Vishal Dhawan, Plan Ahead Wealth Advisors
When I started off in 2003, I had a few clients working with me. I realized that growing business only by asking for referrals may not help. This was when I decided to reach out to people to grow business.
The first thing I did is write a column for local magazines with a niche audience. For instance, I was a regular contributor for EXIM India which is a B2B publishing group focused on shipping, ports maritime trade, exports and imports.
Now, I write articles for business newspapers which are mainly about how to manage finances, plan for retirement and other topics related to personal finance that can add value to the readers.
This has helped me increase visibility. In fact, I am featured often on business news channels.
Also, I have conducted seminars across various corporate houses and rotary clubs on financial planning.
Ritesh Sheth, Tejas Consultancy
I always try to do something unconventional. I believe that apart from referrals one has to constantly undertake activities which are out of the box.
Here are a few tips to acquire new clients that I would like to share:
- Distributing flyers: We distribute single page flyer describing what we do and how we can help people reach their financial goals. My team distribute these leaflets at traffic signals and railway stations.
- Educating housewives: In my view, spreading financial awareness among housewives is the key to achieve financial inclusion. Housewives are good at budgeting. They saves small amount every month which can be channelized in mutual funds. To reach out to housewives, we distribute brochures through Gujarati newspapers. In these brochures, we try to inculcate investment habits among housewives. We describe how a monthly investment of Rs.500 through SIP in mutual funds can help them accumulate wealth over the long term.
- Conduct seminars: We conduct seminars for parents. The idea is to educate them about the cost attached to bringing up a child and how can they meet higher education expenses through investments. In fact, we try to conduct separate sessions for the parents with special need children.
Another activity that we did recently is serve water to people standing in long queues at banks or ATMs following the demonetization move. We promoted our brand by wearing T shirts with our logo.
