody is not so nice. Or maybe there's a misunderstanding, and I didn't I there have been a few times now where I have not had the right legal protections in place, because I didn't have strong contracts, because I didn't really want to pay a lawyer, I'm like, who cares? Like, it's not that big of a deal. So I will say that if anybody out there is thinking about starting a business, or is even anywhere down the road of starting a business, whether it's contracts with your, with your clients, or customers with your suppliers with people that you're working with, in some way, shape, or form, make sure those are really strong clients are is really strong agreements, contracts that have been drafted by lawyers, that will save a lot of headache and a lot of stress in the future. So I will say if I could start over again, that that's one thing that I would definitely have done differently. And then the other the other piece of advice, I would say is to really be mindful of your financials of your numbers from day one. Because I have also worked with, we actually used to serve small businesses as well in this fractional CFO model, and then decided just to focus on nonprofits. But I've talked to a lot of small business owners that are 234 years into their business. And they still have one bank account where they're mixing their personal stuff and their business stuff. Or they're not using an accounting software, so none of their revenue and expenses are organized, you can't pull reports or analyze from that. And so, the best time, the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the second best time is now I used to take all the time, it's like okay, if you haven't done anything with your with your numbers yet, like now is the time do it now. And so that I will say that I did from the beginning, I had I used QuickBooks and had, you know, had all of that setup. But to kind of take that financial piece one step further. One thing that I could have probably done better, is have a better like, financial model for hiring and client pricing. So basically, when I hire people, you have to pay him a salary, I have all full time employees. And then we have our clients that pay us certain certain rates, of course, and what I what happened was that I sort of did a financial analysis, I was like, why does it seem like we're making no money, we're bringing a lot of money in, but then it's all going out again, like what's happening here, we're not losing money, nobody's stealing anything. But what was happening was that we weren't charging our clients enough to really match up with the salaries that we were paying for this really high quality people that we had on our team. And so as a finance person, it's like, oh, that's kind of embarrassing, like the cobblers children have no shoes situation here, where, you know, we just kind of like let it get away from us. And so just having an idea and being really mindful of your money from day one is is huge. And you know, it didn't certainly that situation with us didn't like, it didn't put us out of business. Obviously, it wasn't like two totally debilitating as a company, but it was a wake up call that it's like, oh, we probably should have had a stronger sense of where we were at from the beginning. So and then I think the last piece I'll say I'm like I could literally go on and on about building a company forever. The last piece I will say is the reason that we are doing as well as we are and the reason that I am able to balance is because of my team. And so from the beginning I mentioned like okay, well I had all this work, I needed to hire somebody to help so I hired a book cheaper to help me with some of the client work. And then they had too much work. So then I still had too much work. So then I hired like an assistant, a virtual assistant to help me with some of the administrative work. And then I hired another bookkeeper. And so we just sort of kept layering on. And I remember telling, I had a business coach a couple years ago, I remember telling her, Well, I don't think my business could ever get above a million dollars in revenue. Because like, think about the team, I would have to manage, like, I can't possibly manage all those people. And she was like, Well, why do you have to? Like, oh, I don't have to, like, No, you hire somebody to manage all the people, like, oh, and so that that was like a game changer, a huge lightbulb moment for me, because I've now added people to manage the people. And so that is what really allows me to wear that CEO hat. And so as somebody who's just starting out, maybe you're gonna hire somebody to help you with a little bit of the work and then hire somebody else to help with more work and maybe an assistant. And eventually, you're gonna get to the point where it's like, okay, I have like eight people reporting to me, and that's too much. And that's when it's ready. It's time to hire somebody, like an operations manager that can kind of oversee all of the people. And so yeah, again, I could go on and on. But I would say those are like, the biggest things that have been hard lessons learned, and also what have been sort of catalysts to our growth over the years. Yeah,

