NAPFA, for example, now presents all manner of training opportunities for new members, including its acclaimed series of national, regional and advanced-planner conferences; its "Basic Training" mini-conferences, run in conjunction with its major conferences; "NAPFA University," a case study-based training curriculum for all professionals; its FOSTER curriculum of "distance-learning" courses for new advisors; and its Collaboration Corner with online sharing of checklists, templates and other documents donated by NAPFA members, not to mention periodic teleconferences and an active online discussion forum.

Study Groups

In geographical areas where it might be difficult to find more than a handful of other advisors already successful at what you hope to accomplish, association by study group will often propel a young advisor towards success.

Stephen Madeyski of Albuquerque, N.M., earned his CFP designation and started his firm in August 2004. "Working for the first few clients was scary, and doing the first few financial plans was difficult ... I found myself researching everything," he says. Fast forward four years and Madeyski now says, "I'm thrilled! At times I thought things were going too slowly, but now I have more work than I can deal with." In 2007, he earned what his former employer paid him, and Madeyski expects another 50% increase for 2008.

What played a big role in making his success possible, he says, was the local Albuquerque NAPFA study group where, with the city's relatively smaller size, both fee-only and fee-based planners are welcomed. "This group got me hooked on the profession and was living proof for me that I could build a successful practice." He says the study group has gone beyond information sharing. "It has become my main professional support group."

Business 2 Business

Study groups can help provide a blueprint for your business growth, and so can reports and publications.

Compared with the early 1980s, an abundance of research firms, trade magazine/book publishers and other third-party "B2B" (business to business) resources exist to give new advisors a boost. Milo Benningfield of Benningfield Financial Advisors in San Francisco says, "Your book [Virtual Office Tools for a High Margin Practice, Bloomberg Press 2002] allowed me to start from the beginning with a paperless office, saving enormous cost and aggravation. And Mark Tibergien and Rebecca Pomering's work [in putting together the Moss Adams/FPA profitability and compensation studies] helped me map out future business growth and a team-based approach to client service. All of these influences have, I think, made it exponentially easier to chart a course for my business than it would have been 'back in the day.'"

Madeyski says he's been able to ramp up his practice quickly using information resources like Virtual Office News, this author's monthly technology and practice management newsletter for independent advisors, Ed Slott's IRA Advisor newsletter (http://www.irahelp.com/newsletter.shtml), and by attending the Technology Tools for Today conferences (http://www.virtualofficenews.com).

And, of course, familiar research companies like Tiburon Strategic Advisors and Cerulli Associates, while developing their research reports for other businesses that serve our industry, get the message out to advisors via trade press articles. For example, Tiburon's research on baby boomers, alone, has filtered down to the advisor community to help them better assess that market as it evolves to dominate the planning scene.

Mentors

Despite all of the aforementioned means of turbo-charging practice growth, mentoring may be the single, most important step in picking up the pace. Look at it this way, all of those struggling advisors back in the early 1980s are now prime mentor material.

Says Benningfield, "I was fortunate to work with NAPFA planner Gary Smith when first beginning to immerse myself in the advisory business. As a former nuclear physicist, he convinced me I wasn't crazy to close down a successful appellate law practice in order to make a career transition. Gary also introduced me to a 20-year-old Bay Area study group whose members offered generous time and support as I was getting started."