Over the next several weeks I will share with you a series of “mini stories” that reflect on my TCFP journey to date. I hope my experiences can help others and I am very happy to talk to anyone thinking about “going it alone”, just get in touch.
Check back again soon for further updates.
Part 1: Why did I start TCFP?
I started TCFP to save humanity from me being an employee again.
I am a terrible employee, a righteous pain in the arse – arrogant, rebellious and argumentative. It took too long for me to realise this, but I haven’t looked back since.
Maybe I was envious of the great employees that surrounded me? Well done to you if you are thriving, I’m happy I’m not disrupting your working day. And you are too!
I think it boils down to paying attention to what does, and does not, work for you. One size does not fit all and far too few are encouraged to do their own thing.
Kudos to those that have a vision, invention or passion that leads them to being captain of their own ship.
For me it was a mercy call.
Part 2: Being a business owner is not intimidating
I work in a highly regulated profession with lots of barriers to entry. On top of which, financial planners and advisers are often treated with deep suspicion by the public – occasionally with just cause – and poor practices, although diminished greatly, still exist.
Financial planning is not an obvious choice for setting up on your own and having a rewarding and life affirming career.
At the start I was shocked by negative stories I heard about going alone. However, I realised pretty quickly that a lot of noise does not mean bad things happen. And that has proved to be the case.
Knowing all I really had to do was the best thing for each potential client I was sure the outcomes would take care of themselves.
And the outcome is a £1m+ turnover business inside 8 years.
If you’re good at what you do, why not give it a go? After 6 months it will be clear if you can make a good go of it. If it isn’t working out, you can always go and get a proper job.
70% may be good enough as an employee but not as your own boss. But why try if you are not going to give it your all? What is 6 months out of 40 years of work?
That doesn’t sound risky to me, if it does to you then you already have your answer.
It’s not a stroll in the park by any manner of means, you need your wits about you and to fully commit. But, if it does work out, you’ll never look back. You might even remember having read this!!
Part 3: The journey (so far)
I’m not saying starting a business is a cake walk, it’s anything but – there are many hard yards. What I do say is that, if you know you’re good, and your only aim is to serve others, you will succeed.
Success can be slippery, sometimes factors outside our control scupper our best intentions. You may have to try more than once. Not giving up is a key attribute of successful entrepreneurs.
In my own journey this is clear – what we do now and how is worlds apart from what we were doing at the beginning. We have adapted to circumstances, seen which way the wind is blowing, taken on new ideas. Being too idealistic can be a hindrance, success and flexibility go hand in hand.
But the baseline is to do you best every day, honestly and with sincerity and karma will reward you. Keep your chin up, don’t dwell on mistakes and setbacks, learn and move on, and up.
I went weeks with rejection after rejection and then purple patches when everyone said yes. There was never a pattern to success or failure, which led me to accept that I could only control the input, not the outcome.
I focussed on the input and it worked. I gave the best I could in every meeting and let the dice fall where they did. It was liberating not to be attached to an outcome.
I never let rejections get on top of me or successes go to my head, I simply moved on. That is important mentally – if you dwell, by definition, you are not moving forward.
I could have analysed everything over and over, but that takes up a lot of head space and can lead to paralysis. I wouldn’t recommend analysis, I recommend turning up, being present, giving it your best with honesty and integrity. Giving up analysing every “mistake” led me to giving up plenty of other things too.
I was assailed with tips and techniques. I recommend ignoring most although, every once in a while, there is a belter, just right for you. However, remember, this is your furrow, only you can plough it – the more present you are, the more authentic you will be and the better the outcomes.
Eliminate distractions, take your craft, your art seriously, like a matter of life and death and people will respond positively. To this day people I spoke to years ago come back and say “Jeremy, we liked meeting you before, sorry we have not been in touch since, but now we are ready. Can we work with you?”
To move your business forward outsource everything you can, as intelligently as you can, as quickly as you can. But take your time – pick the right partners for bookkeeping, accountancy, HR, admin etc.
You are none of those tasks, your clients are not paying you to do them – free your mind from them and the rest will follow….
Another mistake repeated was “marketing”, or what I thought was marketing. There are many ways to spend £500 – £1,000 on “marketing ideas”. Adverts, branding and sponsorships etc., I have done more than I can remember, convincing myself each time that one new client to make it pay. I never got a single client.
I gave up and simply focussed on doing more for my clients and, hey presto, our clients started recommending us to their friends, colleagues and family more and more.
It’s rarely a linear journey, if it appears so I suggest you might be missing something. Too good to be true is exactly that – things that were always a challenge become easy and vice versa, and then they switch back again.
Part 4: How to treat staff
I’m told I have an unusual approach to staffing. It’s not that they don’t have a contract with hours, holidays etc in it, they do. It’s just it’s not really enforced.
