How Clearwater HR Consulting Helps Small Business Owners – with Sarah Chang, CEO

In a recent episode of the HR business marketing podcast, A Better HR Business, Ben and his guest, Sarah Chang, talk about how effective HR support transforms small businesses – from navigating complex regulations to fostering positive cultures.

Sarah Chang is CEO of Clearwater HR Consulting, a firm dedicated to helping small businesses across the US navigate the complexities of HR.

She began her career in HR at large global corporations in aerospace, defense, and public accounting before transitioning to HR consulting. Over the past decade, Sarah has helped growing companies navigate critical inflection points – from fast-paced tech startups with multiple global acquisitions to privately held businesses that lacked HR for decades.

Sarah works closely with small business leaders to build scalable people operations, including organizational design, leadership development, competitive compensation, and team infrastructure. Her focus is on creating best-in-class work cultures, operational efficiency, and high-performing teams that drive top-line growth. At Clearwater, Sarah ensures clients receive the industry’s most experienced HR leaders to help their businesses thrive.

Clearwater HR Consulting delivers top-tier, outsourced, fractional HR leadership and support to businesses across the U.S. Their team of highly seasoned HR professionals brings extensive industry experience, providing the highest quality service businesses need and deserve.

Clearwater’s experts have built HR functions from the ground up, guided high-level strategy, mitigated sensitive employee matters, reduced legal risk, and repeatedly helped companies create outstanding workplace cultures. Services include HR audits, employee relations, strategic HR, compliance, performance management, recruiting, team culture development, onboarding/offboarding, and employee training.

With over 500 HR functions implemented and support available in all 50 states remotely, Clearwater HR Consulting is the go-to partner for businesses seeking experienced, results-driven HR leadership.

You’ll hear practical strategies for client acquisition, pricing consulting services, and avoiding common consulting mistakes.

Whether you identify as an HR, workplace, L&D, OD, recruitment, or people & culture consultant, you’ll discover real stories and actionable advice to attract clients, win contracts, and grow sustainably.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How Clearwater HR Consulting attracts and serves small business clients across the US
• The typical HR challenges faced by small employers and the pitfalls when business owners try to “DIY” people issues
• Sarah Chang’s lessons on pricing, structuring, and scaling a multi-consultant HR business

Resources & Links Mentioned:

• Clearwater HR Consulting website: www.clearwaterhrconsulting.com
• Sarah’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-chang-77825411/

Scroll down for the video and audio versions and the transcript.

Ok, onto the show!

Video – How Clearwater HR Consulting Helps Small Business Owners – with Sarah Chang, CEO

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Audio Version – How Clearwater HR Consulting Helps Small Business Owners – with Sarah Chang, CEO

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About The ‘A Better HR Business’ Podcast

In my HR marketing podcast, I talk with different HR consultants and HR tech companies from around the world to learn about what they do and how they keep their businesses healthy and moving in the right direction.

If you have questions you want to ask me about growing an HR consultancy or marketing for HR tech companies, just let me know or visit the HR marketing services page.

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Enjoy the show!

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Episode Transcript

Episode 295: How Clearwater HR Consulting Helps Small Business Owners – with Sarah Chang, CEO

Ben [00:27]:
Hello. Welcome back to the show. Great to have you along. And I’m really looking forward to today’s conversation with Sarah Chang. Sarah is the CEO of Clearwater HR Consulting, an amazing firm that helps small businesses across the US and we’re going to be diving into how she helps those businesses and how she’s grown such a successful business. But firstly, Sarah, thank you very much for joining me today.

Sarah Chang [00:49]:
Thank you so much for having me. Really appreciate it.

Ben [00:51]:
And whereabouts are you based? I know you’re nationwide, but whereabouts are you based today?

Sarah Chang [00:56]:
I personally am based here in Las Vegas transplanted from South Orange county, but my team is spread out across the US. I’ve got consultants in California, the Midwest, Texas, Ohio, down to Florida, South Carolina. We’re kind of all over.

Ben [01:14]:
Nice. Got it covered. Excellent. I’m really curious to learn about the business. Let’s start with what does Clearwater HR Consulting do and who do you help?

Sarah Chang [01:23]:
That’s a great question. We provide outsourced HR and fractional HR leadership to small and medium-sized businesses.

