We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Skryzowski recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start on the operational side – do you spend more of your time/focus/energy on growing revenue or cutting costs?

We spend more time thinking about how to grow rather than thinking about how to shrink. There’s only so far you can cut until you’re sacrificing quality; either quality of work output, quality of life for your team, or quality of the client experience. So rather than thinking about how small we can get our costs, we always focus on how we can make more money. This is an abundance mindset that we constantly help our clients embrace. There is always more money to be earned; sometimes it’s about getting creative with your offer and thinking about how you could serve your existing clients in new, valuable ways. The relationship between the two drivers is that you will always need to spend money in order to make money; whether it’s social media ads or a team of consultants to serve your clients, there will always be costs. What we focus on is the highest leveraged costs; what is the best way for us to spend money that will help generate more money. For my business, it’s investing in our team; the client-facing roles as well as a Client Relationship Manager to help bring more clients in and steward them through the process from discovery call to signing the agreement to kickoff call and beyond. This expense is so worth it for us because it helps generate revenue. It was a difficult decision to add this role to our team, since it’s not client-serving, it felt like an expensive overhead cost, but it was actually a beneficial move that’s catapulted our growth.

Stephanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I created 100 Degrees Consulting in 2015 to fill a gap in the nonprofit sector. After spending 8 years working in finance roles at nonprofit organizations, I thought there was a need for high level financial management at smaller nonprofit organizations who perhaps couldn’t afford or didn’t need a full-time CFO. So I began offering fractional CFO and bookkeeping services to nonprofits around the globe and that business today has grown into 15 full-time employees worldwide, with clients all over the world. We are specifically focused on nonprofits and we understand the ins and outs of nonprofit accounting (which is different from for profit companies) and we understand the unique nuances of grant funding and other challenges nonprofits face. We’re also “not your dad’s accountant”. We make numbers fun and approachable and easy to understand, especially for someone who’s not a numbers person. Our approachability sets us apart from many larger traditional accounting firms. I’m most proud of our global team, comprised of a small operations team, and experienced nonprofit CFOs and Bookkeepers. We are a fully remote team and have been from the start, but prioritize an in-person retreat every year so we can bond as a team outside of Zoom.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In the beginning of my business, I had nothing but an idea that nonprofits needed financial management and I could help provide it. I had no clue how to start a business, I had basically no network, no email list, no social media following. I was starting from scratch. The best idea I had was to research nonprofit organizations whose work I was personally passionate about, then narrow that down to the organizations who did not have a CFO already. This meant I scoured the websites of thousands of nonprofit organizations, narrowing it down to the perfect fit for my services, finding email addresses of the Executive Directors of these organizations, and sending each one a personal email, explaining why I liked their nonprofit, how I might be able to help them, and that I’d like to set up a call to learn more about each other. No one responded at first and I could have easily given up. After all, I had no idea what I was doing and it seemed like my approach wasn’t working. Until it did. One person responded, then another, and another. I had a few calls with potential clients, and finally one of them said yes, and agreed to pay me $1000 for my services on a trial basis. It certainly wasn’t enough to replace my salary but I kept going until I had a small handful of monthly clients that eventually did replace my salary and I had the confidence to go all in.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our reputation was built on delivering exceptional services so that our clients refer us to their friends and colleagues, as well as consistently putting myself out there for opportunities even when it is scary or risky. I have done extensive research on blogs and other publications that my ideal clients read and pitched myself to guest blog an article for free. In one case, the article was accepted then published on their site and garnered dozens of comments and more engagement than their average post. This company then asked me to present a webinar for their audience, then asked me to speak at their conference. That initial blog post has led to so much exposure for our company and positioned us as an authority on nonprofit financial management. That’s just one example that I have repeated over and over again for the past seven years. It’s determination, creativity, and consistency along with high caliber work that helps build a reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: 100degreesconsulting.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/stephanie.skry
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanieskryzowski/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stephanieskryzowski3721/featured

Image Credits
Mandy Liz Photography NSP Studio