Julie- Host: 41:30

no, I appreciate you sharing all those. I mean, they were all in such like different spaces, you know, whether with people or the financials, but I think those are such valuable lessons to hear about. And especially such an interesting idea about Yeah, like, you don't have to manage 20 people or whatever it is, you hire someone to help finish those people like that. Yeah. What a really great reframe. Yeah, and that's like, why we pay really smart people, right, to help us with with these things to at a certain point. So I appreciate those those shares. I, I want to ask too, like for you, with the work that you're doing, and because you help nonprofits all over the world, like can you share if you're allowed to, you know, some of the examples of what the nonprofits have been that you've helped over the years, and like their missions. And also, I think, like, the, the special thing about what you mentioned from the beginning is that, you know, you are not only helping that specific organization, but then you're helping all the people that they impact and that they hopefully create, like a better life or a better future, and that they serve. So I would just love to hear if you're able to share some examples, kind of like, because they seem very diverse and very diverse places.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 42:47

Yes, yes. And that my particular clients are almost all actually I think it all are global. And so they are all working in different countries around the world, because that is like we talked about sort of my specialty, my passion, I will say that as a company, not all of our clients are in different places in Africa, or Asia or whatever. But the particular clients I work with are. And so one organization I work with works in health care in a community in Kenya. And so they are working to basically improve health outcomes in this one geographical region in Kenya. And they're starting to expand into other regions, but they have a hospital and they're working in maternal and infant health and doing like just incredible work. And the work that they do, it's their model is very interesting, because they go very deep in one sort of one geographic area versus doing going very shallow in a really what, like the entire country of Kenya, for example. So that one is really cool, because they are really changing healthcare outcomes in this one community. And now they're they've got the resources that they've been able to expand to different sub counties, and really transforming the health systems in this area in Kenya. And so that's pretty cool. Then I work with another organization that they are sort of taking a different approach in that they're working in three different countries. They're in Ghana, Guatemala, and Laos. So one country in Africa, Central America, and Asia. So they're all over the world. And they are building schools, and then running teachers support programs in these communities to help obviously to support the teachers and, and running other educational, other educational programs there. And so they are sort of going deep, but their geographic presence is in three different countries. And so their impact is they're building these classrooms so that more children have access to primary school. They also build toilet and like sort of sanitation type projects, and so these communities now have access to latrines and running water and things like that. And then the teachers are supported through their programs as well. So that is, again, it's like 1000s and 1000s 10s of 1000s of children have access to education and clean water through their work, which is so cool. And then the other another organization is working with refugee girls in Kenya. And so they are providing mental health resources, sort of economic and like job development type education programs for refugees from other places in Africa that end up in in Nairobi, Kenya. So it's all girls, and it's helping them basically, sort of re reshape and restart their lives with education and legal aid and training and mental health resources. And it's, yeah, it's, it's all very different, but really cool. And so it's just interesting, because it's like, okay, I'm sitting here, looking at QuickBooks, and I'm in the spreadsheets. And sometimes it can be a little bit like disconnected from, oh, this work is literally changing the lives and helping babies in this rural place in Kenya stay alive longer. When I'm sitting here in QuickBooks, it's like kind of a disconnect. But, you know, when you step back and think about, it's like, okay, this work is actually really meaningful, because if the organization is not managing their resources, well, this impact in Kenya or in Ghana cannot happen. And so it that sort of connects the dots for me, it's like, okay, if I can help them manage their money, really well, then 1000s of people around the globe are going to have better lives. Like, that's pretty, pretty motivating to me.

Julie- Host: 46:41

Yeah, I mean, I can see why I think it's really, I mean, it is a interesting point to think about, right? Like the actual details of your job, versus sort of like the big picture, I could see how there could be that disconnect, like when you're in there every day doing the work, but then, yeah, like that ability to step back and be like, Oh, wow, like this. That's so cool. And those sound like really amazing organizations that are doing some really important work in very different places, for very different reasons. Yeah, that's super cool. And so then you guys also have people here sounds like in the United States who you're helping as well. Yeah.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 47:22

Yeah, all kinds of clients. I mean, some are working in G is like all really all kinds of areas, some are working in the arts, some are working in environmental type causes. Some are in very, like community services around to housing and things like that. So it's really all over the board, I would say in terms of mission. The one common thread between all of the organizations that we serve is that they're 501 C, three organizations, and the 501 C three is a US IRS status that says you are a tax exempt nonprofit organization. So that's the kind of common thread of everybody we work with.

