EP 31: Business Strategy and Becoming Your Own CFO with Susan Boles

A CFO does more than look at numbers—they also look at the big picture to find patterns in the data. Finding those patterns is what leads you, as an entrepreneur, to making better, more informed decisions for your business. You might dig into the numbers and find that one of your products takes up 80% of your time but only 20% of your revenue—while, on the flip side, you might have a product that takes up much less time and much more revenue. So how can stepping into the CFO role of your business help you work less, make more money, and make better business decisions? Where should you start? And what steps can you take to create a meaningful strategy? Enter Susan Boles. Susan is a Virtual CFO and Operations Advisor for agencies, consultants, and coaches at ScaleSpark. She focuses on helping businesses get clear on their numbers and truly understand their inner workings at a deeper level so they can make decisions from a place of intention and purpose—instead of panic. Susan has over a decade of experience as a CFO and software consultant and she's on a mission to help founders build sustainable, resilient businesses. Listen to the full episode to hear: * The ROLE of CFO, and why every business – no matter how small – should have someone doing this work * What does "strategy" really mean? Where should our strategy be based? * What data to track and how to use it to make more strategic decisions in your business * The #1 question to ask yourself about EVERYTHING to improve your strategy and create better results * Why you should be tracking your time first before your financials Learn more about Susan Boles: * scalespark.co (https://scalespark.co) * Break the Ceiling Podcast (https://www.scalespark.co/podcast) * @thesusanboles on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/thesusanboles/) * @thesusanboles on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thesusanboles) * @thesusanboles on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesusanboles/) Learn more about Gillian: * Join Startup Society (https://www.gillianperkins.com/startupsociety) (promo code: earnmore) * Profit Planning Challenge (https://www.gillianperkins.com/plan-your-business-for-profit/) * Get in touch! (https://gillianperkins.com/contact-podcast-form/)