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Staci Millard | 🇨🇦 Accountant & Community Builder

@staci.millard

4K

followers

1023

following

🧾Owner @thriveaccounting
🎙️ Host, Small Business School
💡 Angel Investor & Advisor
🤝 Community Builder @thesmallbusinessclub_
📊 7-Figure Exit

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Hi, I’m Staci! Swipe to get to know me a little better 👋

From building and exiting a 7-figure business to founding @thriveaccounting, investing in other entrepreneurs, and now building Profitly - my mission has stayed the same: helping small business owners understand their numbers and go further, faster.

If you’re building something of your own, I’d love to have you along for the ride. 🤍

[small business accounting, accounting for entrepreneurs, financial literacy for business owners, small business finance tips, angel investor , female founder story, business exit story, founder finance tips, entrepreneur mindset] by @staci.millard

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18 days ago

My friend @kimberley.hiebert and I just launched something we’ve been dancing around for a while: She Said, She Said - an all-new podcast series!! 🎙️

We’ve both built, scaled, and exited businesses, and every time we get in a room together, the conversation goes somewhere our solo podcasts never quite get to. So we figured, why not put a mic on it!

This is two founders riffing, disagreeing, and getting into the stuff we don’t usually say out loud - like bootstrapping vs. raising money or staying scrappy even after you’ve “made it.”

She Said, She Said episodes will drop on the 3rd Thursday of every month, on both my podcast, Small Business School, and Kim’s podcast, Found-HER. That’s today! 👀

Comment PODCAST and I’ll send you the full episode to listen now. 🤍

[founder conversations, women in business podcast, female founders, business owner mindset, entrepreneur podcast, bootstrapping a business, scaling a small business, business exit story, founder burnout, business podcasts, canadian business owners, canadian podcasts, women entrepreneurs canada] by @staci.millard

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4 days ago

Still doing everything yourself? Burnout often will make the hiring decision for you if you don’t make it first.

Most business owners don’t struggle to know when to hire, but they do struggle to feel confident saying yes to the expense. That confidence comes from knowing your numbers. When you’re looking at your revenue and cash flow consistently, decisions like hiring stop feeling like a gamble and start feeling like a plan.

Remember, you don’t have to hire for everything at once. Start with the one task draining you the most.

[when to hire, hire your first employee, cash flow, revenue, grow your team, small business owners, looking at your numbers, accountant, canadian small business, canadian taxes, canada business] by @staci.millard

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5 days ago

“Just hire somebody. Buy back your time.”

Great advice, IF your margins can actually support it. If they can’t, you’re not buying back time. You’re creating a tighter, harder problem to dig out of.

I see business owners make this mistake over and over. They don’t understand how the math actually works in their business.

There are two kinds of payroll in every business:
1️⃣ The people directly delivering the product or service (client-facing)
2️⃣ The people running the business behind the scenes (HR, CEO-level decisions, social media and marketing, admin, etc.)

When you don’t know how what you charge a client actually covers both of those, your margins get tight without you knowing why. And “tight” eventually turns into “we can’t afford to grow,” even when you’re bringing in more revenue than ever.

Before you hire to buy back your time, know your numbers first and understand what your pricing needs to cover.

That’s the difference between hiring that relieves pressure and hiring that adds to it.

[business margins, payroll margins, pricing strategy for small business, how to price your services, profit margins for business owners, hiring for small business, business owner mistakes, small business finance, buy back your time, know your numbers] by @staci.millard

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6 days ago

You don’t envy their money. You actually envy their mindset.

It’s easy to look at someone’s lifestyle and think “wow, must be nice.” We may feel envy at the easeful way they talk about money without flinching.

But what we’re seeing, more often than not, is the result of a hundred decisions we never watched them make. The boring, repeated choices about how they think about risk, patience, and what money is actually for.

You can’t shortcut your way to their bank account. But you can start borrowing how they think with what you have today.

What’s one belief you could borrow from someone you admire? Tell me below 👇

[money mindset, financial mindset shift, wealth mindset vs money, money beliefs, financial confidence, small business owner money mindset, mindset before money, limiting beliefs about money, money mindset coaching, entrepreneur mindset] by @staci.millard

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11 days ago

Silence the tax anxiety in your head.

If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking “the CRA is out to get me” or “I’ll deal with my bookkeeping later,” you’re not alone, and you’re not doing anything wrong. But those thoughts are costing you more peace of mind than they’re worth.

Tax season doesn’t have to feel like a countdown to doom. Swipe through for 8 reframes we walk our small business owners and founders through every single day.

Your relationship with your finances shouldn’t run on anxiety. Good CRA compliance starts with a calmer mindset and the right accounting support behind you.

That’s what we do at Thrive Accounting. 💛

[small business tax season, CRA compliance, tax filing, small business bookkeeping, accounting support, canadian small business, canadian taxes, small business owners, founders] by @staci.millard

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12 days ago

I just got back from Growth Lab, hosted by the incredible @karenhstewart, in Calgary and I’m still processing how much it shifted my perspective. I sat in a room with some seriously high performers - people who’ve had exits and are already restarting, people casually talking about opening three new locations and renovating two others, all in a single quarter. Wild!