We focus on helping small business owners who are often too small to hire a full-time HR person. As they grow, it’s really about that idea of “building the plane as you fly it.” They’re trying to figure out how to build a solid foundation, but what they often don’t realize is that HR fundamentals – like compensation structure, team development, and policies – are a key part of that.

All of my team members are former HR directors or higher, so we’re able to provide expert-level HR support to small businesses on a fractional basis – something they typically wouldn’t have access to otherwise.

Ben [02:05]:
Nice. And so what are the main types of HR problems, challenges that you typically would deal with most often?

Sarah Chang [02:12]:
It runs the gamut. HR really covers anything from business owners that are really trying to build and do things right from the start. We’re talking about infrastructure build out, policies and handbooks, we’re talking about team org structures and performance management development culture, aligning, some of their comp structures with the values of the business and where they’re headed all the way through „let’s talk about how to coach through a difficult employee situation or performance improvement plans”.

We do get a lot of calls about maybe some difficult separations they think that might be coming down the pipe or claims that employees have put forward and they’re feeling kind of inequalt to how to handle those. So we really do get the gamut.

Ben [02:59]:
I know you’ve got consultants across the country, but you’ve also described a wide range of HR challenges, workforce related challenges, which is tough for any business owner to manage. What are some of the mistakes that you see them making, whether it’s them or their leaders within the business? What are some of the mistakes that they make trying to handle those situations or HR challenges themselves when it comes to trying to resolve those things?

Sarah Chang [03:24]:
I think when business owners try to handle it on their own – especially when there are tricky employee situations – they’re usually just trying to address the issue as quickly as possible, which I completely understand. But unfortunately a lot of times what can happen is it exacerbates the issue. An employee might feel attacked.

We had one client, for example, they had a difficult employee, they had some performance issues and this owner felt like they had some HR experience previously. And so they said, „Well, I started an investigation”. And they ended up doing was in their conversations with the employee, they really started giving litigious terms to the employee. They really started handing them really tools in the employee’s toolbox to come back and be litigious against the employer.

It wasn’t intentional obviously, but when they’re using specific terminology that they’re not familiar with, or they’re not familiar with the law, or they’re asking questions in a way that can provoke a response that they didn’t expect and not only handle that with experience is risky. And so unfortunately by the time they call us sometimes they’ve blown it up a decent amount, which it’s okay. I mean that’s kind of the nature of our industry, but certainly we’re here to help. And our number one goal is really to de escalate the issues as much as possible as early as we could.

Ben [04:58]:
And certainly the big one that I’ve seen in many situations in different countries is the classic one where you’ve got the business owner, they start to hire, hiring people slightly get a little bit bigger and then you’ve got classic one is the office manager, the person who’s sort of seeing you’re in that office environment and then they’re given the role, usually via hiring, recruitment, „we need you to fill a couple of roles for us”. And so they do that. And then now they’re taking on HR stuff and employment contracts and policies, which at first they think they can manage, but then, as you say, they might open the door to other stuff and create some problems down the line. Do you see that too?

Sarah Chang [05:34]:
I see that most often, to be honest. So that’s a great observation. I would say the majority of business owners start that way? They feel like they’ve managed people before. In their mind, HR really entails onboarding paperwork, finding new employees. And that’s the extent for most of them as they get started. And so when they hand that responsibility to an office manager, as they grow, sometimes you’ll see it go to a controller or someone in finance, maybe someone in operations. Even then, unfortunately, this person’s handed a lot of. As any HR person knows, there’s that big depth in breadth to HR and there’s so much to know and asking someone to focus on HR when, number one, this isn’t their prime responsibility.

But number two, they don’t have that expertise having to develop policies that align with all these jurisdictional laws, or let’s talk about really fundamental concepts of our comp structure. And what you’re asking an office manager to do is in that case is really to say „how do we align performance with our values as a company and where we go”. It’s a lot to put on that they don’t realize that they’re doing. So essentially you’re asking an inexperienced person to handle HR in a way that’s kind of unfair.

