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Are you a female entrepreneur? A financial advisor who specializes in serving women business owners can help you make smarter money moves to build a more successful and profitable business.
You’ll likely find dozens of financial advisors in your community well-suited to help you reach your personal financial goals. But it may be more difficult to find a financial advisor who has walked in your shoes and understands the challenges and rewards of running a woman-owned business.
Fortunately, many financial advisors offer virtual services so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live. This means you can choose to hire a financial advisor who lives hundreds of miles away if you decide their experience and knowledge working with women business owners could help you grow your business and achieve better investing outcomes.
👩💼 Smart Money Insights for Women Business Owners
This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:
- Q&A with Financial Advisors Specializing in Serving Women Business Owners
- Get Answers to Your Questions About Finances & Women Owned Businesses
- Browse Related Articles
– Financial Advisors for Women Business Owners –
Four Questions with Cady North, MBA, CFP®
We asked Cady North, founder of North Financial Advisors and a specialist financial advisor serving women business owners, to answer questions we often hear from female entrepreneurs. With offices in San Diego, CA, Washington, DC, and serving clients virtually everywhere in between, Cady is uniquely qualified to offer insights based on her exposure to entrepreneurs and their businesses nationwide.
Q: Are there business associations or networking groups you recommend to women who are thinking about starting their own business?
Cady: There are really three kinds of networks to focus on:
- Your network should include people you know who could be a potential customer/client or who might know potential customer clients. Think local chamber of commerce, your alma mater, a coworking space or even connecting with your existing friends and coworkers.
- It’s also necessary to develop a network of people who can help you launch and grow — whether that means hiring full-time or on a contracting basis. This is where traditional “entrepreneur” associations can be helpful such as a BNI group, the Ellevate Network, or National Association of Women Business Owners.
- Finally, it may be less obvious, but you should also build a peer network of people who do something similar to you. There’s tremendous value in learning from those who came before you, even if they are in the exact same business as you. However, if you fear sharing information with a peer because you think it could hinder your competitive advantage, consider putting that fear aside. There are usually enough customers/clients to go around. You’ll be able to increase your chances of success if you can learn from others’ challenges and successes. Most people enjoy talking about themselves and their journey, and hearing from someone going out on their own in the same industry may give them ideas about new ways of doing things.
Get to Know Cady:
View Cady’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit her website to learn more.
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Q: As an entrepreneur who understands the obstacles women must overcome to build a successful business, what is something you wish you had known when you were just getting started that could help other women learn from your experience?
Cady: Always remember this quote “No business plan ever survives first contact with customers.” —Steve Blank
It’s too easy to get sucked into things that take you away from the true value you are providing to your customers. Spend more than a few days on a logo design or choosing website colors? That’s a time-waster. Spend so much time trying to get your business plan perfect when you haven’t even spoken to potential customers yet? That’s time wasted. Set up complex revenue and cost projections without selling one thing yet? It’s a sad truth, but these projections are going to be completely wrong.
The message that Steve is giving is: always be experimenting, learning, and adjusting based on real life feedback from clients and customers. Don’t waste your time getting things perfect when “perfect” is going to end up changing monthly or quarterly once you’re humming along with actual clients and customers in hand.
Q: At what stage in their entrepreneurial journey should women consider hiring a financial advisor?
Cady: Once you’ve replaced your salary and have profits to spare, it’s time to get someone in your corner to help you think strategically about building wealth both in and out of your business. A CPA is usually the first consultant hired because you’ll need to learn how to pay and report your taxes correctly, even if you’re not turning a profit yet. A CPA can sometimes help you determine the type of business entity you should use as well — though a lawyer is usually recommended for that. A financial advisor can be instrumental in taking you to the next level financially.
Q: What distinguishes the services and value you provide to women interested in starting a business compared to an accountant?
Cady: An accountant or CPA will help you report the previous year’s activity correctly to the IRS and give you some estimates for paying taxes next year. Someone like me will help you use your business to grow your wealth. Specifically, a financial advisor can help you:
- Create a multi-year business budget to help guide your strategic spending decisions
- Decide when, how much, and how often to pay yourself
- Figure out how to integrate business and personal finances while saving and investing for retirement
- Figure out how much cash you should keep on hand both in the business and personally
- Set up systems to keep your business and personal expenses separate
- Review business costs, capital raising options and income sources and provide strategic recommendations to improve profitability
- Suggest key performance indicators (KPIs) as data points you can review regularly to understand the health of the business
- Coordination with your other consultants as needed, such as lawyer, bookkeeper or CPA or introduction to these professionals if you don’t have them.
- Recommendations on benefits planning for the business (insurance, retirement, etc.)
- Regular check-ins to review findings, recommendations, and action items
🙋♀️ Have Questions as a Woman Business Owner to Ask a Financial Advisor?
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About the Author
Brian Thorp
Founder and CEO, Wealthtender
Brian and his wife live in Texas, enjoying the diversity of Houston and the vibrancy of Austin.
With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress.
To make Wealthtender free for readers, we earn money from advertisers, including financial professionals and firms that pay to be featured. This creates a conflict of interest when we favor their promotion over others. Read our editorial policy and terms of service to learn more. Wealthtender is not a client of these financial services providers.
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