Gajendra Kothari hails from
Jorhat, a city in northern Assam. With a quest to make it big independently,
Gajendra left behind his family business and took up a job with UTI after doing
his MBA from Delhi’s International Management Institute.
Early exposure to the financial world
Gajendra rose to the ranks of vice president of products for UTI’s PMS division. UTI had offered Gajendra a posting to Guwahati which was close to his hometown. However, Gajendra felt that he needed a larger exposure in Mumbai. He was subsequently sent to London to head UTI’s business development in UK and European markets for a span of 3 years.
Throughout his sales career,
Gajendra was exposed to how financial products were sold to gullible investors.
Gajendra started mulling over the idea of becoming a financial advisor in spite
of the entry load ban. He had to make a tough choice between a lucrative job
and the dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Confident that he could always bag a
job, Gajendra if his business did not do well, he decided to take the plunge.
In the meanwhile, Gajendra’s younger brother – Virendra too came to Mumbai after landing a job at broking firm Anand Rathi as a relationship manager. Virendra subsequently worked as equity advisor at Sharekhan for over three years.
They bought an office space in Mumbai’s plush Lokhandwala area and named their business Etica, a Spanish-Portuguese word which means ethics.
Gajendra, 31, is a CFA charter holder, CAIA and has International Certificate in Financial Advice (ICFA) from UK London under his belt. His brother Virendra, 27 is also a CFA charter holder from the CFA Institute, USA. Their sound knowledge in finance coupled with their experience with leading names in the world of finance turned out to be a great advantage.
Business mantras
Their success mantras are - honesty, investor awareness and technology. Gajendra carries an iPad so that he can show facts and figures to clients and solve their queries. To convince clients that he puts his money where his mouth is, he often shows clients their personal account statements. This way, the clients get convinced about the sincerity of their recommendation.
They believe technology is very important and can increase the efficiency of the advisor and IFAs should try to incorporate technology in their daily functioning as far as possible. They see social media as a big opportunity and now want to explore that platform to take their business to next level.
Business development
All their clients have come through
referrals and investor awareness camps. As a part of his initial investor
awareness campaign, Virendra thought he needs to spread the concept of mutual
funds back home in Assam. He says that Assamese have money to invest but there
is a severe lack of awareness about the markets and mutual funds. Along with
his distant relative who runs a stock broking firm, Gajendra organized a successful
half day camp on “Financial
Planning & Wealth Management” at Jorhat.
So far he has 150 investors from Assam,
all of whom invest through SIPs. The interesting thing is that all of them who were
used to getting pass back earlier are now paying a fee.
Gajendra has conducted more than 100 training sessions in the areas of personal finance and investments at BSE, Inter-Connected Stock Exchange, Jago Investor Forum and at various B-schools and colleges in the country.
Though they have a wide range of products to
offer (from insurance, alternate investments to commodities), their major
thrust is on SIPs and single goal based plans. Most of their SIPs are
perpetual. Against the industry average ticket size of Rs. 1500, they claim to
have an average ticket size of Rs. 7200.
Etica has refrained from tying up with any single insurer so that their advice remains fair and unbiased. As a sub broker of Bajaj Capital, a corporate broker, they are able to offer wider choice of insurance products.
Hard work pays off
Weekends and public holidays are usually busy days for both brothers as most clients are free only on weekends. It’s been long time since they have had a real vacation but they are ready to be there 24x7 for their passion. Their wives never stop complaining about them as they keep talking about their business at home. They have put in hard work in the beginning days have created a name and brand amongst their clients and now are reaping benefits.
Message to budding IFAs
“It is the best of businesses to be in and the industry has a very bright future. There is enough space out there for everybody.There is not huge requirement for capital; however intellectual capital is inevitable to succeed in the long run. When you just start up, things might look a little dull and difficult but if you hang on with honesty and integrity in the long run things will be turn out to be beyond expectations.”