Ep #108: Finding Success by Transitioning from AUM to Monthly Retainers - The Career of Helen Ngo
July 12, 2017
Helen Ngo shares her experience working her way into the financial planning world and starting her own successful business by the age of twenty-six. There’s a whole lot to take away and apply to your own business plan, whether you want to start a business or you're already in the process.
Starting out in a male-dominated field definitely didn’t make Helen shy away from business; it actually gave given her the motivation to quit an aging practice and start her own unique, passion-driven firm. She talks about everything from getting her CFP certification to the beginnings of her business. She started out by getting clients through knocking on doors, and now she is starting to face scaling issues that demand she re-work her pricing and marketing.
Part of Helen's scaling is shifting her focus from AUM to charging an hourly or monthly rate. She elaborates on how this is a more effective way to generate a reliable income, as well as focus her attention on what she is best at and most enjoys. Helen is inspiring and informative and leaves us with some great takeaways, including what she wishes she knew when she started out.
Listen to the Full Interview:
Want more from XYPN Radio? Become a VIP to access our private community!
What You'll Learn from This Episode:
- Why Helen took interest in the financial planning field and her journey from student to business owner.
- Why the financial industry is transforming from investment first to planning first.
- The unique offering that was missing in the financial planning industry, which Helen was able to offer herself and her clients.
- Why she started with an AUM fee structure, and why she is now focusing on hourly and monthly clients (and moving away from a focus on investing).
- The scaling issues and growing pains a young business goes through and how Helen is tackling them in her own way.
- Why she does not plan to hire other financial planners to help her business grow.
- How she plans to generate passive income and reach out beyond just her face to face clients.
Featured on the Show:
Share
- Financial Planning (197)
- Advisors (172)
- Financial Education (138)
- Fee-only advisor (136)
- Financial Planners (135)
- Millennials (116)
- NextGen (115)
- Advice (113)
- Marketing (93)
- Training (87)
- Financial Advisors (86)
- Professionals (86)
- Profit (85)
- Growing Your Firm (80)
- Entrepreneurship (77)
- Business Development (55)
- Niche (53)
- Advisor Success (47)
- RIA (44)
- Building Your Firm (43)
- Growth (34)
- Career Changers (31)
- Networking & Community (30)
- Starting a Firm (28)
- Staffing & HR (27)
- Family (23)
- Launching a firm (23)
- Social Responsibility (22)
- Compliance (21)
- Financial Plan (21)
- Careers (16)
- CFP Certification (14)
- Online Marketing (14)
- Taxes (14)
- First Year (13)
- Michael Kitces (12)
- New Business (12)
- Partnership (12)
- Scaling (12)
- Tech Stack (12)
- Communication (11)
- Preparing to Launch (10)
- Women (10)
- Family Business (9)
- Assets Under Management (AUM) (8)
- Ethical Advisor (8)
- Perseverance (8)
- Broker-Dealers (7)
- Financial Therapy (7)
- Industry Trends & Insights (7)
- Preparing to Launch (7)
- RIA Owner (7)
- Work Life Balance (7)
- Benchmarking Study (6)
- Business Coach (6)
- Hourly (6)
- Leadership & Vision (6)
- RIA Operations (6)
- Small Business Owner (6)
- Student Loan Debt (6)
- College Planning (5)
- Discrimination (5)
- Female Financial Planners (5)
- Financial Independence (5)
- Investment Management (5)
- Leverage (5)
- Mergers (5)
- Passions (5)
- Technology (5)
- Business Owner (4)
- Challenges (4)
- Finances (4)
- Firm Ownership (4)
- Inspiration (4)
- Military Finance (4)
- Pricing Models (4)
- Retirement (4)
- Sales (4)
- Side Hustle (4)
- Support System (4)
- Virtual (4)
- Working Mom (4)
- Advice-Only Planning (3)
- Company (3)
- Data (3)
- Divorce (3)
- Evolving (3)
- Experience Wealth (3)
- Financial Management & Investment (3)
- Finding Success (3)
- Grief (3)
- Investing (3)
- Lessons (3)
- Management (3)
- Minorities (3)
- Monthly Retainer Model (3)
- Operations Manager (3)
- Philosophy (3)
- Recession (3)
- Reflection (3)
- Small Business (3)
- Spouse (3)
- Strategy (3)
- Succession Plans (3)
- Time Management (3)
- Virtual Advisor (3)
- Wealth (3)
- Authenticity (2)
- Building Your Firm (2)
- Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) (2)
- Changes (2)
- Charitable Donations (2)
- Check in (2)
- Conversations (2)
- Equity Compensation (2)
- Fiduciary (2)
- Firm Within a Firm (2)
- Healing (2)
- Homeschool Families (2)
- Impact Folio (2)
- Maddy Roche (2)
- Marriage (2)
- Meg Bartelt (2)
- Mental Health (2)
- Mindset Shift (2)
- Modern Money Advisor (2)
- Morgen Rochard (2)
- Outsourcing (2)
- Pandemic (2)
- Planning (2)
- Pricing (2)
- Processes (2)
- Public Relations (PR) (2)
- RIA Consultant (2)
- RIA Operations (2)
- Real Estate (2)
- Security (2)
- Selling Insurance (2)
- Solutions (2)
- Survey (2)
- Tech Professionals (2)
- Visionary and Integrator Roles (2)
- Automation (1)
- Behavior (1)
- Business (1)
- Care (1)
- Clarity Wealth Development (1)
- Client Acquisition (1)
- Consulting (1)
- Consumer Protection (1)
- Corporate Banking (1)
- Couples (1)
- Cryptocurrency (1)
- Delegating Tasks (1)
- Differentiation (1)
- Disability Accounts (1)
- Early Retirement (1)
- Economics (1)
- Educators (1)
- Effectiveness (1)
- Elements (1)
- Equally-Owned Firm (1)
- Events (1)
- Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) (1)
- Finance for Parents (1)
- Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) (1)
- Goals (1)
- Health Care (1)
- Heather Townsend (1)
- Hedge Fund (1)
- How to be a Financial Advisor (1)
- IRA (1)
- Impact (1)
- Impact Acceleration (1)
- Implementing (1)
- Independent Financial Advisor (1)
- Independent RIA (1)
- Insurance (1)
- Internal Revenue Service (1)
- Investment Planner (1)
- Investor (1)
- Kori Lennon (1)
- Listener survey (1)
- Loan forgiveness (1)
- Money Quotient (1)
- Motherhood (1)
- Motivation (1)
- Native American (1)
- Opportunities (1)
- Pro Bono (1)
- Progress Report (1)
- Progressives (1)
- Realtors (1)
- Reese Harper (1)
- Reg BI (1)
- Registered Life Planner (RLP) (1)
- Restricted growth (1)
- Retirees (1)
- Robo Advisors (1)
- Selling a Firm (1)
- Stigma (1)
- TAMP (1)
- Trader (1)
- Transparency (1)
- Trusts (1)
- XYPN Books (1)
- XYPN Invest (1)
Get episode alerts by email
You May Also Like
These Related Episodes