I believe most people like working and doing a good job and that holding them strictly to a contract does not help with that. I have stripped away all the usual expectations (office hours, work location, holidays etc.) and focussed on the only one that mattered:
Get work done accurately and in a timely fashion.
That seems obvious to me – trust people to do a good job and they will, and they will stay loyal and I don’t have to waste time tracking holidays, sicknesses etc.
My colleagues found it difficult to adjust to this approach. I told them from day one they didn’t have to come to the office, but they kept turning up!! We are creatures of habit.
It took time for different colleagues to adapt to this approach. For most 9-5 in the office is deeply ingrained, it takes time to adapt to new boundaries. Covid helped a lot, what we thought was impossible became necessary.
Most pleasing of all is that, in 5+ years, I have not had to have a quiet word with anyone about anything. Not once has the flexibility and freedom on offer been abused. I believe that’s because people do not want to let anyone down, least of all themselves.
Part 5: How to treat clients
I was brought up in bad old days of “selling”.
Talk at your prospect until they lose the will to live and sign up. Then pocket an obscene commission for not much more than filling in forms. The value in that relationship was lopsided to say the least.
I saw the light 10 years ago.
I wondered, what would happen if:
- I listened to what people want?
- And understood it as deeply as possible?
- And did all I could to be as helpful as possible?
What if I tell them:
- Clearly what I can and cannot do for them?
- How it can all go wrong, and how they play a crucial role in that not happening?
What if:
- I showed them that the emotional return on their money far outweighed the investment return?
- It was all about them and not me?
Would they then feel like they want to appoint me? It turned out that most people do.
Serve first get paid second. It’s really that simple.
Part 6: Do as I do
I am astonished that financial planners and advisers don’t do for themselves what they recommend to their clients. Just as concerning is that so few clients ask if I do what I’m recommending.
How can that be possible?
After 30+ years in this profession I have probably forgotten more than I know. But I do know this, each of my own personal mistakes has saved my clients thousands of pounds and taught me the biggest lesson of all:
Success, always and in all things, lies in simplicity. It is never found in complexity.
That ethos has led me to what I believe is a fantastic “real life” methodology far removed from the theoretical models espoused by books and gurus.
Even better, this methodology is a living being, looking to grow and improve itself – it will only get better and better.
I have no interest in working with an overweight fitness coach, or an angry anger management therapist. Why work with someone who doesn’t practice what they preach?
I found early on that I could not talk with conviction about things I was not doing myself. I walk the same path as all our clients, except when I want to try something new, then my own and my children’s accounts are the guinea pigs before we take it to our clients.
Part 7: Coaches need coaches
I am a coach of sorts. I’m licenced to talk money, pensions and investments etc. but really that’s just a cover story from helping families get from A to B safely and serenely.
I coach good habits and behaviours but, to be do so, I have to get to the core of what people want and need.
After that I start removing all the self-made barriers which are stopping them. Then it’s a matter of helping them get short cuts to where they want to be.
We are not reinventing the wheel. All it requires is a mind open enough to take on a new perspective.
Because I’m such a great coach I don’t need one, do I?
Nonsense, if I believe in good coaching being life affirming and transformative, I should have a coach too – and I do. She’s called Mary. She’s amazing.
It soon becomes apparent what good coaches do is about life and hopes and dreams and achievements, money is not at the centre of this.
It’s about the emotional return much more than the investment return. That’s at the heart of everything the best financial planners do.
Part 8: Business and family life
I was a bit worried about running a company and making time for family life. Surely all successful entrepreneurs have to put in way more than 37.5 hours per week?
I did early on, but that was no way to know my children. In any event my young children are way more interesting and entertaining than running a business.
I intuitively set about trying to delegate and outsource whatever I could to free up some time. I reasoned that my clients were not paying me to do my bookkeeping or fill in forms or write reports – they wanted my full attention on planning matters.
It is important to delegate and outsource intelligently. There was a slip here and there along the way – not knowing what I really wanted, picking the wrong outsourced expert or expecting too much too soon from colleagues.
It has been worth the effort though. Over time and with adjustments we have arrived at a very good place. I work three days a week while my youngest is yet to start school, we spend time together and do things that we otherwise would never have the time for.
In addition, my business is better off because good professionals are responsible for the non-planning parts of the business. I do not fill in forms, monitor compliance matters, get involved with HR, write reports, bookkeep etc. In fact, all I do is speak to clients and write blogs and guides. Most recently business development has also been outsourced.
In addition to creating time and having better people than me undertake various tasks, I also have a steady stream of alternative views and perspectives. To any entrepreneurial type this is invaluable and much underrated.
Getting the balance right is key, it isn’t the quantity but the quality of time. In business quality is achieved through good organisation, structures and processes and the right outsourcing and delegation. I have never had such fun in both parts of my life. The business is better than ever, and I have time with my boys that we can never have again as they grow up.
Both are completely priceless and the costs perfectly reasonable. What a terrific emotional return on money.