Mastering Financial Clarity for Business Growth with Stan Sukhinin

Tim Melanson: Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. I’m talking to the owner of Soso, and what he does is he helps business owners to manage their financials. I’m excited to be rocking out today with Stan Sukhinin. Hey, Stan, are you ready to rock?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah. Yeah. Team, uh, I’m ready to talk. Thank very much for inviting. I’m happy to hear to be here.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. Great. So we always start off at a good note. So tell me a story of success that we can be in inspired by.

Stas Sukhinin: Success. I can tell you one success that I have early in, in my career, uh, it’s, uh, it’s kind of business related. When, uh, I, I felt like my career, uh, stuck. And, but it was very early. It was like, I know I was 20, 25, 26 years old. And then, uh. I changed the country, uh, and, and, and, uh, yeah, like, uh, yeah, just moved to another country and then I moved to back to, to previous country and [00:01:00] I become a senior partner of very large, uh, financial institutions when, when I was 29.

So, yeah, it’s, yeah, but I, I think like, especially like those outlier scenarios, it’s, it’s. Based also, I was in the right moment. In the right place. Um, yeah, but it was a very fast career and like, uh, yeah, I become a senior partner. I, I run a team of, uh, 20 professionals and yeah, was interesting time.

Tim Melanson: Wow at 29. That seems pretty young for that, right?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, but it was like, I dunno, again, end up in the, in the right moment, in the right time where like, I dunno, like in organizations that, uh, was trusted younger people and, uh, and don’t hesitate to promote them.

Tim Melanson: Uh, that’s good. I mean, it worked out well, but you mean you obviously had the right skills in place by the time, like when [00:02:00] you got the offer Right.

Stas Sukhinin: Uh, yes, but I, I think, like I still was young. I still like didn’t understand like, uh, a lot of things. I think, uh, now I’m well better, but I think yeah, as, as time pass, I think everyone’s just learn more, right? So, yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Stas Sukhinin: I work a lot trying to, trying like to hustle, like usually working on Sunday and Saturdays.

Yeah. Like, uh, yeah, just, yeah. But this was a really interesting time and uh, we really, we introduced this new financing and we scale it and, uh, yeah, we just, uh, it was really kind of inspiring.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Okay, so then with the good notes, sometimes there’s some bad notes. Sometimes there’s things that don’t go as planned. And, uh, I was wondering, can you share with me some sort of mistake that you made that you can, uh, tell us how you recovered?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, it was, uh, like, uh, like, I [00:03:00] think like a total flop. So, uh, I was, uh, 33, 34 and I decided, okay, I want to start my own thing. It it’s time. And second, uh, I kind of was, uh, so I, I wanted to start a hedge fund and, uh, it was like a long dream. I, I was reading books about Warren Buffet, uh, like Bill Ackman, like following all the American hedge fund superstars.

And, uh, I just was like, also like I really wanted to run a hedge fund. It was like, kind of like a end goal. And, um, yeah, I work in Louis and then I moved to New York just before the pandemic with the family. No job. And just like I have, like, I don’t know, one, like, I dunno, 100, uh, $50,000 on my account and like family of two, like two boys and, and wife, and she didn’t work.

And, uh, yeah, just like with my dream to start a hedge fund and I, I, I had applied A and B, but everything went [00:04:00] to the plan. CII suppose so. Um. Like I, I had a partner and uh, and uh, I was kind of like, okay, how we start, how we plan, like to get new investors. So it wasn’t kind of, I premeditate a lot of steps and, uh, I was thinking, okay, we’ll reach this, this level and this level, and then we start making money.

So it’s kind of like I planned, but it’s, it’s, it’s. It took us way longer to open, uh, the entire infrastructure. And when you open like an, an investment fund or a hedge fund, it, it, it, it, it takes time to open bank accounts, for example, uh, and like set up everything. And so as we opened the hedge fund, it was in the middle of the, uh, pandemic, uh, it was, uh, summer 2020.

