Scaling Your Fractional CFO Gig

Speaker A: Today's guest is Rachel Marshall, founder of Magic Digits, a management accounting firm focused on the creative industries. Rachel took a uh, big leap of faith, launching right in the middle of COVID while still in her 20s and raising a young family. Now in just a few years, she's grown from a one woman show doing traditional accounting to building a team that handles everything from board reporting to M and a prep for fast growing companies. In this episode, Rachel gets real about the reality of growth. How she shifted from doing everything herself to building systems that could scale and what it actually took to find the right team members. She shares really honestly about what worked and what didn't, and how she's learned to communicate her services to reflect their true value. So if you're thinking about making the leap from being employed to running your own show, or you're already there and wondering how to scale beyond just yourself or Rachel's journey will give you plenty to think about. Let's get into it. Welcome to the new F Word podcast where we cut the fluff on business finances and lift the lid on the new F word the fractional finance revolution. It's a game, um, changer for small businesses. I'm your host Colin Hewitt, co founder of Float cash flow management for Xero on QuickBooks. We believe that really understanding your business finances makes all the difference in the world and having a strategic partner like a fractional CFO is the key to unlocking that. So join us as we dive into personal stories, stories and actionable insights from forward thinking finance leaders and seasoned entrepreneurs to discover why fractional finance leaders have become an irreplaceable part of small business leadership.

Speaker B: So welcome to the new F Word Rachel. It's brilliant to have you on Rachel Marshall from Magic, um, Digits Rachel. Ah, we've just been having a little intro chat. Be great to hear a little bit about what your story. So why don't we start with a bit about the journey as to how magic digits came about and how you decided to start in the middle of uh, the pandemic, I think.

Speaker C: Yeah, cool. Thanks Colin. So yeah, it, I mean magic digits. So we started in 2021, March 2021. So it was, yeah, fresh after Covid, sort of still Covid time. To be honest. We did you know, talking to before just uh, how my son was like three, three months old when, when the business basically started and a uh, young daughter as well at the time. So it was a bit daunting starting a business at that time and knowing if it was the right thing to do. But I think like at that point it was either then or never. So we, we just sort of, we went for it. We already had. Well, I say we because there was another lady who was with me at the time who came from another client that we had and the client came with us as well. So she started working for Magic Digits and we brought a lot of clients with us, so it was great. We already had clients to get going, so that gave us a little bit more confidence to, you know, we knew we had some revenue coming in. Not a lot at that point, but enough to get going. And then, yeah, we just, you know, we, we, we started delivering monthly management accounts. We do, we do bookkeeping, payroll, all of the other bits. But our sort of niches is the management accounts. And we were finding, you know, that agencies really, really needed our support if that fractional CFO help and, you know, giving them visibility over their profit and loss and their balance sheets and just what they need to do basically to make profit, even if it's a small profit, just make profit to, you know, reserve cash. To know when to hire people, to know when to invest, to know when to hold back. And I think just one thing that we really focus on is, is being able to, to give people that, that insight. And we've just, we've grown over, over the past couple of years and We've got about 40 clients on the books now also in the PR sector mostly, but we do have a, there's a couple of other sectors that we cover. But yeah, it's going really well.

Speaker B: Brilliant. Why don't we give us a bit of background. So how did you decide to start? You were working freelance first or you were working as a management accountant?

Speaker C: Yeah, I was freelancing. Yeah. Yeah, I used to work. I used to be fcv, Digital marketing agency and then a, uh, branding agency. So it's always in agency world then. Yeah, just decided to go freelance purely for flexibility. I had a young kid and nine to five just wasn't. I couldn't do it anymore. So, yeah, basically freelanced for two, two and a half year. And as they just built up a nice portfolio of clients, so it just, it just sort of happened naturally. But I did, I did, I did like the freelancer life. But I think it sort of, you know, for me, I always knew that, um, um, I wanted a business. I wanted to look after people as well, like the people who work at Magic Digits. You know, it's, it's nice to give someone a nice place to work and, you know, give Them benefits and treat them with respect. And we've got a lot of mothers who work for the company and we offer flexibility and make sure that, you know, everyone gets a chance to be good at what they do but in the time that they've got to do it.

