Nitin has 80 financial planning clients who pay him Rs. 14,000 annually! The young chap from a small village called Vita in Maharashtra’s Sangli district is starting a sort of revolution in financial planning landscape in rural India.
Nitin
Sawant, 29, stays in a small village called Lengara in Maharashtra’s Sangli
district.
After finishing his MBA from Vishwakarma Institute of Management in Pune, Nitin landed a job in State Street, an international firm which provides investment management, investment research and trading, and investment servicing services to institutional investors.
Nitin’s job involved overseeing the transactions executed by advisers in US. His curiosity led him to dig deeper in the financial planning industry. Finding that the financial planning industry in India was still nascent, he sensed a great opportunity for such a service in India.
Nitin found that the practices adopted by advisors in US were vastly different from what he saw in India. “From whatever little experience I had with mutual fund or LIC agents, I found that the emphasis was more on product selling than on financial planning. I researched more about financial planning. I met a lot of advisors in Pune, Mumbai and other cities who apprised me about the scope and opportunity of financial planners in India,” recalls Nitin.
The entrepreneurial plunge
Unlike others who turn entrepreneurs after gaining years of corporate experience, Nitin took the entrepreneurial plunge just after six months of experience as a back office executive.
After working for nearly six months in State Street, Nitin left his job to float his advisory practice in Vita. Nitin had a buffer of six months expense to take care of his business overheads. He set a target of 50 clients in three years.
Since there were no offices of AMCs or R&Ts in his village, Nitin partnered with NJ India to get the technology and marketing support. Nitin started meeting five people in groups in Vita to tell them about his services.
Client conversion was difficult. Nitin did not have any revenue for six months and was struggling to pay even his office rent.
Financial planning
Guidance and encouragement by established planners gave him the comfort and inspiration to start fee based planning with full zeal. Nitin started his fee based practice after a year and half of setting up his office.
He started pitching financial planning services in groups of five in his Taluka. He did not find any takers for financial planning in his first such group meeting. In his second meeting, a businessmen who runs printing press agreed to pay him Rs. 3,000 for a financial plan.
Slowly and steadily he acquired 20 such clients. Like any other start up Nitin had his share of teething troubles. He did not find any software for financial planning which matched his requirements fully.
From Rs. 3,000 earlier, he is now able to charge Rs. 20,000 for writing a financial plan!
What is inspiring about Nitin’s model is that he is able to convince clients to shell out Rs. 20,000 and a renewal fee of Rs. 14,000 annually for writing a financial plan in a small town like Vita.
When asked about how he convinces prospects, he said “Advisors have a preconceived notion that people are unwilling to pay. I explain to my prospects about goal based financial planning, the importance of asset allocation and other aspects of financial planning. I have no competitor in my Taluka. Once they see value addition in your services they are willing to pay fee.”
He was researching about financial planning and that’s when he came to know about Sumeet Vaid who runs fee based financial planning practice in Mumbai. Sumeet offered Nitin help him with writing financial plans and take charge of all his back end work. Nitin found this proposition attractive and tied up with Ffreedom Financials, a firm run by Sumeet.
From 20, his fee based clientele grew to 80 in a short span of time. So impressed was Sumeet with Nitin’s commitment that he asked him to become a business partner and take charge of roping in more IFAs across South Maharashtra.
“Earlier I used to struggle to convert prospects. The conversion ratio was 1:10. Now it is 5:10,” shares Nitin. He says associating with Sumeet has been a real turning point in his business.
Clientele
Nitin has a full-fledged office and employs eight people. Apart from financial planning, his office offers trading in equity, commodity and products of Bajaj Finance. Distance is not a barrier for Nitin’s business. His office is equipped with Wi-Fi and he interacts with his clients on Skype. He has a mix of clients consisting of businessmen, salaried individuals and doctors. Nitin has built a great rapport with his clients. “My clients don’t buy any financial product before consulting me,” says Nitin.
Going ahead
He has a five year plan for his business. His aim is to acquire 500 clients and train 50 IFAs in South Maharashtra to take up financial planning.
Lesson
Nitin had the courage and conviction to follow his dreams. His story teaches us that if you have the passion for something, success will eventually follow no matter how hard the journey may be.