It’s been said that entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and building the airplane on the way down.
When put that way, it’s incredible that any entrepreneurs manage to create successful businesses.
As it is, just over half of new businesses (55%) make it past the first five years. Less than half (45%) make it past the first ten years.
With statistics like that, it’s no wonder so many people choose to continue working for difficult bosses rather than risk their livelihood on something that could crash and burn.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of working for a large financial services firm.
Pros:
Everyone likes good news, so let’s ease into this by starting with the good news.
Stability
The biggest reason most people choose to continue working for a large firm is the stability it provides.
If you’re being paid a salary, you know exactly how much you’re going to make each month.
If you’re being paid on commission, you might not know exactly how much you’ll make each month, but you know you can rely on the company to bring in clients for you to serve.
That’s a big reason to stay, especially if you have a family that is depending on you to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.
Resources
Running a business on a shoestring budget is hard.
It’s terrifying.
It’s enough to make most people run back into the arms of a large financial services firm that is ready with all the resources anyone could ever need to be successful, including:
- dedicated marketing campaigns to generate leads
- a sales team to convert those leads into clients
- partners to provide the products and services your clients need
- the technology and software you need to serve your clients
These things cost time and money to choose, acquire, and use, so it’s no wonder so many people would rather have their employer deal with it than handle it themselves.
Name Recognition
We are more likely to buy from brands we recognize, and this is especially true when it comes to our money.
Larger, more well recognized brands are perceived as being more trustworthy, and nothing is more important than trust when it comes to your financial assets.
That means it’s harder to close the deal with prospective clients who have never heard of you before.
Whereas, when you work for a large, well-respected financial services firm, the trust is built in. All you have to do is explain to them what it will look like to work with you so they can move forward with confidence.
Cons:
Now that we’ve talked about the good news, it’s time to talk about the bad news.
It’s Less Stable Than It Seems
As nice as it is to know how much will be on your paycheck at the end of the month, the downside to being an employee is that paycheck can be yanked away at a moment’s notice for no reason at all.
Every time the market takes a turn for the worse, companies start making cuts, and the only way to be sure you won’t be one of those sacrificed is to be the owner of the company.
By contrast, when you work for yourself, you get used to going out and finding new clients regardless of what the market is doing.
Lack of Autonomy
One of the biggest drawbacks to working for someone else is having to do what they say, how they say it, when they say it.
Some people enjoy that kind of rigidity, but others chafe at the restrictions, especially when those restrictions start to impede their ability to do the best work they can for their clients.
When you’re the boss, you get to call the shots.
Your Income Is Limited
Most people find comfort in knowing how much they’re going to make each month — or at least to know the minimum, if they get paid in a combination of salary and commission.
And while it’s scary to think that, as an entrepreneur, you might make less, it’s also exciting to think you could make much, much more!
Weighing the Pros and Cons:
Many entrepreneurs decide the benefits of entrepreneurship outweigh the costs and they continue to run their own financial services firm, taking the good with the bad.
Others decide the cons outweigh the pros, so they make the decision to return to corporate life, taking the good parts of that work environment along with the bad.
But at Vertex, we believe we’ve found a way to mix the best parts of the corporate workplace with the best parts of entrepreneurship.
We partner with financial advisors to provide them with the resources they need to be successful, so they don’t have to take on all the risks of owning their own business.
The resources we share include:
- Software
- Administrative staff
- Marketing
- Knowledge and resources for business development
At the same time, our partners retain the freedom to work with the clients they prefer to work with in the manner they prefer to work with them.
They also get to share clients so that, if a client needs a particular service that’s not your strong suit, you can tap one of our other partners to provide that service for your client.
This allows you to focus on doing what you do best while making sure the client is always getting the best possible service.
If you’re ready to get the best of both worlds with Vertex, we’d love to talk about it with you. You can reach us directly at in**@ve********************.com