And, uh, yeah, so like our investors, um. Like didn’t want to participate in hedge fund. And this was kind of like really difficult. We couldn’t scale and like we had just, I know a few millions under [00:05:00] management and I realized just like I’m running outta the money. So I, I, I like, uh, like in a few, in a few months, just.

The, like, I wouldn’t have money like to pay for the rent and, uh, I just can’t run this hedge fund anymore. And, and, and then I kind of like, uh, as I speak more with other hedge fund managers, I kind of like find out all the, all the cons of this, uh, industry and, and, and in just like, it’s a really hard industry.

I know there’s like, uh, I think like. In every industry. You can say it’s hard, but like, these are certain things that in hedge fund it’s really, really difficult. And, uh, so I decided, I decided I, I made a really difficult decision. Uh, I decided not to pursue these kind of things and, and change a little bit at you and say, okay, I will start doing, uh, financial consulting because I came across a few entrepreneurs, business owners that.

They, [00:06:00] uh, they were working for a business like, I don’t know, like five years, 10 years. And what’s they, what’s they doing? Just burning money and, and, uh, the, the, the most painful about those scenarios that they didn’t realize that they’re doing. And, uh, it’s really, it’s really bad. So, I dunno, when I run a hedge fund, I know it’s loss making, right?

It’s kind of lost, like, I dunno, at least I, I’m, I was aware, but like people and, and, and the thing is, business owners think, especially when your revenue is growing. They, they think, oh, it just, it’s not a financial problem. I just need more money. And, and they trying to get money and especially if they super passionate and they kind of like, I don’t know, doing whatever, whatever it takes to, to bring money to the company.

It is, it kind of like make, make them huge disservice. It is. Uh, they. Putting more and more, more money and, uh, it just, it doesn’t create any value because they just, like, they’re losing this [00:07:00] money and, uh, they don’t see it. Yeah. I’m kind of, I remember I had one conversations with one gentleman. He’s been working on this one business more than 10 years, and he was about to declare a personal bankruptcy, uh, because like the debt, like personal debt, business debt was so high and just, there’s no way outta this.

Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah, you, yeah, it, it’s tough. Hey. And especially like you say, when it’s their passion and you just get kind wrapped up in that and you know. There’s also like that, what is it, uh, uh, sunken costs thing where, you know, you put so much money into it that you’re like, well, maybe if I just put a little bit more into it, then maybe it’ll, it’ll turn around right.

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah. Yeah. The same cost is huge and I think psych culture factor is even bigger than the money factor. Yeah. People for some reasons. Yeah. They so tied to this and, and I think it’s why super, super, super important because I think the [00:08:00] problem with this that you don’t know what you don’t know. Uh, you kind of like, you don’t know even if you need to look at this, like for example.

Like the biggest, biggest, biggest mistake I see, especially from first time founders, from from time business owners, they hire at some point an accountant. And, uh, they think that like accountant does everything like, uh, financials, like everything. But I can tell you accountants, like they do very little.

They do very little. And the problem even like what they prepare. You need to review like somebody, somebody has to review. If there’s no, any other like financial person or anybody, like, I know your partner or like, I know anybody in your company, it should be you. And, and, and I, of course, I, I understand it.

It’s not the sexiest things. It’s, it is boring. It’s super boring. I agree. It’s kind of like, it’s not fun and, and I know [00:09:00] you’re doing this. Sales. I know you manage team, you’re going like to get new clients. You’re speaking with car clients. You have like, I know maybe like I know one, one problem on another and it’s like a real problem and you think it’s not real problems but you really need to review or somebody, if you are not doing this, somebody.

Should review your financials because otherwise you completely out outta it. You don’t understand what’s happening in your business and everything else doesn’t matter because you literally doesn’t understand your gross profit margin, your operating profit margin. You don’t understand how much capital you have in the business, what is happening if you don’t review your financials.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I mean, uh, I, I look at my financials every day and I wonder, so I, I’ve been using, I’ve been using chat GPTA lot more lately too, and it, it has been helping quite a bit with reviewing certain things too. However, it makes mistakes as well. So, uh, but I, but on the other hand, you know, I, I agree with you.