Speaker B: And so you, you actually have physical premises here. You've got, you've got that sense of are you remote or how does it work?

Speaker C: Wear a mo. So that was always like quite risky because I didn't want to go back into an office because of my lifestyle. So it was really important for me to create a job that was remote. So that actually apparently I speak to, when I speak to recruiters for hiring people and remote roles apparently like they have to turn off my job ads because so many people want remote working. Which I actually find crazy still because I thought there was a time like obviously Covid everyone went remote but then there was a time after that where people actually really wanted to start getting back into the office. So I'm actually still quite shocked that a lot of people do still want remote working. But apparently it is a thing and we, I mean there's plenty of people who want to work for us who just purely want remote working. But I actually thought it'd be quite difficult to find people with wanting it.

Speaker B: But yeah, and they're all, are they all over the UK or even further afield?

Speaker C: They're all over the uk, which is lovely because it means that you're not limited to talent so you can fish anywhere really.

Speaker B: And do you get them together to get together, uh, in person? Every so often we do.

Speaker C: We've got to be careful because like obviously overspending on like staff entertainment and stuff like that. But we, we do get together. I feel like it's really important. We do, we do weekly calls with everybody, the whole, the whole team on a Monday morning and we all catch up and we have a lot of one to ones throughout the week and we're always on calls together with clients so kind of feels like we do see each other a lot through the week and we've got like a WhatsApp group where we're, we, we constantly in contact with each other but we, we have a summer party and we have a Christmas party every year. I don't know how we're going to manage that as we grow with the cost of it, but we've been able to do it for the past few years, which has been nice.

Speaker B: Yeah, I guess it's just one of those things I uh, like I've Spoken to companies that say, you know, if the, the money they're saving in terms of office space is just, it's just allocating like conceptually that, that, that money to a different pot which is the gatherings. But yeah, it's a bit, you know, it is a, it's a big saving in some ways not having the office. But obviously then you do have to, you do have to invest more in.

Speaker C: Well, that's it. I mean it's the cost of, I mean depending on where you are, uh, if you're in like Dorset, where I currently live, like rent, you know, for a medium small to medium sized agency, you're looking at somewhere between like maybe 1, 1 and a half to 2K, 2K probably max to be honest. Like rent's not actually that bad down here, but if you're looking in London, that minimum it's about 4k. So it depends where you are and, and obviously what that rent cost gonna be. But like that could be the cost of hiring somebody and I'd rather have an extra body. So for me, I don't know when it would ever be an option to move into an office. Maybe one day we might, but for now we're Black Beauty remote. So yeah, we'll see how that goes.

Speaker B: Yeah. But I, I think so. Yeah. So you, you started this business and you said you, you always wanted to have that business because the people in creating something and I get that, you know, I had the same thing. That's when I started my first business. And do you feel, I suppose, how, how's that been going? Is it, is it has um, you had to learn. What have you had to learn? Because a lot of, I know a lot of the fractional. So watch this or listen to this podcast. You know, they're not sure if that's a step that they want to take. You know, do they want to just be, you know, have, have a number of clients that they're sort of a portfolio of CFO for or do they ask, you know, do they take the leap and start something or do they join something? Like what, what's been your, what have you had to learn that you just weren't aware of beforehand?