Ben [06:56]:
And as you can tell, I’m not an American citizen. But from my understanding, you guys have some crazy laws. You’ve got different headcount limits, you’ve got the state legislation, you know, federal laws. So for an employer, I’d be saying you should be sending some professional HR help, not just for the justice part of it, as in making the right decisions, but also the procedural fairness. And then you kind of alluded to having that experience of handling it properly because you need to be aware of the people around them. So for instance, a termination, exiting someone from the business, they then have co workers, colleagues who remain in the business. So how you manage that process affects morale, employee engagement, which I suspect is some of your expertise as well. It’s not just knowing what to do and how to do it, but then how to manage the culture around it. Is that fair enough?

Sarah Chang [07:46]:
Absolutely. And you know, I think what’s hard about doing HR in the United States is of course we have jurisdictional laws across all 50 states. They’re different. But I think what employers don’t realize is that there’s different regulating bodies for different parts of HR, which makes it even more complicated. So you’ll have different employment departments per state that cover one part of the law. You’ve got the IRS that focuses on the tax component when it comes to wage and hour. You’ve also got jurisdictional bodies that are created specifically in that particular state.

And if you’ve got employees in multiple states, it’s hard to keep track of all those things. It’s a lot to ask of somebody who has never done it before. It’s a lot to ask of an HR person, but especially someone that’s not the full time focus of their role.

Ben [08:34]:
Definitely. So I guess I’ve been focusing or we’ve been focusing on the stuff that can go wrong. And many people think that HR is all about just staying out of trouble or avoiding legal headaches. But what are the more positive aspects of HR that you see and how can help small businesses to do well?

Sarah Chang [08:50]:
You know, it’s funny, when people ask, what does success look like in HR? I think of really two things. I think the first, and this is a metric that I think is the most important to me is it comes down to retention. If you’re talking about HR as a whole from a policy standpoint, from an infrastructure and a culture component, you’re really saying, have we touched on every part of an employee’s life cycle that they want to be here tomorrow, the next day and the day after? And that means a lot of things. That means, their work life experience, from a PTO policy perspective, that means their coaching experience with their manager. That means career pathing and an opportunity to move forward. That.

So when we talk about what does HR really look like, it’s really creating opportunities for employees to want to continue to be at the business but simultaneously still align with the business goals. Can we afford to do this? Does this help us grow and progress as an organization? Does this make sense from a business standpoint? When done well, you’ve got a great employee base. That’s what your customer experience is really founded upon.

And then the second component would be what people ask from the outside, what’s a good HR person? What have they done? I said the best thing you can say if you’ve got good HR is that worked out. What they don’t realize is that there’s a lot of employee issues that come up consistently. The larger your employee base gets, and when you have an opportunity to have a really strong HR leadership within your organization, they can deescalate issues before they really become one. So I think that’s what great HR looks like, is really helping navigate difficult conflict between the organization and your people in a way that both people felt respected, they came out with some sort of win. It may not be perfect for both sides, but in a way that either someone departed respectfully and in a way that they chose to, or we were able to come to some kind of compromise that made sense for both sides.

I think that’s what good HR looks like. And if you can leave in that regard and you don’t have litigation from the outside, you can say, well, nothing happened. It all just worked out. But the experience and the finesse that comes with time and compassion and strong communication skills that HR people develop over a significant amount of time really results in a positive experience for both sides. That’s the goal.

Ben [11:19]:
As you were talking, you reminded me of someone I worked with a long time ago. They once asked a group, “Have you ever been on a team where everything just clicked?” You know, like a rowing team at the Olympics where everyone glides smoothly across the water.

Then they compared that to the opposite – constant firefighting. And you’re right: having proper HR systems, processes, and experienced people managing them is what takes you from that chaos – where you’re rushing around playing whack-a-mole – to that seamless, in-sync rowing team.

It’s such an important shift. I know you’ve built a very successful HR consulting business and helped so many small businesses across the country. How have you managed to grow your business?

Sarah Chang [11:58]:
That’s a good question. I think we’ve been fortunate to grow fairly quickly. We’ve really focused on a few different things from building our different lead funnels to social media, to building networking with vendor partners. I don’t think it really comes down to one answer. I think it’s being open to trying certain things, to recognizing when something isn’t really quick enough. But, you know, even for me as a business owner in the last year, I’ve had to test things to realize all I learned from that is that it doesn’t work. It’s an expensive lesson, but if you don’t go out and try a number of different lead opportunities, you really won’t know.

