Starting from scratch to build a business? Never quit marketing

John Krambeer left the commission-based brokerage industry in 2004 to start his own fee-based firm, Camden Capital Management, and the first few years were “pure hell.”

He started out with just a handful of clients, $20 million under management, and one employee, his secretary. On top of that, Mr. Krambeer describes himself as “probably one of the worst cold-calling prospectors” in the business.

Since those early days, Mr. Krambeer, 41, has relied on savvy marketing skills and aggressive networking to build one of the fastest-growing fee-based advisory firms in the country. He credits a “good, clean reputation” for helping the El Segundo, Calif.-based firm bring in about $10 million a month during the recent economic downturn.

During the 18 months ended March 31, Camden Capital’s assets have doubled to $500 million.

Not only has Mr. Krambeer made himself a visible member of the greater Los Angeles area by volunteering on boards and getting involved in the community, he has also embraced the full range of services and requests that can come with being a holistic financial adviser.

“This business is about service, and that’s why you lose more clients for bad service than you do for bad performance,” Mr. Krambeer said. “We’re not the cheapest outfit in town, nor do we want to be, but in the 16 years I spent at Merrill [Lynch & Co. Inc.] I never got referrals from other clients like I do now.”

Camden Capital, which has six employees and serves 50 families, is successfully applying a textbook marketing strategy, according to James Barnash, assistant vice president at Capital Analysts Inc., a financial advisory consulting firm.

“It proves that if people are good at marketing, they can get their fee-based system up and running,” he said. “The challenge for most advisers is, they have so little expertise and spend so little time in the area of marketing.”

E-mail Jeff Benjamin at [email protected].