Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Rabbitt and Matthew S. Carpenter.
Bill and Matthew, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After graduating from Stonehill College in 2004 I realized my parents and I made a lot of mistakes in navigating the college admission and financial aid processes. There had to be a better way. I did not want my parents to repeat the mistakes they made with my sister (Laura, UCONN 2006) and I, when they tackled this process with my little brother (Jeffrey Penn State, Class of 2015). I knew that millions of families faced this same challenge. After collaborating with an established professional in the field (Bill Kelly, President of Verity Management, LLC) CFS was born in 2005.
CFS has helped thousands of families successfully navigate the college financial aid process by identifying cost-effective schools, completing financial aid applications in a manner that maximizes aid eligibility, negotiating for additional funds and providing a comprehensive plan for how to best fund out-of-pocket costs.
CFS currently has 11 employees with offices in MA and NJ. We have clients in all 50 states and 4 countries.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’m not sure any entrepreneur has had a smooth road and we certainly fall into that category. The biggest challenge was letting people know we existed. This is hard to do with $0 in capital and a $0 marketing budget. We had A LOT of guerilla marketing campaigns in attempts to gain traction in the early years. There were lots more failures than successes. We were desperate acquire business. My wife recently reminded me about all the overnight Chinatown buses I would take from Boston to NYC. Often times she would pick me up at South Station at 3am from our apartment in Medford because I couldn’t afford a cab home. The list of humbling experiences like this is expansive.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with College Funding Services – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We help parents navigate the college admissions and financial aid processes. It is our mission to educate our clients, minimize their costs, and alleviate stress. We hope to end to education loan crisis one family at a time. It is our firm belief that many components of this system are broke, if not corrupt. We have proven methodology to show families how to approach and execute this process the correct way. For most people it is one of if not the biggest investment of their lives. A lot is at stake. We take a lot of pride in helping families achieve one of the biggest goals in their lives as parents, and achieve it in a way that will not negatively impact their future or their children’s future. We have vetted hundreds of similar companies across the US and the more research the more it becomes clear that we are the best firm in this space. We don’t say from a place of arrogance, but from a place of genuine belief. We measure this in client satisfaction beyond anything else.
Here is a quick video to quickly explain our focus:
https://vimeo.com/222717051?utm_source=email&utm_medium=vimeo-cliptranscode-201504&utm_campaign=28749
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are at what we consider to be a critical crossroads. We are scaling with the hopes of become first to market in our niche industry. We believe that just about every family sending their kids to college needs to work with a professional and we believe no one does this better than us. Most families use a realtor when buying a home, a CPA to do taxes, etc. College is a much more complicated, and much bigger investment. Most people should work with a professional.
In addition to our standard service we are releasing a technology (8/28/17) to help empower parents and a virtual/e-course on 9/15/17.
Contact Info:
- Address: 76 LafayetteST., Suite, 204B
Salem, MA 01907 - Website: ineedfinancialaid.com
- Phone: 844.237.4243
- Email: info@ineedfinancialaid.com
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
