What's Your Ask? with Stephanie Sims

Matt Wolach, host of SaaS-Story in the Making, is an entrepreneur, investor, coach, and leader who knows the sales world from the inside out. He has nearly two decades of SaaS sales management experience.

His expertise, in particular, lies in crafting a streamlined buyer journey that maximizes conversions at every stage from lead to close.

Matt is the creator of The Perfect D.E.A.L. Process which has created growth patterns that led to multiple 8 and 9 figure exits.

He uses his experience and this proven process to guide founders and leaders of B2B SaaS companies from around the world on how to effectively turn their entire sales process into a conversion machine.

Understanding the process behind the sales process is essential to making the right ask of potential clients and investors. Until you understand your product, your process, you will not have the framework that creates a "machine", sales engine, that provides the fuel to facilitate growth and investment.

Matt explains how your initial investment comes from your sales. By positioning yourself as an investor, you create that space for scaling your business. You accomplish this by knowing your numbers, your metrics. By understanding how investing in your own business allows for additional growth positions you as the best partner for an investor.

Create a mutually beneficial relationship.

• Matt Wolach on LinkedIn
• Finance-Ability
• Stephanie Sims
• Stephanie Sims LinkedIn

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Today, Stephanie Sims tackles the question "How do I talk about my exit strategy with investors?"

Get clear on what kind of business you want before you start trying to grow...otherwise, someone else will choose for you.

Today, we'll cover:

• What different kinds of businesses you could choose to build
• How that translates into a different kind of exit strategy
• Why ultimately, the only exit strategy that matters is the one that's right for you.

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Today, I'm excited to talk to Tiffany Bisconer, a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with over 20 years of experience in the fields of accounting and tax.

Tiffany has worked with one of the top 10 Certified Public Accounting and Consulting Firms in the nation and is currently the Director of Acena Consulting focusing on providing specialty tax incentive consulting services.

Combining her private industry and public accounting experience, she works with CPA firms and directly with business owners and leadership teams in multiple industries at all levels of growth, to help educate and identify opportunities for the utilization of tax credits for infusion of cash flow.

Tiffany also spends her time mentoring early-stage start-ups to build a bridge between innovation and business foundations.

Her desire to give back to the community and humanity as a whole has been a driving force in her path of life. She is originally from San Francisco, CA, and came to live in Phoenix, AZ 10 years ago via Miami, FL.

Welcome Tiffany!

Tiffany explains how the toughest questions are the ones you ask yourself.

Stick to your way of doing what you envision. Don't allow others to tell you your way is the wrong way. As long as it moves you towards your goals, don't be afraid to do it differently.

Give yourself the space and time to check-in and be sure what you're doing is still in alignment with who you are and where your goals are taking you.

Listen for more on how being the best version of yourself allows you to make better decisions for your business.

• Tiffany Bisconer on LinkedIn
• Marie Forleo episode talking about Bronnie Ware
• Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware
• Finance-Ability
• Stephanie Sims
• Stephanie Sims LinkedIn

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Welcome to the final part of our four-part series to tackle the ghosts of your numbers past, present and future.

Last week, we talked about the numbers present - your KPIs that will help you make decisions day-to-day.

Today, we'll cover the numbers of your future - your financial forecast/projection/model

• What is a financial forecast?
• How will a financial forecast help me run my business?
• How do I build a financial forecast?
• Biggest pitfalls to avoid with forecasts

I put this series together to share which numbers matter, what it takes to build a quality financial projection, and how to become your business' best investor.

• If you'd like to dive deeper into building an investor-ready model, you can grab the free guide I created here => https://www.stephaniesims.com/IRCBONUS

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Today, we continue doing something a little different!

Welcome to Part 3 of a four-part series to tackle the ghosts of your numbers past, present, and future. Today we talk about the numbers of your present - the KPIs of your business.

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, are:

• The short term measures of specific actions that move your business forward.
• Measurements of the small decisions you make every day.
• Designed to help you quickly access whether you're on target to ultimately reach scale & profitability.

By learning what numbers matter in your business you are able to make better decisions in moving your business forward. KPIs are not without pitfalls. You need to track the relevant numbers for your business and be open to shifting based on your teams' actions and performance.

• Elizabeth Yin's Twitter thread on metrics
• Elizabeth Yin's Twitter thread on selecting the metric that matters

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Today, we're doing something a little different!

Welcome to Part 2 of a four-part series where we talk about the Ghost of Numbers past.

We take a look at:

• Why you need to review the past numbers in your business. They provide you the story of how to adjust your current business structure.
• Where you obtain your financial history and which numbers matter.
• How using these past numbers helps you make better decisions.

The bottom line is learning your numbers helps you become a better decision-maker. By doing so, you move your business forward faster.

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Today, we're doing something a little different!

Welcome to Part 1 of a four-part series to tackle the ghosts of your numbers past, present, and future.

We take a look at:

• Some of the biggest reasons entrepreneurs are afraid of their numbers, and how to get past those roadblocks
• Set the stage for how past, present, and future work together to build your confidence in your own decisions AND accelerate your business growth
• Give you two frameworks for thinking about your numbers that don't require a CPA or extensive Excel knowledge.

Walk away knowing which numbers matter, what it takes to build a quality financial projection, and how to become your business's best investor.

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

It's Thanksgiving here in the US, and there's a lot to be grateful for, despite the challenges that everyone is facing this year.

I'm grateful for my family and friends, and for the team of experts who help me run my business.

