Padmanaban B. from Chennai has made smart use of mass media and social media to expand his clientele.
Born in a middle class Tamil family in Pudukkottai (a
district in Tamil Nadu), Padmanaban learnt the basics of financial management
from his father who had managed to take care of a family of six with his modest
salary.
A Physics postgraduate from Bharathidasan University in 1995, Padmanaban was fascinated with personal finance and stock market from a young age. Unlike his classmates who used to read Physics theories like Bernoulli’s theorem, Newton’s law of motion etc. in college library, Padmanaban preferred reading books and magazines related to personal finance.
Padmanaban relocated to Chennai in the year 1996 and joined a German-headquartered e-publishing company Springer Verlag as a proof reader (science). There he observed that some of his colleagues had no time to manage their wealth. Also, some of them were stuck with poor investment choices and had incurred financial loss due to their limited financial knowledge. Sensing an opportunity in financial advisory business, Padmanaban decided to take up insurance and mutual fund distribution to earn some extra income on a part time basis.
Initially he found it tough to convince people since people found the lure of pyramid schemes irresistible. As a consequence, he didn’t get a single client for the first few months. However, his siblings supported him and gave him his first two applications. Gradually, a few more friends and colleagues invested through him.
Very soon, Padmanaban built a strong client base of his relatives and friends but failed to convince others to invest through him. Since he was still advising people on part-time basis, he was not taken seriously.
That is when Padmanaban decided to set up a full time advisory business even though it meant giving up the security of a regular income. Even though his wife, friends and relatives advised him not to leave the well-paying job, he quit his job in 2009 after creating a buffer of Rs 5 lakh so as to meet the household expenses. This gave him confidence and time to focus on establishing a strong presence in financial advisory services.
He cleared CFP exam and became an IFA the same year. His initial years were difficult as he struggled to get new clients. To market himself, Padmanaban started writing articles in a Tamil daily about the significance of financial planning and on SIPs. Soon, he acquired new clients and got referrals from the existing ones.
Today Padmanaban caters to almost 500 clients and has assets under advisory of Rs 8.5 crore. Most of his clients are retail investors.
Increased Social Media Marketing
In order to create his visibility, Padmanaban is active on social media and has uploaded videos, financial quotes and articles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. He also uses these sites to stay in regular touch with them. In fact, this has helped him get many queries.
Services Offered
Besides distribution, Padmanaban provides comprehensive financial planning and investment advice to his clients on a fee-base model. “Initially I used to get 6-8 clients annually for financial planning but now-a-days I get 1-2 clients every month,” he recalls
However, he does not charge any fee for mutual fund distribution. He has tied up with FundsIndia and iFAST to provide hassle-free online investment services to his clients.
Business Ideology
Padmanaban believes a SIP is the best bet for retail investors. According to him, mutual fund is the best way forward to create wealth for clients as well as for advisers. However, many advisors have ventured into other product categories and in the process, find it difficult to cope up with existing challenges in mutual funds industry.
Future Plans
With a strong focus on retail customers, Padmanaban plans to expand his business in B-15 cities. According to him these small cities have a huge potential. He also plans to strengthen his online presence by adding more tools for financial planning and online investment.
Sharing his future plans with Cafemutual, he says, “My business is still at a very nascent stage and so I give more emphasis on innovation and spreading financial literacy. I want to be among the best financial planners in the next five years.”