Julie- Host: 48:02

Okay, yeah, thank you for sharing that. I think it's so cool the work that you do, because I imagine especially when nonprofits are starting out, you know, or when they're relatively small, it's like, you don't have the opportunity to hire I'm sure all the staff that you could possibly want in need, right? Like, because that's just impossible. And yet also they want that money where they would be spending it on employees to go towards their mission. So it's like this conflict of how do we still get stuff done, and accomplished, and serve the people we're meant to serve, but also still be in in, you know, existence a year from now or five years from now? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 48:42

And there's also, in addition to a fractional CFO, is there's fractional fundraisers and fractional chief marketing officers. And there's other sort of sectors where there's fractional roles. And so you can get like high level, a high level expertise in fundraising, for example, but not not having somebody totally full time.

Julie- Host: 49:03

Yeah, it was. It's fascinating. I don't think I've heard of that either. So now I'm curious. So and I'm curious, like going a step. Kind of deeper for us. Like, have you seen is this a pretty new model, like having a fractional CFO, like, do you think that it's becoming more well known that it exists and more prevalent or has it always existed? And I I just was never personally aware of it. Like what? I'm just curious what your take is on this.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 49:34

Yeah. So I will say that when I started, I must have Googled something and found something called a fractional CFL. Like I certainly didn't make it up, and I hadn't heard of it before either. And so I'm thinking, I used to sort of pitch myself as like I could be a CFO, but on a part time basis is what I used to say, until I stumbled upon this term Thrax. gional And I remember for several years, I would get people saying, What do you mean by fractional? What is that? I don't know what that is. And so I do think I think it's been around, but I don't think it's like widely known. And before COVID, when I used to get on calls, Discovery calls with new potential clients, and explaining what we do, a lot of them would be like, okay, so you'll come to the office once a week, and I'm like, no, no, it's remote, we don't come to the office at all, everything that we do is fully remote. If your systems your software right now is not set up for that. We'll help you get there. But no, we will never meet in person. Like I didn't say that. But like, No, we will never be in person. And so that they used to a lot of people used to sort of pump the brakes at that point and be like, oh, yeah, I need somebody in the office, I need somebody to like print the checks on my printer. And I think COVID has, like vastly change that. And people are much more open to that now. And it's just really become a norm. A lot of nonprofits I know, don't have office space anymore. Like they got rid of their office space entirely. There's a huge drain on the budget. And I think, again, pre 2020, it just felt like, well, yeah, we have to have an office. Obviously, it's a given. And then post 2020 is like, Well, wait, oh, no, we can save $30,000 By not having an office space this year. Yeah. Why are we doing this? This doesn't make sense. And so I think for that fractional model, or having a remote finance team, it's become much more widely known and accepted. But yeah, I think COVID certainly changed a lot. But I still think the fractional that word fractional people are like, Wait, what is that? Exactly mean? Right? Yeah.

Julie- Host: 51:43

I had to, I had to, like, definitely do my research. And then I was like, Oh, that makes sense. You're part of the time. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. No. Okay. I appreciate that. Because I think yeah, I've only just heard about it pretty recently. So sorry, fascinating. But I could see, I guess, like maybe the word Yeah, part time SEO or, or some other thing that existed but wasn't as prevalent. And that is interesting that 2020 and COVID brought such a shift. And yeah, like the expectations of being in an office versus no, he will not be there physically in person. And then even that's interesting about nonprofits not having a physical space to save that money. Where they can is, is really an interesting thing. I'm, I'm wondering for you like because everything you do is virtual, how do you maintain kind of that, like that team environment? How do you get to know people at the beginning kind of those types? I mean, that's that's more a CEO question than the CFO. But I'm just curious, like, how have you done that? Because I think there are so many businesses like big and small, that are really struggling with like the, you know, the idea of like, I must be in person to make a connection with another human. And obviously, there's other ways around that, but they haven't had experience, and don't quite know that. So I'm just curious, like, how have you managed because you've been doing it now for a while. Greek COVID? How have you managed those dynamics of like running a team, and building culture and like having connections with your your team?

