Ozarks Profile: John Cavanaugh

Tell us about your company.

Fair Grove Financial provides creative financial and insurance solutions to pre-and- post-retired senior citizens. Fair Grove Financial was formally incorporated in April 2003. The first and foremost thing, we find safety and protection for a customer's assets. We try to get maximum yields out of their finances with minimum risk. We primarily work with seniors (to help them) avoid probate, and reduce or eliminate estate taxes. ... And then, to get the best deal for college tuition, we recently expanded our portfolio mix and have outsourced with a firm that matches up people who are middle income, generally speaking, with the very best colleges and tuition ... trying to get as much help as they can based on their circumstances. That's the only thing that we do that is fee-based. We are not securities licensed; we don't give investment advice per se. I do share, from many different sources, information about finance. We do financial planning, estate planning and insurance services. My wife, Christina, is the president and co-owner of the corporation.

Why did you decide to go into business for yourself?

I came to a moral quandary. I was working for an insurance services company that focuses on senior citizens, in terms of providing insurance products for them, and somebody asked me a question one day that essentially was, What do you do when their products don't match up to a particular person's situation?' and I honestly had no answer for that. I determined to take a look at contracting for myself with other companies, and seeing what could be done. And my goals were bigger than the confines of that one company, so I decided to step out on my own and provide a service ... where I could honestly say I have no company bias.

As a small-business owner, what challenge most surprised you?

Capital. The marketing is the biggest part. It's very expensive to market yourself. It's easy when you're sitting in front of somebody and they have an issue ... the problem is finding the person that has the issue.

How are you addressing that?

I checked into some different types of investment capital companies, looked at the SBA bank programs and decided they were not for us. We ended up applying for business credit cards offering no interest for 9 to 16 months. We floated our operating capital on these cards for a time. As for marketing, we have teamed up with some excellent organizations that send out mailers for us. We also host several different information seminars. The toughest part of the business is getting the word out about what we do.

If you could go back and start over, what would you do differently?

I would have transitioned myself a little more smoothly. I ended my career with the other company rather abruptly. I was trying to position myself to go out on my own when my boss caught wind of it. He gave me a choice; stop what I was doing and guarantee him another year or leave today. It was difficult. I had pay coming that I knew I wouldn't get if I left, and I was still about three months from really being able to strike out for myself. But since I could not in good conscience guarantee him another year, I left.

Tell us about your family.

Christina and I have been married for 10 years and have a daughter, Cerena, a son Connel, and a son Kyle, all of whom attend Fair Grove schools. We're all active in our local church, Peace Chapel in Fair Grove.