[quote=iceco1d]

[quote=Ron 14]Well the payout isn’t 40% after office expenses, advertising, toilet paper, etc. Also, if I remember correctly the health insurance comes off of your net and that was about $500 a month. I live in the Chicago suburbs, my mortgage at the time was $2200. [/quote]

So @ EDJ, your payout is 40% (unless you’re selling B or C shares), and THEN you hafta buy toilet paper, toner, copy paper, etc.?

If so, that really sucks!
[/quote]

Yep.  And postage and long distance phone. 

You don’t have to pay for black toner I believe though.  One of the reasons independent guys talk about how hugely different the payout is.  also why whem guys like windy say it isnt that big of a difference they are talking out of their asses.

[quote=on my own]GHGR-

  I admire your enthusiam and courage to post your daily activity on this forum. As you already know you need to be more consistent with your prospecting activities. This is the time of year where you need to rededicate yourself and refocus. Start with a number of dials that you know you can do everyday and then raise the bar a little. Even if it is only 25 dials a day it is a starting point (25 dials won't keep you in the business however it is a start). Go to ebay and buy Nick Murray's book The Excellent Investment Advisor. Then read the chapter "The Art of Painless Prospecting". Also buy Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich (Original Edition). Read a chapter a day. When you finish the book repeat. When you finish the book again repeat. This book will help you be persistently consistent. Get up an hour earlier and read for that hour about sales/motivation/ect. You are at crossroads. You can either GetHardGetRaw or GetHardGoHome...the choice is yours. I wish you all the best in your decision.[/quote]   You, and everyone else, are absolutely right. I will definitely pick up those books, too. I'll let you know what I think after I've read them. May take me a few weeks.   [quote=3rdyrp2][quote=gethardgetraw]When I "check the markets," I'm actually just settling in for the day. Make coffee, delete all worthless emails (3-4), check pending wires, see what's cleared of my GTC orders of my good clients. Doesn't take more than a few minutes.[/quote]   How long have you been working?  For some reason I thought that you had posted your schedule and results when you first started and I haven't seen any sales for you to have pending wires or orders for.  Obviously you must have been working before you started this thread but I'm just curious.  [/quote]   Been selling for under a year. FSPends are from trades with my current clients. I do have clients and I do makes sales =P However, they're few and far inbetween. Luckly I was able to snag a few active traders from door knocking (yes... it works). For example, yesterday I bought a decent amount of GOOG and I received a wire due to his account not being marked as "aggressive." No big deal, really.   [quote=Golf]What do you guys call with - product or service? What is your script? [/quote]   After reading the Pursuit of Happyness, I picked up a great tip: Sell products which you can keep selling. With interest rates on the rise, and maturities being 40 years, I've switched from muni bonds to stocks. I've been pitching stocks with dividends more than what MM, CD, and bonds are paying, as well as a good amount of capital appreciation potential. Should a client finally buy, I'm going to let them know that when the stock is up 20-25%, they'll receive a call from me to SELL, lock in profits, and I'll have another recommendation lined up. Keeps the tickets flowing, and the client is making money as well. If the stock drops 10%, they'll receive a call from me with an apology and another recommendation. Hopefully this won't be an issue with 2010 on the horizon (I feel good about 2010).   My script:

Hi Mr. _____, this is ______ from Edward Jones here in ______. I have a stock here that I think can make you some money, do you have a minute?

After that I go into a few benefits of the stock and recommend buying 100 shares. When they say no, I ask about money coming due.   I need to work on my script.

I think I received 1 milestone bonus. I don't think I won any new account bonuses even though I received that queer gold shovel award for new accounts open in first year.

Ice - You pay for everything. Ads, toilet paper, postage, cable in your office, upgraded furniture that isn't the four wood chairs they give you to start, toner (they added this to the tab right before I left), EJ sales material that you are purchasing from the firm, business cards. It sucks. Nobody understands all of these costs when they start because they don't even have an office. By the time you get in your own office you have put too much work in to pull the plug. That being said, my production was average for Jones, which is below average for the industry. It is what it is.

I’m not chiming in much anymore, but alot of this information you guys are giving is misleading. So someone has to correct it.