Speaker C: Yeah, I think it's, it is a very difficult decision to make for some reason. I don't know why I didn't even think about it. I just launched into a business and there's so many things to consider which people don't consider. Like one of my family members, he just started up in a bit of company very quickly and then didn't realize about corporation tax and about how you make money out the business and dividends and pay and all of this other thing like these other things that come with having a limited company and complications and administration and accounts finance. There's so much administration with a limited company. Honestly, if you're not that bothered about it, you don't do it because it really does overcomplicate things. And I think it is really difficult for small and medium sized businesses to actually make money at the minute. It's, with, you know, everything that's going on. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's tough and you can actually be better off just being a sole trader. And so I think actually like really consider your options before you're gonna just jump into that. Like, don't take it lightly. I think you'll know what's best for you. I mean, for me, sometimes there's definitely days where I mean the people. One of the hardest things of the business is managing the people, making sure that the people are happy and remunerated and you know, they, they are the, the people who are keeping your company alive at the end of the day and servicing your clients and you know, running everything in the background, uh, while you're trying to win new business and stuff. So you have to really make sure that those people are looked after and as soon as one of them's not happy, it's, it's, it's hard. It's, it's really difficult. You know, you've got a, if, if you're not a people person that thankfully I really like people, but I'm not a very good manager. So for me I've really learned how to manage people, which has been like a learning thing in itself. But it's, it's, you have to, you have to like, kind of uh, assess everything. And I would just say if you're quite happy just like, you know, plodding along with your clients, you're making enough money, then you know, do it. Because it is no easy game running a business. And you know, as I say like looking after people to make sure people are uh, taken care of. I m mean there's definitely days where I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to scrap it all in. I'm just going to keep a couple of clients and that's me done. But then I look at the bigger picture and I'm like, well no, because it does work and it's good and you know, people are happy. So it's hard. It's pretty. I mean, at the end of day, one of you can make that decision. Do you know what I mean? But it's like when you started flow, I don't know what obviously you had in. In mind as company growth and where that was going to go, but for me it was, it was just natural. I didn't really plan. It just kind of happened.

Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I think, I think it's the same. It's like it's very hard. You know, there's so many things in life where you don't plan exactly, like when you're going to have kids or whether you're going to be able to afford the kids. You just sort of jump in and figure it out later. And I think that is something about entrepreneurship where, you know, you have to be, well, if you're not, if you don't want to do that, you know, there's going to be lots more that, you know, you could, you could plan it meticulously, but there's, there's so many curveballs like you say they're just going to keep coming up. So it's almost the business of just adapting. Adapting. Adapting to what? What, like all the challenges keep throwing themselves at you, but you obviously had an idea about some of that through being, you know, in financial management, in agency life. So what, like, what surprised you about do when you actually have to do it yourself? Like, was there something, are there any, any things you can kind of list that, you know. I didn't expect that. Ah. Even though I've been, I've been tracking finances for a number of years, I think that's it.

Speaker C: Like, I mean I always, I obviously knew about like corporation tax and about dividends and salaries and stuff. So I pretty new straight away, like what route I wanted to go down in terms of the setup, which is a step ahead for me. What some people who don't have the financial background set up a, uh, company, you know, will have. Which is why I do strongly suggest, like, get yourself a good accountant straight away. Like know who you want to work with before you set up your company. Find your accountant first and get that, get different advice for a few different people to make sure you're picking the right accountant because there's so many, like it's, it's so easy to lose money very quickly as well. So I think get all of that in place first. But yeah, that was one thing for me. Like I knew all of that, so that was fine. I think it was more. It's just it's just the stress, I think that's all it is, you know, especially when you start employing people. Like you've got. You're looking after people's mortgages. Like, that's a huge deal. Like, you shouldn't, you know, you don't take that lightly because it's, it's. And it does that. I think that's the thing. And you end up working harder because you know that you've got this responsibility now and you can't turn back on it once you've, you know, you've. I mean, of course you can, you can let people go, but, like, you don't want to keep doing that. So it's, It's. Yeah, I think it was just the responsibility. I think that was the pure shock. And it was like, wow, like, this is real and like, this is something that I've. I've just got to commit to and go for. And that's something. Over the last, I would say, six months, I've. I've had to deal with quite a lot because we've, we've had quite substantial growth in the past six months, which is amazing. Or we've hired three people in the last two months and then we've got another one on the horizon in January, which is brilliant, but terrifying because it's like, you know, what if a client just drops out or another client? You have to make sure that there's enough revenue there and that there's, you know, if, if a client is going to drop, you can still support that person. And that's the thing. Just be very aware when you're hiring. And I know a lot of people always say, well, you should hire ahead of getting the revenue because then you've got them in and then you're not going to be stretched. What we do is we review pipeline. If we've got profit there, we'll hire, obviously it'd be fine. But if we don't, and we. But we've got a really strong pipeline, what we try and do, and it's not obviously this easy, we will push start dates with clients and we won't say no, but we'll say yes. We can work with you, but we can't work with you until this day. And then we just like go all guns blazing on the hiring side. And it might mean we sometimes have to get recruitment fees because we want to go quicker, but if we know we've got that revenue in and we forecast it in, we know we can afford it. And I would say work with recruiters. As well, to get good deals in place, good relationships in place. We've got amazing recruiter who we work with, who we've got a really good rate with. We know they're good. They've always sent us really good quality people. And so for us, it's sort of timing it right and that sort of can eliminate some of that stress. But you have to, I think you have to learn when to say no. Otherwise if you just keep taking clients on, that's when it can get really messy. And I've done that before, like, hands up. I've definitely took on clients when I shouldn't have took on clients being greedy. Revenue.