I think [00:10:00] that especially the bigger the business, I mean, for a small business solopreneur. You know, maybe you can do that yourself, but you do need help when you, when you’ve got a bigger business, right?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah. Yeah. And uh, yeah, just like, especially like if you thinking to take a debt or you like, you want to, like to put more money, like you need to understand and. Like, usually it’s end up, uh, the business owners, they have this, what’s I called, like mental financial model. So they have in this, in their head kind of like this numbers, or like, I pay, like, I dunno, I charge like $10, uh, per my service or per my product.

And then like, I pay like this contractor like $5 and, and this kind of like, I dunno. Where like, I know this, like I buy these things for like $3, so my profit is $2 and, and this math can work when you are super, super small when you, I don’t know, like have 100 k, 200 [00:11:00] KA year, uh, of revenue, I know up to maybe half a million.

But then the complexity increase, like it just, it can’t stay the same. Like you hire more people, you have like different expenses and people. People forget. They just don’t take it into account and, and they lose the track what is happening. And then you have like different clients, somebody, uh, provide advances.

Some, some don’t. You pay like this contractor, like, uh, I know also advance somebody you pay like afterwards and you forget about it. And the, and like, uh. There’s also kind of like typical mistakes among, uh, business owners. I call it, it’s like, uh, managing financials by looking into your bank account. So it, it is a very typical method.

They just log in before certain on regularity on the bank account. And if the account is bigger, they think they’re doing fine. If it’s lower, they think they not doing fine. So it’s kind of like how they manage financials [00:12:00] of the, and I can tell you days that like. 100 reasons why a UI account can be higher and higher, especially if your business is growing, but actually you losing money and, and yeah, it’s, yeah, it’s not fun.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, no, I agree. Uh, people don’t take into account the overhead that comes into play. They’re just looking at that particular individual, you know, sale. Right? And however, there’s a lot of other things that you’re spending your money and your time on.

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and, and, and a typical mistake kind, especially in very early, mixing personal personal accounts with the business accounts, like paying some business expenses from personal expenses, and like nobody, no, nobody sees this, like your account cannot see. These expenses until you explicitly tell them, right?

Like they don’t know, like all your expenses, they, they can go in into your mind. So, and, and vice versa, like it’s very typical paying certain personal expenses from your [00:13:00] business card. So like your business accounts. So like the rule number one, don’t mixes, try to stay kind of separate. It’s just, it’s make your life way, way easier.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Wow. So let’s talk a little bit about the band and about delegating, subcontracting. You’ve mentioned contractors a few different times. Um, you know, what’s, what do you do in your business? Do you, I mean, do you hire employees? Do you hire, uh, subcontractors instead? What, what do you do?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, I use subcontractors, uh, extensively. Uh, yeah, rank it, orchestrate as a band. So yeah, it is kind of, uh, I think it’s what I learned, uh, being even like a full-time kind of leader. Uh, you need to understand like the pros and cons of each person. And, and it’s kind of like. From like, it can be kind of like a similar task or like, even almost the same task, but like, this is certain things that people do better and, and, and other things they don’t do better and, [00:14:00] and it makes like to delegate them.

So I try to expand, like, you know, I call this like a bench, a bench of my contractors. And, uh, I know that like, like, okay, this is certain. For example, I, I get a new project and they, they, certain specific, I dunno, for example, sector specific, uh, knowledge requires it’s one thing and, and second just like, uh, I know it can be a little bit different, more focused on, I know, data ing or like, just to find out like what’s the, what’s the actual happen with the data or for example, no, just better communicate.

There is more on communication side, better communicate what’s happen and how we should manage, like the business, certain aspect of business, even, uh, going forward. And probably I need more. I know it probably should me not a contractor, right? So I know that, for example, I should more. Be kind of deep into the numbers and, and, and be on the [00:15:00] calls and explaining clients because I know like this person is like, is not gonna be like the main authority for these business owners.

