Starting a brokerage firm comes with a lot of pressure, both from your own clients and from a compliance standpoint. You’re stepping into a highly regulated industry where trust, speed, and data accuracy matter every day.
But despite the pressure, it’s a venture that can be incredibly rewarding. So, if you’re committed to achieving success with a new brokerage firm, you’ll want to do everything you can to get it right. In this guide, we’re breaking down exactly how to set up your firm with the right structure—and the tools you’ll need for it to grow.
1. Set Clear Goals and Establish Your Business Structure Early
One of the first things you’ll need to decide is what kind of brokerage you want to run. That means determining whether you’ll focus on equities, forex, crypto, or a mix. Each of these specialities comes with different licensing, not to mention regulatory rules.
You’ll want to choose your entity type carefully. You get flexibility with an LLC, but if you’re aiming for institutional clients, you might be better off with a corporation. Build your business structure around what you actually plan to sell, not just what sounds broad enough to cover everything.
2. Choose The Right Technology Partner
The tech partner you choose will make all the difference when it comes to the quality of the services you’re offering. You want to work with a company that offers fast, compliant, and reliable tools, both for your own use and for client access.
Look for a company like Devexperts, which offers a custom platform combining financial software and services specifically designed for brokerages and is trusted by companies all over the world. Working with a company that provides all the tech you could need is the more convenient solution, preventing you from having to patch together software yourself with off-the-shelf tools and ending up with systems that don’t sync.
3. Start Small—But Prepare to Scale
You don’t need to hire a full team right away—and, in fact, this is probably a bad idea given the financial restraints that come with starting out as a brand-new business. But with that said, you do need clear processes.
So, from the very start, you want to be setting up automation where you can, particularly for things like onboarding and account maintenance, which shouldn’t depend on manual input. You’ll thank yourself later when your client numbers increase and you’re not having to rebuild systems as your service takes off.
4. Build Trust Before You Build Volume
Newsflash: your clients don’t care that you’re a new firm. Regardless of the service they’re choosing, they care that they’re receiving what they asked for, from a company that offers good customer service and has strict security measures in place.
Focus on those things, and your clients will stick with you. Once you win yourself a few serious clients who stay, your business will be well established.
Takeaway
Hopefully, this guide has helped you to feel a little less lost as you dive into the unknown with this new business venture.
If there’s one thing to take away with you, it’s that carefully building your brokerage from the beginning will save you from constant rebuilding later. So do it properly the first time around.