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, it sounds, it sounds like you've got a really strong balance of being able to, you know, build pipeline, like getting new clients in and also be able to hire staff as well. It'll be good to.

Speaker C: Well, I mean, you know, I'm still working on it, to be honest, Colin, but I'm doing all right.

Speaker B: It figured out? Yeah. You've got it all figured out? Well, no. So what's, let's get into it. So how do you. I mean, not certainly for some people that are thinking of starting, like, getting clients is the big unknown. Right. How am I going to get it? Do I have to be posting every day on LinkedIn? Do I have to be at a networking event every. Every evening? Like, what. What's been your approach to when. I mean, obviously you've got some word of mouth coming through, which is by being in a niche, which sounds like really smart. What's been your approach to growth?

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it's been probably like, we could definitely do better. But I think sometimes because I've, I've. I do get a little bit scared of growth. Like, I'm not gonna lie, like, it does really freaked me out and I think it's the whole thing of taking on more employees. So I try and go steady. I could have gone faster, but I just know that that's not right for me because my children are still really young and I still need to be very present in their life too. So that's a decision that I make to not go too fast. But I would say, like, with new business side of things, like things that I've seen work are definitely LinkedIn. Like, if I commit to LinkedIn and I keep posting honestly, it is a game changer. And I see other clients who use LinkedIn. Other. I mean, TikTok is another one, but it depends what industry you're in. Like, TikTok potentially could work with me if I invested in it, but I'm not savvy enough to like do that, so. But I've seen TikTok and LinkedIn recently really blow up in terms of being able to attract new business and just promoting what you do. But regular, like you've got to be posting once a week, like you've got to make sure that you know you've got constant presence there and as soon as you like drop off. So I was doing it, I was posting quite frequently and I was getting loads of interaction and loads of people reaching out, messaging, sending. You know, obviously you get loads of the junk mail on LinkedIn but uh, a lot of interest and I was quite surprised by it and it is purely just by other people commenting and like the new stuff, it just, it's mad how quickly it can share. But as soon as I noticed I was getting a bit lazy and I was going maybe a month and then doing one post, I was getting nothing, absolutely nothing. So I think you just, you do have to be consistent and you do have to keep regularly posting. But also events like sponsorship, I've done a lot of that and even though sometimes I really don't want to pay like this much money every quarter to sponsor this event, like it has actually helped but it's knowing what the right event is for you and speaking to the right people. So I did, there's like one sponsorship event I did where I paid for a while but unfortunately, I mean it was brilliant and I met like so many people in the industry I wanted to be work with and you know, not just necessarily like work me working to them as their uh, supplier, but just people who I could get advice from and build relationships with and connections and again word of mouth, but it didn't necessarily return the, it uh, wasn't the ROI that I needed. So I could have kept going and I could have keep spending but I hired some point go. Well no, you have to measure everything that you do and if you're not getting results on it, you have to start, you have to find another route but it's no one at what point to cut. So we did, did another event which has been amazing and we won five new pieces of business from it in a year. So again you might think five new pieces in, in a year, that's not a lot. It's, that's a lot for you know, for an event like in terms of when what I pay, in terms of the revenue I get out of it, it's paid for itself and more so but that was, it was the same type of event. It was just in a different place. So it's, you know, move around and don't just stick. Same thing. And I think it's. You've just gotta, just gotta constantly. You gotta get yourself out there. I think networking is, is, is definitely like, you've got to keep. You've got to keep networking, as much as you might not want to do. Really does help.

