Robert Fragasso - Starting Your Own Practice: The Independence Guide for Investment Advisors, Attorneys, CPAs and Other Professional Service Providers

Second Edition

ROBERT FRAGASSO, CFP

Copyright 2021 by Robert Fragasso. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Fragasso, Robert, 1945- author.

Title: Starting your own practice : the independence guide for investment advisors, attorneys, CPAs and other professional service providers / Robert Fragasso, CFP.

Description: Second Edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2020. | Revised edition of the author's Starting your own practice, c2005.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020028459 (print) | LCCN 2020028460 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119723004 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119723011 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119723035 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Financial planners. | Investment advisors. | New business enterprisesPlanning.

Classification: LCC HG179.5 .F73 2020 (print) | LCC HG179.5 (ebook) | DDC 332.6068/1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028459

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020028460

Cover image: Nadine Kundrod

Cover design: courtesy of Robert Fragasso

To my children, Christine, Kathleen, and Vicki, their husbands, Brian and Mike, and my grandchildren, Kaitlyn, Bailey, and Connor, who provide the reason to continually improve our business, and also to my business associates and clients who make it fun.

Throughout my 40-year Wall Street career I have witnessed the most dramatic shift in the history of the US economy, moving from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. Over the next 40 years I believe the economic evolution will be even more dramatic as employees realize the flexibility a service-based economy can provide to them. The single greatest shift in the history of our economy is yet to come as more and more workers in this service-based economy cut the ties to their employers and go into business for themselves. If you want to be a part of this historic shift, your first step is to read Starting Your Own BusinessThe Independence Guide for Professional Service Providers. This book begins by helping you decide if you should go into business for yourself. Then it gives you a logical, easy-to-read, step-by-step game plan of how to make it happen. It's a no-nonsense look at what it takesspending equal time addressing what's good about being in business for yourself as well as what's bad about it.

In my opinion it already is one of the best business how-to books ever written. This book will become your blueprint for success if you decide to go down the path of going into business for yourself.

Starting Your Own BusinessThe Independence Guide for Professional Service Providers is written through the eyes of an investment advisor and entrepreneur. Not just any investment advisor, but one of the very best anywhere in the world. I ought to know, I traveled to 107 countries around the world meeting with over 100,000 of financial advisors, in 5,000 different offices, and I would put Bob Fragasso at the very top of that list. Bob is not just a great investment advisor, he is a savvy and astute businessman with the strong moral and ethical fiber this country needs. We all can learn from his advice.

This book, however, is not just about his knowledge as an investment advisor. It is also about his knowledge as an entrepreneur. That means this book is a must-read for anyone in the service economy, insurance agents, real estate professionals, attorneys, accountants, etc., who want to go independent and run their own business. The principles for success are the same regardless of what part of the service economy you find yourself in. It is fitting to me that the author of this book would be from Pittsburgh, the city that maybe best represents how to move from the manufacturing to service economy. Now through his eyes he will help us with this final economic shift of moving to the top of the very top of the service economy by going into business for yourselfSuccessfully!

Starting Your Own BusinessThe Independence Guide for Professional Service Providers can change your life if you give it a chance.

Dr. Bob Froehlich

Former vice-chairman, Deutsche Bank

Owner, Kane County Cougars Baseball Club

Mutual Fund Trustee

This book will help you decide if you truly want to go into business for yourself. It will help you plan your move and structure the marketing, managing, staffing, and general operation of your business. It will also meaningfully assist with orchestrating the later successful disposition of your business.

This book is written primarily for professional service providers wishing to move to independence, including investment advisors and brokers, insurance agents, real estate professionals, architects, attorneys, accountants, appraisers, and consultants of all types. It can also be useful for those providing products, as service is a necessary component for gaining product market share. The first edition elicited many testimonials and comments, among them from a minister who started his new church using its principles and from a family of investment advisors who successfully broke off to independence based on a reading of the book.