Q: What made you think of working for Edward Jones?
A: I had always thought about retiring from the credit union on pension and then starting a fee for service planning thing. So you would go out and not do any selling or buying or anything, but you'd do planning for people and they'd pay you a fee to do that. And I had planned on doing that or thought about doing that, most of it as a cost in getting set up as a financial planner or a broker or anything like that. So Edward Jones gave me an opportunity to actually do that type of work and get the backing of a multi-national firm, plus work in my own office, rather than be alone in my own office. Q: What is it like working on commission?
A: Edward Jones gives you a salary for a year, so you're able to move over to that and transition to that in a time period. You're not just all of the sudden working on commission, which is a big start for people. For me, I thought it was more you have to understand the job and if you like the job, the money will come. If you do what's right for people, they'll deal with you. Q: What did you think of the training at Edward Jones?
A: When I first started the training, they started us out and I did the last program where they would take you to a week in St. Louis and then a week in Toronto for Canadian training. And then you'd go to a veteran’s office to work for three weeks. So the training was very good. It showed you how to start your business. It's not necessarily how you're going to do your business for the rest of your life, but it's how you have to start your business, making contacts, etc. Then when you reach a certain level, you get more training. And it’s like that throughout your career at Edward Jones. They look at you individually and say, “Okay, so now what area are you really and what are your clients really doing? What area are you really working? We'll help you with that.” This is very different to classroom or shotgun training of telling you everything, teaching you everything. Q: Compare Edward Jones to your previous experiences.
A: At Edward Jones, if you're running an ethical, profitable business, you can select the clients you want, rather than having bank clients pushed to you to deal with them. You can select the client, the type of client, who you want to work with. You can work your area. So it's much different. So it depends on the person. I prefer to run my own business, but I prefer to have the backing of a company as big as the banks to do that. I think it helps me with the technology. It helps me with the services that I can offer. Q: What’s it like living and working in the same community?
A: Because I have autonomy, if my wife needs me to go and run an errand during the day, I can go and do that But, most importantly, it’s really good because it's my business and it’s very close to my home. I'm only 12 blocks away from my office, so I know a lot of people in that area where we live.
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