What licenses would I need to be a one stop shop for small businesses in my area that need help in the below fields:
-Financial advisor (personal finance and business finance)
-Investment Manager/advisor (retirement and taxable trading accounts)
-Tax accounting for personal and small business
-Business consultant (help with day to day ops and long term business goals)
I’d like to help small business owners with fundamental info that we take for granted. I would like to do this on the side but I also want it to be legit. Has anyone tried this in their area before? What should be the first steps to take to start this business?
No idea what country you’re in but licenses aside, if this is a side hussle that is going to work you should refine your focus, become an expert at one of these things rather than trying to be a catch all.
More people will find you and want you as a service provider if you are an expert in just one area mentioned above. Will also make your life easier figuring out how to do stuff like get licensed if required.
Thanks that is good advice. I was thinking of being this “catch all” because there are a lot of minority groups in my area (I’m in the U.S) that have NO IDEA how finance works but still have successful businesses with huge cash flows. For example in restaurants, grocery stores, auto shops etc… so I thought I could lift them up to atleast a basic understanding of everything they are missing. I know people that are owners that make between 30-60k per month but don’t know about retirement accounts or how to setup an investment account, or how to evaluate a an investment deal or pick out a loan that’s in their best interest for example.
A one-stop shop for all of the above? Good luck. I doubt any such thing exists.
I’m the closest thing to what you’re looking for (in my area), and I would not consider myself a “business consultant” or an “accountant”. I would consider myself a “personal financial planner with an investment advisory license who can also prepare tax returns”.
Generally speaking, these are all very different animals. A person who is skilled at corporate-type accounting & finance will not understand personal finance, because they are two very different skill sets. And as you know, corporate accounting (“bean counting”, which is backward-looking and applies a very narrow perspective with little problem-solving or judgment) is very different from corporate finance (which is forward-looking, and applies a very broad perspective to make forecasts and analyze projects). Similarly, tax planning is very different from tax compliance. And so on. And so forth.
In my very humble and completely unbiased opinion, a person should be a CPA to handle the tax and accounting functions. The others can be added on once those two things are well understood. It’s easier for a tax/accounting person to learn investments & finance. It’s much more difficult to go the other way.
I agree with you on the tax accounting and I do know people that own tax firms in my area that I could partner with, but my mission would be to provide the basic understanding of financial markets, deal evaluation, loans, retirement planning and budget forecasting. For example there are people that don’t even know their net profit and don’t know what that even is. The minority group I want to help the most is the Latin community in my area that never got any education in finance at all. The information would be very basic like how to calculate net profit, how to calculate upcoming tax bills, how to choose between loan A and loan B, how to open a retirement account and start investing etc…
Have you figured out how you’re actually going to monetize this? And is this something that people are willing to pay for? From a person who actually does this for a living–you’ll be incredibly surprised how ignorant people are about their financial situations, and how blissful they are in their ignorance.
EG - I saw a guy lose $800k per year for six years because he wrote the wrong name on a check. When I told him that he really really REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY NEEDED TO SET AN APPOINTMENT TO TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS, he refused, because he didn’t want to pay me $250/hr to plan it all out for him even though I knew for a fact that he was losing money to the IRS. And this guy’s a lawyer–not exactly an ignoramus. (Yes–this is a true story.)
I have thought about this because the Latin community are scared to death about finance. It would be my job to show them how it can help them hopefully through trusted connections in the community and putting together marketing materials that can help them understand. Monetizing this will be hard because the goal is to have individuals be financially independent which means once they are set they will not need me anymore. I do have some ideas like simple tax return prep, payment services and immigration services. I know it sounds chaotic but these are things that people need basic information on. It’s hard to wrap your mind around how some people can’t do the simplest things without help but growing up I’ve witnessed it. Like even paying a phone bill or setting up a banking app on your phone. I don’t have all the answers but I feel like there is opportunity here.
It sounds like you are looking to provide full family office with concierge service. I would look at those business models to see if there is a way to adapt them to your opportunity set.