I'm also grateful for all of the fascinating investors and entrepreneurs that I've had the opportunity to feature on the What's Your Ask? show.

2020 has been a year of change, and the show is no exception!

This week, I've got some exciting news about how the show is adapting to serve more entrepreneurs who want to grow their businesses and hear "yes" more often.

If you're ready to apply all of the amazing advice that you've heard from the expert guests I've interviewed this year, stay tuned!

It's Stephanie Sims, the capital strategist who teaches founders how to tell economic stories that make dollars and sense.

Happy to be with you for this episode of "What's Your Ask?", where we talk to successful investors and entrepreneurs to hear the unique ways they've asked or been asked for money, introductions, references, and more.

Today's episode is brought to you today by Finance-Ability, a boutique consulting firm focused on helping entrepreneurs get the funding they need to grow their business.

I founded Finance-Ability after more than 20 years working on both Wall Street and Main Street. Now I teach entrepreneurs to paint a picture with numbers that help them make decisions with confidence and captivates the people with money so they say "YES"!

If you need to conserve runway right now or you're planning to raise capital in the next year, I'd love to share the strategies, tactics, and insights that have helped my clients raise over $30M!

Let's connect on LinkedIn or at stephaniesims.com.

Today, I'm excited to talk to Ryan Tansom, entrepreneur, speaker, podcast host, author and the co-founder of Arkona!

In 2014, Ryan helped turn around their family business and then sell it for 8 figures to a local competitor. The growth and exit process was an unexpectedly difficult undertaking, but the lessons that were learned have proven to be invaluable.

He took his experience and co-founded Arkona where he created the Intentional Growth 5 Principles and Framework and hosts the popular Life After Business podcast (190+ episodes and 265k+ downloads).

Ryan's mission is to help entrepreneurs get clarity on how to grow the value of their business with the end in mind by shifting their mindset away from annual income to focusing on long term value creation.

This new mindset will help entrepreneurs create a strategic plan that gives them the freedom of choices to do what they want with the business long term.

Welcome Ryan!

Ryan poses the question, is it possible to accomplish things on your own or does it hinder your growth? There are pros and cons of having partners. It depends on how you grow while maintaining equity. It is dependent on you and testing the process on your own.

During the value creation, it is the end result of value that is the investment opportunity.

By reverse-engineering your vision, you are able to set up a plan to facilitate both financial and personal growth. You need to think about the end game in order to prepare for it. You cannot be short-sighted in reaching your goal, but also considering what happens once you reach that goal. You have to build something that is worth value.

Listen for more on how to leverage your sustainability in value. It is an equation that goes beyond the clear goal. How sustainable is the cash flow? It's ok to ask questions to better understand the role of a business owner.

It is like building a puzzle without a picture.

• Arkona.io
• Ryan Tansom on LinkedIn
• Seth Godin, This is Marketing
• Greg Mckeown, Essentialism
• Finance-Ability
• Stephanie Sims
• Stephanie Sims LinkedIn

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.

Melissa Lamson is an executive coach, author of six books, and speaker who has worked on projects in over 40 countries. She has built and run companies both in Europe and the US. For over 20 years she has developed leadership strategy, designed and taught leadership programs for companies like 3M, IKEA, Linkedin, MTV and Space X. Melissa's signature program for women leaders was the most highly attended program at SAP for 10 years. Melissa has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune and Forbes. She is a former columnist for Inc. Magazine. She sits on the board of Girls in Tech and the ASU Art Museum.

Kimberly Mylls spent over 20 years in marketing and advertising as a publisher and Regional Sales Director. A serial entrepreneur at heart, Kimberly left the corporate world, co-authored her own book, and at the same time, rose to the top of a network marketing company. She is a certified leadership coach, trainer and speaker and has coached hundreds of women to start their own businesses. She's a master at creating high-quality events, building online brands, and starting companies. Additionally, Kimberly is co-founder of a non-profit for kids, and co-hosts the popular podcast, Kiss Corporate Goodbye. She is a mentor for the national organization Seed Spot and contributing writer to several books.

In asking, the anticipation of the answer makes you more nervous than the ask itself. Kim Mylls and Melissa Lamson of RecreateNow.org are all too familiar as this was true in their scary ask getting RecreateNow to where it is today. They also quickly learned that one ask can have a compounding effect.

When you find someone with whom you develop a deep relationship it allows for the big ask to be less fear-based.

Let those you are asking get to know you. Let them see how you are thinking beyond yourself and your inner circle. Open conversations with investors lead to greater possibilities.

Listen for more on how to be bolder in how you act with the world.

• Kimberly Mylls LinkedIn
• RecreateNow.org
• Finance-Ability
• Stephanie Sims
• Stephanie Sims LinkedIn

Finance-Ability is a boutique consulting firm dedicated to helping business owners and startups find their best options for growth funding. Founded by financial strategist and transaction expert Stephanie Sims, Finance-Ability can help any business owner identify the right funding partners and get through fundraising as painlessly as possible.

Visit their website to take their online assessment test to help you find out which kind of funding is the best fit for your business right now. They also have a ton of resources to help you understand business processes and financial decision-making that can help you start and build your own empire so be sure to check them out.

Stephanie has over 20 years of experience having worked with companies like Goldman Sachs and CSFB. If there's anyone with their heart in the right place when it comes to championing the dreams of small business owners and startup companies, Stephanie is that person. Let Finance-Ability help you get the funding you need and deserve to get your dreams soaring high towards your own brand of success.