Business Owner Finances with Shanna Skidmore (Featured on The Bright Method Podcast)

I was so thrilled to join Kelly Nolan on The Bright Method Podcast to talk about one of my absolute favorite topics: business owner finances.

Kelly and I have long shared a passion for helping entrepreneurs build sustainable, purpose-driven businesses—she focuses on time, I focus on money, but as we discovered in this conversation, the overlap is real. From pricing strategies to profitability to figuring out your “enough number,” we covered a lot of ground around how business owners can make smarter, values-aligned decisions with their finances.

In this episode, I shared how I started my boutique financial firm, why I believe profit matters more than revenue, and how creating boundaries, around both time and money, isn’t selfish, it’s sustainable.

If you’ve ever wondered how to run your business in a way that actually supports the life you want to live, this conversation is for you.

 

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Press play for the full interview or keep reading below!

• [02:04]: Introducing guest Shanna Skidmore and the purpose of her appearance
• [03:40]: Shanna’s background – from Fortune 100 to boutique CFO firm founder
• [10:06]: Overview of Shanna’s services: fractional CFO, consulting, and education
• [14:44]: The importance of financial data and using it to align with life goals
• [16:09]: Defining and calculating your “enough” number for sustainable income
• [20:11]: Clarifying that your “enough” number can include dreams and savings
• [23:58]: Addressing the time-money tension: different clients take different amounts of time
• [25:50]: The “Time Bank” exercise for evaluating work hours versus time costs
• [27:45]: Repricing offers based on time usage and improving profitability
• [29:58]: Common example of high-ticket clients getting too much access – need for boundaries
• [33:16]: Strategies for reducing time drain with client communication systems
• [36:52]: Raising prices and limiting clients to preserve time and profitability
• [37:36]: Tiered service levels based on communication frequency
• [39:41]: The “30-minute emergency rule” to prevent overreacting to non-urgent client issues
• [42:23]: Focusing on profitability, not just revenue – systematize before raising rates
• [44:39]: Streamlining business offers and focusing on specialization to increase efficiency
• [46:04]: Letting business be easy – moving away from hustle as a success metric
• [50:45]: Shift from hourly pricing to value-based pricing models

 

 

How Shanna Skidmore Started Her Business Educating on Business Owner Finances

This is my 12th or 13th year running my own finance practice. My background is in financial planning and accounting, and I’ve been in the numbers world for 19 years now.

I started out working with individuals who owned their own practices, helping with both personal and business financial planning. That included building out HR structures, setting salary benchmarks, and so on. Over time, I transitioned into the venture capital space and began working in-house with startups, which I really enjoyed. I continued focusing on financial planning, pricing, cost modeling—things like that.

Eventually, I noticed a lot of women, particularly in creative fields—although “creative” is such a flexible term. I always joke that my husband’s an engineer and he’s one of the most creative people I know. But really, it includes physicians, attorneys, anyone with an entrepreneurial mindset and a specific talent or gift who might struggle with the business side—especially pricing and financial strategy.

That’s where my strengths come in. I launched my own practice in 2013, and I’ve loved it ever since. Today, I run a boutique accounting firm. We work with clients on an ongoing basis, and I also offer one-off consulting engagements—essentially stepping in to provide a fresh perspective on the numbers, advising on profitability, and helping to build business models that align with the life someone actually wants to live.

We have a small team based in Knoxville, Tennessee, and we truly love what we do. Before this, I spent a little too much time hanging with the finance bros—and let’s just say, I ended up with bunions from wearing three-inch heels too often. But seriously, I loved how I got started. At the time, I was pursuing my MBA and working with a startup fashion designer. I had been hired by a venture capital firm—think Shark Tank, but not quite as flashy. I was working directly under the CFO, focusing on pricing and cost structure.

What struck me was watching this incredibly talented fashion designer not fully believe in herself. To her, it was just a hobby. And on top of that, she didn’t have the right support around her. I’ve found that a lot of women—men too, but especially women, since that’s who I primarily work with—start businesses because they want more flexibility in their lives. They want control over their time, they want to be moms, and they want freedom. But the finance world is still mostly male-dominated. Not that that’s inherently bad, but I didn’t see many faces that looked like mine.

 

Deciding to become an entrepreneur

So there I was, deep in the venture capital world, MBA in progress, sitting at this giant mahogany desk—exactly what you picture in a traditional finance office. They started outlining what my future would look like: traveling Monday through Thursday every week, flying all over the country, meeting with business owners. And then they told me that consulting, especially at that level, was often out of reach for small businesses—small, meaning $10 million or less in revenue. And even that is pretty sizable to many of us.

