Company Name: Sondhelm Partners
Industry: Financial Marketing
Year Founded: 2016
Novel Coworking Location: 950 N Washington Street, Alexandria
Tell the story of how your business was founded.
“We help asset managers, mutual funds, and financial advisors grow. It’s often challenging for financial firms to attract investors. Just because they have good stories to tell doesn’t mean investors will find them. Often, the managers would rather manage money than sell or do marketing. After 20 years as a senior partner in another company, I decided to start my own firm. Just 6 months old, we provide sales activities, marketing and public relations to financial firms.”
What does the future look like for your company?
“We are excited for our growth prospects. We’ve built a team of six industry veterans with more than twenty years of experience each in growing financial firms. We have several industry partners that refer business to us, including a global, publicly traded financial services firm. We regularly speak at industry conferences and are used as experts in the relevant news media for visibility and credibility.
And we love our clients. Here are a few examples: One client is an undiscovered wealth manager with a mutual fund that wants to grow through earning positive news coverage. We helped the fund get featured recently in Barron’s. Another client with a good story to tell manages money for clients but wants to give up the head aches of struggling to attract investors. We are leveraging our industry contacts to find a larger firm with the capability to drive sales into his strategy to acquire him. A third client is an institutional money manager that wants to expand their bond strategies to the financial advisor market. We are providing a strategic plan and soon will then deliver sales, marketing and public relations services. We will invest half our fees in exchange for a percentage of their growth.”
What do you like most about working for your company?
“I like spending time with our clients. They are successful people. They are smart and well educated. They are disciplined and driven. They also have families and like to have fun. They are the type of people you’d like to have a beer with. And I often do.”
What advice would you give someone who wants to start a business?
“Just do it. It might feel scary to go it alone. One day, you feel excited about being your own boss and the financial rewards. The next day you agonize about giving up how “good” you had it and your salary. This could go back and forth for months or years. But once you take the plunge, you won’t look back.”
Why did you choose to move into Novel Coworking’s Alexandria office space?
“I wanted my own office, but that’s not easy to find in Alexandria, VA without subleasing. I looked at Regus, other co-working firms, as well as other available space. Agency 950, which was recently acquired by Novel Coworking, was a great decision. I have a private office in a good location, plenty of conference room and meeting space, and free parking nearby, all for a reasonable monthly price. The new ownership provides access to office space in additional cities and additional amenities.”