For businesses, nothing is more important than having a good team. MFDs too need the right set of people to do business efficiently and drive growth.
Given the low margins in the business, it is important that MFDs get the hiring decisions right. You need to ensure that the right talent joins the team at the right time.
So, how should you go about building a team? When should you hire the first employee and for what role? What qualification should you seek?
We spoke to MFDs to find answers to these questions. And what we derived from the conversations is that no more than four people are required to manage a sizeable distribution business (say having an AUM of Rs.100-200 crore).
"Three staffers along with the MFD are more than enough to handle 100 clients. An MFD can choose to have more but that may put strain on finances," said Bharat Bagla of Bees Network.
The three hirings can be for the roles of office assistant, back office operations and customer service, say MFDs.
"I think 4 people including the MFD are enough to manage a sizeable business. One back office guy, one office assistant and one person to hand hold clients," said Vinod Jain, founder of Jain Privy Client.
"Once the number of clients go up, more people will be required on the front end," he added.
Here are the responsibilities each employee can be assigned with:
Office assistant
1. Ensuring transfer of documents from office to clients and vice versa
2. Helping you and other employees in their work
Operations manager
1. Executing transactions
2. Maintaining records
3. Provide documents sought by clients
Customer service manager
1. Help out clients fill up forms
2. Register customer requests and complaints and get them resolved
With this system in place, MFDs will mostly be free of day-to-day operations and can focus on bringing new clients and expanding the business.
When and whom to hire as first employee?
According to Vinod Jain, MFDs should hire a back office assistant as early as possible. However, Bharat Bagla says the hiring should depend on the revenue. "Hire only if you can afford," he says, adding that revenues of most new MFDs is not large enough to afford an assistant.
All the employees should preferably be graduates. When hiring front office staff, MFDs should look for good communication skills.
