If you are a Movement, Health, & Healing Professional, odds are pretty high that managing your books (accounting), filing your taxes, thinking about investments, and all other things related to financial planning are not your preferred way of spending your time. You need your very own Personal CFO!
You may fit somewhere along the spectrum of Physical Therapist, Chiropractor, Sport Psychologist, Personal Trainer, Strength Coach, Nutritionist or Nutrition Coach, Life Coach, Fitness Tech Entrepreneur, Wellness Tech Entrepreneur, etc. If this is the case, you most likely do not find joy in thinking about the above-mentioned “financial matters”.
Even more, if you are self-employed and own your own business, the last thing you want to do is deal with those things. What you really want to do, is focus your time on running your business and serving your clients.
However, the reality is that when you own your own business (i.e. self-employed), you are forced to wear many different hats along the spectrum of running your business. As an example, if you are a Physical Therapist that just opened their own practice, you could wear the hats of “Janitor”, “Front Desk Admin”, “Owner”, “Physical Therapist”, “Chief Marketing Officer”, “Bookkeeper”, etc. – all in one day!
In this article, we want to share the importance (and value) of hiring your very own Personal CFO (Chief Financial Officer), or really what that means is your very own Financial Life Planner. Now, before you say that you don’t have the time to hire someone for this role or that you don’t have enough revenue yet, take a step back and be open to the potential and possibilities that could arise. Simply put, don’t just yet jump to the cost of that service because you may be surprised at the value that you will receive from working with a real Financial Life Planner (your very own Personal CFO). Here are just a few high-level value-adds that you will receive:
- The return that you will receive on time that is now available to spend as you wish, on things that really matter to you
- Additional confidence in the execution & management of those “financial things” that you were previously trying to tackle
- A sense of peace in that there is now more organization around your business and personal financial matters, to ensure that your future is financially on target with what you see as your long-term vision
The most important value that a Financial Life Planner (your very own Personal CFO) can add to any Movement, Health & Healing Professional (whether self-employed or not) is serving them in a way that they (“Movement, Health, & Healing Pros”) have been serving their clients, day-in-and-day-out. Its time for you to be provided a plan of attack for your business and for your own financial life, just in the same way that you plan for your clients’ personal goals, such as:
- Helping your client recover from an injury (as a Physical Therapist)
- Increasing strength & sports performance for an athlete (as a Strength Coach)
- Providing confidence in body image (as a Nutrition Coach)
Ultimately, all “Movement, Health, & Healing Pros” are, in some way, helping their clients achieve their personal goals towards a better fitness or wellness level, improved movement capacity, increased confidence, etc. in order to feel good in their day-to-day life.
While a “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro” has all of the experience to improve their own health, wellness, movement capacity, nutrition habits, etc., where they may need help in is organizing their overall financial life that spills into their business life and their personal life. Furthermore, an important part of this type of planning is to help ensure that you are able to achieve the lifestyle that you want for yourself and your family. The Financial Life Planner (your very own Personal CFO) would help organize your life way beyond just the financial. They would help co-create the roadmap to achieve the ultimate goals that you have for your business, yourself, your family, and your community. They would help you achieve all of this by implementing a Financial Life Plan that resonates deeply with what you value and your inner-most desires.
The Financial Life Planner (your very own Personal CFO) would meet with you and ask very poignant questions to get a deeper understanding of what you truly want to achieve in your life. They might dig into questions like these:
- Why do you have this business? What is your “why”?
- What do you envision for your future 1 year from today? 5 years? 10 years?
- If you had all of the money and resources in the world, how would you spend your time?
- If you only had 5 – 10 years left to live, what would you do? Where and with who would you focus your remaining years?
- If you had just 1 day left to live, what would you have felt like you missed out on? What would you have wished you had done more of?
This is simply not an engagement with a Life Coach or a Traditional Financial Advisor. There are definitely overlaps, but this is something different, more unique. This is someone to be your guide, your friend, and your very own Personal CFO, to make sure that your ship is sailing in the right direction of where you want to go. The focus here is on “Your Life”, but also encompasses planning for your business as a “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro”.
Do you have clients working through programs or plans that you have uniquely created for them? Do you meet with them periodically to review, re-assess, iterate, and improve upon their program/plan? This is exactly how you want to think about your Financial Life Planner (you very own Personal CFO) as a “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro”. This is not a one-time quick-fix, but more so a living, breathing, and always-changing engagement, relationship, and experience.
This should resonate with you specifically as a “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro” because you’re not just in it for the money. You are in it for the happiness that you receive from serving your clients and helping them achieve their goals. However, you also strike a good balance between optimizing your health & wellness, while also succeeding in growing your business. You want to achieve success with your business, but also want to prioritize plenty of physical activity, eating nutritious foods, creating experiences with your loved ones, etc. All of these values our core to real Financial Life Planners, as they are trained to help you think through and understand what hurdles are in the way from you achieving the life that you envision.
Most of what has been discussed so far related more to the human coaching side of things and psychologically how a Financial Life Planner (your very own Personal CFO) can help you. However, in thinking through purely all things finance, the reality is that any “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro” is going to have certain things come up related to taxes, tax planning, insurance needs, business planning, cash flow planning, family planning, retirement savings, long-term investments, and short-term savings (to name just a few). All of these financial matters truly apply to anyone, but when you are busy running a business and your focus isn’t on these things, it helps to have someone that has a level approach to how these things can fit into your unique Financial Life Plan. Furthermore, there is a subtle value that a Financial Life Planner (your very own Personal CFO) can add, as they are going to be most-equipped to work more collaboratively with a “Movement, Health, & Healing Pro”, mainly because they can empathize and understand that your primary objective is to serve your clients and live a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle.
Additional Reads & Resources
The Financial Life Planning Process
Why Life Planning Is Simply Financial Planning Done Right
What is a ‘‘personal CFO,’’ and how would it benefit me to have one?
This Is Why You Need a Personal CFO
Life Planning vs. Life Coaching vs. Therapy
11 Personal Finance Tips For Personal Trainers That Are Self-Employed
Budgeting as a Personal Trainer: How to Manage Your Finances Like a Pro
Financial Coaching & Life Planning Goals For Personal Trainers (Podcast)
For additional resources, you can always visit our “Resources” page.