Stephanie Skryzowski: 53:22

Yeah, that's a great question. And it is an ever evolving task or responsibility of ours that we're constantly. my management team and I are constantly thinking of like, how can we bring the team together? And so some of the things that we do, I mean, I will say, first of all, our team is largely introverts. And so like I said before, we don't need like a ton of, of social like juice to light us up. But let's just look just a little bit good. So we have team meetings once a month, where the entire team gets together. And the sort of structure and shape of those meetings has evolved over time. But sometimes we'll do fun activities. Like around the holidays, we had a, like a facilitator Come on. And we did like Office a Olympics. And so we kind of played games like on Zoom together. And it sounds kind of weird and silly, but it was actually really fun. And so we always do on our zoom calls on our team meetings, we do little breakout rooms where we can we chat about different things in smaller groups. So we have our team meetings, we also have bi weekly or sometimes weekly calls with smaller groups of people on the team to kind of troubleshoot and talk through different client situations or challenges that they're going through. So it always feels like you have someone to talk to. And then in terms of other tools, we use Slack, which is a communication software kind of like instant message software. And so we're all we all have the slack window open all day and so if people have questions are popping in or, or we're even posting like fun things. Hey, here's a picture of my kids sledding this weekend or like, hey, what's everybody cooking for dinner tonight and dropping recipes in there? And so we try and kind of keep that camaraderie going in Slack Of course. It's no substitute for like sitting down and having lunch with somebody. But it's, it's something personal beyond just like work stuff. And then I would say the biggest thing that we do is we do an annual in person team retreat, where we bring everybody together live in person for a week, once a year, it's actually coming up in the next month or so. And we've done a different location every year, and everybody comes together. And we do fun, like team building stuff, we do education and brainstorming time and things like that. And that really is, it's so nice to be able to just like, Oh, I see the 3d version of you versus the 2d version that I see on my Zoom screen every day. It is just so nice to tell stories and hang out and just chit chat, things that wouldn't happen over Slack. So I would say those are the those are the big things that we do is like the meetings slack. And then our in person virtual retreat.

Julie- Host: 55:53

I love that. Thank you for explaining. And I always like I've had that myself, you know, where it's like you see someone on a screen, you're like, Oh, you're taller than I thought you'd be right or like that you're just more petite than I thought you'd be like, I don't know what I expected. But

Stephanie Skryzowski: 56:08

it's so funny, because I remember like meeting this one person on our team for the first time they stepped out of like the Uber at the place that we were meeting and I was like, Wow, you are literally like a foot taller than I thought you were going to be. It's so because you just have no context. It's so funny, right? Yeah, it's hilarious.

Julie- Host: 56:29

Yeah, yeah, those are like the fun the fun things about I guess the the real life meetings when you've been talking for so long. But it is interesting to like, I know that I really was hesitant at the beginning of the podcast, which was during COVID. To like, do these interviews in person because I'm the opposite. Like I love. I really love being in person in groups of people. Like it just gives me energy. And so I was like, I don't know about this computer stuff. But it's funny, because I've learned that, you know, you can still obviously, like have great conversations, you can still, like have good energy and all these things between people. But but there is yeah, something that you just don't get, like height and other details that you don't get in context. So I love that. Well. This was such a fun conversation. And I want to I want to wrap it up just with a few things first, like if there's people who are listening to this, and they're like, oh, wow, I love numbers, too. I just never thought about this as being a career. Do you have any suggestions or advice for them as far as any associations you may know of or be part of organizations, just resources that they could kind of start looking into and learning about about what it's like to be a CFO, what it's like to be a fractional CFO, anything that you can share? I'm appreciative.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 57:52

Yeah, I would say my biggest resource related to that is LinkedIn. So there's tons of different groups on LinkedIn, there's different CFO networks on LinkedIn, I would start there searching in your own network, and then your sort of second tier connections and third tier connections, I would definitely start there. And then I would say specifically around the nonprofit sector, there are so many resources, my top one is probably idealist.org. And so idealist, it's a website. It's a platform that connects individuals with opportunities in the nonprofit sector. And so if you searched on idealist for CFO, you're gonna see a whole bunch of job listings for nonprofit CFOs. And you can kind of get an idea of what types of responsibilities they have, what types of requirements or skill sets that these organizations are looking for. And I love idealist because in the nonprofit community, that's like the gold standard. That's where everybody posts, their job listings. It's much better than LinkedIn, or indeed, or whatever other job boards you're using for not nonprofit jobs. So idealist.org, there's tons of resources on there. And then there's also a lot of nonprofit associations. And on these nonprofit associations, websites, they have tons of educational resources, workshops, networking opportunities. And so depending on what state you're in, you probably have a state nonprofit association, that you can go check out their resources, like we actually my company partners with a handful of state nonprofit associations we have, we have an online course called master your nonprofit numbers that is basically like a 101 for nonprofit financial management. And it's meant for not numbers, people, it's meant for non finance professionals. And so we partner with a lot of these associations, and they will share our our course with nonprofit leaders that are members of the association. So that would be a great place to start as well.