I knew in that moment it wasn’t the life I wanted. I had no idea what I was doing, but I thought, I live in Atlanta. Consultants fly in and out of here every day. There are business owners all around me who need help. Why not try this on my own?

At the time, my husband—he’s an engineer—was going back to school. I figured if I could just pay our bills until he finished, we’d be okay. And then it just took off. That first year, I was basically throwing spaghetti at the wall. I didn’t even know how to describe what I did. Consulting? Accounting? Finance? I was figuring it out as I went. But I ended up working with some incredible women. Many of them have gone on to become Inc. 5000 companies. A few are now on Magnolia Network. These are amazing businesses started by people with talent and passion who just needed help figuring out how to turn that into something profitable—or more profitable.

That’s where my gift comes in. I always say, most people read books—I read numbers. It just clicks for me. That’s how my brain works. Not technology or law, those things stump me, but numbers? I get them.

It’s been really rewarding to watch these businesses grow. While we work primarily with women, the real motivation came from being told, like so many of your listeners probably have been, “Here’s your career path. This is how it works. If you don’t like it, too bad.” I just decided to take a different route. And luckily, it worked out.

 

Right now, our business has three primary arms for supporting business owner finances

The first is our fractional CFO service, which offers ongoing support and is more on the traditional accounting side. In this model, we work with businesses consistently over time. We have a bookkeeper who handles day-to-day tracking of revenue and expenses, but many of the companies we serve aren’t yet large enough to have a full-time CFO.

That’s where we come in. A CFO provides that next level of strategic financial insight. Think of it like having a math-savvy business friend who says, “Hey, I noticed your team is taking up about 50% of every dollar you earn—let’s dig into that.” It’s someone who can read your financials and offer actionable ideas for growth and profitability. That’s such an important question: How much should my team cost me as a percentage of revenue? Most business owners don’t know the answer—and honestly, that’s something only a CFO would typically track.

We don’t just handle day-to-day data tracking like a bookkeeper or traditional accounting firm. We keep strategic eyes on your numbers. For example, if we were working with you, Kelly, we might look at your podcast and say, “Okay, it’s generating this much revenue—maybe not directly, but indirectly through marketing—and here’s how much it’s costing you. How can we adjust your strategy to make it generate even more?”

That’s the kind of insight we provide on an ongoing basis for our fractional CFO clients.

The second arm of our business is consulting. These are typically one-off projects—maybe a business owner just wants a call or a review of their profit and loss statement. We’ll look it over and say things like, “Hey, we’re noticing that this one offer—maybe a new client onboarding session or an initial consult for a physician—is bringing in 80% of your revenue, but all your follow-up is consuming 80% of your time. How can we flip that ratio?”

This type of insight is really valuable for someone who doesn’t need full-time support but still wants expert guidance.

And then the third arm of our business is education. Some companies aren’t quite ready to hire us directly, but they still need to understand their numbers and we want to empower them. We offer education on the basics: how to make a financial plan, how to create a budget, how to get a simple grasp of the financial side of running a business.

We’ve found that many small business owners say, “I’m just not a numbers person.” So we focus on teaching financial concepts in a simplified, approachable way. One of the best compliments I hear is, “You make money easy to understand. You make numbers make sense for someone who’s never felt confident with them.”

A lot of this can feel overwhelming, but really, there are only a few key things you need to pay attention to. And understanding those can be incredibly empowering. So that’s our third arm… equipping business owners through education.

 

Business Owner Finances Matter Because Of What The Numbers Tell You

If you’re feeling overworked, the numbers will usually tell us why. Maybe it’s a pricing issue. Maybe it’s overspending. Our job is to not only set up the systems so you have the data, because many business owners don’t, but also help you interpret it.

Once the data is in place, we might say, “Hey, you could probably increase your prices by 10%, and that alone could make a significant difference in how you feel.” Or maybe we’ll recommend cutting an offer that’s draining your time without delivering returns.

Our goal is to come in and ask, What do you actually want more of in your business and life? Is it time freedom? Great. But we still need to make sure you’re hitting your income goals. So how can we strategically do that?

We also use the numbers to inform your marketing efforts. Now, we’re not a marketing agency—but your financials can guide those decisions. Should you be spending your time making TikTok reels? Or would investing in SEO serve you better?

