Podcast → Episode No. 111

Built a Firm From Scratch at 29

With Mike Solari

April 22, 2026

Featuring

Michael Solari

Solari Financial Planning (SFP)

What would you do if you started your firm with zero clients and had to figure it out in real time?

In this episode of Behind The Advisor, previously known as XYPN Radio, I’m trying something a little different. Instead of walking through the full career backstory, we’re getting straight into the business of running a firm today, what’s working, what’s hard, and what actually moves the needle.

I’m joined by XYPN founding member Mike Solari, who launched his firm back in 2013 without a single client. He joined XYPN in 2014, and we’ve had a front-row seat to how he’s built a steady, sustainable practice serving about 26 clients, with the majority on a retainer model.

We get into the real stuff:

What it actually feels like to start from zero
The mistakes and mindset shifts that shaped his growth
How he used networking (the right way) to find early clients
Why retainer fees became a core part of his model
And what hitting that 5-year milestone really looked like behind the scenes

If you’ve ever wondered whether you can make this work without a built-in client base, this one’s for you.

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Listen to the Full Interview:

Watch the Full Interview:

What You'll Learn from This Episode:

The decision framework behind leaving a firm with zero clients and going all in
How to actually use networks like NAPFA to land your first clients
The early support (and advice) that made the biggest difference starting out
How to get comfortable with sales, even if it’s not your thing
What it takes to build and justify a high-value monthly retainer model
A real look at where the firm is today and what’s driving growth now
How to stay in it through the messy middle of building your own business

Featured on the Show:

Michael Solari | LinkedIn| Website
Solari Financial
NAPFA
eMoney Advisor
Garrett Planning Network
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
Shareholders Service Group
Richard Kiyosaki

This Episode Is Sponsored By:

Read the Transcript Below:

00:00:01

welcome to xypn radio where your host Alan Moore brings you into a community of Fe only financial planners who want to profitably and successfully serve Gen X and Gen Y clients if you're ready to get the knowledge you need from leaders in your field learn from Forward Thinking advisors and take action on your own goals xypn radio is the show for you here's your host hello and welcome to this episode of xypn radio I'm your host Alan Moore and today I'm excited to have xypn founding member Mike salari founder of

00:00:31

salari financial planning on the show today now I've been hearing some feedback from xypn Radio listeners that they wanted me to spend more time talking about the guest's business and not as much about their career path and Mike was incredibly open to doing so you'll have to let me know if you prefer this format over the other Mike really opened up about how much money he spent in the first year of business how much he made how he took a loan from his parents to start the business how much

00:00:55

money he had saved in the bank and more Mike started his business at 29 years old back in 2013 a year before xypn even existed he had a bit of a in his words slow start but things have started moving much faster four years in he has around 28 clients on retainer and he shared his average revenue per client and if you do the math he's making over six figures a year now he's also charging $300 a month for financial planning for new clients and talks about the types of clients and services he

00:01:23

provides for that fee we also talked about his biggest successes and struggles which I think listeners will find helpful as you consider St your own firm or working through whatever it is that you're currently struggling with as always you can find any of the additional resources that we mentioned during the episode at XY planning network.com 1111 also be sure to go to XY planning network.com viip to join our private group just for xypn radio listeners it's the community of advisers we've all been

00:01:51

looking for that's there to provide support when we need it the most best of all it's free I encourage you to check it out again that's XY planning network.com viip with without further Ado here's my interview with Mike hey Mike welcome to the show man thanks so much for being on thanks Al appreciate it good to hear from you I'm very excited cuz as a founding member we have you know there were only 30 founding members so we are slowly sort of moving through the list of The Originals maybe that should be the name

00:02:19

The Originals yeah yeah that sounds more sounds more superhero then with the folks that that joined in you know April and and early May of 20 14 and have been with us over three years which the really interesting thing to me or I guess the cool thing to talk about is the fact that almost all of our founding members already had businesses in place they did not literally start with us because they you know if they were going to be joining at that time they they already had a firm in place so I'm

00:02:47

excited to sort of explore how your business got started why you joined xypn why you've stayed in xypn and you know basically how business is going so we can do a quick sort of summary of your career so take me back and tell me a little bit about how sort of how did you get into financial planning why you know I guess how did you find this career I tell people when I talk with them I always enjoyed you know personal finance and my own and I think a lot of people you see a lot of people blogging about

00:03:12

it and and trying to pay down student loan debt or whatever issues that they have so I've always enjoyed kind of that that area in finance you know and even in college our College was across the street from one of the big Fidelity headquarters and so you know they sponsored one of our classes to get that Series 7 broker thing and I was like oh this is sweet you know I'm going to take you know yeah so I so you know got passed the exam I'm coming out of college I have my Series 7 I think I'm

00:03:39

going to be you know I don't know running the show somewhere right right you know it was a lot of sales and if you know me well I'm not like a big sales guy I'm somewhat introverted you know and so that whole thing of asking for you know my parents to manage their money or or my my friends who have student loan debt you know just wasn't flying with me so I kind of went a you know different path and then in 2009 I got laid off from an analyst job that I was I was at and Boston area and I was

00:04:09

moving back home to to New Hampshire and I kind of rekindled it really you know getting laid off kind of like made me really think about what do I actually want to do when I grow up type of thing sure you know I started looking into Financial Planning and I actually did speak to someone in New Hampshire you know who talked about FY planning and that just kind of like opened my eyes and kind of really like blew the doors open of what I really wanted to explore and do and this it got me really excited

00:04:38

just the problem is there you know a lot of them were one or two person shops up here and no one was hiring so I went through like the list the Napa list of of advisers in the area and try to chummy up with them but I eventually landed a job with a fee based firm and so at least at that point it was for me to kind of just to get to know the business you know doing the nitty-gritty stuff right paperwork and onboarding clients and kind of going through that whole process it was a was a very good learning experience but that's where I

00:05:07

started you know learning about that and how to manage some money and you know how to actually do a little bit of financial planning and stuff so that's kind of where I got to that and then you know why I broke off was just you know I wanted to do in a fe only area you know I wanted to work in that space and the only way to do it was to do it you know on my own you know it's fascinating I did not know that some of the broker dealers were paying for Series 7 for college students which you know it

