I know it's almost ironic to have financial planners on here to a certain extent ... BUT here's what's going on in my life:
I work in a full-time position with full-time benefits. That being said, it's related to the academic/education institution, so during breaks (including winter, spring, Thanksgiving, and even the full summer vacation) I work from home and can set my own hours so long as work is done. My real passion is investing, budgeting, and financial planning. Hence, why it makes sense that I found this community!
Now that I know enough *(I don't know too much, but I know enough to help others and I also know what I still don't know), I want to take the steps to open my own financial practice on the side.
My day job provides me with more than enough salary and benefits for my lifestyle and to pursue early retirement. But if I am going to pursue something I can build for the long haul, I hope to help create jobs, find something that even when I "retire" early, I can still manage a few hours a day (hopefully I'll pay an office manager to run most of it if I don't want to be too stressed on the day to day), and more than anything, I can help to teach others how to get their budgets under control, how to approach investing, and how to protect themselves and their families.
Here's where I need help ... I don't really know the first thing about formally opening a business, let alone one where I will no doubt need additional licenses (I have a few in the financial services industry already), I know I need E&O insurance, and I will need to file in case I ever take on employees? I don't know about all regulations, but I think I can run the business out of a home office, especially because I am starting small and don't "NEED" to hit X-amount of sales per month to survive. I still don't know if I would specialize in insurance, investments, budgeting, (or all?) ... I also don't know if I would design it all to be fee-based or more of a coaching approach?
So the biggest question is: Are there any resources that I should be looking into in order to prepare myself? I have been thinking about this for a while (probably about 3-4 years now that I am looking back). I believe this is the right path. I just want to understand what I am getting into before I pull the trigger and make the investment.
Where do I go from here if I hypothetically wanted to "open" a year from now? I think if I have a goal by next summer I could really spend some time really focused on getting the business just slightly off the ground (so it is hopefully paying for itself), but I also won't need to work 80 hours a week because I will be in the summer vacation phase of the year.
Any ideas? (Thanks in advance!!)