What also really stuck with me was that nobody took a single picture. No one was worried about posting, about the internet, about optics. These are people who do marketing for their own businesses, and still, not one photo. It was such a good reminder that sometimes we get so caught up in what we think has to be done that we lose sight of what’s actually important.

This mastermind felt more like a CEO day than anything else. We were heads-down in our own businesses, asking for help only where we actually needed it. A lot of us already know what we need to do. We just get stuck in the day-to-day and don’t do it.

My biggest takeaway was that even high performers struggle with time management and getting stuck in the weeds. We have to stop beating ourselves up about it (it’s just a waste of energy) and just keep moving forward.

Huge thanks to Karen for leading this incredibly. I can’t wait to have her on the podcast in a few weeks, so stay tuned for that amazing conversation!

[business mastermind reflections, CEO mindset tips, small business growth strategy, entrepreneur time management, high performer business habits, business owner burnout and focus] taken in Calgary, Alberta by @staci.millard

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13 days ago

Taxes are inevitable. Panic doesn’t have to be.

The difference isn’t luck, and it isn’t having a “simpler” business than everyone else. It just comes down to staying ahead of it.

This includes:
➕ tracking your numbers as you go
💰 making moves before December 31st instead of scrambling after
🚨 treating tax season as a wrap-up instead of a fire drill

That kind of calm is available to you, it just starts earlier than you think.

And that’s our mission at Thrive: clarity, confidence, and control over your numbers, all year round, not just in a scramble every spring.

[small business taxes, tax planning, small business accounting, proactive tax strategy, tax season confidence, calm accounting, canadian small businesses, canada business owner] by @staci.millard

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19 days ago

I recorded this episode with @erinsisko of @elle.iance to talk about the Capital Elle Business Impact Awards, and if you’re a Canadian woman entrepreneur, consider this your sign to APPLY!!

This is year three of the awards, and I’ve been proud to partner with Erin on this initiative every single year. What started as a $20K prize in 2024 has grown to nearly $125K in value, with close to 45 partners coming together to support Canadian women entrepreneurs. 🤯

I loved this conversation because Erin’s vision goes SO much further than funding a few businesses.

We talked about what it means to build a business as an appreciating asset, why more women need to be thinking about the long-term value of what they’re building, and Erin’s bigger mission to help change the funding ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in Canada.

And even applying gives you access to $500+ in business resources!!

Applications close October 28 at 9 PM ET. Seriously, go apply now!

Comment PODCAST and I’ll send you the episode (which has all the links you need to apply!)

[Canadian women entrepreneurs, women in business Canada, business funding for women, women entrepreneur grants Canada, small business funding Canada, female founders Canada, business growth funding, building a valuable business, funding for women-owned businesses] by @staci.millard

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20 days ago

Filing your taxes is NOT the same as planning them.

Filing looks back. It reports what already happened.

Planning looks ahead. It’s the decisions you make now that actually change what you owe later.

Most small business owners only ever do the first one. And by the time you’re filing, most of the good options are already gone.

Fall is actually a GREAT time to have this conversation, as there’s still runway left in the year to make moves that matter.

When’s the last time you talked to your accountant about anything other than filing? Tell us below.

[tax planning, tax filing, small business taxes, small business accounting, year-end tax strategy, proactive tax planning, canadian small business, canadian taxes] by @staci.millard

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a month ago

We are so grateful to Thrive Accounting for sponsoring our retreat this year!

@thriveaccounting was built by @staci.millard, a CPA who grew her first accounting firm into a seven-figure company before 35, then sold it.

She’s also @chergoetz_ own accountant, so this isn’t just a sponsor we picked, it’s someone we already trust with our own numbers.

Along the way, Staci worked with thousands of business owners and kept seeing the same thing: it was never about effort. Founders had the drive, they just didn’t have clarity on their numbers. That’s what Thrive exists to fix.

Thank you, Staci, for supporting this community again. by @staci.millard

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a month ago

I got to sit down IN PERSON with @nicolecrone__ and @kailapilecki_ from @myalignedpurpose to record this episode, and we went exactly where you would expect us to go: money, mindset, and what it actually takes to build a profitable business.

I really loved this conversation because Nicole and Kaila don’t separate the mindset work from the math, and neither do I.

We talked about alllllll the things - what your revenue goals actually require from you, why the numbers on a spreadsheet mean nothing if you’re not willing to take the actions behind them, recurring revenue, getting out of the cycle of trading more time for more money, and why understanding your business metrics matters at every stage of growth.

We also got into their new book (which was published last Friday!) and the Aligned CEO Method they’ve built from years of working with women business owners.

There are so many good takeaways in this one, especially if you want to grow your business without simply adding more hours to your plate.

Comment PODCAST and I’ll send you the episode!

[small business podcast, women entrepreneurs, profitable business, small business profitability, scaling a small business, business mindset, business metrics, recurring revenue, canadian business owners, sustainable business growth] by @staci.millard

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a month ago