Starting a Financial Advice Business – 5 Must Haves

Our 5 Must Haves for Starting a Financial Advice Business

1. Business Plan (start with 2 pages)

Yes folks, the old chestnut. 90 days, Your Vision, etcetera

Writing a plan solidifies your passion and is also an assessment of your starting point. A mud map to success. Amend and update quarterly, it should evolve with the business.

2. Mentor or Advisory Council

Someone to run your plans and ideas past, and to keep you on track. Another set of eyes is powerful. Meet every 3 months and discuss your 'quarterly objectives'. Were your activities consistent with your plan? ( I typically have my accountant sit on the Advisory Council)

3. Clear sight of Clients (or prospects)

To be successful you need to spend 70% of your time on revenue raising activities - particularly in the early days. Ask yourself will a cool website help you succeed, or will speaking with 10 prospects/clients a week for the first 90 days?

4. Get Advice 'on Advice'

Engage someone in your corner who understands the advice process, what's important and how successful practices operate. What you need to start, what you need in 12 months time and so on. A good AFS Licensee connection can operate as a 'proxy' Practice Manager for your business in the early days.

You may well be the next best Adviser in the Universe, but these professionals know advice businesses backwards. (ask me for a referral, I know 50 of them?)

5. Cash is King

Make sure you can cash-flow yourself for a minimum of 6 months. Even if you sign clients in the first month - revenue has a lag affect flowing through the system.

You should also have a good sense within 6 months what your pipeline looks like.

There many things to consider, these are just a few recommendations for starting a financial advice business.

Please contact us if you'd like a copy of our our business plan template tailored for financial advice start-ups.

Thanks for tuning in.