Welcome to my second interview. I
hope you enjoyed the first one I wrote.
Dan Duster is a Financial Advisor who works with Edward Jones. He helps find the appropriate financial
strategy, for you and your family with extra help on your long-term savings
strategy. He is passionate about helping
people set and achieve their financial goals.
For the last 20 years he also has been a motivational speaker and a success
coach.
His success didn’t come from pure luck.
Dan became successful by putting in hard work and working his way to the
top. How did he achieve that you
ask? Read on and I will let you know…
Dan’s first job was at the age of 10.
He sold fireworks to the neighborhood kids and quickly learned how to
make a profit. Dan would buy the
fireworks in packs of 12 but divide them and sell them individually for
profit.
After attending The University of Illinois, he interned at Northern
Trust Bank. His boss at the time gave
him insight and encouragement in the field of finance. His boss explained to him how the banks would
get paid and how the business world worked.
He also reinforced positive behavior which is something that goes a long
way in the workplace. Dan would often
come in early and leave late to absorb as much knowledge as he could. Often asking multiple questions and being presentient
to make sure he had a complete understanding for all his client’s needs.
One of the questions I asked him was, “Why finance?”. What was it about finance that drew him to
that field? Dan’s answer was simple, he
enjoyed math. Through grade school and
high school, he was good at math and enjoyed the subject. He was never interested in sales. However, solutions-based sales are a lot more
interesting and fun.
Dan has been fortunate enough to work out of his home since 1992. He
started his own company in 2001 doing motivational speaking and training for
corporations and schools. He joined Edward Jones just before the shutdown in Feb
2020. Like many of us, one of the challenges of being successful has been
finding “work/personal life balance”.
Still, Dan often finds himself working 60 hours a week instead of 40
hours a week but loves what he does for a living.
One of his keys for success is having a structured system for
prospecting and follow-up with clients. One
could say his “secrete sauce” lies in reaching out in his network for new
business. So having a system in place
has been a major key to success.
As a new protentional business owner I asked Dan if he would share some
tips with me on how to start a successful business:
1) It is VERY important
to have a business plan. You cannot go
from an idea to a business without a plan.
It just doesn’t work. The plan
doesn’t have to be perfect or long. It
can be a basic business plan to explain your business and what differentiates
you form the competition. What are your
expenses? What is your revenue
stream? Questions to answer in your
business plan that investors/banks will be looking for.
2) It’s important to
have a schedule and to try to stick with the schedule as much as possible. But you should also be flexible because
things will come up and can go wrong when you least expect it to. You need to know how to be able to pivot, but
having a schedule is very important to keep on track of deadlines.
3) Are there similar
companies around doing the same type of work?
How can you be different to stand out?
Some people say you need to be completely different; Dan doesn’t agree
with that. You can be slightly different
but have a distinguishing factor for your company. Use your network and find experts to talk
to. The best and most successful people
talk to experts in the field. Be humble
enough and smart enough to talk to them.
If you need a financial advisor, or would like to have a motivational
speaker at your next event, I highly suggest reaching out to Dan. His LinkedIn information is below.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-duster/
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