After 18 months in the industry, all at WFA, I will be leaving the firm. I have not had great success at a wirehouse. It started well in the apprentice period and the first 6 months, but I missed my hurdle at the 9 month mark and have been scraping by ever since. After taking a further look at the requirements for the next 3 years, I realize that my head is going to be on the chopping block for most of that time barring someone in my network hitting the Powerball. I take full responsibility for this, but I will add that my firm has offered me little, if any, support at the local level.
I’d like to stay in the industry, and am I wondering if there is another channel that I should take. I only considered WFA & ML when I started, as that was where my friends are. How do things differ at banks (I am not at a WF bank, they do not exist in my state), or some of the smaller brokerages?
I have been mostly using my warm network for prospecting (I am in my 40’s and have been successful in a number of different industries in a relatively small community, approximately 500,000 metro area population). I have done cold-calling and door-knocking at WFA, with literally no success. Not sure if I just haven’t done enough to get good at it. But its not encouraging when I have yet to be able to find a broker in my market who has been successful using those channels. Even my own branch manager tells me the only way he thinks anyone can make it these days is to get on a team. I’m not against that, there just isn’t anyone at my branch with a big enough book that isn’t already teamed up.
Anyone have any recommendations? Keep in mind, my wife makes a good living, so we can handle some lean years from me, if there is a firm that will give me the time to continue to leverage my network.