Uh, yeah. So trying to understand kind of like this, even small nuances of each person. And of course it’s, it’s, it’s hard to understand. Just from one interview. So I highly, highly recommend to give like a small task. Like, uh, I kind of learned it. I know like even like all these fancy names on, on the resume, all these things, even like the kind of, like the knowledge and everything that they can demonstrate on the interview doesn’t mean anything, but like I, I’ve seen it all.

I’ve seen it all. I, I, I love a lot of people. I hire a lot of people, and, uh, and this was like different, different experience. Even recently, I was really surprised there was one person, really knowledgeable, uh, very experienced, used to work in large corporations. Usually large corporations. It means like a certain [00:16:00] bar, especially if they, at least if they used to work for a couple of years in large organizations like the, especially in financials, it should be a certain bar.

Like, it’s like the minimum bar because like corporations are not really good with a lot of things, but they kind of set the bar like, uh, they kind of like, uh, if you work there, you should deliver at a certain level of quality. And, uh, I was surprised, like this person was, wasn’t like just like completely out of work, just like cannot deliver like simple things.

I was so surprised. So, and I would tell, and I was so grateful that I. Didn’t appoint this person to run like a, kind of like a, the entire account, because I thought like first time that Oh, he can, he can run by himself. Like, uh, like the entire account? No, like, it just, so my, my like suggestion if it’s a new person, just give small task and looking for certain things like how fast they respond to the email.

Like if you [00:17:00] write. Uh, like a really good, like descriptions what, what need to be done, how it should look like, give an example and they miss something. Or like, uh, and it happens several times. It’s kind of like, it, it’s, it’s, it’s all repeat. It’s not like, you know, they just miss It’s the once. Yeah. And yeah, and I think like, it’s, it’s kind of like a common things.

You need to be very explicit What you expecting. What, what’s the output, uh, should look like? Uh, be as detailed as possible and, uh, yeah. And give examples, uh, and, and try to explain why we need to do this. If these, uh, I don’t know if they kind of like in the middle of the workflow. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: I think that’s a really good advice. Um, and also, uh, you know, it’s when you’re doing the subcontractors, it’s so much easier to let them go right than when

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, yeah. But, but, but these are, these are one disadvantages. Yeah. It’s a, it’s [00:18:00] a, it is actually, it is good that you point out, uh, I see it between full, full-time employee and contractors. Contractors. They do work for others. And, and I know, and it’s happens like. Like a lot of times with me when I need something like kind of urgent, uh, and I approach them like they say, no, I just cannot do like I do something else or like, can I do this?

And yeah, it’s kind of like you need to expect this right? When it’s full-time employee like, oh, it’s, it’s way easier. But there are other issues, right? You need you. Yeah, you need cons. So while like contractors is, it’s kind of like in terms of. Cash flow in terms of expenses, you really can fine tune. I just like put it, okay, I know I will pay this person like this X amount, but I will receive out of his or her output, I will receive this Y amount.

Right. And I know my gross margin, so I’m tight. Its very kind of like very precisely. Yeah. But I’m a financial guy so it’s probably, it’s, [00:19:00] yeah.

Tim Melanson: So how do you get, uh, how do you get fans in your business? How do you get people that, that are, uh, that are buying your services?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, it’s a good, good question. And, uh, to be honest, I’m still working on this really, really hard, uh, I can tell you like what usually works in our industry. So I’m, I’m working as a fractional C four, I’m working with business owners and I’m working with businesses at least 3 million of annual revenue.

So it’s not very early. And, and I just can tell you, like from all my experience, uh, you know, marketing is like, you know, people say like, oh, you should understand your, like a CP your ideal customer profile. Like, what’s, what’s they do, like, kind of like, uh, how they find these decisions. And there’s so many puzzles of this.

