We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Candice Phillips a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Candice, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

What a great question. From my view, success starts with curiosity, but then must evolve to seizing every opportunity to learn and sharpen one’s craft. I think there’s a misconception that success means getting things perfect or the absence of failure. When in fact, well, at least in my experience, some of my greatest successes have stemmed from lessons learned from my failures. Ultimately, I feel success takes bravery and valuing getting the right result over being right.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Candice Phillips, an Alabama native turned Californian. I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, although oddly enough, my interests at a young age were in real estate and design. While pursuing my undergrad, I did work study as an accounting/bookkeeping assistant from 2004-2005 and discovered my love for solving problems using numbers.

I didn’t look back! After graduation, I held a number of related jobs and slowly worked my way up. A pivotal turning point in my career was in 2009; just as I was completing grad school, I was laid off during the economic downturn. It was traumatic for me. Employers weren’t hiring, and I was scared. I refused to sit and let life happen to me. I remember thinking I would never rely solely on an employer again for income, and I was determined to give myself more options going forward.

Amid my new reality, I wondered, what if I try to get bookkeeping clients? Within a matter of weeks of being laid off, I filed for a business license and began pursuing clients. Thirty days after that, I had two clients! Through a lot of grit, I scaled very quickly—too quickly, in fact. My work consumed me for years, but now I had a young family and no longer desired the commitment that came with entrepreneurship. In 2013, I decided to scale back my client load, keep just enough, and pursue employment again.

Fast-forward 10 years. I’ve been fortunate to hold positions such as Finance Director at Delta Managed Solutions, a back-office provider for Charter Schools, and Chief Financial Officer at Improve Your Tomorrow, a non-profit. During my time in these roles, I collectively helped steward nearly 100M in assets.

August 2023, I decided it was time to re-design the life I always wanted while combining my passion for solving problems using numbers and purpose-driven work.

Today, I am CEO of a Fractional CFO practice that offers outsourced CFO-level services to Charter Schools and other non-profits.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Consistency, consistency, consistency! For me it’s been a guiding principle. I would be nowhere if I didn’t strive to consistently deliver quality results!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Yes, fortunately, for me, starting a consultancy wasn’t costly however, I targeted American Express for my banking needs for a few reasons:

I already had a personal card with them, and I liked their point reward system.

As I built my business plan, American Express offered a high introductory reward points promo so I applied for a Platinum Business card. I received their Business Platinum card and purchased start-up necessities with it. I then later used those intro points to cover the costs of business travel.

With scaling in mind, the final draw for me was their Business Line of Credit (BLOC) options. After maintaining a business checking account with them for one year, you’re eligible for their BLOC and, in some cases, without a hard pull on your credit. I figured this would be a great option in the short term to lever payroll as I scale and bring on more team members.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cpcfoservices.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candice-phillips-mba-6696b626/

Image Credits

Chantel Elder