Speaker B: Um, yeah, no, that's fascinating. Like, I think whenever I had an agency, I didn't. We didn't really ever sponsor anything. And I think that's a really, It's a great point. Just, you know, just. And I think what I've learned since then is that, uh, testing and running experiments with marketing, like you say, you've gotta, you gotta, you can't expect to hit a home run. Every. Just do one thing and it works. Like, you might have to go, well, let's try something like you said you did. One sponsor, you could have gone, oh, this isn't working, and then try a different event, and all of a sudden it's a totally different result.

Speaker C: And it was the same type of event. It was just a different location. And that was all it was. And it was just out of Spanish to hit a location where there didn't seem to be much of, uh, my time. So we've sort of committed to now swapping out, swapping it up every year. We'll try a new location for a year, and we'll do that. But it is hard because there's a lot of people wanting sponsorship and sometimes it can be really hard to say no to people. You will kind of want to play. I am a people pleaser and I do want to say yes to everybody, but I've had to learn to know when it's just not right or, you know, I'm sponsoring someone to, like, help them out. And it's like, no, no, no. It's got, it's got to benefit. It's the business. It's not. You've got it. Everything you do is going to be for the business. So. Yeah, it's just been, been selective, I think, with what you sponsor as well. Not getting too carried away.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: And you budget for it as well. Like, plan ahead. Like, don't just commit to it. Like, make sure you afford it.

Speaker B: Yeah. And in terms of hiring, like, uh, like you say, when you get the new clients, you've got to, you got to think about hiring you. You don't use freelancers or you haven't thought about outsourcing overseas or we've never

Speaker C: used freelancers which is a bit wild. Like I just, I don't know how we've not managed to do that. But I think for me with what we do, I think it's different. Like I've got, you know, some clients uh, I work with are like experiential and so you know, they're doing events for clients and they might not have revenue in two months because they don't have a project going which is like stupid for them to hire full time staff if they, because they can't afford them. So they actually need to hire freelancers and be more on a flexible basis. So it works for some people. For us I think it was more because we've got retained revenue so we can say a year ahead. Yeah, of course obviously some of that's going to drop out but like it's, I think you've got the, you've when, when you've got retained revenue you just have that. So more, you're more stable. Like it's more like you can make decisions so much more easily. And I think for me it's, I'd uh, rather invest in a person who I know is going to stay with us and have the right magic digits, you know, morals basically. Like how we work is, you know, I do think it's a little bit different and the way we communicate with our clients, the way we treat our clients, we work together. Like I uh, feel like I very quickly know if you're a magic digits person or not when you're with us and I feel like if it was a freelancer coming in they just wouldn't have that commitment to our minds and that passion and it would be quite half hearted. So just for us it just doesn't work.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's great. I think it's, I know it'll really kind of again set you, set you apart and give you a slightly different perspective on things because yeah, like I imagine that way you're, you're confident knowing that the people that are uh, are working with the businesses are actually, you know, bought in.

Speaker C: Yeah, ah, I think that's it. And it's just, it's your time as well that you're, you're investing into that person and it's kind of like what a waste of time when you're learning them all this stuff and then they're just going to go again and it's like, you know, sometimes you do need it. And don't get us wrong, we've got A really busy December and I probably could have done some freelancer, but. But I think we'll be all right. But you know, that's the thing as well. So maybe, maybe would be helpful. But it's just for me, I just don't really have to. I feel like I don't want to invest the time for it to not be a long thing.

Speaker B: And uh, in terms of. So obviously how do you. Because your magic digits could be perceived as just another accounting firm that. But you definitely. You do, you actually do lots more. You do that, you bring the bookkeeping in house, you do the year end accounts and you're doing management accounts which is, you know, not something everything does.