00:05:35

sounds like oh yeah they're just doing that but like that's actually very impactful in terms of the career Direction people go right because after you've studied for the series 7 you've gotten it you're either going to go work at Fidelity or you're going to try to use the thing that you spent so much time and energy getting mhm and it really can set the career path which you know is is unfortunate that they just broker dealers are so muchar larger than Fe only or fiduciary based you know

00:06:02

platforms that it's it's just not we're just not competitive enough yet but I think we're headed that direction but the other thing you said was was about talking to a the only planner and and I talk to planners all the time and they just say Allan I want to have an impact on the profession like how do I have an impact what organization do I join or what politician do I call and you know really may maybe my answer should start being just like talk to young people about what F only planning is because

00:06:30

every F adviser out there talks to one you know young person a quarter four lunches a year how different would our profession look whenever we can actually just sort of share what it is that we do because I think that until you've experienced it it's hard to describe what we do I agree and I I tell people too like because I when I was looking for you know trying to get into a job I mean a lot of these Napa members were more than welcome to have coffee you know more than welcome and I tell people

00:07:01

you couldn't do that at a Morgan Stanley or Jones like they're not going to open their door you know and they open and they're they're like an open book and it was great because especially when I was starting to go on my own and preparing for that you know I was asking questions about compliance and you know how they're charging and and things like that and and contracts and stuff like that and they were more than willing to share that information which was awesome you know so I agree I think it's great

00:07:26

that you know if we can at least talk to some people give back I think that makes a huge impact on other people yeah I know folks tend to get hung up on and I think it's a great thing to do like go to speak at the colleges and things like that but those are heavily guarded you know it's a bigger ass actually to try to get in with student associations and things like that it's just like when when people call just just pick up the phone and you know honestly that's how XY plan Network came about was because

00:07:52

when I was starting my business like you people picked up the phone when I called and I remember conversations with one that sticks out my mind was with Jude bu and just talking with him because everyone was telling me it can't be done it can't be done you can't start your own business there's no way you're 25 and Jude was one that actually gave me some helpful feedback and encouragement and said it could be done CU he probably started in his late 20s or early 30s and so I committed that

00:08:17

when people called I would pick up the phone and fortunately I'm a loudmouth at conferences and so a lot of people were calling so that that's sort of where XY came from was was a way of leveraging up the information but it's Major Impact that we can have I think that that I I think we think of as just like a small thing but I hear all the time you know hey I I just got an email actually yesterday from a guy that I had lunch with like three years ago and he's like moving his family and starting a

00:08:44

business and and I didn't mean to do that it was just being you know having that conversation so not to harp on it too much I do think that that's a powerful way that we can move the profession forward absolutely so tell me about sort of your last job before you went solo so you you ended up in a fee based firm or sort of a fee in commission firm as we're trying to start calling them yeah so it sounds like you were very much in like a paraplanner role were you did you move up there into

00:09:11

sort of doing you know being the lead adviser did you get that level of experience there I guess just sort of what what was your job there so I came in it was like a par planner role when I came in and so they called it a little bit differ it was a quote unquote independent firm their broker dealer was NFP Securities so so it was feeing commission and so when I came in it was paperwork we used e-money you know which was pretty fairly new at the time and so you know I would be inputting all that

00:09:42

information and preparing it for the advisor for the lead adviser and preparing all that and then I did work my way up to you know quote unquote like a junior advisor role so I was meeting with you know we we teered the the clients you know ABC type of clients and I I started working with the the C clients so to speak right so they had some money but not a ton that were managing and I was going out and meeting with them and and and re and doing like the whole meetings and and preparing for that and got to that role when I decided

00:10:11

to leave it was because my compensation and I totally get this from the advisor's perspective you know if I'm going to pay you I'll pay you a little salary but it's got to be more performance-based and and and I and I totally got that but it was it was a hard decision for me because I I didn't really believe in selling you know the two guys that ran it were essentially old Northwestern Mutual guys so they had a lot of you know Whole Life policies they were big on sell on long-term care and and I'm pushing a lot

00:10:39

of that stuff and so it got to the point where you know I can make some decent money but I don't feel right putting these people in certain products that I just don't think that you know they need to be in yeah the path to making money yeah and and if I and if I want I know and if I want to build my own business which was you know a real goal before I even landed there how could I sell someone of that and then try to convert them over you know and so when I got to that point for me it was let's let's try

00:11:10

it on my own I'm going to leave with no clients I left with no clients and I started from scratch cuz I just didn't want to get to that point where I was you know telling them one thing and then you know really believing in another and I just didn't want to get caught up in that that's kind of where I made that decision where I remember sitting with my wife and I said at the time we didn't have children I'm like we don't have kids you know we don't have a lot of expenses you know I

00:11:36

know there's a demand for it because I've I I just know you know I just remember speaking to people a lot of it a lot of people just get Investment Management they don't get the planning they don't know if they're ready for retirement or they don't know if they're doing the right things it just there was just that that piece to it and I you know kind of went and that made that decision out there to to to go on my own at that point and so the the whole compens ation kind of pushed me a little

00:12:00

bit further and faster than I probably would have been yeah that's interesting that you know had you been a a appropriately SED employee that just had you know expectations of of managing relationships instead of getting new ones all the time or selling products it you know your career path could have been very different you you mentioned one thing in there and I do want to to point this out just for our younger listeners because it took me years in the business to try to to figure out what this meant and that was when you

00:12:26

said your firm was independent and I hear this all the time where I said you know I'm an independent financial adviser and and you'll hear people say oh my adviser is independent he's with Edward Jones and in my head I'm just like no no that's not what we mean or or an independent you know of Raymond James or whatever so and and admittedly like it's just funny how they how these terms get used but do you can you explain the difference to me around like what's the difference between being

00:12:50

an independent office that is associated with a broker dealer versus how you and I would use the word independent to describe our practices yeah so we called ourselves independent because even though we were tied to a broker dealer you know essentially we we could make decisions on what type of products now we only had a select few things that we could you know the broker deal would definitely kind of filter out all the products that are out there they provide us a list and we could go and do what we

00:13:18

want we didn't have pressure from anybody above to sell certain products over another they just had the list that we could provide and we can go out and do so for us you know at that point we're independent meaning that we could select from that small list but we weren't pressure so like I've heard stories with Edward Jones and you know this quarter it's this or you know you got to be pushing that or you know and so there's less independent and you know I don't know I've seen a ton of Edward

00:13:48

Jers portfolios and if they're putting people in mutual funds it's it's American Funds it's always American Funds it is so easy to spot Edward Jones portfolio yes exactly so so I know they that maybe they do call themselves independent but I wouldn't consider them necessarily independent because it really is you know they're pretty much all standard whereas they have a little bit more flexibility with that with you know working directly with some type of broker dealer yeah I'm trying to envis

00:14:15

like I wish I could come up with another industry that does it this way because what we're talking about where if you were not independent more captive it's like owning a Subway right like Subways are independently owned but you don't get to like create new Subs you can't create a new soup and start serving it right it's all very controlled so I'm not sure the like the less controlled franchise version of that in other Industries but I and I do think it came out of some advisor saying like look

00:14:42

either you give us more control or we're just going to go do it ourselves you know and so I think the broker dealers had to start giving some control while again you know not not just opening the floodgates and saying sure sell whatever you want because you know many broker dealers prohibit certain fee structures or certain products are very much certain technology and that sort of thing so but it's an interesting delineation around using the word independent and this is a problem in our

00:15:06

industry obviously we like to use words to confuse people yeah yeah and just use the same word over and over and mean 14 different things so in our world independent means we have to follow what The Regulators say but short of that like we just get to do what we feel is in our client's best interest and there's no other parties involved in those decisions or filtering or anything else other than being sure we're doing what legal right so you made the decision to start your own firm so at

00:15:34

this point how old were you 29 I think 29 29 okay so uh usually starting a business when you're 29 is considered crazy crazy y with the two and I just turned 30 didn't you feel like so much more mature when you were 30 instead of 29 oh yeah I don't know there's something about it like this expectation of wisdom or something that and body aches and you know recovering from the night before on a Friday night you know it takes longer you know oh my God it's so true up for a hard night and it's like

00:16:07

oh no I'm never doing that ever again yeah yeah yeah so did it primarily have to do with timing was that really the D like you knew you wanted to do it but you know the timing just worked out well that it would be easier then than doing it later when you're trying to transition all your clients I think it would have been really hard to kind of move those clients over and I kind of created some type of like business model trying to figure out exactly how much money do I need to kind of support a

00:16:32

business and my you know and my personal life right and what what it would take how many clients do I need what do I need to charge them kind of like you know and try start thinking about like that process you know I had saved up a sum of money like a decent money that I had and then I got a loan for my parents which was just for my personal expenses like so I just I wanted to separate that so I said this is a loan that I get for the first year and then I had to start paying it back the year after so I

00:17:01

started paying back in like sometime in 2014 yep and but that that kept me a float for my personal life and then I had my savings which I had saved for for this and I figure what kind of in this probably crazy investment but you know I'm going to invest in myself and I I really believe that there was a market out there for that and that's why I jumped on the Garrett Planning Network at least I'd get some referrals coming in from there to start doing projects for pre-retirees that's how I just

00:17:29

started you know pulling that out yeah that that's awesome because that that was similar to my story about you know sort of taking out a loan for the parents to just to keep the lights on because it is amazing you know people get very obsessed over well should I spend $30 a month on my CRM or should I wait and I'm like what's your rent yeah what's your personal rental payment cuz that is what will kill you not necessarily whether or not you pick up a CRM so but you you were married at the

00:17:56

time so was your wife working and and providing income or was that not there yeah yeah she is uh so she's a dental hygienist so she worked and she still works you know today yeah she was part of the puzzle right so you know with her you know she was able to help support at least the first you know year or two while I was still kind of getting everything together and not only that but also emotionally I mean there I I tell people it's just it's can be such a roller coaster and you get higher highs

00:18:29

and lower lows kind of running a business right you know when that first I I remember to this day I was so nervous for the first Prospect oh I had a few prospects I swung and miss you know and then I remember you know talking with the the first people that I signed up but I figured that they were going to be like yeah well we need to talk about it and this and that and they they're like no let's yeah let's go ahead let's move forward and then I'm thinking maybe I didn't charge enough

00:18:51

you know and you're kind of like going through all those things but but it's a great feeling you're like I remember calling my wife I'm like I got somebody you know and you know that was great I think that was just awesome and yeah she's been awesome and wonderful and very supportive I couldn't have done it without her certainly yeah and folks have heard me say this before and I'll say it again if you have a significant other and they are anti you starting a business do not start a business yeah

00:19:18

because something will give I mean one of those pieces will probably not make it but you just cannot be successful in your business if you don't have that person at home that that's able to support you because it really is a roller coaster yeah and it's we say that a lot maybe we could explore what that means because it's hard to describe I I feel like it's hard to describe the roller coaster without having been on it because I don't know it's hard to prepare for it I don't know if you can

00:19:44

prepare yourself for but what you can do is have the pieces around you to be sure that you're okay when when the roller coaster happens yeah yeah I remember talking with my wife's name is Tracy I remember talking to Tracy and it's just she knew it was something that I wanted to do and the direction I was going and she just told me you know listen like you said we we don't have kids at that point you know if you fail you can find another job I mean you have that experience that you can go and she's

00:20:14

like you know it'd be tough to live with myself knowing that I was the one that stopped you from doing something that you wanted to do that you you know that you had that passion and drive for and so like I said I can't I wouldn't have been able to do it without her and having that support and you know she's been she's been awesome and I totally agree it's just it's it's tough if you if you know the couple's not on the same page and you really need to have that

00:20:38

you need to have that going the same direction definitely so talk to me about sort of the the early stages I guess how long did it actually take you from you know I'm going to do this to you know actually launched and meeting with those prospects how long of a process was that for you yeah so my decision was end up 2012 so I I got like my cfp in October or whatever that 2012 yep so once I got that that made me more marketable to people so I felt pretty confident about that so I started preparing for

00:21:12

everything towards the end of the year and then it was in February going on vacation with my parents so wanted to we were down in Florida kind of got all my ducks in a row I got the LLC set up and everything like that and oh actually let me let me think of this back so I actually told my adviser before I went on vacation cuz I wanted to give him a heads up and say listen this is what I'm planning to do I'm willing to you know like I get it if you if you kind of let me go immediately or whatever you know

00:21:41

and at the time you know he was looking to move investment platforms so you know we had a lot of paperwork that we had to probably get through and a lot of clients and I'm like listen I'm more than welcome to help you like get through this because for me I knew that you know if I can get a little more income and try to work maybe part-time or something to make it work and he's like yeah he's like you know go on vacation that's fine yeah we'll we'll discuss it when you get back and then I

00:22:03

got a text message this Sunday night before I supposed to go into work saying that that I was done and please don't come in everything's been changed yeah so I was like all right well I guess I was a little behind everything so it was at the start of March I think that what that's what it was the start of March is when I was officially unemployed and I had to you know get everything squared away so I filed my 80 TV with the Garrett template in early March and I didn't get improved until May

00:22:37

miday and I was so afraid to call the compliance officer the state yep heaven forbid they know you're there right yeah well everyone's like well you got to be careful with them you don't want them to like slide you know your file underneath a stack it's like oh crap finally another adviser another Napa member is just like no call them this is ridiculous he's like you know and I did I called on I just like hey I just just check it in I mean I just want to make sure you guys got all my stuff and

00:23:04

they're like oh oh okay and then literally one week later it was approved I think it just sat on someone's desk and you know sat there for a while but in right you know so it was in May I got approved and then I was then I joined NAFA like around that time as well and then honestly my first client was probably in July so it was it was pretty dry to start you know it was tough but I was at the time you know trying to just network with State planning attorneys CPAs and Napa members but I have to tell

00:23:33

you the Napa members have been were awesome for referrals at least when I first started they been they were great I mean you know they don't fit your client model and they a lot of them don't necessarily fit my model now but at the time when I'm doing projects and just trying to get some income that definitely helped out quite a bit huge yeah and and that's it's the hard thing to describe I guess and we we continue to try to do a better job of explaining like the first few months are going to

00:24:01

be slow you know unless you're bringing business over which you know certainly some folks do where they you know they bring in you know they're they're bringing 20 million AUM over or whatnot but if you're just starting out like it's going to be a bit of a grind so early on you know you you said you were starting a business with no clients so where I guess where did you find those initial perspective clients were they friends and family or did you have some sort of network or did you really just

00:24:24

go out you know really hunting for them yes it was it was not friends and family definitely not my friends the way I got the clients was they started coming in and started dripping in through Garrett Planning Network so being part of like some of those organizations you know helped feed that so it was NAFA and it was the G plan that that really started coming in and started trickling in at that point and then other Napa members that's just where it started coming from I still get decent referrals through Napa you know

00:24:57

being part of that organization still still kind of drips in and stuff so that's kind of where it started to come through I you know honestly I've never so I still meet with the state play attorneys and I I try to you know Network them I haven't really got many referrals from them at all I think a lot of them are trained to at least in my area to sell to you know to to refer to the you know maybe the larger life insurance company because a lot of these people need life insurance and stuff

00:25:22

right you know that's been tough and then CPI have been decent for me so that's just I don't know it's just who your where your area is and some of these CPAs get like the fee only thing you know and so that that's that's slowly starting to pick up you know the end of last year I started getting some decent referrals and even to this year so that that takes time that took a long time yeah I actually think it's funny that attorneys do not seem to get the F only message fiduciary Focus message

00:25:48

like and I don't know if it's because they just can't comprehend that someone would possibly not be a fiduciary just because I mean they they just don't live in that world where that's even a possibility but I do think it's interesting that I don't hear a lot of folks like oh yeah I get great referrals from estate attorneys unless they're doing just unless you know they specialize in super high net worth folks I don't know why but it is good to know that at least when I was in and you were

00:26:13

in and I'm assuming it's still the case you know cheral has done a good job of getting out into the media and bringing awareness to to gett network I mean she's been doing it for I don't know when they were founded probably 20 years now that would be my guess so has definitely built up a lot of Goodwill you know around the fiduciary message and hourly and things like that and so they are able to to drive leads Napa more so I think and are you noticing I have heard some people asking lately if

00:26:39

Napa rid their website in May are you noticing a down tick in that or has it been pretty consistent I guess we only have you know three months of data at this point but yeah I have to say my summers are are dip I get a dip anyways in the summer so I couldn't be able necessarily tell but I I get and it's it's weird because it's hard to tr say like you know getting it directly from the finite advisor email that you get from them and that portal a lot of people will go there and then they click

00:27:06

on your website and then you know then they might schedule a call from the website or something like that so right you know so it's like yeah so it's like oh well I think they do their research a lot of people that I've that I speak to have gone like they they've really understand the F only model they kind of get to that point where they've read about it they've done a little research about it they probably went to Napa and then they visited your site and maybe some others and then and then that's

00:27:32

when they've contacted you so for me it's kind of hard you know a lot of times they like oh yeah I just did an internet search doing the internet like oh helpful yeah H exactly so I'll keep investing in that internet thing that's great yeah right right right it it is funny every now and then someone say oh yeah I was Googling like this exact phrase and you popped up like that that's actually very helpful thank you for that information oh I wish I got some of that information but yeah

00:27:59

oh that would be sweet and Google has been limiting the amount of information we get from their from keyword you know they don't tell you what exact keywords anymore really they they've sort of backed off that but so all right so let's talk about sort of your first year what do you do you remember off the top of your head sort of what your planned expenses were versus sort of what your expenses ended up being I'm just curious how much you actually ended up spending in that yeah what I spent I can think

00:28:26

about that so Garrett Garrett was expensive I don't know what it was it is now and how they structure it but I think it was that that was like $5,000 up front and $200 a month is what I paid but I remember thinking actually more now is it more okay yeah anyway they people can look on their website I think it's around I don't know 13,000 in the first year or something like that it's not a small it's not a small chunk of change to spend so so but I thought about it I'm like you know that's two

00:28:55

three clients you know projects or something like that that could pay for the initial fee and then you know so so that was my biggest expense I probably paid 20 $25,000 at least in my first year and so that's like the the Garrett stuff doing the website and branding and all that stuff some of a rent so I have like a Regis type of thing it's called a little bit differently in my area but it's it's essentially you know setting up and and paying per per visit and stuff so I had I had that so I probably

00:29:27

you know $25,000 probably something that that I paid I think I made like only $111,000 so I think I was like 9 for the year when I when all came in you got started halfway through the year so that exactly right it wasn't a full year it wasn't a full year so it was a and I expected that though because that's why I had that I had that cash build up so I had a large sum a a decent sum so when I say that I probably had like $35,000 of savings that I had saved and then my parents lent me borrow 20 grand from

00:29:56

them which I'm almost done paying back but yeah so so the 20 grand was just for my personal stuff the 30 grand that I had was for operating and just getting this whole thing going you know and then I I think I spent some money on compliance cuz I didn't know what the heck I was doing and I was spending a lot of time trying to figure it out and I'm glad I did that just went ahead and hired somebody yeah I was like any I don't you know contracts and all that stuff that needs to get square I'm like

00:30:21

I know no idea what I'm doing so it's you know like a lot of that there's a lot of startup stuff that you got that you got to go through and yeah yeah and just money to be spent and that's you know I I know we've we've been guilty in the past we we talk a lot about our you know first year budget you can start a business for 10,000 or less and that is true it does require you know making some sacrifices but most folks we find end up in that 20 to 25,000 range just because the the type of business they're

00:30:47

building necessitates that so if you said like yeah I want to work for my home part-time all virtual like working with you know this particular demographic that I already know like the way you would have spent money would have been different so I can go ahead and give listeners a heads up that we're actually going to be releasing a new first year budget projection so we've we've had one in the past that sort of showed Lean Startup that was truly bootstrap like 10 grand we are going to

00:31:13

be showcasing sort of the different layers of spending that you can do as well as some different firms that have been built that are a few years in the business that have been built differently to understand how that initial investment sort of leads to the type of business that you want to build again with some of the expensive decisions like software in particular you know we've got some folks that go out and buy Orion you know retail is $15,000 yeah you know you're you're only going to do that if you're building a

00:31:38

certain type of business which obviously greatly affects that first year outlay versus folks that say yeah I'll just grab blue Le for citect or or I'm not going to do anything because I don't do Investments so yeah I guess did did you sort of find that like was that top of mind for you that money that you were spending was building a certain Foundation or was it just sort of like like yeah this is what I feel like I need and I'll figure out sort of the longer term Vision later yeah Garrett

00:32:03

had a a pretty good like database of what people are using what are they doing how are they starting up what is this that and everything basically what the XY plan network is kind of set up as now and so I would just you know trying to figure out what what's the consensus of this or that and what CRM systems do I need to be using what what financial planning software do I need to be using and and going in that direction and then buying it and then I really honestly like for me was trying to get out and

00:32:28

just because I saw the value of other NAA members sending me stuff I would go to anyone that would want to talk to me you know I would drive I remember driving a couple hours you know hour hour and a half to certain advisor way up north just to talk to them you just talk to them you know and going up there taking them out to lunch and just seeing what they had for input and you know for me is you know yeah I wanted to get referrals and stuff but anything any tidbit I could get and walk away with

00:32:56

that I could put into my business you know that to me was valuable and so I was out there trying to just do that and you know so so those are part of the expenses too just constantly going out and just trying to network and just trying to meet people was like a big thing yeah cuz especially if you do like FPA events and things like that I mean they're not free even you know the luncheon be 50 or 60 bucks and having run some of those now I promise they're not making money Discovery gos but it it is hard in

00:33:27

your first year to spend money on things like that and I guess knowing you're knowing what you're good at cuz I think that is a great way for some people to network it's it's not ideal for others right so it sort of depends on on your personality and if you're getting things out of it but can definitely see that that's a line item and and it doesn't have I mean it's not thousands and thousands of dollars but you know being realistic and putting in maybe a grand or something like that for your first

00:33:52

year would be huge so you mentioned that you went in you talked to these na firms and just trying to learn were there any tidbits or tips that you got from them that you can sort of remember now that have had an impact on the on the way you've run your business I mentioned that I spoke to someone and they turned me on to what FY planning is it's an adviser up north he's not even really involved in Napa a lot but he's got his own practicing up North but like just sitting with him like had me Vision

00:34:22

where do I want to take the prce so we we talked about you know so what are you charging you how much should we be charging and how many clients should you be having and we really just talked about like you know where you you ought to be right don't be gunshy31 a month you know you got 100 Grand gross right what like what do you want to earn like how do you know and so we kind of like backed into a lot of that stuff and just talked about like where you know where you know what kind of incomes should be doing and what she

00:34:58

you should be focusing and and stuff like that so that that was really helpful cuz we did really just just talked about it and he he was great you know we talked about the different type of investment management stuff and you know charging a percentage versus you know flat fees and stuff like that and so that was extremely helpful let's see I a lot of a lot of people were just very supportive and I remember someone on the Sea Coast Area in New Hampshire they they sent me their their contracts

00:35:26

their you know their templates you know questionnaires I mean they just they just sent me all that stuff which is great because I could just take that tweak it to whatever I needed and and put that so you know I mean copy thousands of dollars on right take copy and repeat you know it's just like you know use that and leverage everything but like I said you know a lot of Napa members are very helpful and you know so that that just was that's probably really the big stuff that I think I I

00:35:54

pulled away from some of those those chats you know the way you framed that was really interesting around you know projecting out long-term the effect that undercutting your pricing will have on your business so that's definitely something that I mean we we're constantly harping on advisors I know when you first start you want to charge 50 bucks a month but like you can't run your business that way and I I just got done listening to the documentary about Warren Buffett with his book snowball

00:36:18

and his big thing in life and the way that he built wealth was he always I think hexed his money so he said like $50,000 a day is you know $50 million in you know 60 years with a rate of return I think I can get so like every dollar had a bigger impact and I'm not saying advisers need to think of it quite that extreme but like $100 versus $150 whenever you project that out of a lifetime value of that client is a huge number so what your client will hear a a $50 a month difference you should be

00:36:51

thinking a you know tens of thousands of dollar difference because that's what that's really going to be the impact long term mhm so how have you well I guess let's just get sort of an update on the business where do you stand today with sort of number of clients AUM overall Revenue sort of where I guess where's the business today basically four years in yeah so most most of the revenue probably about two-third revenue is made up of monthly retainers so that's the majority of the income I

00:37:19

probably have about well wait wait for for a couple people between 24 and 26 people on monthly retainers okay I I think I'm averaging on a month to month basis this is going to go up 235 or so a month you know per client so I'm hopeful I'm trying to just increase it and I I I talk about like you know the first person I took on I charged him $100 a month and he goes I'm just going to write a it's like I don't want to pay this every month I'm just going to write you a check and then at that moment I

00:37:50

knew that I was undercharging right I mean he's just like I'll just pay it all in full so I started at 100 bucks a mon and I already raised his fee you know after the first year I'm like yeah let's let's go to 150 and he's like all right we going to keep doing this I'm like well we'll just do you for now so but I look at it I'm like it's really hard it's it's doable it's definitely doable to raise your monthly fee of people once you get that relationship is definitely

00:38:15

it's hard because it's more hard on the adviser I think because you just you don't want to ruin that relationship I think clients will definitely see value in it but I just think that's hard you know I think like ra and getting that fee you know to something a little bit more sustainable and you know I'm hoping you know trying to get it to an average of close to you know 275 by the end of the year and keep going but so is that just monthly fee or do you do you charge an asset under management or an

00:38:43

investment fee of some kind so I just charge so most of the stuff that I have a lot of the clients that that I'm taking on don't have Investments to manage they're maybe small IAS or it's made up of all their 401ks so I don't I don't manage the money just flat fee I charge an upfront fee between 1 to two grand or so to to start the work and then you know 300 bucks or so a month to do that there are some people I do have two clients that I manage money you know and that's I know

00:39:11

between the two clients that's for it's about a million dollars between the two and so for me to manage the money I I need like to make it worth my time I think like you know 300 $350,000 or so of assets to manage would make it worth worthwhile because you got you know you got other stuff going on there's other compliance to deal with and things like that and so I tend so I have so the month retainers are typically younger clients although there are some older clients that I have that just

00:39:41

are pretty pretty good do-it-yourselfers and just very Hands-On but want someone to be there so they don't screw up you know type right so we have that type of relationship and then I do you know and then there's that other close to a third or so of hourly like project plans that I do for a lot of they tend to be Engineers software Engineers that come in and they're in their 50s and they need a plan and and that you know can range from two to to three or $4,000 you know for a plan that's

00:40:14

probably what I'm charging around so you have the the two clients that you are managing money for how are you handling that are you at TD Mar trade or are you betterment like what I guess how how are you managing those clients so I'm at shareholder Services Group and that's where I started so when I first opened my practice I didn't manage any money and my focus was just getting people in the door and that happened to be onetime hourly plans so but I I made a decision like well eventually I want to manage

00:40:42

money so why not just have it in my advv so that I can do it and then it's like where do I want to do it and I I talked to other advisers they had very great experiences with SSG so I was like you know what I'm going to call them and see what happens I did talk to TD this is before the XY yeah relationship so you know like yeah so you need like 7 million to bring on what's your game plan next six months to bring in you know $7 million I you know I was like I'm dead dead in the water right now

00:41:10

there's no way so I went shareholder and they've been great so yeah yeah SSG is wonderful yeah and so that's that's where I have it at this point and maybe at some point I change it but you know wait until I get a little bit more assets under management to make a decision absolutely so $300 a month is I guess is on the higher end of monthly fees that I hear about so I guess what do you sort of have a typical client that's coming in and paying 300 bucks a month because it's I mean 3600 a year if

00:41:38

you use my rule of thumb of 1 to 2% of income that means they're making somewhere between 150 and 300,000 like in you know gross income is that typical yeah so yeah my focus has been so the the way I have have have come down on this monthly retainer model is that they need subtype of in come to support it so the clients that I'm typically working with are making in the realm of 250 to upwards of you know4 $500,000 or so and so a lot of them are Physicians I work with so you know that might have

00:42:15

dual incomes or single incomes and then there's other Engineers that I do work a lot with so they might have income coming in from restricted stock units or other stock options that are coming in and so you know there's there's complex ways of going about and divesting that so so for me like those are you know that income that the level is probably where my sweet spot is and where you know why I'm charging that amount I've had people and I've definitely had people drop off so I'm not going to you

00:42:44

know sit here and say you know and and in this year I've already I had three people dropped off for this year but that's because it wasn't a good fit for the you know the model they probably should have been a one time their incomes weren't support of the fee that you know could have been there and so I to me I look at it and I say that's a good thing for the model right so if we're charging a flat fee with AUM you know if they're keep saving the money and the markets keep going up you're

00:43:09

going to get an increase in pay with the monthly retainer it allows you to shed some business that that might not be a good fit although it worked out for the time it might not be working out for today and so it let you shed a little bit of business and focus on maybe more clients that might fit that model you know and so I think that's a good aspect of of this monthly retainer yeah it'll be interesting to see you know you benefited from this I I very much built my business on the back of referrals

00:43:35

I'll say castoffs from Napa members you know for folks that just didn't meet their minimums I'll never forget the day I got a $400,000 you know AUM client because they were too small for the adviser down the road yeah and of course I'm like you know jumping up and down on my cou yeah right but I'm so excited for the day that like we're big enough as a network and our advisers are successful enough that you know you're basically fueling the growth of another you know xypn member in your area because I mean

00:44:02

yes they they may not be a good fit for you or they may not be a good fit for long-term planning relationship but if it's the former then you know there's another adviser out there that has a personality that may be a better fit you know I I could not work with Engineers I mean there's just no way so like I could fuel I could fuel you with lots of Engineers those people you enjoy working with I just don't so anyway it's always interesting to see sort of what people enjoy you

00:44:29

know what they're good at and and that sort of thing so you're at 26 client sort of four years in Revenue if I'm doing my math right I mean you're you're north of six figures now MH and so I guess what is the sort of what's what's the Outlook I guess where where are you hoping to take the business over the next 12 to 24 months and you know I guess how will the business change in order to be able to accomplish those goals that you're looking to accompl that's a that's a very good question and

00:44:59

one that I've chatted with another adviser with a lot you know what to you know and a lot of other people but like where what do you want to do with this do you want to be a lifestyle practice or do you want to actually build a business and I I think you know for me you know a lot of the effort and time and stress that I've put into this it I definitely would like to make this more of a business so I think like you know thinking about just continue to grow you know bringing on whether that be more

00:45:29

monthly retainers or you know assets under management and just continue to grow and you know talked with other advisers about or another adviser about potentially merging or seeing what you know what that would look like and so that's just thing because it's a lot and it's probably normal but in my state it's you know we're one of the oldest states in the country and a lot of the advisers here are very old and so they're looking to to merge or sell their practice out of necessity versus

00:46:00

you know having that desire and so for me when I'm thinking about I don't want to be in that position I think there's a lot of positives that you can leverage by merging potentially and so thinking about it now I think is is can be extremely helpful in finding that right person because you know you can really kind of make it and it might make it a little easier to you know once you merge to maybe bring on somebody as a you know associate planner or something like that and kind of grow it so it's just trying

00:46:30

to figure out those pieces right now the 12 month is to really kind of just keep grinding and keep bringing in more business more clients and servicing them but in the long long-term plans is trying to figure out what pieces do I need what people do I want in my practice and and how do I make that work yeah it's always interesting as you as you approach the do I want to grow and have to hire or do I slow down at some point and it'll be interesting to see you know where folks decide because

00:47:01

I do see more you know well I don't know I I shouldn't say more I I think it's interesting to see that you know that that sometimes can change depending on where someone's at you know in their business and just how long they've been doing it if they're getting lonely versus you know thank goodness I don't have to manage people just sort of depends on their on their attitude but MH do you see yourself merging if you were to go that route have the have the conversations been more with younger

00:47:26

advisers or has it been more of a older adviser I'm going to take over your book of business so less merger more takeover than you know looking for an actual partner it's actually not more partner younger adviser someone someone similar to my age and my someone that's the similar spot that I'm at at this point with the with the business cool yeah so it's if I were to take someone that's you know a little bit older I mean I'm looking at clients that are probably retired already to me that has less

00:47:57

value than merging with someone that has a lot of clients that are in their 30s and 40s right there's a lot of longevity working with someone a little bit similar age and then you know we're going through a lot of the same Growing Pains we're going through and having a lot of the same type of client questions and issues and things like that and so we can really focus on that type of clientele versus you know having one section of the business be for 30 and 40 year RS versus you know 60 year olds and

00:48:23

what they're going through you know yep that makes sense I and I get the attraction of taking on an older book of business and I know that xyp members are probably going to get more and more opportunities for this as the profession continues to age and there are not a lot of young planners to take over that book but not all young planners are excited to take on a book of older clients yeah at least it gives you that base right of Revenue coming in and it can do that but then you know you have to deal with the other stuff that

00:48:50

comes with it too right so it's a tough decision so what would you say has been your I guess biggest struggle you know you're four years in so so theoretically you're you're through your pass the Gap someone the other day said between between starting a business and success is moreor and so I I I have felt that way that you know you just you basically hit hell for a while so I guess what what has been that Mordor or that that struggle for you in getting things going that you've had to overcome yeah I think

00:49:23

I mentioned a little earlier in the podcast that I am kind of introvert in nature so I've never been the one that just going out and selling myself has been super easy you know getting the clients you know we've definitely I've done a a really good job at least getting people to to call and to have the meetings and things like that but having that sales process at least initially was really tough for me trying to figure out exactly how do I go about getting them to close so a lot of people

00:49:53

you know when I first initially met you know they they would say h maybe we we'll get back to you and it would lead to a longer sales process and I've really worked hard to kind of speed that up and trying to close sooner you know I think that's probably one of my biggest weaknesses at that point is is that whole like the front of the business as far as you know getting people in and actually like you know converting them so that was definitely kind of a struggle yeah so I think that's probably one of my my

00:50:21

bigger weaknesses that that I've struggled with but you know I'm continually looking to improve myself on that have you done any sort of sales training or or one of these various courses that you know gives you a onboarding process or communication process or anything like that I have yeah so I've done some sales training and I've been through a couple different courses to kind of get an idea where to do and then I'm kind of in something like that no you know so the one that I'm

00:50:47

currently in isn't necessarily a program it's it's another adviser that's kind of taking a few other advisers and mentoring us a little bit H and so that has been extremely helpful and they've been very good at like kind of sharing their sales process and and stuff like that so I think that has really been very impactful but like as far as like I don't know just I know that you you you guys are a relationship with somebody I haven't I haven't looked into it too much but but the ones that I've been

00:51:15

through I just think they're just too general for like the whole industry it's not really any very specific on how you know you got somebody in there that's maybe a Gen X or Gen Y client what what do you need to adapt for that makes sense so I I guess the the flip side to you know struggle would be successes so what I guess what do you attribute your success at this point to I mean you've built us you've built a business that you know what is it 20% of businesses make it five years so you're you're

00:51:44

approaching that fiveyear Mark and so you're going to beat out 80% of businesses that didn't make it so I guess what which is a huge accomplishment you know I I think that's awesome so what what do you attribute that success to what have you done right that that you'd recommend others do in in sort of learning from what you've done sure well honestly I didn't really think about that they made it five years and 80% that's pretty crazy not to put you on the spot yeah know it's it's pretty wild to think

00:52:13

about that but what have I been successful at I I think like you know hanging in there and and just continually to grind and when I say that you know having that grit to continue to go out there and making sure you know bringing in those clients you know pitching them and then servicing them like hell you know making sure that they're completely satisfied with what you're doing because you are you like these you know being a feeling advisor I mean I don't know what the percentage of

00:52:38

feeling advisor is to the rest of the industry but there's a small percentage and you're already providing way better service and you know for your clients than any of those other advisers and so you got to you know I just keep in mind that like that drive and having that grit to continue to go go and just keep going on cuz you're going to eventually build that book of business that you'll get to that point where you're satisfied but it's really you know just making sure that you know you lose a client it

