EP 230 - Cindy Wagman

Ellen Yin56min

Ellen Yin

00:00

You're listening to Cubicle to CEO episode 230. It's counterintuitive that letting go of your team and clients would increase your take home pay. But this case study on intentionally downsizing your business proves that can be true. Despite a high demand for her services, nonprofit fractional fundraiser consultant Cindy Wagman realized the business she was growing didn't actually align with the life she wanted to create. Cindy made a risky bet by letting go of all her employees and offboarding her existing clients, effectively slashing her annual revenue in half from $650,000 to $300,000. The result, she reduced her workload to only three and a half days a week while increasing her take home pay by $60,000 and growing yearly. In this case study we cover why the strategic downsize improved profitability how Cindy facilitated this transition of our team and clients and practical insights that will help any entrepreneurs seeking to better align their business finances with their personal goals.

Ellen Yin

01:04

Welcome to Cubicle to CEO the podcast where we ask successful founders and CEOs the business questions you can't google. I'm your host, Ellen Yin. Every Monday go behind the business and a case study style interview with a leading entrepreneur who shares one specific growth strategy they've tested in their own business exactly how they implemented it, and what the results and revenue were. You'll also hear financially transparent insights from my own journey bootstrapping our media company from a $300 freelance project into millions in revenue.

Ellen Yin

01:46

Hey friends, I am so excited to welcome Cindy to our show today. Cindy is a great I feel like add on episode to the one you all heard last week with Tania Bhattacharyya, we were just talking about how they're friends and this nonprofit sector is very much connected. But I think her story is one that we haven't really heard on the podcast before. And that is one of what do you do when you've hit all of your milestones of success? And you're continuing to grow? And you realize, wait a second, I don't know if continual growth from a revenue perspective is actually what I want. So you know, as entrepreneurs, we're always trying to move that goalposts like, Oh, when I hit my first six figure year when I hit half a million when I hit seven figures when I hit five 10 million, I mean, you could go on and on. But Cindy really took a radical approach in downsizing her business. So Cindy, welcome to our show.

Cindy Wagman

02:37

Thanks so much for having me.

Ellen Yin

02:39

Cindy, you know that we always start out every interview with asking our guests what their Cubicle to CEO story. I don't know if you have a traditional one. But regardless, what was the catalyst that led you to entrepreneurship?

Cindy Wagman

02:51

Hmm. So mine, I was working full time at a job at the University of Toronto, I was a fundraiser. And I had a pretty good job. I was Director of Development pretty senior. And I was on mat leave with my second child. And I had ambitions within the university. I wanted to move up, you know, I could see my future. But while I was on mat, leave an mentor of mine, we had coffee. And she said, I know this organization. They're looking for someone to run a capital campaign, which is the type of fundraising campaign, would you be interested? And I was like, no, but tell me about it. Anyways, they gave me this opportunity, but it didn't pay me enough. And I really was leaving behind a lot of benefits if I left.

Processing audio...