Speaker C: Yeah, we do all like shebang. So everything can be delivered. But you don't have to do everything with us. Like you can just pick bookkeeping, you can just do management accounts, you can just do year end, which I'd rather not. It's kind of uh, if, if you're just doing year end, it doesn't really make sense for us. I'd rather you bought it like a larger accountancy practice like for us because we are very personal about. We do. And we don't know you well enough if you're just coming in to do that. So for us it's more. We love getting into a company when it's like full package management accounts, bookkeeping. Because when we're in control of bookkeeping, we can control everything on a daily basis. What's going where, where things should be posted to, you know, and know if like you're overspending on something or what you're spending things on and just helps us have a really good eye on things and if something's getting posted incorrectly like we could quickly pick up um, on that. Whereas if someone else was doing the bookkeeping that would be really hard for us to see. But the management account stuff is like something which we're really passionate about and we developed our own reports. You know, we, we put people their data into our reports, we take them from 0 and QuickBooks or whatever and we develop that ourselves. And they're still under development. They still could be so much better, but it's more time. And that's one thing I'm trying to concentrate on next year is me being out of the business more in the, on the do and doing more of the bigger picture stuff. But I think it's that sort of does the things that we're able to work with with the clients. It really does change how they work. And we've seen that, uh, amazing results just from making just a few small changes and just being aware of certain things like your staff cost ratio, which is like the total staff as a percentage of your fee. Like some people don't even measure that and they don't know what that is and they don't know how to control it or what to reduce or increase to get it to the number it needs to be. And it's not just always about cutting staff to make that figure better or hiring staff to make that figure better. It's about doing other things around it. But unless you have someone telling you how to do that and you don't have a finance background, like, you're never going to be able to do it. So it's, you know, it's, for us it's all about the net profit at the end of the day. Like we always, we just want it, we just want grain along the bottom line and it's, how can we help you do that? And you know, even if it's a little bit of green, just how can we, how can we get, get you there basically? And that's sort of, that's our thing that we do.

Speaker B: Brilliant. And so do you do all those reports in Excel? Is that, are you doing them your or Google?

Speaker C: Yeah, we use Google Live sheets for a lot of stuff. We turn it into our own stuff. But I'm going to have to get more advanced probably with like all, all AI stuff. Like there's a lot of things I've been looking at and a lot of platforms I've been looking at.

Speaker B: You can say what they are, it'd be interesting to hear.

Speaker C: Well, yeah, so Data Rails is what I've been looking at, but I haven't looked at it enough yet. Data Rails, it looks really, it looks very good. We used, we do a lot of dashboards, so that's like a lot of dashboards, but it's. So it's sort of. How do we put that in? I think they should always still be like a master, uh, sheet. And to be honest, our shades look, they are very pretty sheets. Like they, they do actually look quite well presented. So for us it's more like the data that's in there. It depends on the client and what they say. Like I feel like a management accounts pack should always have a point of where you can see the data that's sitting in it and drill down into it, rather than it just be hidden somewhere in a, in an accountancy platform. Like you have to be able to dig into the data if you need to quickly. But then some people, they really just need top line stuff. It's too much data for them. If they don't come from a financial background, they really, it gives them a headache. They don't need to say all of those lines. And so it's working with who, where, where from, with to adapt a package for them that works for them. And that's what we try and do with our clients when we work with them is to find out how they want their data delivered rather than just being like, well, this is how it comes and that's it. It's kind of bespoke a bit.

Speaker B: Yeah. And then how much time do you. Is it a bespoke package as well? Like some people need more time than others. How does that work?

Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So we have different rates for different needs, different size businesses. So you get different packages. Some people just get really simplified ones, some people get really extravagant ones. It just depends on what they want really. And we'll just build them out based on their sort of preference. Obviously there's some things we can't do, like, or something. Some things I won't do. So like for instance, I might get a client saying, I want to say this and I'm like, but why? What's the point? Like, what is that going to give you? And I think it's having that sort of feedback as well to say sometimes people just like to be busy and just to try and overcomplicate things. And I think actually sometimes the basics are, uh, the most important thing, especially when it comes to finance. Like you can show reports showing this, this, this isn't this. But if you're not controlling the basics in the first place, then like, what's the point of analyzing that ridiculous data when, you know, you're not looking at the main sort of points anyway. So it's sort of knowing as well at what point too much analysis is too much.

