What you defer in month one
arrives in month three.

The things that hurt in the first ninety days are the ones nobody mentioned, because they are unglamorous.

The shape of the first three months

Almost everything advisors worry about before going independent turns out to be manageable. The things that actually hurt in the first ninety days are the ones nobody mentioned, because they are unglamorous.

Weeks one to two: the accounts

Nothing else matters until assets are moving. Paperwork errors compound — a form rejected on day four is a client calling on day twenty. Whoever is checking documents before they go out is doing the most important job at the firm that fortnight.

Expect a portion of clients to take longer than you assumed. Not because they are wavering, but because people are busy.

Weeks two to six: the operating floor

Billing has to be right the first time. A fee error in your opening quarter is remembered far longer than it deserves.

Reporting has to exist before the first quarter ends, and the history has to be in it. Firms that postpone this discover in month three that they are rebuilding a year of records under time pressure.

And the compliance apparatus that felt theoretical is now yours: the manual, the code of ethics, the archive, the calendar. It is not difficult. It is simply on the list, and the list is now short by one employer.

Weeks six to twelve: the quiet risk

This is when new firms stop selling. Every hour goes into operations, no new conversations happen, and the pipeline that felt healthy in month one is empty in month six.

Book the prospecting time before the operations work expands to fill it. It will.

What to decide before day one

Who answers the phone. What you will not do yourself. Which of the tasks you inherited from your old firm you were never actually good at and should never have taken on.

The advisors who struggle in this period are usually the ones who rebuilt the job they left rather than the one they wanted.

The reframe worth carrying in

You did not go independent to run an operations department. Anything on your desk that a client would not pay for is a candidate to be somewhere else, and the earlier that is decided, the less of it you have to unwind.

What it costs to stand this up →