Summary: One of the biggest barriers to starting or growing a business is having enough money in the bank. Don't we all want to have more money in the bank? Of course we do. That's where our most recent teleseminar guest comes in. Katy Song is a Certified Financial Planner and advises clients on savvy saving, investing, and ways to make their hard-earned bucks go farther. Many of Katy's clients are entrepreneurs and business owners, and she counsels these clients on how to deal with unpredictable revenue, how to set priorities in their businesses based on family needs and personal needs, and how to implement saving strategies. Katy stopped by to share her advice on entrepreneurship and business ownership, running a business in today's economy, and what it takes to be a successful business owner. In this teleseminar, Katy explains: How to start a business in a slow economy The #1 Mistake new business owners make when they start a new business How much money to save when starting a business Why entrepreneurs are more likely to live within their means than consumers What personality traits entrepreneurs share I hope you will enjoy listening to the interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it. If you prefer to read the interview than listen to it, you can read the transcript after the jump. Enjoy! How to Use Savvy Financial Planning In Your Business - a Teleseminar with Financial Planner Katy Song John: Welcome, everyone! This is John Corcoran from California Law Report. I’m really excited today to have Katy Song on the line with us. Katy, are you there? Katy: I’m here. Thanks, John. John: Great, great. Okay. Katy Song is a financial planner and she’s going to give us some advice on how entrepreneurs and business owners can implement savvy financial planning strategies in their business in starting a business and that kind of thing. I’ll tell you a little bit about Katy. She’s originally from Rye, New York and she’s a California transplant just like myself. She lived in California for about twenty years now, it seems like. Some interesting things about her background: She worked for the US Department of Commerce in the International Trade Administration. I think I remember you saying, Katy, that you were working with Africa issues. Is that right? Katy: Yeah. I got two—I lived in West Africa for a while working specifically for the state department at that time. John: Oh, very cool! She also worked for Citigroup and they’re an investing banking group, for five years and rose up to the level of Vice President. She’s been a fee-only financial planner since 2008 and is a certified financial planning certificant and she works and lives primarily with clients in the Marin county area which is where I live as well and work. That’s just outside of San Francisco. She focuses primarily on parents with young children but many or a lot or it seems like the majority of her clients are business owners and so she gets into a lot of the issues that we’re going to be talking about today. Also, she’s a graduate of UC Santa Cruz in the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. So welcome, Katy. Katy: Thank you very much. John: Great, great. So first, tell me a little bit about what is a fee-only financial planner? Because I know that that is a very important distinction in the financial planning world. And also a little about what a certified planning certificant is. Katy: A fee-only planner doesn’t manage any assets. A fee, a flat fee, an hourly fee is charged for either comprehensive financial planning or project-specific advice be it how much money can I afford to spend on a house, what do we need to save for retirement, looking at investments. A CFP, which is a Certified Financial Planner, in order to become a certificant you have to pass the CFP exam which is a pretty rigid, structured exam. And then you also have to have hours in your particular field of financial planning.
