Now there are some people that are not going to be too keen on entering transaction by transaction, but not to fear because they also allow for you to import files into Budget Pulse via file, thereby keeping with the secure simplicity. No direct connection to your accounts, period. I enjoyed talking with Craig as he is an avid movie enthusiast and a real advocate for savings through budgeting. Enjoy the interview and subscribe below to get more updates on saving your money!

Cheers!

SS: I would like to first thank you for taking the time to help me educate my readers. Tell me about who you are and where you are from?
CK: My name is Craig Kessler, the marketing director at BudgetPulse.com. I have a marketing background from Penn State and bleed blue and white for Penn State football. I am from New York originally and now work and live in the DC Metro area. I am very involved with the internet and social media and how it can be utilized for organizations and individuals alike. I love connecting with others online about various topics, especially our users to learn more about them and how we can help make our tool more useful for them. I am a big traveler and love music and movies as well.

SS: What do you believe is the greatest challenge facing the overall economy now?
CK: The greatest challenge we may be facing right now is the creation of new jobs. We need to create more jobs and get people back to work. There are too many people being laid off for multiple reasons. There are so many intertwining issues relating to the high unemployment rate, and right now even with the bailouts it has yet to show promise of turning things around. Time will tell, but right now more jobs need to be created to help out the economy.

SS: How have you and or your company been effected by this?
CK: I personally have not been affected by the economy but my family has been. My family owns a plumbing supply warehouse up in NY and because of the housing crisis there are less contractors building which results in less products bought through the store. My parents have informed me the business has taken a big hit recently as a lot of families businesses have throughout the country.

SS: My goal is to provide knowledge to my readers, so how does your product help the consumer financially?
CK: BudgetPulse.com is a personal budgeting software. Too many people find themselves unorganized with how they manage their money and budget. Our tool specifically helps people manage their finances and budgets very easy and efficiently with our tool, so they can see exactly where they spend their money, and how they can improve. You can see your progress month to month to see how you are spending. For those in debt, it’s a great tool to utilize to help one achieve getting out of debt. For those looking to set goals, the same can be true. Our software can help the consumer reduce debt and save money.

SS: What makes your product unique?
CK: There are a lot of products in the industry, it’s very competitive. Our product is a manual budgeting software. It is a smaller niche in the industry, but very desired.

A lot of tools like Mint sync personal account information and credit cards with their tool. We do not access any banks or credit card information at all, and never will. Consumers who have fears about giving up so much important financial information can feel at ease with our product knowing we do not access any of their personal financial information.

Our users manually input their data in or can import their financial bank statements they can easily download from their banks. Our users actually tell us they prefer a manual input tool because it forces them to be more proactive with their spending and forces them to visualize better how they spend their money.

Because our tool is manual, it also is international compatible for any consumers abroad looking for a quality online budgeting software. It’s also great for students looking to practice learning how to set and keep a budget before they ever get in the real world.

SS: Is there a cost for your product?
CK: Currently the product is free and we are looking into ways to try to keep it that way. We are looking into offering an extended premium version as well as the free version which would have additional features and tools for users who want more options.

SS: People generally like to go with services that "Everyone" likes or that popular. How do you and your company measure customer satisfaction?
CK: I measure customer satisfaction by speaking with the customers. I work directly with them on multiple channels to learn more about their wants and needs and how we can improve the software for them. We recently completed our complete revamped site with a lot of the changes coming directly from requests from our users. To speak with them and hear all the positive comments about our improvements and how they enjoy using our software and how much true value they find in it because it helps them keep their finances in line is how I personally measure customer satisfaction. 

SS: Is there any reason for concern in identity theft as a result of using your product?
CK: No, the tool was created because identity theft was a concern. Our CEO Raj did not want to give up his personal financial information to an online website. That is why he created a manual personal budgeting software. We do not access personal bank information or credit card information. All the data is strictly numbers and has no connection to anything.

SS: What measures have you all taken to limit exposure of client information?
CK: Even though we do not access any personal account information, users “numbers” are still private information, even if it doesn’t lead anywhere. We have taken high levels of security to ensure that their numbers will be safe and secure. Our tool is Verisign Secure and McAfee Secured, two high level online data security systems and they are tested daily to ensure all data is safe and secure.

SS: How many users does your company have to date?
CK: Currently we have over 12,500 users and are growing every month.

SS: Do you have any demographic information relating to the market that is most in need of your product?
CK: The people who are most in need of our product are those who currently are in debt and looking for a way to budget their money so they can save and help reduce their debt.

But our tool is for the everyday person looking to manage their money better, so there is not one set demographic. For individuals who have zero debt but are looking to save for their future and goals equally enjoy our product and find the value in it.

SS: Are you hiring?
CK: We are looking to expand our writing team on the blog right now so we can offer free useful information about various personal financial topics that can benefit everyone.

SS: Where do you see your company and the country overall in the next two years?
CK: Expanding. We are already working on our next big feature we would like to release in a month which involves collecting money for goals. We also have plans to add a group budgeting aspect to the tool where multiple people would have access to one account.

For example a small business where multiple people expense things, now each individual can be accountable for what they spend and the other members would know what they spent by checking out the tool and the whole team can budget together. We are expecting increases in user base and looking to begin acting on a revenue model, because well we need to keep the lights on.

SS: Leave my readers with your favorite quote, book, and personal/company success story.
CK: In terms of a finance related book I have to go with “I Will Teach You to be Rich” by Ramit Sethi. This book is ideal for anyone looking to learn the basics of saving specifically those people in their 20’s. He offers great advice on slowly building savings for retirement, house, goals, whatever.

He stresses the pay yourself first model and that by starting early and being more conservative, you have time on your side to save up for when you need money the most. This book directly helped me begin a lot of goals I have for my future and can help everyone else out as well.

Here’s a funny quote by Woody Allen to send you off with.
“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.”

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