Your First Year as a Financial Advisor - How to Thrive (2024)

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Are you ready for your first year as an independent financial advisor? This can be one of the most challenging times of your life, but with hard work and dedication, you can make it through. We want to help you do more than just survive. Here are some tips to help you thrive during your first year as an advisor.

Tips for Surviving First Year as a Financial Advisor

Create a Business Plan

Have you created a business plan? This is an absolutelyessential step to help ensure you are ready and focused during your first yearand beyond. At a minimum, your plan should include the following:

• Your Vision
• Target Market & Demographics
• Services & Pricing
• Budget & Financial Plan
• Key Differentiators
• Marketing Plan
• SWOT Analysis

Creating a business plan forces you to sit down and take thetime to plan out your business. Recording your business objectives andidentifying your target market will help you to stay focused and hold yourselfaccountable to your vision.

Read our blog on How to Createa Financial Advisor Business Plan for more in-depth tips.

Set Realistic Goals

Be realistic about the challenges you will face in yourfirst year as a financial advisor, and set actionable goals to overcome thosechallenges.

• Finances. A good goal to set for mostadvisors in the first year is to break even. Plan your pricing carefully, berealistic about your first-year expenses, and identify your ideal revenue perclient.
• Client Acquisition. To hit your financialgoals for year one, how many clients do you need to take on? Be realistic, andput a plan of action in place to start sourcing leads as soon as possible.
• Client Retention. Are you providingtop-level service for your clients? Set a goal for how often you will check inwith clients, how often you will have formal meetings, and define metrics forwhen you may consider introducing an upsell.
• Staffing. What staffing levels do youneed to support your business? At what revenue or service levels will it makesense to hire in-house staff for administrative tasks? Make a plan for whichtasks you will outsource, which you will manage on your own, and which you willhire in-house staff members to manage.
• Self-Improvement. What actionable stepscan you take to improve your skillset? Put conferences, seminars, and trainingsessions on your calendar and hold yourself accountable to attend them.

Start Marketing Now

You may have been able to take a previous book of businesswith you as you transitioned to become an independent financial advisor. Butwithout new clients, your business will not grow. That’s why marketing and leadgeneration should be among your top priorities in your first year.

• Define Your Brand. First impressions are everything. Your business name, logo, color schemes and other branding elements should all be optimized for your target demographic. Work with a professional designer for best results.
• Build an Effective Website. A visuallystunning, functional website is absolutely essential. When done well, yourwebsite will market your business for you, and it will often be the first pointof contact for many prospects.
• Establish Social Media Presence. Create social media accounts and start building an online presence. Reach out to your target audience with valuable insight and content. You may also consider paid advertisem*nts through your social channels.
• Content Marketing. Establish yourself as a thought-leader, draw organic traffic to your site, and instill confidence in your clients with high quality blogs, email newsletters, and more.

Develop Your Skills

As a business owner, you are solely responsible for thesuccess of your business. No matter where you are in your career, there isalways room for growth. Never stop learning. Attend conferences, learn newsoftware, ask your peers for advice. The more you can develop and expand yourskillset, the better you can serve your clients.

Build Relationships

Don’t get so focused on numbers and business goals that youlose sight of the most important thing about this business. This is a serviceindustry. As such, you should always be striving to build close relationshipswith your clients. Provide personalized and personable service. The moreyou know about a client, the better you can serve them—and the more likely theywill be to continue doing business with you.

Consider Outsourcing

Outsourcing can be a viable solution to support yourbusiness as you grow. It may be tempting to try to do everything on your own tosave a buck or two, but the more you take on yourself, the less time you haveto serve clients. Additionally, working with specialized experts can help toensure you are getting the most value out of your investment and setting yourbusiness up for success. Here are some of the most commonly outsourced areasfor financial advisors:

• Compliance. Advisors need to be mindfulof compliance issues. If you are inexperienced yet try to manage this task onyour own, you may find yourself facing hefty fees or worse. Compliance is oftenbest left to the experts, so you can enjoy peace of mind knowing you’recompliant while freeing up your time to work with clients. Good Life offersexpert ComplianceServices, from training to ongoing support.
• Practice Management. From appointmentsetting and scheduling to call management, client check-ins, CRM management andmore, administrative tasks can quickly add up. Don’t let them take you awayfrom time you could be spending serving more clients. Consider VirtualPractice Management Services from Good Life.
• Financial Planning. You only have so muchtime on your hands. If you’d like to take on more business than you cancurrently manage, you have several options. You can either recruit additionalin-house advisors, find ways to cut down administrative tasks to free up moreof your time, or outsource financial planning to a third-party. Recruitingin-house advisors means paying a salary, which may be beyond your budget,especially during your first year. Outsourcing financial planning, however, canallow you to take on more business while remaining within your budget. Learnmore about GoodLife Outsourced Financial Planning services.
• Marketing. Marketing should be one ofyour top priorities during your first year. You need to build your onlinepresence, source new leads, and start serving as many clients as possible. Evenif you’re experienced with marketing, building and implementing an effectivemulti-channel campaign can be very time consuming. To free up your time andhelp ensure you are getting the most out of your marketing budget, outsourcingis often the best route. Learn more about Good Life MarketingServices.

Good Life Can Help Establish & Grow Your Practice

Good Life provides a full range of services to help establish, support, and grow independent financial advisor practices. Get in touch today to learn more.