Like Lawrence Fuller, a financial services advisor in Scottsdale, Arizona, many professional services providers have daydreamed about the perks of self-employment. What’s keeping these individuals, whether they’re attorneys, psychologists, hairstylists or accountants, from becoming their own bosses?
According to Lawrence, it boils down to capital and risk. “The barriers to entry include the up-front costs and the confidence that the business is going to be successful. You need to have a certain level of experience to be able to go out on your own, and you need the capital to start the business and run that loss until you build up the client base big enough to earn a living.” As the founding member of Fuller Asset Management (FAM), an investment management firm, Lawrence is doing just that.
A former collegiate tennis player at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Lawrence followed his father Larry, a Merrill Lynch mutual fund manager, into the financial services business and worked for a variety of large investment firms.
What made Lawrence decide to step off the terra firma of the corporate org chart and into the potential quicksand of self-employment? “The real benefit is the control,” he answers without hesitation. “Having control over what I’m doing and not having to sell proprietary products or services from a large firm. If I’m working for a big firm, I don’t have any control whatsoever as to what fees are charged the client.
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