EP 83: Strategic Financial Planning with Hannah Smolinski

Thriving Practice with Tracy Cherpeski

In today’s episode, I’m speaking with the wise Hannah Smolinski of Clara CFO Group.

She shares her best tips on how to grow and scale into 7 figures and beyond with strategic financial leadership, and using money as a tool for growth. We also talked about preserving the owner’s energy and decreasing the opportunity costs associated with owners doing all the things in their business.

You won’t want to miss when we talk about Zone of Genius, and what that means for business owners, particularly with respect to reducing fatigue and increasing the “psychic benefits” of removing and delegating what doesn’t belong on the owner’s plate.

Hannah stressed the importance of getting crystal clear about what you really want to achieve in the next 3-5 years, and being incredibly intentional while implementing strategies and changes to achieve your goals. I love how she breaks down how she and her team ask not only what their client’s goals are, but also what they’re willing to do to achieve those goals.

Her parting wisdom is:

• Don’t let finances and numbers intimidate you
• It’s really about doing 3rd grade math (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) so it doesn’t have to be scary
• Remember that your numbers tell a story, so you can get a lot of valuable information by knowing your numbers
• When you’re ready to work with a strategic finance specialist, make sure you find a partner you can trust and feel comfortable asking all the questions, because there are no dumb questions in finance

I really enjoyed our conversation and could have talked about the importance of strategic finance with her for hours. I am sure you’ll learn a lot from this episode, so you know what to do.

Grab a beverage or a snack and settle-in to listen to Hannah and her incredible wisdom.

Bio:

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. Her 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 38,000 subscribers and uses the platform to help small businesses achieve financial success.

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