Today we’d like to introduce you to Mike Sena.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Armed with a newly minted BBA degree from the University of Georgia, I set out to awe and conquer the Fortune 500. Things didn’t go as expected. I was fired from my first two corporate jobs, and have been on my own ever since. I started and ran several closely held businesses over the years, with my longest tenure an IT company called Southern Cable & Telephone.
SC&T is still around and doing well, but for me, the fun had gone out of it after 24 years. So, in 2008, as the economy plunged into the abyss and I endured an unexpected divorce with a 13-year-old son, I started a fee-only financial planning practice named White Street Advisors. I named the company after the street my dad grew up on in Hartford, CT. My intent was to fundamentally change the nature of the financial services industry.
Resistance was fierce and progress was slow. As with all things, experience is what you get when you don’t get what you expect. Financial advisers rank alongside politicians and used car salesmen when it comes to trust and integrity. I learned from failure, altered my mindset, grew a thicker skin and persevered. I got involved in Toastmasters to improve my speaking and leadership skills, and came out of it with with a new skill, listening.
Over time, my reputation and differentiation began to spread, and I gained clients. In 2016, I merged my practice with another solo fee-only practice named Supporting Your Choices. The name sums up exactly what we do, we support your choices with solid and professional advice, working with our clients to simplify their lives and enhance their happiness.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Not really. My first business was pouring concrete walls for basements. It was a good business, generating a ton of cash. It was also the hardest work I have ever done, and the concrete business is pretty near the bottom of labor totem pole. It was the first time I had known someone who couldn’t read and worked with people who knew as much after two weeks as they did after two years. I learned not to pay until the end of the day Friday, and to take the keys out of the trucks if I left the job site. I knew it was the end for me when three years into it, one day more men laid out of work that came in.
The IT business was different, a couple of notches higher up on the labor totem pole, and more interesting. As the company grew, I started off financing it with credit cards, often taking a cash advance off one to pay another. Then, receivables financing from a bank. And finally, a second mortgage on my home. Within the first five years, I had 24 folks in 5 states working for the company. It meant a lot of traveling, a lot of Red Roof Inns and I came to know the better Waffle Houses along I-85, I-20, and I-95.
Every few years, we had to reinvent ourselves to stay ahead. I learned to ask the question up front, “Is your decision to do business with me based solely on price?” And, when customers wanted me to cut my price, to ask, “Which part of the work would you like left unfinished?” As Southern Cable stabilized and was consistently profitable, I started a voice message service bureau that would rent voice mailboxes to small and medium-sized companies with traveling sales and service people.
We were really a couple of years ahead of the voicemail curve back then, people didn’t get it and we couldn’t sell it. By the time we figured out how to sell it, technology and price caught up fast and companies were buying their own voicemail systems. In the end, we owned a very expensive boat anchor. Then came the .com implosion. Small IT firms like mine were going out of business left and right, we were having to compete with guys working out the trunk of their car, and commoditization settled in.
The company reinvented itself again, more and more making the software work with hardware. It became more of a high stress and low margin business, I wanted a change. And change I got, to a degree going from the frying pan to the fire when starting in fee-only financial planning.
Supporting Your Choices – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I love what I do. I love making a difference in people’s lives. As a company, we go beyond thick financial plans, numbers, and spreadsheets, and focus more on the softer side of life and living. In a nutshell, we help folks make the most of what they have, live more in the present and feel comfortable about an unknown future.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success as stress-free living, leading a purposeful life and embracing as much as possible the inevitable change that comes. Over the years, I have learned how I really need to be happy, and I enjoy helping others find their own happiness.
Contact Info:
- Website: supportingyourchoices.com
- Phone: 404-569-6612
- Email: mike@supportingyourchoices.com, mike@mikesenacfp.com
- Facebook: Facebook.com/MikeSenaCFP
- Twitter: @mikesenacfp
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