And I think right now I’m not. I wasn’t a marketing guy at all. Like, uh, I think like I was far away from marketing. Uh, now I think like I, I understand this way better because I [00:20:00] just spend so much time on creating the marketing and. I see especially in this kind of like, we are stepping, we’re stepping in this new era of ai and, and it’s still early, like as you mentioned, AI is not as good as we kind of like imagine or like those, like I know Silicon Valley goes imagine us, uh, but.

Uh, I can, I can tell you it is just marketing is gonna be even more important because you see the, like, like those things like, oh, I built like this software I built, like these features, I built this and that. It is just everything is so accessible. I don’t even in what I’m doing. And everything is accessible.

It’s like there’s knowledge, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of expertise, there’s a lot of people that can provide this expertise and, and marketing. How you appreciate yourself, how you appeal to the, to your target audience, uh, how you deliver this message. Uh, how you different Yeah. It just, it’s, it is [00:21:00] right now, it’s super important and I think it’s gonna be even more important. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, I agree. Uh, the competition’s gonna get smarter too, right? Because everybody’s gonna start to use these major tools and it’s just gonna up the game of everybody, right?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, I know You can see, it’s just like everybody’s, I, I dunno like how the, I, I just wonder how the, I know MBA programs are doing because. It is just crazy. Like I know I’m following like cold emailing, cold emailing, call LinkedIn, uh, like other outreaches, uh, instruments and it is like, it’s changing all the time and, and like, I dunno, I’m also writing content every day and it’s also changing every time.

It’s like, I know every quarter something new it’s like you need to be cons. Even in these things, you need to be constantly updated. I, I’m just like, I’m watching like, I don’t know, almost every day. Like I know at least one hour of like, I know some YouTubes, uh, just like stay kind of like, like learning, okay.

[00:22:00] What is new, what is happening? Like, uh, how I need like, uh, to improve what I’m doing, uh, to outreach my potential clients. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah. You have to step on on all stuff. And speaking of which, like, so when, uh, when you think about learning and, uh, and growing, like what do you do? Do you hire coaches? Do you have a masterminds? Like what do you do? I.

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, I, I found like a few people that kind of, uh, way ahead of me in, in, in my industry particular, and I can tell you like, uh. It’s probably that even I didn’t realize it like at full extent, and I can tell everyone like it’s super, super important and I don’t think you hear it all the time. This can be a very successful.

Uh, founder that sold multiple times, like his business for like, I dunno, multiple business, multiple, like millions. And you can hear like on YouTubes and others and, and they, for example, they were like in e-commerce, I [00:23:00] can tell you, even like right now, you start e-commerce. It’s completely different. What is used to be 10 years ago, like completely different how they attract customers.

What’s the, what’s the customer acquisition cost like, what’s the go-to market strategy? Everything changed so much that even like the, the same guy that like I know sold business like even five years ago, like probably some of his advices is not gonna be relevant anymore. And, uh. And it’s what I find out because I’m kind of in B2B marketing and when I speak with people for other B2B things, like I just hear what they tell me and like, it’s not really relevant or like, it just, maybe it is for the industry but not my industry.

Or like, you know, it is like, I know for example, it’s, it’s a very simple example. I’m, I’m targeting, uh, clinic owners. Outpatient clinical owners and, uh, they kind of completely different animal comparing with, for [00:24:00] example, SaaS owners. I was trying like to find clinical owners on e uh, ex Twitter, and, uh, and I couldn’t, but if you’re, for example, you targeting, uh, SaaS owners.

It’s different. It’s completely different because they kind of out there, they building usually very publicly. You can find a lot of day profiles on, uh, LinkedIn, on eggs, and kind of like your strategy be I think like different, like completely different. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Stas Sukhinin: So I think it’s, it’s important to find like a master.

Like a master. I, I was on a few masterminds group, but I was golf. Exactly my kind of like fractional CO not even accounting because like, yeah, it’s another good example. Like you can find a really good, uh, business owners that build like a, a really good accounting practices, but it’s different from fractional CFO because they usually sell very early.

