Hiten Shah, Hiten Shah Financial Advisors
I was only 18 years old when I started the business of providing financial services to the people. Since I was a fresher in the industry, very few people took me seriously. Also, I started my career when the markets crashed in 2008 so acquiring clients during that phase was a challenge for me. I started approaching my family and friends as this seemed to be easiest route. My first client was my friend who started an SIP of Rs.1500 which has now increased to Rs.16000 per month.
Though he was my friend, but convincing him was very difficult. It took three to four meetings to convince him of the benefits of long term investing and SIPs. But once he started, his conviction was so strong that he gave me 10-15 referrals at one go!
However, some of my industry colleagues demotivated me saying that you cannot sustain this business on SIPs of small amounts like Rs.1500. Being young and naïve, I soon started regretting my decision to be in financial advisory profession. Surprisingly, my first client who was also my friend boosted my confidence and advised me to never underestimate any client. He said even if you are not making any revenue now, who knows, the small client can also become an HNI someday!
Viral Bhatt, Money Mantra
After I completed my post-graduation in financial planning, one of the professors referred me to a lady who wanted to do goal based investment planning. Her money was predominantly in fixed deposits and she had not done any investment planning for the future.
Since she was my first client, I had to learn the art of persuasion. Since she wasn’t very aware about different investment options, I had to continuously educate her. The real test was that even after conducting few meetings, she was not convinced to invest in mutual funds. This incident taught me to be patient and persevere even if the client disapproves your advice. After I showed her a lot of case studies, she started an SIP of Rs.10, 000 and invested a surplus amount of Rs.50, 000 as well.
She started paying me fees after getting convinced about my services. Just six months later, she asked me to manage the finances of her entire family and gave me two more referrals as well. My first client taught me that investors take time to trust their adviser and one must not easily give up.
