Ep 324: Managing Revenue And Income Volatility Through The Scaling Phase Of Growth With Nancy Knous

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2023

⏱️ 98 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nancy Knous is the CEO and Founder of Benchmark Wealth Management, an independent RIA affiliated with LPL Financial based in Memphis that oversees nearly $340 million in assets under management for nearly 1,000 client households. Despite facing a cash flow squeeze during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Nancy's experience led to significant changes in how she managed her firm's profit margins, enabling her to scale up her business to over 20 team members and avoid cash flow problems during the pandemic.

Listen in as Nancy shares her journey as a CFP professional, where she learned that a good income would not protect her from market drops, and how she transformed her money habits using Dave Ramsey's method and leveraged his SmartVestor program to grow her firm through referrals. We also discuss why she started an independent firm with LPL, how the decision ultimately shaped the way she treats her employees and led her to develop a 4-8 week in-depth hiring process to ensure each hire is a good fit, and why she believes in the importance of having employees who are not like her.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/324

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with
0:06.8	financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading
0:12.1	financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success,
0:17.2	and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next
0:21.9	level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone.
0:28.7	Welcome to the 324th episode of the Financial Advisor's Success podcast. My guest on today's
0:34.5	podcast is Nancy Nouse. Nancy is the CEO and founder of benchmark wealth
0:38.6	management, an RIA affiliated with LPL Financial based in Memphis, Tennessee that oversees
0:43.8	nearly $340 million in assets center management for almost 1,000 client households.
0:49.4	What's unique about Nancy, though, is how after reaching a moment of business crisis during
0:53.3	the market volatility in the 2008- moment of business crisis during the market volatility
0:54.3	in the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the market decline and associate declined her AUM fees
1:00.1	led to a cash flow squeeze and resulted Nancy having to ask her assistant and best friend for a loan
1:05.3	just to make payroll for her staff, which fortunately led to substantive changes in how Nancy now manages the profit margins
1:12.3	of the firm, allowing her to scale the business up to more than 20 team members and not
1:16.7	have any cash flow business problems during the pandemic. In this episode, we talk in depth about
1:22.0	how during the Great Recession, Nancy, like many other advisory firm owners at the time, were
1:26.7	facing the challenges of
1:28.0	30 to 40 percent market drop and had subsequent effect on firm revenue, but because she took for
1:33.0	granted that she was a CFP professional with a good income and didn't need to monitor it that
1:37.2	closely until the month she discovered she was $5,000 short and staff payroll obligations.
1:43.1	After struggling with her firms and her own personal finances, Nancy asked her business partner
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Kitces, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Kitces and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.