For example, if you need to reach a thousand customers for an online course, TikTok might make sense. But if you only need ten high-level clients for a premium service, that’s a completely different strategy.

The point is: we help you stop flying blind. Instead of guessing or throwing spaghetti at the wall, we give you data-driven insights so you can make decisions that actually make sense.

 

Finding Your Enough Number

I love this topic. It’s honestly one of my favorite things to talk about. But surprisingly, for a long time, I was kind of embarrassed to bring it up. Let me give you the backstory.

When I was working in finance, I had a mentor tell me, “If you say you don’t want to make more money, you’re lying to yourself.” And for a long time, I operated under that mindset. I thought success meant constantly striving for more—more recognition, more influence, more money.

But what I came to realize (both for myself and for so many of my clients, and likely many of your listeners), is that we chose the entrepreneurial path because we wanted freedom. And for most of us, that means time freedom, financial freedom… just freedom in general. But how we each define success looks different.

As a bit of an overachiever and perfectionist (and very competitive!), I eventually hit a point where I just needed clarity. I wanted to know: What is enough? What’s the actual dollar amount required to live the life I want—whether that’s a big life or a simple one?

Most people don’t know that number.

So I started creating financial plans, first for myself and then for clients, by asking two key questions:

1. What does it cost to run my life?
   We break this down into tiers: bare-bones living, a comfortable lifestyle (we call it the “lifestyle with ease”—where you can grab coffee whenever you want), and then a “reach-for-the-stars” version.

2. What does it cost to run my business?
   What’s the minimum needed to keep the lights on? What’s the number that includes paying your team and yourself, with room to breathe?

Once you have those two numbers, you can reverse-engineer what you need to sell in order to get there. We call this your “enough number.”

For a while, I worried that talking about this would make me seem lazy. But I’ve learned the opposite is true—knowing your enough number gives you peace of mind. It gives you focus. And that’s what I teach every client and student: if you know nothing else in your business, know this number.

It gives you the power to slow down when needed, but it also allows you to dream big. You can pursue new ideas and offers, but with clarity.

There’s something incredibly powerful about having a focused financial target. If you know, “I need to make a million dollars so everyone gets paid and we can take that boat trip we’ve been dreaming of,” you’re far more likely to hit it. But if the goal is just to do more, you never feel done. You never feel like you can rest.

So that “enough number”? It’s where ambition and contentment meet. It’s not a lazy number—it’s a peace-of-mind number.

And I encourage everyone, even if you think you’re not a numbers person, to just sit down and ask:

• What would it cost me to live the life I want? (That’s your salary.)

• What would it cost to run my business?

• And therefore, how much do I need to sell?

That’s your enough number.

 

Stop Chasing “More” When It Comes to Business Owner Finances

For a long time, I avoided talking about this stuff because I didn’t want people to think I was lazy. Like, “How much do you need—and then you just stop working?” But honestly, there’s something deeply strategic about knowing your number.

I see so many business owners constantly adding new offers or taking on more work because they feel like they have to—or they believe they can’t say no. But in reality, taking on more can actually slow down your long-term progress.

If you’re overloaded with client work, you don’t have space to think creatively, let alone build something scalable or passive. You’re just chasing a moving target, always running, never arriving.

I loved what you said earlier about dreaming. My husband and I actually do something similar—we call it our Dream Boat Document. I also teach this to my students in one of my courses.

Here’s the backstory: I didn’t grow up with a lot of money. My parents were probably lower middle class. We didn’t take big vacations, but through church youth groups, we’d go on lake trips. So to me, growing up, being “rich” meant owning a boat—being able to spend a day on the lake. That became a symbol of the good life.

So now, we sit down and actually write it out: What would it cost to buy that boat? What would it take to pay it off in five or ten years? Maybe for someone else, it’s college tuition, a wedding, a big trip—whatever your version of the dream is.

Most people never break that down. The number feels huge and scary until you actually put it on paper. But once you do, it becomes something you can plan for. And that’s what I love about entrepreneurship—you have options.

If you’re on a fixed salary, there’s a ceiling. But if you’re running your own business, you can say, “Hey, if I take on five more clients, or launch this new offer, maybe we can do that thing.”

That’s what excites me about financial planning: it makes dreams actionable. It lets you say, “Here’s the goal. Now let’s figure out how to get there.”

 

Your Enough Number Can Change In Different Seasons

Yeah, I love revisiting this number every single year. We always do a personal budget—though honestly, I prefer calling it a spending plan. We jokingly say “budget” is a six-letter curse word, so we reframe it to feel more empowering.