We’ve had to do that obviously as we scaled and had bigger budgets to try different things. But we’ve had to build a diverse lead funnel. Because I think what I worry about is really an over dependence on one funnel that if it’s gone tomorrow, there goes my business. So a number of different things.

Ben [12:55]:
Yeah. And looking at the business before we spoke, I saw a number of testimonials and feedback. I’m guessing that referrals and the word of mouth has contributed to the growth of business, is that right?

Sarah Chang [13:07]:
The referrals have been coming in lately, which is really nice because when we first started that really we started from scratch. It’s one thing to work as a consultant by yourself, to be a branded business as a team. Those are all really new. I think what I’m grateful for is I have a phenomenal team. Every one of my leaders are very senior and not only are they very senior, I do have a number of criteria. But they really care about the people we serve and the people we support and our clients. They have a deep compassion for both the employee and the employer and are strategic leaders in their own right. The referral component has been very nice. It’s not one that I guess I rely on as far as growth goes. I wouldn’t say it’s enough of the business to say that helps us grow, but it does manage some of the attrition, which is nice.

Ben [13:55]:
Having grown a successful business and you’ve built an amazing team of experienced, wise, practical HR professionals who can go and help these small business owners sort out their HR challenges, but then take it into the more positive territory and grow from there. What’s your advice when it comes to growing a successful business overall?

Sarah Chang [14:15]:
What’s funny, and I think maybe your HR listeners would relate to this, it’s applying the things that we’ve known from day one, which means every aspect of the business has to align: how we build our team structure with our compensation structure with how we incentivize growth. Every one of these components really have to align together from the very beginning. Even our comp structure versus our pricing structure as a client group, what does that look like? How does it function? What are the mechanics? It has to make sense from the very beginning and to draw on the type of talent pool you care about.

I think every business has to look at what’s our end product or service. And if your service is services with people, you got to make sure you have amazing people, that it makes sense for them. And so I’ve always believed in a concept of win-win-win, which means it has to make sense for the business, it has to make sense for the consultant, and it has to make sense for the client.

Have I built a structure that can accomplish all of those things? And I think that being the core of when I started, from day one, before we had any clients, that’s made it all much easier.

When I’m pitching a potential client, for example, they understand it immediately. It’s a simple concept of this is what we do. And these are our business practices because we want to make sure that you as a client have amazing experience, client experience.

I want to make sure that my consultants are well compensated so they can continue to be here and want to support you long term. And we as a business also have to survive so that we can continue to be here and support you over the time of your company’s growth. And I think that resonates with people because they understand it has to make sense for everybody. And in that case, everybody can win.

Ben [16:05]:
Absolutely. It’s a great sign that an HR expert is practicing good HR in her own business. If I asked you a number of years ago, what does the future hold? And then suddenly we have this coronavirus thing and just that throws everything up at the air. But ever since then we’ve got AI and legislative changes and economic issues. What do you see as the future holding for HR for small businesses, for your clients? What do you think they should be paying attention to and sort of preparing themselves for? What sort of actions should they be taking to protect their business in the future in the world of work in the HR arena?

Sarah Chang [16:40]:
It’s evolved a lot. I’ve been in the industry for almost 20 years, and the types of issues we deal with today – especially over the last three to four years – are very different from the ones we handled two decades ago.

I think the biggest factor, honestly, has been the rise of social media. It’s really changed the workplace environment – employees’ awareness, their sensitivity to certain issues, and how they communicate.

In recent years, we’ve also seen employers needing to recognize the lifestyle component of their employees’ roles. Employees today care much more about work–life balance than they did years ago. They’re also far more aware of their rights – and somewhat aware of the legal or “litigious” aspects of employment – which wasn’t as common before.

That increased awareness can make things riskier for employers, because we’re hearing a lot more litigious language in the workplace now than we did 20 years ago – and not all of it is necessarily well-founded.

We’re seeing a lot more complaints about harassment, hostile work environments, and retaliation. Those are really strong words that, 20 years ago, I rarely heard from employees. And when we did, those claims were usually based on long-term situations with clear evidence – things like, “This is what happened, this is when, and this is why.”

