I was thinking of doing the same thing myself a few years back, that is fee based financial advice NOT sales, but on a full time basis, considering I was coming from a banking background. I opted not to mainly because I'm in a small market area. I see we share some of the same thoughts, here are some of my additional insights:
In order to drum up business I was thinking I would give presentations to groups (workplaces) for no charge, and generate individual interest from there.
You mention follow ups, and I agree with your wife, these would definitely occur. People wanting to check in after a year, or running into new difficulty or getting new job with a higher income, or running into money. I would expect a fair number of repeat customers.
I was also thinking of charging something along the same line, about $35/hour, and also thought that this might be too low and people would wonder why I'm charging so little, and may not bother.
I'm already halfway to a CFP, however as you point out, once you use that designation, you have to abide by the national standards or
whatever you would like to call it, which would impact the advice I would provide.
I thought I would brand myself and a financial coach AND financial planner, simply because I felt that people may not want to come see only a "financial coach" because people might see them/hear about them going to see the "financial coach" and most would assume they are having some bad financial issues.
I was thinking of meeting clients in a shared office space, however this is also hard to find in my small area, especially handy to where I live. Other people's homes were out of the question for me, too many distractions for the clients. I also thought of the library, but I don't think they allow a for profit business to run out of their free spaces, maybe not an issue if you are there a few times a month.