He Innovated For Love And His Financial Tool May Save Your Love Life Too!

If you are worried about how you will manage limited financial resources in the months ahead, this post is for you. There are two elements to survival: (1) generating income; and (2) controlling costs. Survival is about balancing the two. Here I profile an innovation that has developed a reputation and loyal following for its ability to help with #2. Great story. Great help. Enjoy!

When I contacted Jesse Mecham recently (pictured above with his wife Julie and children) and informed him that he had been nominated as an innovator worthy of being profiled on InnovativeEconomy.com, I think he may have wondered if I had the wrong number. He didn’t see himself as an innovator. More and more, I find that to be a common trait among authentic innovators.

The more we talked the more I realized that his nomination was appropriate and timely. You see, Jesse created a personal financial management software tool for the non-financially-trained person to easily manage their personal finances in just a few minutes per month. I have checked out his product, been through his site and tutorials, started using it for myself, and now concluded it can really help people. Not only can his product help, but his story as an entrepreneur and innovator should inspire and instruct other innovators. The back-story is as interesting as the product turned out to be effective.

Jesse did not start out with a grand vision of being an Internet-based entrepreneur selling personal financial software to a community of fired up users. He was a struggling college student with a different vision - marriage. Jesse wasn’t an innovator. Jesse was in love, engaged and in college. He wanted a way for he and his wife-to-be to make the most of meager resources derived from typical college forms of employment without arguing over money. Big vision, huh? Well, considering that some studies say the number one reason for divorce is financial problems, maybe it was a big vision. But it was far from being a commercial vision.

Jesse created a You Need A Budget, or YNAB. Jesse had just completed his first college class in Microsoft Excel and he did not even own a computer at the time. Apparently, no one told Jesse he wasn’t supposed to be able to innovate under those conditions.

Fast-forward a little. Now married, a baby on the way, Jesse and Julie decide they would like for her to stay home with the new baby. To meet this goal, Jesse needs to find an alternative way to pay the rent. Literally, he needs to pay the apartment rent each month.

Jesse still has two years of college ahead of him and is working as an intern while going to school full-time. He needs to keep his grades up if he is going to land that big accounting job someday, and he wants to spend time with his family. Working full-time and school full-time are not an option due to impact on grades and quality of life. He needs a solution that will allow him to stay in school full-time, keep the internship because that is important for the big career move later, and have a good family life.

Jesse embarks on a mission to sell his YNAB software. Listen to Jesse describe his first attempt at marketing and the less than glamorous first sale. This is great and more powerful when you hear it in his words.

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Ultimately, Jesse honed his marketing skills and it shows. Look at his accomplishments to date:

1. He left his accounting job with the big accounting firm and now works full-time selling YNAB over the Internet.

2. He has never had a financial argument with his wife.

3. He doesn’t live paycheck to paycheck.

4. He gets lots of great feedback telling him what a positive difference his innovation has made in the lives of new users.

I have a Masters Degree in Corporate Finance. Michelle, like Jesse, is a CPA. We wanted to review the product for its simplicity and ease of use for the non-financial professional. To borrow from the election lingo, we wanted to see how “Joe SixPack” would view it. I really like his approach to facing forward rather than looking backward. This is a real paradigm shift that liberates people. Listen to him explain it in his words here.

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When people are not confident in their ability to manage the minutia of bill paying, juggling delicate budgets or keeping track of many transactions in the fast-paced week, they become discouraged and quit. Some conclude they “just aren’t good with money.” In fact, they may be very capable people, they are just not aware of the techniques and mentality needed to manage money easily and effectively.

After all, we don’t teach personal money management in most public schools. It’s like parenting, you can make a baby biologically long before you have the maturity to be a good parent. We either learn what to imitate or what to avoid in parenting from watching our own parents. Now we find ourselves in an economic environment unlike anything our parents ever faced, so there are few sources to turn to that can offer true guidance on how to conduct ourselves and make critical decisions. But that is another post for another day. The point here is that many people are unnecessarily intimidated or overwhelmed by the notion of getting their finances under control.

Enter YNAB. It is very simple and builds on solid principles that will prove essential to survival in the coming economic environment.

Jesse did not get where he is today alone. A software engineer, Taylor Brown, purchased his product for personal use, loved it, but saw opportunities for improvement. Taylor and Jesse are now the proud full-time employees supported by YNAB. Jesse is the content expert and Taylor provides the software design that keeps the product easy to use. They live more than 1,000 miles apart, yet the fruit of their teamwork is clearly evident. I owe Taylor a word of thanks for his nomination of Jesse. Good call, Taylor. You were right.

Jesse discussed the temptation to confuse product advancement with over-engineering of the product. He reports there are many bells and whistles that could be added to the product to make it more trendy, but he works hard at keeping the product simple.

In the coming months, more and more people are going to be worried about their source of income, and that will bring new focus on what income they have at the moment. We are already seeing stories of people committing suicide and murder as a result of worries over money, making the mortgage payments, foreclosure and providing for themselves and those they love. I believe Jesse’s innovation is timely and may be the tool to restore the personal confidence to individuals and the communication between couples that will may save marriages. I kid you not, I think it may be that powerful. It is clear from the many testimonials on his site that his happy customers would agree.

I really like how Jesse, with Taylor’s help, developed a membership community where users can share questions, ideas and receive mentoring from Jesse. This active community boasts nearly 24,000 posts covering just under 3,300 topics by more than 3,000 members. Jesse’s attention to the care of his following is impressive.

To survive the economic tsunami that is rushing toward us, households will have to shore up their income sources and control outflows with greater care and purpose. More importantly, they will need to adopt some simple skills that will keep them out of trouble even when the unexpected happens - as it always does. YNAB will help you keep costs under control and learn the skills that enable you to prepare for the unexpected.

It is a great tool for one of the two most important financial dynamics every home will face. It is only one half of the total package, you still need income in order to survive the meltdown. However, if you start with YNAB, the skills and approach you develop will make the cost half of the equation work so much more efficiently that you will need less from the income half in order to create a complete solution. For those of you interested in exiting the financial grid as I describe in 3 Ways Market Meltdown Will Lead Many To Declare Independence From The Financial Grid, this tool would be essential for that endeavor.

Our hour-long interview will be presented over the course of several posts covering different aspects of entrepreneurship.

For those of you following other posts on my blog, you know that I am championing the use of intellectual property to monetize blogs more effectively. I was so impressed with Jesse’s achievement that I signed up as an affiliate. That is how Jesse is monetizing his IP right now, by direct sales to users and proliferating across the Internet through affiliate relationships. This product has the potential to go to non-Internet venues and it will be interesting to see if it picks up steam in off-line channels. I wish I had thought of this one. Since I didn’t, I’m glad he did.

To learn more, go to How can your money work for you? — You Need A Budget.

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