Julie- Host: 59:51

Okay. Yeah, I think you know, those are great tips. And especially Yeah, I never realized there's like a nonprofit association for each state. So that that's really good to know about for people who are really interested in that in that world like of nonprofits, even if they're interested in other bright non CFO roles, but just love that. That. Yeah. Like purpose. Yeah.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 1:00:13

Because I think that, you know, a lot of people have skill sets that are really applicable in the nonprofit sector. And you may be thinking, like, oh, but I'm in sales, like, what could I do in the nonprofit? Well, maybe you would be an amazing fundraising person. And so just like using some of these resources to explore, because I know, I've seen some statistics around millennials really wanting and I think other generations as well. They're like, whatever the next generation is, after millennials, but really wanting some sense of impact and purpose in their job. But maybe not knowing how to make that connection to the nonprofit sector. I think a lot of skills are so transferable and looking at these resources will help you potentially connect the dots.

Julie- Host: 1:00:53

Yeah, that's a really great point. And yeah, and I think that's true. Like a lot of people don't think about like, well, if I want to work in sort of like a heart driven place, or like a purpose driven place, like how would how would that work? I don't know where I would fit in. So that's a wonderful tip. I appreciate that. So we're gonna go to my theory, last question, my favorite question. And I asked all my guests, because I just love knowing about the alphabet soup and the jargon that everyone has in their career, and that inevitably, people end up using and becomes like the norm. But then when we hear it, we're like, what does that even mean as outsiders? So to end our conversation, will you please share a sentence that uses verbiage or jargon from your field and then translate it for us? So it's understandable?

Stephanie Skryzowski: 1:01:37

Yes, I really packed this one, like a pretty heavy. I love it. Yeah. All right. So here it goes. In order to optimize our organization's fiscal sustainability, we're implementing a comprehensive fund allocation strategy that aligns with our mission, and incorporates rigorous cost benefit analysis to ensure prudent resource utilization and foster long term financial resilience in the nonprofit sector.

Julie- Host: 1:02:05

Oh, that was a good one. Yeah. Okay. So now, please. So we have, you know, some sort of idea of what's happening here. Yes.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 1:02:13

So the translation is to make sure that we can continue impacting the communities we serve, or making sure we're spending our money wisely, and getting the most bang for our buck when it comes to expenses.

Julie- Host: 1:02:24

I love that. cheesier Yes, much easier to understand. Alright, but I loved all those. All those terms. Those are so fun. Well, thank you so much, Stephanie, for being a guest. If people want to reach out to you, how can they do that? How can they find you and your company?

Stephanie Skryzowski: 1:02:42

Yes, so our website is 100 degrees consulting.com. That's 100 like 100. And you can find us at 100 degrees consulting on on Instagram on LinkedIn. And then my personal Instagram is Stephanie dot s, k r y. So just the first four letters of my last name, and you can find me at Stephanie's Berezovsky on LinkedIn as well.

Julie- Host: 1:03:03

Awesome. Well, thank you. It was such a pleasure chatting with you and learning about what it's like to be an entrepreneur and a fractional CFO.

Stephanie Skryzowski: 1:03:11

Yes. Well, thank you so much for having me. This was a great conversation.

Julie- Host: 1:03:15

Thank you. Hey, everybody, thank you so much for listening to women with cool jobs. I'll be releasing a new episode every two weeks. So make sure you hit that subscribe button. And if you loved the show, please give me a five star rating. Also, it would mean so much if you share this episode with someone you think would love it or would find it inspirational. And lastly, do you have ideas for future shows? Or do you know any Rockstar women with cool jobs? I would love to hear from you. You can email me at Julie at women with cool jobs.com Or you can find me on Instagram at women who will jobs again that women will jobs. Thank you so much for listening and have an incredible day