Like as, as I told earlier, like if you, I know in 200 [00:25:00] K of annual revenue, you probably already need to hire a, an accountant at least, like very part-time for a few hours a month, but you probably already need it. So they sell this very early, like, I’m working with businesses at least 3 million of annual revenue because it’s gonna be very expensive for them to start early.

And, uh, so the, the cycle and can you imagine it’s like, it’s, it’s completely different. Set up and it’s completely even like they live in a different, uh, day to day like donors that the 3 million of annual revenue, they more inside the business than outside the business because, uh, they probably don’t need to reach out somebody.

They more like need to work inside with the team. Probably they already have like a lot of people, they need to working with the clients that they already have, so they don’t need to be out. So much. For example, if I going on any kind of events where expect owners, I [00:26:00] see like those early stage owners that just started, or like they’re doing something because they’re looking for something, they’re looking for investors or they’re looking for new clients.

And when they reach certain level, they don’t really go, like for a lot of events because they have a lot of things that happening inside the business. And they probably go on one conference or two conference or they go like for like these masterminds, but like very specific ones, right? Like very, very kind of like into the industry, you know?

Tim Melanson: That’s really good insight. I think you’re absolutely right too. I mean, once your business gets so big, this complexity gets so big. You need to be making sure that everybody’s working within the company and doing their thing. You don’t necessarily. Really need to be wearing all the hats anymore and going out doing that, that outreach and that sales stuff that you’re doing at the beginning of your business.

So that’s really good insight. So depending on who you’re targeting, yeah. Like you say, if you’re targeting businesses that are, uh, at, at that point you’re not gonna talk to the owner, you’re gonna have to talk to some sort of [00:27:00] gatekeeper. Right.

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah. Yeah. And, and they not there. So like, they, they don’t really, like, they spend, like, they’re really busy. And I see it, I see it like across, like even prospecting clients, like when I have a calls, like they just like, no, I’m busy. I have this, this, and that. And I see like how many tasks they have. Uh, and yeah, it just like, and they working on those tasks they don’t like Yeah.

It is like they don’t go out. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. So awesome. It’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now.

Stas Sukhinin: Uh, what’s exciting? I think like the really exciting things. I know it’s probably sounds like a cliche, but, uh, but I really see the difference how, how I help clients and, uh, and it’s probably if we. Go back to the, my hedge fund things is why I see the difference. Like when you like doing hedge fund, it’s kind of like a zero sum game for the society in general.

Like, uh, you, you can [00:28:00] argue like there’s, uh, certain things, but I, it just. Like here, I see like a big impact on the business owners, and I believe in the power of business owners. I believe in power of the, of the capitalism and, uh, private owners. I see, I, I believe for society, pri private owners, uh, create so much goodwill for the society in general.

And, and I have this mission that I don’t want. Business owners be outta the business because of the financial mismanagement. They can be outta the business because somebody outcompete them, because they provide the products of service that nobody needs, and it’s not okay. It’s part of the game, but they shouldn’t be outta the game because they just didn’t manage their financials properly.

I think it’s just like it. It hurt my heart.

Tim Melanson: That’s a shame. Yeah, it’s a shame. And, and I mean that’s the thing is that we’ve gotten so programmed, I think, to think that math is hard and you know, finances are boring and all that stuff that people. [00:29:00] Don’t even look that way. Right.

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, and I see it, uh, and I, and I can tell you like, like you, especially with charge and everything, like you can start just asking questions and, uh, you can figure out like certain things, uh, by yourself, especially very early. Like there are certain things that. Definitely Judge g PT can work.

Just asking. You can start questions like, okay, I am like this 200 KI have like this revenue and expenses. What’s I missing? How I should like, uh, review this? Like, uh, like if I have an accountant where I should look like, what’s the points that I need to pay attention to? So you can start like asking those questions.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, and, and, and I do that and, and I think one of the cool things about it is that what you’ll find when you start to ask some of those questions is you’ll find those blind spots, and it actually might encourage you to hire somebody sooner because you’ll be like, okay, it starts to give you back these answers, and you’re like, what is all this?

