What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Starting a Business
Over the past few months, I've had deep conversations with successful financial advisors and business owners about what actually got them to where they are today. These were not polished success stories. They were honest reflections on the messy, uncertain early days of building something from scratch.
As I navigate my own journey with reframeRIA, these insights have been invaluable. And if you are thinking about starting your own business or are currently building one, I hope they resonate with you too.
Four Core Themes That Emerged
After talking with dozens of entrepreneurs, four patterns became apparent:
1. Action Beats Overplanning Every Time
The most successful people I spoke with didn't have perfect business plans. They had a bias toward action.
The insight: you will learn more from one real client conversation than from ten hours of planning. Perfectionism is procrastination in disguise.
What this means for you:
Launch before you're ready (you'll never feel ready)
Test your service offering with real people, not hypothetical scenarios
Iterate based on actual feedback, not imagined objections
2. Know Your Strengths And Fill the Gaps
Every successful business owner I spoke with had clarity on what they were genuinely good at and what they needed help with.
The insight: trying to be good at everything means you will be excellent at nothing. Your job is to leverage your strengths and systematically address your weaknesses not by becoming better at them, but by finding partners, technology, or team members who complement you.
What this means for you:
Get honest about what energizes you versus what drains you
Invest in understanding your natural strengths
Build a network of people who are strong where you are weak
3. Focus on Process, Not Just Outcomes
This was counterintuitive for me at first. Don't all businesses exist to achieve outcomes?
But here's what successful entrepreneurs taught me: outcomes are often outside your control. Processes are entirely within your control.
The insight: if you nail the process—consistent prospecting, disciplined follow-up, quality service delivery—the outcomes will take care of themselves. But if you only focus on outcomes, you'll be on an emotional roller coaster with no real insight into what's working.
What this means for you:
Define your core processes (client acquisition, service delivery, relationship maintenance)
Measure process execution, not just business results
Refine processes based on data, not just emotions
4. You Will Be Winging It More Than You Think And That's Okay
People think successful individuals have it all figured out. The truth? They make it up as they go, just like everyone else. The difference is that they are okay with that uncertainty now.
The insight: every business owner feels like they are improvising. The ones who succeed are the ones who make peace with that reality and keep moving forward anyway.
What this means for you:
Uncertainty is not a sign you're doing it wrong—it's a sign you're doing something new
Confidence doesn't come before action; it comes from taking action despite doubt
Everyone else is winging it too, they're just better at hiding it
What I'm Reminding Myself
As I build reframeRIA, these conversations reinforced several truths I need to keep front of mind:
Lean into your strengths. I'm not trying to be the best at everything. I'm building expertise in strategy, process improvement, and technology optimization for RIAs. That's my lane. Everything else gets delegated, automated, or outsourced.
Provide value, don't overthink the details. I spent weeks agonizing over the perfect pricing model. I heard from a few business owners: "Just help people. Price it fairly. You can always adjust." They were right. Delivering real value matters far more than having the perfect website, the perfect positioning, or the perfect contract.
Find win-win partnerships. I'm not building this alone. I'm actively seeking partnerships with complementary service providers—technology vendors, technology consultants, marketing specialists. When we can refer business to each other and create value together, everyone wins.
Fail forward. Every successful person I spoke with had failed spectacularly—often multiple times. What set them apart wasn't avoiding failure; it was learning from it and trying again.
You're Not Alone in This
If you are building a business and feeling overwhelmed, uncertain, or like you're making it up as you go, congratulations.
The fear you're feeling? Everyone feels it. The uncertainty? It never fully goes away. The sense that you're not qualified? Imposter syndrome is universal among entrepreneurs.
What separates those who succeed from those who do not is not talent or credentials or even a great idea. It's the willingness to take action despite the fear, learn from mistakes, and keep showing up.
Resources for Your Journey
If you're serious about understanding your strengths and building a successful business, here are tools and frameworks that came highly recommended:
Understanding Your Strengths:
CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinder): Identifies your top 5 talents out of 34 themes. Helps you understand where to focus your energy. gallup.com/cliftonstrengths
DISC Assessment: Understand your behavioral style and how you interact with others. Particularly useful for building complementary teams. discprofile.com
Enneagram: Goes deeper into motivations and fears. Helpful for personal growth and understanding what drives you. enneagraminstitute.com
Starting and Scaling a Business:
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber: Essential reading on working on your business, not just in your business
Traction by Gino Wickman: Practical framework for building scalable systems (the EOS model)
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries: How to test ideas quickly and iterate based on real feedback
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson: It argues against lengthy business plans, excessive meetings, and the "hustle culture," instead promoting ideas like working regular hours, ignoring the competition, and focusing on creating a great product that you would want to use yourself.
My Challenge to You
If you are building a business right now, I want you to ask yourself three questions:
What's one action I've been delaying because I'm waiting for the "perfect" moment? Take that action this week.
What am I trying to do that doesn't play to my natural strengths? Who could help me with that instead?
What's one process I need to nail before I worry about outcomes? Define it, document it, and start executing it consistently.
Building a business is hard. It's uncertain. It's uncomfortable.
But it's also one of the most rewarding things you can do. And you don't have to figure it all out alone.
That's what communities like this are for—to remind each other that the struggle is normal, the fear is universal, and the path forward is simply to keep taking action.
Let's build something great. Together.
What's your biggest challenge as a business owner right now? Reply to this post or by email — I read every response and I would love to hear what you are working through.
About reframeRIA
reframeRIA helps emerging RIAs and financial advisors optimize operations, integrate technology, and build scalable processes. If you're building an advisory practice and need support with strategy, workflows, or technology, let's talk.
Learn more at www.reframeria.com
