As a part of Franklin Templeton’s Invest For Progress Campaign, we are back with three more inspiring stories that reflect the perseverance and dedication of women mutual fund distributors/registered investment advisors.
In this article, we celebrate the professional journey of three inspiring women mutual fund distributors - Priya Sunder, Simple Shah and Vinita Baraya.
Chapter: Priya Sunder – Excelling with Excel
Once, when Priya and her husband invested in the Indian market, they had a not-so-good experience with their financial intermediary. The incident left them a bit poorer but a lot wiser. This is when the couple decided to take a larger responsibility of guiding others so that they do not encounter similar experiences. And, this incident gave birth to their financial advisory company - PeakAlpha Investment Services.
The duo earlier worked in the US and were new to Bengaluru. To begin with, they defined their vision statement by keeping clients’ interests first. They focused on creating a good investor experience by treating clients’ money as their own.
Priya and her husband initially reached out to family and friends. Additionally, Priya got in touch with the HR heads of various organisations, introduced PeakAlpha Investment Services and scheduled educational workshops. Gradually, they started getting referrals and requests for conducting such workshops at various organisations. This is how their client base expanded to over 5,000 investors.
Another thing that played a key role in their business success was creating a comprehensive excel spreadsheet which eventually became their proprietary tool - PeakPlanner, a financial planning application. The application captures information about all investments and serves as a financial dashboard to evaluate clients’ profiles and offer tailor-made guidance.
Priya believes that exhibiting compassion and empathy are instrumental in nurturing long term relationship with clients.
Her journey highlights:
- Conducting educational workshops at corporates can give you multiple prospects
- You can create a financial application to offer customised guidance
Chapter: Simple Shah – Keeping it Simple!
After completing her education, Simple got married and looked after household chores and took over other family responsibilities. However, she always dreamt of creating her own identity as a businesswoman. She still recollects the days when she wore her male friend’s blazer simply to take pictures in a business suit.
Little did she know that very soon she would don her own blazer and climb the ladder to success.
Simple embarked upon her entrepreneurial journey as a fixed deposit agent. One day, she attended a session on mutual funds distribution by Franklin Templeton on her friend’s suggestion. Simple was impressed to know that the mutual funds can help her clients achieve all life goals and at the same time offer good business opportunity to distributors. This is how she became a mutual fund distributor.
As soon as she turned the page to this new chapter of mutual fund distribution, she wrote two simple rules for herself - Keep the hunger for knowledge alive and empathise with your clients.
Simple upgrades herself by reading, doing certification courses and attending conferences like Cafemutual Ideas Fest. Another activity that accelerated her growth is keeping client conversation casual. She treats her clients as her friends and believes it makes them comfortable to open up.
Following these simple rules, Simple widened her client base from a few known acquaintances to over 850 investors. Notably, 20% of her clients are spread across geographies like the USA, Australia, London and Muscat amongst others.
Today, Simple manages over Rs. 100 crore of assets and guides her daughter who recently joined her business. Notably, her daughter is a college student and a budding mutual fund distributor.
Simple’s story teaches us to:
- Keep your hunger for knowledge alive and learn as much as possible
- Treat your clients as friends to make them comfortable
Chapter: Vinita Baraya – A family tradition
Vinita, a cost accountant by qualification worked as a branch head in a renowned distribution house. While the work was going well, the role demanded a transfer outside of her hometown i.e. Jaipur. She was sceptical about leaving her family behind and decided to give it a pass.
After leaving her job, Vinita focused on setting up her own business so that she could comfortably look after her family which included her two children.
Since Vinita was associated with the distribution industry, she was well-versed with mutual funds, their benefits and potential. She took the leap of faith and began her entrepreneurial journey as a mutual fund distributor.
Whenever Vinita met prospects for the first time, she spoke about mutual funds from the very basics, gave a presentation and proactively took up commonly asked questions to make them comfortable to invest in mutual funds.
What really worked in her favour was encouraging clients to bring their children for meetings. Such meetings gave the younger generation exposure to concepts like investment and financial discipline. As such meetings continued, the next generation eventually approached Vinita for guidance. Notably, she looks after the portfolios of not only the second but also the third generation of her investors’ families.
Today, Vinita caters to over 100 families. She also makes time for hobbies - singing, gardening, painting, etc. She believes pursuing hobbies is what keeps her mind calm and improves productivity.
Lessons from Vinita’s inspiring journey:
- Encouraging clients to bring their children to meetings can open up new business prospects
- Pursuing hobbies keeps your mind calm and enhance productivity