Right. [00:30:00] And it, it kind of makes me go like, okay, I need, I need somebody to help me. I didn’t realize that this was this, this complicated, right?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and, and you see like the difference between first time founder and second time founder. I think in, in the financial function, you see from the very beginning, like the second time founder or business owner, they start, okay, I hire an accountant. I will probably even like hire like a.

Someone with the financials, I know I need to track like these metrics. I know I need to track these numbers. They really, really kind of into this. Like I know they already like knew that they need to do all these things.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Awesome. Right on. So then who, so you say you’re looking for companies that are making, you know, something over 3 million per year. Uh, is there any other characteristics. That you’d be looking for if someone was listening to this and they go, oh, I know, I know somebody. Like what, what would they, what would be another, uh, trigger that would mean that they need you?

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah, I think when the complexities increase [00:31:00] and you kind of start losing track of what’s happening with your financials, like just like what is, what is in what is out, you kind of like, you don’t really like, just kind of like, don’t have a, like you’re losing sense what’s happening in the business and if, if, if these are something like, uh.

I know they open just a bank account, like, you know, the owner that like managing financials just by looking at the bank account, it’s not the right way to do it. Or like, uh, yeah, it it, and, and I, and I think another thing is what is important. I kind of, starting with the business slash personal goals, uh, it’s kind of my, one of my first questions.

It’s not like even financials. Like, what do you want to achieve with this business because it’s, it’s so tight. To my work. Like if you want to sell business in five years, it’s one strategy and, and we need to do certain things, even from the financial point of view. Like you probably need to grow, you need to more focus on the revenue.

Uh, but if you [00:32:00] want to maximize, like for example, I know distribution to yourself, I know you want to buy a house or you want to pay, like I know college for your kids, it’s comp. It can be completely different strategy. It can be, maybe you don’t need, I, I don’t know, open. More stores, then new clinics will open like more products or services.

Maybe you need even shrink, maybe you need to close if you just maximize the profit or optimize certain things. I dunno. Lay off a few people and, and, and just like, you know, can kind of be tight. So it’s really depends also on the goals. And if you kind of like not really. Like, understand your goals or how your goals translate into the business steps and financial steps.

You don’t know like, okay, I want to sell business, but you don’t have a, you should have a numbers, right? Like you should have something like, okay, what do you want to achieve? Because like our rest is, it’s like you don’t really, it’s kind of like. It business, it business manage you not you manage business.

You know, [00:33:00] like I drive motorcycle and there are good things like you should drive motorcycle, not motorcycle should drive you. And I think the business, it’s the same. You should understand like the what’s number you want to target, what’s are the goals like, uh, and it just. Kind of like, okay. And it’s okay.

Like I know you, maybe you want to even like, I know, stay flat and it’s, it is totally okay. I, I just like, I like the level where I am and, but I want to stay. But you need to be very explicit and very honest with yourself. Like, what do you want to achieve?

Tim Melanson: Um, okay, so how do we find out more about your business?

Stas Sukhinin: Uh, yeah. So I, I have, uh, the, the source, uh, T-H-E-S-O-R-S o.com. Uh, it’s, uh, my website and you can find like LinkedIn. I write every day about financials and, uh, yeah.

Tim Melanson: Okay, great. So one more question before we go. Uh, this might be the hardest one. What, who’s your favorite rockstar?[00:34:00]

Stas Sukhinin: Uh. I like, I dunno. Uh, can we say Limp Bizkit is a, is a rock

Tim Melanson: Yeah, of course.

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Li Bizkit. Wow. I would not have assumed that. That’s awesome. Right on. Well, thank you so much for rocking up with me today. This has been a lot of fun, Sam.

Stas Sukhinin: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Tim.

Tim Melanson: To the listeners, make sure you go to work@homerockstar.com for more information and we’ll see you next time on the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast.