When he arrived in Albuquerque, he outsourced trading and his Web site and billing and got a virtual assistant. The only work he set for himself was the financial planning. Then in 2002, he sold his business, keeping only three clients who were close personal friends, and moved into a new career: writing for financial services publications, including Financial Advisor, and working with Joel Bruckenstein on technology consulting, newsletters and conferences. He sold the sole practitioner business for three-quarters of a million dollars.

"My buyer adopted all my systems," Drucker says. "He was so impressed, and he kept them."

Drucker had been using retainer fees as far back as 1990 when they were all but unheard of. "Retainer fees create economic stability" in financial planning, he says. "My profit margins were much greater than average." And his revenues held steady in the 2001 crash.

Drucker encourages others to create a "lifestyle practice." "You should look at what kind of life you want to have and then look at how to balance it with work," he says. "I've always felt the message that you have to grow to be successful is the wrong message.

"Part of the fun of having your own small business is creating and experiencing different processes and taking risks," Drucker says. "Sometimes it works out better than you expected."

Mary Rowland can be reached at [email protected]. She has been a business and personal finance journalist for 30 years and has written two books for financial advisors:
Best Practices and In Search of the Perfect Model.

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