00:53:07

sucks but like let's move on let's let's go on to the next thing right let's go to the next close or the next call or whatever it is and that's what's really driven me is just you got those High higher highs and lower lows but you know let's let's try to you know keep keep going on so that you get more of those higher highs and that you're you're sustainable and and that's what it is is for me sustainability was met you know a couple years ago and then we we had our

00:53:34

first kid in 2014 and then you know and then we got more expenses to go on right and so I just got to drive and then we just had another kid this year so for me it's like you know we got to continue and for me it's just I don't know as stressful as it is I love that having that drive you know and and that motivates me to continue to try and bring in more clients to tailor what I'm doing and to making sure like what my clients are doing the service that they get is is exceptional so I did not realize that

00:54:06

you would had another kid this year so congratulations on that nothing nothing like throwing a wrench into starting a business tell me baby but I guess how are you balancing that so two little ones I guess your first one what is either about to turn three or already is three now so a three-year-old and a under one-year-old how are you managing life you know the crazy concept of work life balance or work life Harmony how's that working for you so it's been great because you know I have that flexibility

00:54:34

in my schedule you know my wife works four days a week so she you know one day off that that that can kind of help in but you know daycare you know we you know we leverage that I can't I thought I'd be able to work you know like I have I have my kids like on some of those days that daycares off like Martin Luther King and you know president day and some of those those holidays and you I think I can get some work done but reality is I I cannot get any work done this this is virtually impossible so you

00:55:00

know we're proponents of you know having you know leveraging daycare so that we can focus on you know that business but but being able to tailor my schedule in case I need to take them to a doctor's appointment or you know or to go and do whatever and so there is that balance there and then if I need to do work on weekends and you know my wife take them then you know we do that too we kind of just make sure that we're making sure I'm getting my work done but also spending enough time with

00:55:28

them yeah I and I don't mean this to sound as it I don't know I don't know how to say this without sounding rude but like I don't know how people that work 9 to5 and don't have flexibility have kids I don't know how you do I don't know how you get them to the doctor's office or handle daycare when daycare is not the inter school like I'm so spoiled by the fact that I can just sort of work whenever I want to work right and so I don't know how you do that and and I know that there are a lot

00:55:54

of younger planners out there that will say you know hey you know I I can't start a business yet cuz we're going to start a family I'm like do it now so have flexibility that's what I did that's what I did because you know I thought you know if we fail it's just a two of us you know if you start out and and and fail and you got two or three kids it just makes it tougher you know and I think it adds the stress but you know but if I succeed you know then I got you know we got I can support a

00:56:21

family you know before we have them you know so I I I'm I'm with you I think you know going out and doing it maybe before thinking about that it adds definitely this level of stress but you you can start building it now before your kids come and then you'll have that flexibility you know to be able to take that time when you need it to spend with them because depending on where you live and and what your income is I mean I you know if you're making 50 or 60,000 as an associate advisor obviously making

00:56:48

250,000 this is a little different but if you're making 60k you should be able to get there in 3 years yeah I feel like just in building your business depending on a lot of variables but you know two and a half three three and a half years something along those lines so if you're looking at having kids you know a few years out like you probably will be able to replicate your income if you're in that level within a few years yeah if you're making 250,000 it's going to take a little longer or you be bringing over

00:57:13

some business or something like that or have some sort of plan but right I totally agree it does provide just extra layer of flexibility which is awesome but so I guess as we're sort of wrapping up I'll we we'll sort of end with the question and that being if there's you know one thing that you wish you had known I guess one piece of advice that you wish you could go back and give younger Mike what do you think that piece of advice would be yeah this is I guess maybe it's kind of a catch 22 for

00:57:42

me but I talked about like the sales process I wish I maybe had just a little bit more experience drowning in like you know coold calls and rejection yeah just like getting beat up before you know before you kind of go out on your own and because for me I look at like those failures and then you call them failures but like you know things that you don't close or or whatever you don't succeed at as things that you can look back and seeing what you would need to improve like when sometimes when you get

00:58:13

successes sometimes they're they're it's by luck and so you don't know if you did the right thing or not but you got them anyways but for me I wish I cuz I remember my old boss gave me a list of ects that had already said no to him oh funny call yeah so I remember that and I was just like would just be staring at that list in the morning and be like H I don't want to you know this this this going to suck but I wish I got a little bit more of that just because it's when you're going out I mean there's a lot of

00:58:47

like operational stuff you need to take care of compliance and all that stuff but really like making the clothes is a huge huge part and I think like if I got beaten up a little bit more I think I probably would have been and jumped it a little bit quicker initially okay yeah I it's such good advice and and the things that again sometimes we get so caught up on like did I select the right technology should I get this you know spend this money on this Marketing System and all of that and and in the end like I think I mean

00:59:16

one you can't just sit around and wait for the phone to ring but two like You' just you've got to be able to close business I think it's it's a critical thing I read Robert K wasaki Rich Dad Poor Dad way back in the day but I remember the one thing he talked about was being a vacuum salesman you know and it was like if he could learn how to sell vacuum cleaners he could sell anything which is probably really good advice yeah right that most of us that didn't come out of insurance or whatnot

00:59:43

we've probably never been through a sales course we never had to actually sell planning and selling it is very different than delivering it right absolutely so well Mike thank you so much for taking the time to come on and being being so open about your business and how things are going I'm so excited to see you continue to grow in your success and and you know watching as you continue to scale bring on you know new employees I think the next year or two is going to be a ton of fun for you yeah

01:00:07

absolutely no I appreciate it it's great talking with you Alan it's good to hear from you all right thanks so much take care be sure to join our VIP community at xylan network.com slvp to hang out with other xyp and radio listeners ask questions for future mailbag episodes with myself and kitus and to finally find a community of like-minded financial advisers thanks so much for joining me today we'll see you next time you're not alone and you're not crazy it's scary starting building and growing

01:00:35

your own financial planning firm and that's why we put together a free private Community Just For You The Cutting Edge financial planner go to XY planning network.com slvp or text xypn radio to 33344 and join a network of thousands ready to change the lives of Gen X and geny clients [Music]

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Featuring

Michael Solari

Solari Financial Planning (SFP)

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