Financial Advisors, You Can’t Serve Business Owners by Pretending to Be One

Financial advisors are slowly becoming what they swore they’d never be: Generalists with a polished pitch and no lived experience behind it.

Credentials are stacking. LinkedIn posts are multiplying. And now, more advisors than ever are offering business advice to people whose pain they’ve never carried.

Just this week, a Certified Financial Planner—with four additional designations—posted here on LinkedIn:

“Hey, Mr. Business Owner—if you lack clarity around your offer, I can help.”

At first glance, it sounds valuable. But here’s the problem:

This advisor has never owned a business. They’ve been an employee at a national firm for over 15 years. No founder experience. No payroll risk. No sales cycles. No sleepless nights about cash flow. And yet, now they’re 'teaching' business owners how to structure growth and value?

It’s no different than the tenured college professor teaching entrepreneurship who’s never signed the front of a paycheck. All theory, no battlefield experience. Academic models that sound great in a classroom but fall apart in the real world where risk, people, and pressure collide.

That story isn’t unique.

Another advisor, barely months into launching their own solo practice, is now promising to help business owners increase enterprise value. Another is pushing marketing advice… while still learning marketing themselves, coached by someone I know personally.

This isn’t innovation. It’s confusion!

What we’re watching is a slow drift. Advisors are stepping into the business world because they’re uncertain in their own. They’re not rooted in a clear offer or avatar. They’re stretching instead of strengthening. Reaching instead of refining.

And business owners? They’re picking up on it.

After a recent keynote, several business owners approached me, searching for a financial advisor who could answer questions like:

• “How much should I save outside my business, and how much should I reinvest?”
• “If I sell, how do I know the proceeds will actually fund my next season of life?”
• “How do I reduce taxes, without gutting future value?”
• “What happens if my business loses value before I’m ready to exit?”
• “How do I structure this whole thing actually to protect my family?”

They weren’t looking for business tips. They were looking for a financial advisor who understands the financial impact of business decisions—someone who stays in their lane but knows how to navigate the road.

Unfortunately, many of today’s advisors are leaving that lane before they’ve mastered it.

They’re taking on new titles: strategist, consultant, growth advisor. But what they’re really doing is diluting their value, not deepening it.

One business owner told me they cut ties with their advisor because, mid-meeting, the advisor started explaining how to run lead generation… and then couldn’t explain their own cost per lead. That kind of disconnect breaks trust instantly.

So here’s a mirror moment for today’s advisor:

Are you offering advice in areas where you haven’t solved the same problem in your own practice?

If your own business isn’t structurally sound… If your marketing isn’t systemized… If your client journey is duct-taped together… Why would a business owner trust you to advise them on theirs?

The irony is this: Financial advisors already have a competitive edge. Licensing. Regulation. Planning expertise. Fiduciary duty. That means something.

So why trade all that for the chance to be another unqualified voice in the noisy world of “business strategy”?

It’s like a surgeon offering car washes in the parking lot. Sure, you can. But that’s not why people trust you. That’s not what you trained for. That’s not your superpower.

What’s missing isn’t another acronym.

Its clarity:

• In your role
• On your audience
• On the value you actually deliver

Advisors who lack that clarity default to noise—more posts, more credentials, more content. But they never fix the foundation.

So here’s the call forward.

If you’re a financial advisor who truly wants to serve business owners:

• Anchor to your financial expertise.
• Understand their world—but don’t pretend to have lived it.
• Stick to what you know. Own it. Master it.

Because the business owners out there? They can sense authenticity. They can smell confusion. And they’re still waiting for someone real.

The industry doesn’t need more noise. It needs more clarity, more humility, more focus.

And the best advisors in the next decade? Won’t be the loudest. They’ll be the clearest.