Each year, we create a personal money plan to clarify: What’s your salary going to be this year? And just to be clear—for anyone listening—when I say salary, I don’t necessarily mean what you’re paying yourself through payroll. I mean: How much money do you want to transfer from your business into your personal bank account? That’s your pay.

I set that number every year, and it changes depending on the season of life we’re in. Some years, we might have a big financial goal and I’ll look at how to maximize my pay. Other years—like during a season of growing your family or working fewer hours—it might be less.

So we sit down and do this both personally and for the business, every single year. It helps everything stay aligned with our priorities.

 

Business Owner Finances: Looking at Time & Pricing

Okay, I’m so excited to share this. This actually started with my husband—I have to give him credit (even if a little reluctantly). It was during my first year in business, and I was totally burned out. I had taken on way too many clients and seriously underestimated how long it would take to deliver everything I had promised.

So we sat down and mapped out what my ideal schedule would look like. And when I say “ideal schedule,” I don’t just mean a 9-to-5 structure—I mean really asking: How many hours do I actually want to give to my business each week? What feels sustainable?

Then, we looked at where all my time was actually going. I started tracking my time. I use a tool called Toggl. Something interesting happens when we become business owners: we often stop tracking it. I started noticing how much time I needed between meetings, how much time transitions were taking, how mentally taxing context-switching was. It really shifted how I saw my schedule.

We started thinking of time in terms of deposits and withdrawals. Your time deposits are what you intend to give to your business—your ideal schedule. Then, there are the time withdrawals: all the things that actually pull time from you—client communication, delivering your services, team management, running payroll, everything.

And honestly, most of us are overdrafting our time—we’re in the red. We’re getting those metaphorical NSF fees, but with our energy and hours.

That’s why I think it’s so powerful to connect time and money in a practical way.

We’ve all heard “time is money,” and while that phrase can feel a little icky or overused, there’s truth to it—especially when you break it down with real math.

For example:
If you want to make $1 million and your current pricing means you’d need to take on 100 clients to do that—but doing so would require working 70 hours a week, and your actual goal is to work 35 hours a week—then the math just doesn’t add up.

So now it becomes a simple equation:

• How much money do you want to make?

• How much time are you willing (or able) to give?

• Therefore, how much do you need to charge per client or per offer to make that happen?

Then we ask:

• Which offers aren’t profitable?

• Which ones are taking up disproportionate time compared to the value they generate?

Now, of course, people say, “Shannon, it’s not that simple.” And they’re right—you can’t just decide to charge $1,000 an hour out of nowhere. You need the track record, the results, the value to support it.

So the next question is: How do we build a package that’s worth $1,000 an hour? What’s the structure, delivery, and transformation that justifies that rate?

That’s where numbers become powerful—not just for budgeting or forecasting, but for shaping your business model, your boundaries, and your offers.

Every minute I stay on a call longer than planned, every client email I reply to outside scope—it’s time I’m taking away from my family, but still needing to earn the same income. That’s why I’ve gotten so focused on boundaries and communication.

At least once a year, if not every six months, I sit down and evaluate my offers:

• Are they still working?

• Am I spending more time on some than I should be based on what I promised?

• Is the impact still aligned with the pricing?

And if I realize I’m overdelivering or underpricing, I adjust. It’s not about reducing the value for the client… it’s about making sure it also makes sense for me.

 

An example of making shifts to support business owner finances

Okay, tell me if this is a good example—I have so many, but this is the first one that came to mind.

I often see this happen with people in high-end, luxury service industries—attorneys, physicians, wedding planners. Professionals who are charging a premium hourly rate, yet they end up giving unlimited access to their clients. I see it constantly: someone includes “unlimited access” in their package because they think it adds value. But the truth is, you can’t put a boundary around “unlimited.” And over time, that becomes a major issue.

I get why people do it. You want to be generous. You want to feel like you’re overdelivering, especially in emotionally sensitive professions—like an attorney helping someone through a major life event. You feel like you’re their partner in this difficult process. And while many attorneys charge hourly (which is great), others may use alternative pricing structures. Regardless, I often see guilt driving this over-service mindset.

The assumption is: “If I give more of my time, my clients will value me more.” But I’ve found that the opposite is often true. Instead of giving unlimited access, it’s more powerful to set clear, compassionate boundaries—and explain them.

