Mimi Partha Sarathy, Sinhasi Consultants
My foray in financial advisory was not planned. I started my career with Tanishq in 1997 where I learned marketing and management. I moved to Jet Airways in 1998 where I was heading the newly started corporate sales team in Bengaluru. In this role, I learned how to sell, which is vital for any business to thrive.
I happened to meet the MD of ILFS Investsmart at a conference in Bengaluru. The company wanted to expand into the HNI segment and was looking for someone to head this department. He was impressed by my finance skills since I also hold Diploma in Cost Accounting and a double Masters in Finance & Marketing. Later he offered me a job at ILFS and I joined them in 1999. After gaining experience in financial services, I decided to start my own venture, Sinhasi Consultants in 2005.
Everything happened by chance in my career. In each job, I was one of the founding employees which taught me about entrepreneurship and multi-tasking.
Some of the key things that helped me excel are:
- Dedication and commitment to clients
- My focus on niche clientele - HNIs
- Simple systems and processes with a high level of discipline
- Use of technology
- Strong value based training for the team
Advice to budding women IFAs: Women are more committed and trusted as financial advisers so this presents an opportunity for them. Women understand money very well and if they are open to learning more about money, they can be very successful financial planners. Finally, they need to learn to balance personal and professional life.
Jennifer Mendes, JM Wealth Creation Services
I used to work in a bank in Mumbai. After my second child was born, I had to choose between my personal and professional life. I chose the former. Later, we moved to Goa and when my children started going to school, I wanted to utilize my time. I started selling postal saving schemes and corporate fixed deposits. In 1999, I got an invite from SBI Mutual Fund to attend a seminar on mutual funds. This seminar was an eye-opener for me. I found the product very useful and started researching MFs. Later that year, I started selling mutual funds. Today, I manage 8,000 clients who are spread across Goa and other parts of the country.
Some of the key things that helped me excel are:
- Building relationships: People in Goa value relationships. In fact, my tag line also says, ‘Wealth creation with a personal and professional touch.’
- Simplicity: We talk in investors language by avoiding jargon.
Advice to budding women IFAs:
This is the best profession for women. They can cater to women investors as they can relate with them better. In my experience, I have seen clients trust women IFAs more than men.
