If you’re wondering what is wrong with me (in these pics, not just in general, that’s a much longer newsletter) then the best way to describe it is that these are the faces I pull when I’m getting myself all excited about something. In these instances, a bunch of them were from the
NewIn podcast where we were recording interviews with brilliant new people coming into finance and brilliant advisers setting up their own advice firms. Both the kind of thing that gets me giddy / makes me pull faces!
The others are from the NextWealth Live event I attended on Wednesday. I’ve got soooo many thoughts from that event and so many ideas were sparked. They’re each an Eclipse in themselves and so I’ll try and keep coming back to them in future weeks. One idea I was interested in exploring for now is something we in finance always lean heavily on and perhaps take for granted. And that is the sense of support and community we have across the sector.
Repeatedly talk turned to what we can do to help the 91% of people that are not getting financial advice. One person even proposed that the 9% of people getting advice is an over-estimated stat, and that some of them are only getting a product, but that’s also a conversation for another day. The fact that we lean repeatedly on 91% of people still needing advice, means that there’s very little real competition for clients, which means that we can afford to be incredibly supportive of one another. I see that most in the
Verve Foundation work, with advisers answering each other's questions all day long and offering to mentor new advisers through and
giving up their own time, to help make a theoretical competitor more successful. Where else would you ever see this happen?!
However, there was talk on Wednesday about how much the finance sector has changed now in Australia and it has become far more competitive, with advice firms actively poaching clients from one another. I don’t know if this is ego, some people just enjoying the thrill of the chase, vendettas being repaid or if they are genuinely running out of clients to find and so have to resort to undercutting and / or over servicing others. But it got me pondering what a vastly different world we would be in if that was the environment we were operating in.
On the one hand, standard benefits of market competition would apply, with everyone doubling down on their business evolution, service enhancement and price reduction.
On the other hand, there’s the reputation risk (if we already get the bad headlines now, imagine what it would be like if we were actively backstabbing!) and the ability to evolve and transform might actually be hindered by the lack of knowledge sharing.
I think, on balance, I would take our existing set up over the uber-competitive one. But, if there’s a way of having the best of both, of being collaborative and sharing, but without softening our own edges too much, staying laser focused on keeping our businesses top of their game and our clients absolutely delighted with the service we give them, then maybe that’s the ideal outcome?
Jam-packed Eclipse, as always. We’re just a few weeks away from our
Grow On Tour events; CPD-able, in person, may or may not have new hats… sign up below. If you’ve ever considered starting your own advice business, want to know how it could look and are able to get to sunny Darlington, then we’ve got a
bootcamp next month for you. Plus, the latest episode of the
NewIn Podcast drops soon; you can find out why Simon went from wine to finance (and not the other way round, which would clearly be my own preference!)
Speaking of wine, none of the alcohol-free nonsense this month. Instead this is the perfect time of year for some English sparkling wine; light, refreshing, and giving back to the economy (sort of!)
This is one I haven’t yet tried, so it’s going on the shopping list today.
Have a wonderful weekend all,
.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Blog%20%26%20Eclipse%20GIFS%20(13).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(52).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(50).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(60).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(59).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(56).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(57).png)
/linkedin.png?upscale=true&height=50&upscale=true&name=linkedin.png){kind=small}