Here’s a more concrete example. Let’s say you’re an attorney in a high-stakes case. You know the client is going to have a million questions. Instead of engaging in constant back-and-forth emails—“What does this mean? What about that? My friend said this…”—you can say up front:

“You’re going to have a lot of questions during this process. Please gather them, and we’ll have a dedicated recap call at the end of each month to go over everything.”

That small shift accomplishes two things:

1. It eliminates constant interruptions that are time-consuming but often not billable.

2. It gives your client structure—and a sense of care and control.

Email communication, in particular, is one of the biggest time drains I see. It feels small—just five minutes here and there—but it adds up. And because we often don’t bill for it, it’s an invisible cost.

When you communicate expectations clearly and create a structured system, clients feel even more taken care of. They know someone is paying attention. And interestingly, about 80% of those “urgent” questions? They resolve themselves before the end-of-month call even happens.

So yes, I’ve worked with many luxury service providers to create systems like this—systems that protect their time and enhance the client experience. The client still feels seen, heard, and supported, but you’re no longer letting email chains or random interruptions dictate your schedule.

To me, that’s what it means to create a business that truly values both your client and your time.

 

Setting Expectations For Your Clients

It’s amazing how much clients simply want to know what to expect. Sure, some clients might expect unlimited access—but honestly, those probably aren’t the clients you want to build your business around. The majority just want clarity: What’s the process? When will I hear from you? What’s included?

You mentioned earlier that some of your audience might be realtors, and I think that’s such a great example. Real estate—and any profession where fast communication is essential—can feel like you need to be on call 24/7. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

With our clients, we use something we call asynchronous coaching or asynchronous communication. We use a tool called Voxer—it’s basically a voice messaging app. Clients can message us whenever a question pops into their head, but instead of it being scattered across emails or texts, everything stays in one system.

Then we set the expectation: You’ll hear from us at least once a day, or within 24–48 business hours.

If you’re in real estate—or in any industry where the weekends are workdays—you might adjust that to a faster turnaround. Maybe you say, “You’ll hear from me within 24 hours.” But again, the key is to set that expectation up front.

This way, your clients feel supported and heard—but you’re not being pinged all day long, constantly interrupted, which destroys productivity. Voxer is great, but you could absolutely do this via email or another platform you prefer. Just having one centralized system—and a clear response schedule—makes a huge difference.

Especially in time-sensitive service businesses, you want to avoid promising clients they can reach you anytime, no matter what. That’s not sustainable. Structured communication is not only more efficient, it also creates a more professional and positive experience for both sides.

 

Adjusting Levels of Communication Based On Investment

One thing we do, and something I’d recommend for others, is to offer different levels of communication based on client preference, with pricing that reflects those choices.

For our CFO clients, they can choose to hear from us weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually. The level of communication and accessibility directly determines the pricing.

Because you’re absolutely right. If every client has 24/7 access to you and expects quick responses, you either need to increase the size of your team or decrease the number of clients you serve. And either way, your pricing has to reflect that.

If it doesn’t, the math just doesn’t work and you’re not going to be able to sustain your business long term.

 

My 30-Minute Emergency Rule

I think you probably hear this about time the way I hear it about money, both are highly valuable, and yet as service providers, we often feel bad about setting boundaries around them. Time boundaries, especially, can feel hard. But I truly believe, and psychology supports this, that most people actually thrive within boundaries.

I tell my clients this all the time: we’re not raising our prices just to make more money. We’re raising them for sustainability—so we don’t burn out, so we can be here 10 years from now. It’s about being able to afford the team you need, the space you need, the systems you need.

And it’s the same with time management. You’re not capping your time just so you can lounge at the lake all weekend (although, let’s be honest—that’s part of it!). You’re doing it so you can stay in business and serve your clients well over the long term.

One thing I implemented early on that really helped—and Kelly, I’m curious what you think—is something I call my 30-Minute Emergency Rule. Have we talked about this?

Here’s how it works: I realized that most emergencies… aren’t actually emergencies. So I made a rule—unless it’s a true emergency, like someone’s in the hospital or there’s a real legal crisis—I pause. I wait 30 minutes before responding to any “urgent” client email or message.

In most cases, I’ve found that what feels like a crisis to a client is something we, as service providers, have seen a hundred times. Whether it’s buying a home, filing taxes, forgetting to submit sales tax—these things feel huge to the client, but we’ve done them before, and there’s usually a path forward.

So I just sit with it. I don’t react right away. And I’m telling you, about 85% of the time, before that 30 minutes is even up, the client reaches back out and says, “Actually, we figured it out,” or, “We’re good now.”