  #1. Milestone Bonus's aren't much? $1000 just for going to eval/grad, $4000 at 4 months, $5000 at 8 Months and $7000 every quarter there after. I'm not sure how you think that doesn't help out a newbie. I received every single milestone bonus. They aren't hard to get Ron, you just have to meeting expectations, so you couldn't have been "average" or you'd have received them. There's no bells and whistles. If you are meeting expectations you get it, if you aren't you dont.   #2. Phone bill is $1-$3 a month. Thats not even worth griping over.   #3. Who needs cable in your office? not to mention most offices have Jones satellite, and i have about 20 channels with that. Cost me $0 and i get to watch Peoples Court at lunch.   #4. Jones gives you a box of 1000 business cards every year. When you buy them it's only about $30 bucks. I'd say I buy 1 every quarter if not every other quarter. Really not an expense to gripe about either.   #5. Postage is discounted, but Jones also gives you $2000 credit when you first start that you can use for all your postage and marketing materials (Including Business Cards). Its lasted me about a year, and i still have about 1/3 of it left.   #6. Most of the EJ sales material you can print off your computer in color, so you don't HAVE to spend any money buying it. If you want it to be on nice paper, spend $10 for a box of 100 pages of high gloss paper.   #7. Toner is paid for as well as paper. We do not pay for those, so i'm not sure where you got your information.   #8. You do pay for upgrading your office, but there are plenty of ways to get Jones to pay for some of that. They paid for me to repaint my office, also paid for me to get my clients their own parking spot. If you call home office, there are people who will work with you.   #9. Whats toilet paper? $5 every month?   #10. All the envelopes and mailing material are pretty much free. There are very little "Edward Jones" things that cost on the supply screen that you need on a daily basis. Nice folders, candy jars, etc cost...but you can get by without that junk.   I think i've spent a total of maybe $100 this whole year on supplies and things i need on a daily basis. You guys are definitly trying to make it out to be something its not. Sure if you are taking people to lunch everyday, buying furniture, remodeling your office, wasting postage, buying every marketing peice you can find...then it's expensive. If you use your resources to your advantage, it will cost you next to nothing.   By the way...hit Seg 3 and my second div trip in my first year...Not that anyone cares, but i'm proud of it.

[quote=gethardgetraw][quote=on my own]GHGR-

  I admire your enthusiam and courage to post your daily activity on this forum. As you already know you need to be more consistent with your prospecting activities. This is the time of year where you need to rededicate yourself and refocus. Start with a number of dials that you know you can do everyday and then raise the bar a little. Even if it is only 25 dials a day it is a starting point (25 dials won't keep you in the business however it is a start). Go to ebay and buy Nick Murray's book The Excellent Investment Advisor. Then read the chapter "The Art of Painless Prospecting". Also buy Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich (Original Edition). Read a chapter a day. When you finish the book repeat. When you finish the book again repeat. This book will help you be persistently consistent. Get up an hour earlier and read for that hour about sales/motivation/ect. You are at crossroads. You can either GetHardGetRaw or GetHardGoHome...the choice is yours. I wish you all the best in your decision.[/quote]   You, and everyone else, are absolutely right. I will definitely pick up those books, too. I'll let you know what I think after I've read them. May take me a few weeks.   [quote=3rdyrp2][quote=gethardgetraw]When I "check the markets," I'm actually just settling in for the day. Make coffee, delete all worthless emails (3-4), check pending wires, see what's cleared of my GTC orders of my good clients. Doesn't take more than a few minutes.[/quote]   How long have you been working?  For some reason I thought that you had posted your schedule and results when you first started and I haven't seen any sales for you to have pending wires or orders for.  Obviously you must have been working before you started this thread but I'm just curious.  [/quote]   Been selling for under a year. FSPends are from trades with my current clients. I do have clients and I do makes sales =P However, they're few and far inbetween. Luckly I was able to snag a few active traders from door knocking (yes... it works). For example, yesterday I bought a decent amount of GOOG and I received a wire due to his account not being marked as "aggressive." No big deal, really.   [quote=Golf]What do you guys call with - product or service? What is your script? [/quote]   After reading the Pursuit of Happyness, I picked up a great tip: Sell products which you can keep selling. With interest rates on the rise, and maturities being 40 years, I've switched from muni bonds to stocks. I've been pitching stocks with dividends more than what MM, CD, and bonds are paying, as well as a good amount of capital appreciation potential. Should a client finally buy, I'm going to let them know that when the stock is up 20-25%, they'll receive a call from me to SELL, lock in profits, and I'll have another recommendation lined up. Keeps the tickets flowing, and the client is making money as well. If the stock drops 10%, they'll receive a call from me with an apology and another recommendation. Hopefully this won't be an issue with 2010 on the horizon (I feel good about 2010).   My script:

Hi Mr. _____, this is ______ from Edward Jones here in ______. I have a stock here that I think can make you some money, do you have a minute?

After that I go into a few benefits of the stock and recommend buying 100 shares. When they say no, I ask about money coming due.   I need to work on my script. [/quote] GHGR   Those books will change your career. I still read parts of them everyday. I'm in a different situation than you. There are so many different ways to build your business...pitch product/pitch appointment.   I have tried both and the both work however what I have found in my own experience what works for me is pitching the appointment and doing a financial profile. This is when you get eyeball to eyeball with the prospect and I feel you can build trust quicker hence bigger accounts faster. Plus when you sell packaged products they pay more than stock/bond commissions...which will keep you in business longer.   When I pitched products I did open some large accounts however the people where yield *hores...always looking for the highest rate. Again this is only my opinion...when I pitched product I seemed to open much smaller accounts and then you have to track all those different securities you pitched.   Again these are just my opinions for someone being in the business when customers paid 8.5% upfront for a VA with no breakpoints...What works is what you feel most comfortable doing and doing the samething over and over and over.        

