How do I build a business plan?

You're not going to know everything out of the gate. But your 'plan' should involve the following steps:

1. Determining whether this is an appropriate career for you.
   1. Education, Credentials Licensing (refer back to Episode 3)
   2. FPA Externship
2. Identifying education needs

1. Determining your military timeline:
   1. Home town?
   2. Last duty station?
   3. Where does your spouse/family want to go?
2. 1. When is your exit?
   2. What military milestones are you looking to hit (next promotion, next retention bonus, special assignment, etc.)
   3. For people looking for pensioned retirement--have you done the math on your next promotion. I.E. if you're an O-5 on the O-6 select list, it's not a year that you're postponing your retirement. It's a year (or two) to put it on, then 3 years if you want to retire with High-3 credit for time in grade. It might be worth it to your personal retirement plan to wait it out...but you need to do the math.
   4. Where do you plan to retire to?
   1. Public speaking (you might be doing a lot of presentations just to get clients in the door). Great practice is available while you're in uniform, if you just look for the opportunities to get in front of people as part of your job.
   2. Collateral duties
3. What skill sets do you need to work on (not education)
   1. Every command has a financial counselor. If you can't be this person, be the assistant. Or talk to them and learn what they do with sailors/airmen/soldiers/marines
   2. VITA office
   3. Local financial office
   1. Right now
   2. Later (after deployment/end of the fiscal year, or whatever your optempo allows)
   3. Next year
   4. Next duty station
4. Determine what you can do:

Industry rule of thumb for people opening their own shop: 3 years before you 'feel traction.'

• Year one: Sucks for everyone - a hard slog
• Year two: Gets a little better, but not really anything to 'live on.'
• Year three: You finally start feeling like you can make it. But you're probably still reinvesting in your business.

Have a plan where you don't depend on income from your business until at least year 4.

XYPN Benchmarking survey results

• https://blog.xyplanningnetwork.com/podcast-blog/ep-288-xypns-2020-benchmarking-survey-results-review-with-alan-moore-and-michael-kitces

Credentials vs licensing vs. education: Each plays a different role

• Credentials--Help apparent credibility. You can stop at a certain point--no one really cares about your alphabet soup
• Licensing--What allows you to legally do business in a certain capacity. We stopped with our Series 65 licenses.
• Education--This will help you in your ability to help people. This is the most important aspect, but also the least quantifiable. This never stops.

You might feel overwhelmed by all the choices out there in the profession. The key to finding the right tribe or profession for you is to ask the right questions. Those questions include: Where can I be mentored, so I can grow into the best version of myself? What opportunities exist in this profession if I work there? What will my role be, and will it fit with my long-term career plan?