Your work as an Independent Financial Adviser is to help simplify people’s challenges when it comes to building, managing and protecting their wealth. Your value lies in being able to uncomplicate their lives and open them up to more growth opportunities.
This means uncomplicating your life first!
We believe that there are three core business fundamentals that should form the basis of your business plan as an IFA:
1 – Your value proposition
2 – Who your ideal client is
3 – How you’re getting paid
Understanding your value proposition is where many IFAs struggle and it’s unfortunately where many can go wrong. It actually can’t be answered in isolation of the other two because you need to first understand all the benefits of your services or products and what makes them valuable. Then… you need to be able to connect that value to your ideal client’s problems in a sustainable billing model.
Learning to articulate your value proposition will give you a clear understanding of the niche you should be focussing on – which is knowing who your ideal client is. People who are willing to pay for your value proposition are not looking for a one-size-fits-all kind of solution (or adviser!), so don’t aim to serve everyone – even if you currently feel like a Jack-of-all-trades.
Defining your niche helps you understand and articulate the specific areas that your clients need help in. This elevates your value proposition; and you’ll be focusing on the problems you can solve well, which improves your fulfillment in doing what you do best.
While it may be a challenge to find your niche, we have found that sometimes it finds you! Consider looking at the people who render your services the most and review your reasons for working with them. Knowing their likes and dislikes can be important in determining how much you charge.
Whether it’s by commission, upfront payment or a monthly retainer, there has to be value in it for your ideal clients. When they understand your value proposition, they will have no problem paying you for that value – this is part of what makes them an ideal client.
This is then where you are faced with the challenge of knowing how you’re getting paid, where that money is coming in and where it’s going out. The Commspace system is designed to help you manage, split, track and analyse your commission and revenue with precision so that this becomes an easy task. These are the basics of revenue analytics.
We work with you to save you time, so that you can focus on making a positive difference in your clients’ lives; refining your value proposition, delivering a valuable service and creating time to do the important stuff.
