Finally Going Public — One Fee — In Depth Advice — Ongoing Support

I remember the first time it was brought to my attention. A close family friend asked me how much I charged for consultation. I told him nothing, nada, zip. His response won’t be repeated here, but suffice to say he communicated his apparent misjudgment of my general intelligence. After the family stopped laughin’ I asked him to expand on his thoughts for me.

Bottom line was, a month later I was charging $500 to be a client. It was 1978. It was a fee charged for the 2-4 hours already spent in gathering info and analyzing it for the new guy. Nobody ever objected. Time passed and I stopped doing it ‘cuz the main reason for it in the first place was overcoming my tender age at the time — I was about to turn 27.

Long story short, by the mid-1980′s it had evolved into a fee for consultation, advice, planning, and support — a flat $1,000. I’ve kept the fee wicked low, not raising it for over 20 years. I’ve been addicted to the Purposeful Planning process since it came into being. What’s not to love about seeing a Plan become reality?

Then something else happened. I began to get people who weren’t quite ready to get going, for whatever reason, but wanted my help now.

What to do?

My solution was simple. You pay a $1,000 fee. For that you receive the following.

Together we go over your current financial situation.

I then digest the info and return with more questions.

We figure out your comfort level. How aggressive do you wanna be?

I then give you my detailed recommendations — your Purposeful Plan.

Any time I’m paid for anything you acquire through me — your fee is returned.

You’ll receive virtually unlimited access to me — almost at your bidding.

It’s a little more involved than that, but you get the gist, right? In my humble opinion it’s one of the best values around these days. It’s been kept under the radar by my edict all these years ‘cuz, well, I really don’t know why. I’ve just never publicized it before now.

Then a catalyst appeared. A young man contacted me the other day through the blog. He’d sent me an impressively detailed note explaining he and his wife’s current reality. I knew they wouldn’t be doing a whole bunch right this minute, but they surely would benefit big time by having a Plan now, as opposed to later. This doesn’t allow for the fact that I need a fix pretty much daily.

For whatever reason, my mind clicked over and I knew going public with this made more sense than not. ‘Course folks close to me have been bangin’ on me to do that for over a decade. I think what pushed me over the edge was a question a very close friend and confidant asked me yesterday morning. He asked, “How many folks have you talked with and not helped early on, only to find later you could’ve made a discernible difference in their lives?”

Case closed. If I was really serious about this, I’d a been charging five times that much 10 years ago. The fee pretty much goes towards my fun money and Starbucks card. It’s really for the clients. It took awhile, but my family friend was right. I shoulda been charging this fee way before the ’80′s. And furthermore, I should’ve been openly talkin’ about it long before this. Oh well.

Most folks who solicit my professional advice and analysis, end up doing business with me anyway, which triggers the return of the fee. Like I said, been doin’ this for ever 20 years, just haven’t made a big deal about it — and now I am. Still, I wish I’d been keeping a record of the actual percentage of those who paid for advice etc. and subsequently became ‘typical’ clients. My sense of it is that the 80/20 rule probably applies. I’ll never know for sure, but I’d bet good money four of five eventually have become my long term clients.

NOTE: For the record, most of our clients never pay us any fee, as they’re investors looking to retire. They begin immediately and get all the above mentioned support as part of our service. Our income is primarily from sellers who pay us commissions just like any other broker.

So if this sounds like a solid value to you, get a hold of me and I’ll let ya know if takin’ your money would help you or not. Experience shows it doesn’t do much good around 25-35% of the time. To those folks I say keep your money, let time pass and see what develops. Now that it’s in the open I feel so much better. Have a good one.

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