Those were not the milestone bonuses 4 years ago. I posted my numbers on here long ago so why the hell would I lie about meeting expectations. If I was going to lie I would say exceeding. There is no way in hell you get 17k over the 1st year for meeting expectations and 28k in year two for doing the same. No way.

  You just listed 9 things that "aren't a big deal." The sh*t adds up and it chops away on the 40% take by at least 5%. The biggest thing is the insurance by far, which you failed to mention. You are single with a live in boyfriend so yours probably aren't high. I am married with two kids under 3 so the 5k deductible for a family is a f***ing joke.  

Ron 14:

The biggest thing is the insurance by far, which you failed to mention.  

  As did you sir. You were talking about supplies and work related expenses. You did not read my post very well. The stuff doesn't add up, if most of it's free. Insurance is a killer, I agree. But for most young FA's like myself, by the time we even get close to using our insurance other than preventative (which is free) we'll have plenty saved for that deductable. For you older gentlemen, who use insurance more i can see where it sucks.   Point is, daily expenses aren't that much if you utilize your resources. Like i said, i spent probably$100 bucks ALL YEAR on things i needed to do my job. I spent a crapload on remodeling my office and taking people to lunch, but those are un-necessary.   Chief - It's still rolling 4.

chief123:

What is Seg 3 now? Rolling 15?

  Yep

SometimesNowhere:

He means a rolling $15k average, not 15 months.

  Oh, ok. My apologies. Yes its a rolling $15K.   Sometimes - Did I beat you?

Ronnie Dobbs:

[quote=SometimesNowhere]He means a rolling $15k average, not 15 months.

  Oh, ok. My apologies. Yes its a rolling $15K.   Sometimes - Did I beat you?[/quote]   Nope. Been there for a few months.

SometimesNowhere:

[quote=Ronnie Dobbs][quote=SometimesNowhere]He means a rolling $15k average, not 15 months.

  Oh, ok. My apologies. Yes its a rolling $15K.   Sometimes - Did I beat you?[/quote]   Nope. Been there for a few months. [/quote]   Haha...Congrats   I just remembered that you said you'd beat me. You had a few months on me though. I moved segments as quick as I could.

Ronnie Dobbs:

[quote=SometimesNowhere][quote=Ronnie Dobbs][quote=SometimesNowhere]He means a rolling $15k average, not 15 months.

  Oh, ok. My apologies. Yes its a rolling $15K.   Sometimes - Did I beat you?[/quote]   Nope. Been there for a few months. [/quote]   Haha...Congrats   I just remembered that you said you'd beat me. You had a few months on me though. I moved segments as quick as I could.[/quote]   Right. I am behind a few months.

[quote=Ronnie Dobbs]I’m not chiming in much anymore, but alot of this information you guys are giving is misleading. So someone has to correct it.

  #1. Milestone Bonus's aren't much? $1000 just for going to eval/grad, $4000 at 4 months, $5000 at 8 Months and $7000 every quarter there after. I'm not sure how you think that doesn't help out a newbie. I received every single milestone bonus. They aren't hard to get Ron, you just have to meeting expectations, so you couldn't have been "average" or you'd have received them. There's no bells and whistles. If you are meeting expectations you get it, if you aren't you dont.     #2. Phone bill is $1-$3 a month. Thats not even worth griping over.   #3. Who needs cable in your office? not to mention most offices have Jones satellite, and i have about 20 channels with that. Cost me $0 and i get to watch Peoples Court at lunch.   #4. Jones gives you a box of 1000 business cards every year. When you buy them it's only about $30 bucks. I'd say I buy 1 every quarter if not every other quarter. Really not an expense to gripe about either.   #5. Postage is discounted, but Jones also gives you $2000 credit when you first start that you can use for all your postage and marketing materials (Including Business Cards). Its lasted me about a year, and i still have about 1/3 of it left.   #6. Most of the EJ sales material you can print off your computer in color, so you don't HAVE to spend any money buying it. If you want it to be on nice paper, spend $10 for a box of 100 pages of high gloss paper.   #7. Toner is paid for as well as paper. We do not pay for those, so i'm not sure where you got your information.   #8. You do pay for upgrading your office, but there are plenty of ways to get Jones to pay for some of that. They paid for me to repaint my office, also paid for me to get my clients their own parking spot. If you call home office, there are people who will work with you.   #9. Whats toilet paper? $5 every month?   #10. All the envelopes and mailing material are pretty much free. There are very little "Edward Jones" things that cost on the supply screen that you need on a daily basis. Nice folders, candy jars, etc cost...but you can get by without that junk.   I think i've spent a total of maybe $100 this whole year on supplies and things i need on a daily basis. You guys are definitly trying to make it out to be something its not. Sure if you are taking people to lunch everyday, buying furniture, remodeling your office, wasting postage, buying every marketing peice you can find...then it's expensive. If you use your resources to your advantage, it will cost you next to nothing.   By the way...hit Seg 3 and my second div trip in my first year...Not that anyone cares, but i'm proud of it.[/quote]   Actually Windy....you are incorrect...in order to get the milestone bonus you need to be exceeding expectations not just meeting them!