Speaker B: Yeah, no, that makes makes sense. All right, so you're working with these clients. Do you feel like you're coming in as their, you know, emotional support as well? Like it's quite a, you know, playing that role and it's quite, you know, it's huge, isn't it? Sort of supporting them in their, you know, they might be facing like, are we going to run out of cash or are we going to have to make redundancies? That kind of stuff. You're the person that's important.

Speaker C: Yeah, we've been in some really difficult positions with some clients. It is difficult, especially when you see businesses having to close down because they just, there's only so much you can do if the sales aren't coming in. Sales aren't coming in at the end of the day and yeah, absolutely. Like, we've had, you know, we've had some clients who have broken down with us on calls many times. You know, we get emotional clients, we get angry clients when things aren't going right, even if it's nothing to do with us. Again, they can get aggressive and you know, when, when their profit isn't what they need or when they thought they had something and they didn't have something and it's, it is finance is definitely, you have to have quite thick skin if you're going to do it. And so it's kind of like shoot the messenger sometimes as well. So, yeah, I definitely say we, we've had some difficult clients, we've had some emotional clients. We have some emotional clients and we have some, you know, very amazing businesses. And I think for me as well, like, I love it because it's uh, it, we, we really like building that relationship with the people that we work with and the exposure that we've had to, you know, how different businesses work and what they're doing and what works for them and what doesn't work for them. And you know, learning as well, like when you have to take a step back and not, not get too emotional. Like there's definitely been times, I think in the early days where I used to get very invested to the point where I'd probably be whatsapping the client at like 11pm at night about something. And then I was like, at some point, as, you know, the founder of your business, you have to, you have to separate that and you have to know because you're going to have a, if you're going to grow and have so many clients one day, you can't do that with everybody. So there's always going to probably be those first few where you're always going to have that relationship with. But you do notice the more and more clients you get, the more detached you get from your clients, you're definitely not as close to them as what you are when you're a lot smaller.

Speaker B: And so yeah, just to wrapping up, it's been really interesting hearing about the growth and congratulations. Really, really excited for you. And um, well, what's the, what's the vision like? Where do you, where do you see things going? Like in a perfect world, ultimately?

Speaker C: I actually don't know. I, I, I have no idea. I Am. I'm literally just going with it, like. And I've got. I'm a mother as well. Do you know what I mean? Like, my kids are my priority, but in for my thing. I just want to give them the best life I can give by growing magic digits. Hopefully I can do that, but it's just about getting. Honestly, I really. I get a lot of joy from just running a business and looking after a team of people and making money and making other people make more money. Like, it's, it, it, it's. I don't. I don't know if I've got ambition to sell the company. I'm sure one day I will, but I'm 31, so for me, I'm like, I'm still, you know, I'm not, I'm not young, but I'm. I'm not old. So I'm like, I've got time to make m. My choice to say. Like, I'm gonna sit and just see what, um, happens. But, yeah, like, look, just like, for me, every day's a new day. And, um, it's. If I'm enjoying it, great. When I'm not enjoying it, I'll figure out what I do, then we'll see.

Speaker B: Brilliant. I love it. Well, look, congrats so much on the journey on, uh, everything you've achieved. It's been great, you know, working with you and getting your feedback on float as well. Wish you all the best and I'm sure we will speak again soon.

Speaker C: Definitely.

Speaker A: Thanks, Colin, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the new F Word. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, expert financial advice shouldn't be limited to those with just big budgets. You can access the same level of advice for a fraction of the costs. Thanks to this fractional revolution. I believe that every growing business is needs to know how much a game changer this can be. So if you love the episode, please consider subscribing to the show. It'll help us keep doing what we're passionate about. And feel free to share this episode with others who might find it useful. Finally, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to connect with us on LinkedIn. See you in the next one.