If you’re always jumping to respond to every panic, it impacts everything—your productivity, your mental clarity, your anxiety. And honestly, it’s not always the best thing for the client either. Sometimes, giving them space to work through it is more empowering.

So setting a small boundary like that? It’s been a game-changer for me—and I think it can be for others too

 

Creating Systems and Processes to Improve Business Owner Finances

We’ve also created a lot of internal processes to streamline things with our clients. If there’s anything redundant or repetitive, we try to systemize it. And I know you’re the time management queen, so I’m sure a lot of this aligns with what you teach—but I’ll share it from the financial side, because I think it’s important to see the connection.

The solution isn’t always just raise your prices, raise your prices, raise your prices. Sometimes the answer is: systemize your processes and save time.

Because at the end of the day, what really matters is profit—not just revenue.

We live in a world where people love to throw around revenue milestones: “Six figures!” “Seven figures!” “I made $100K this month!” But revenue without context means nothing.

I always ask:

• How big is your team?

• How much are you paying yourself?

• How much are you setting aside for taxes?

• Are there other people contributing to that revenue?

It’s the profit that matters. What’s left over after everything else?

Take this example:
Someone might be charging $450 an hour, but they’re spending one hour in meetings and two hours behind the scenes prepping or following up. Compare that to someone charging $350 an hour, but only spending that one hour—and maybe delegating the rest to a team member. The second person is actually more profitable.

So what we really want to focus on is the profitability of your time and your offers.

And sometimes, the most effective solution is simple: systemize.

If you find yourself repeating something to clients more than twice, turn it into an SOP—a Standard Operating Procedure. Drop it into a Google Doc, create a template, write a canned response. Anything that can be reused instead of recreated saves time and reduces friction.

And here’s something I heard years ago that stuck with me:

“If you’re feeling bitter, it’s usually a boundary issue.”

That hit me. Because most of the time, when we’re frustrated with a client, it’s not that they’re terrible—it’s that something hasn’t been communicated clearly, or a boundary wasn’t set.

So now I listen to that frustration. If something starts feeling heavy or irritating, I ask myself:

• What boundary is missing?

• What system could I implement to prevent this next time?

• How can I better communicate expectations?

Often, improving your systems is improving your profit.

 

Building Your Business Owner Finances The Way You Want To

I think we forget that we can build our businesses the way we actually want to. I see this all the time with my clients—they’re creating something, but not designing it in a way that truly works for them.

If you don’t like being on the phone all the time, that’s okay. Personally, I don’t love meetings. I don’t like having a packed calendar—it stresses me out. I’m like, “I don’t know how I’m going to feel that day!”

But I do love asynchronous coaching. If a client needs me, they can Voxer me. Then when I’m sitting in the school car line, I’ll message them back. That’s how I thrive. I love talking business, I love supporting my clients—it’s not that I don’t enjoy the work. I just don’t love scheduled meetings.

So design it your way. Why have a business if it’s going to feel like a job you don’t enjoy?

And just to circle back—I really think you and I are so aligned, Kelly. You talk about time, I talk about money, but there’s so much overlap. I talk about time a lot with clients, too, because it’s so deeply connected to how we build sustainable businesses. I’m really glad we’re having this conversation.

One of the biggest mindset hurdles I see—for both time and money—is that people assume the goal is to sit on a beach, do nothing, and have passive income rolling in. I mean, sure, that sounds great—but most of us actually like our work.

The key is: we want to keep doing the work we love without burning out. If you’re not making enough money or you have no time, you’re going to hit a wall and eventually quit. So instead of viewing boundaries or pricing as selfish, we need to reframe it as sustainability. It’s about staying in the game longer. It’s about protecting your ability to make an impact over time.

And finally, I just want to touch on something else: the difference between price and value. This is a concept that really starts to click the longer you’re in business.

Like you said, Kelly—at some point, you move away from hourly pricing. You have to, otherwise your income is forever capped by your available hours.

But understanding the value you bring? That’s powerful. It’s hard for a lot of people to wrap their heads around, but here’s an example:

If someone pays you $10,000 and earns $100,000 as a result of your work together, that’s 10x value. It’s not about how many hours you spent—it’s about the outcome you helped deliver.

That’s where pricing becomes about value, not time. And when you get clear on that, it changes everything.

And like you said, if you are still constrained by hourly pricing—then the name of the game becomes: maximize your time.