In all fairness, a large percentage of the complaints we see today are tied to what used to be considered normal workplace experiences. For example, when an employee gets constructive feedback or is told they’re not meeting expectations, they might respond by saying they’re in a hostile work environment or not being treated fairly.

The reality is, those are still standard business practices, just as they were 20 years ago – but employees today are far more sensitive to them. So, employers need to be more cautious and thoughtful in how they communicate and manage these situations.

There’s definitely more education that needs to happen on both sides. We’re also seeing an increased demand for HR leaders who are not only knowledgeable about the law – which I’d say is really the baseline – but who also know how to apply it effectively.

It’s about taking a coaching approach, creating opportunities that align with the business strategically, and communicating in a way that builds understanding and trust. That’s something you just can’t get from AI. AI is great, but it’s still very limited in that human coaching and connection aspect.

Ben [19:14]:
Absolutely. I mean, you can ask it and it’ll tell you some phrases to use or it’ll give you quite a comprehensive thing. But what’s the tone? What’s the environment? There’s so much that’s missing. But I was nodding, you know, furiously when you were sort of saying about the rise of people reacting in different ways and maybe acting more in a litigious way. I’ve definitely noticed that. So it’s a tough one for employers?

Sarah Chang [19:35]:
Yeah. Across the team, from my consultants, across the client base, from our clients. I can’t imagine how many times I’ve heard it from employers who’ve been in business for a lot of time who’ve said „It wasn’t like this before 15 years ago, 20 years ago, 25 years ago”. „Well, it is now.”

Ben [19:53]:
On the flip side, for employers, maybe that’s good news to think, „well, it’s not just me. There is a bigger thing. There’s a bigger picture”. And you’re seeing that from your position, right?

Sarah Chang [20:02]:
I try to help them understand that they’re not the only ones – they’re not bad employers. A lot of them feel really discouraged and isolated in their own world. But when they start to realize, “Maybe it’s not just me. Maybe the landscape is changing, and that means I need to change too,” it can be a turning point.

Often, they think the issue is isolated – that if they just get rid of one difficult employee, the problem will go away. But what we help them see, and what many come to realize on their own, is that’s not the case. They genuinely need to shift how they lead and how they run their business compared to how they used to.

Ben [20:35]:
When it comes to small businesses, employees have platforms like Glassdoor where they can share experiences and sometimes criticize their bosses. But in my experience, most small business owners are genuinely excited when they make their first hire and then slowly grow their team. It’s a real source of pride, and they want to do well.

Of course, there will always be the occasional “rotten egg,” but in most cases, owners genuinely want to create a great workplace – a place where people can do their best and serve their customers effectively.

I really love that you help them achieve that. You solve the headaches and challenges so they can focus on building an even better workplace, improving their service and products, and ultimately contributing to growth and opportunities that benefit everyone.

Sarah Chang [21:23]:
Well, thank you. That’s. That is the goal.

Ben [21:25]:
You’ve built an amazing business. You’re helping businesses with their HR challenges. If people want to learn more about Clearwater HR Consulting, what should they do next?

Sarah Chang [21:35]:
I’d say, just book a call. We’re a small business too, so I really understand what small business owners are going through. When someone books a call, they’re really here to talk to me directly.

What I try to help business owners understand is that I get the challenges they face while growing their business. At the same time, I’ve been an HR leader for almost 20 years, so I can help them align their goals, figure out what they want to accomplish, and determine what the next steps look like.

Booking a first consultation is simple – it can be done right through our website.

Sarah Chang [22:02]:
Our website is www.clearwaterhrconsulting.com. There’s a booking link there that goes directly to my calendar. I’m here to talk with business owners and help them grow – that’s the goal.

Ben [22:13]:
If you’re listening on the go, we’ll have the links in the show notes. I highly recommend taking the opportunity – check out the website, have a look around, and then book a call to talk with Sarah.

Sarah, thank you so much for sharing your story and offering advice for listeners on how to grow a better business and achieve success in HR for their companies. Thank you very much.

Sarah Chang [22:32]:
Of course. Thanks again for having me.

Topics covered: running a workplace consulting business, how to find consulting clients, pricing consulting services, HR consultants, common consulting mistakes.

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