Look beyond HNW clients, says fundie

Speaking as part of a panel discussion at the ifa Business Strategy Day in Sydney last week, Fortius executive director Ray Sproats said many advisers succumbed to misconceptions regarding where their business was generated, and this hurt their practice.

“We’ve all heard that 80/20 rule, that 80 per cent of your business comes from 20 per cent of your clients, well I’ve seen so many businesses fail because they took that on,” he said.

“There’s no one that I won’t talk to and there is no small amount of money that I won’t spend a lot of time on, because it may not in itself be much, but it will lead to unbelievable things – I’m constantly amazed at how much money people have access to, or friends who do.”

Mr Sproats said the critical component in successfully growing a business came down to “patience and perseverance” instead.

“Reputation is the only thing you can’t buy, you’ve all heard that before and believe me it’s true, and it’s so easy to lose in the financial business,” he said.

“And one of the things I’ve learned going in to this space is that you’re much better served by your clients than the big institutional level – they are a nightmare, they’re fairweather friends, and believe me, our focus is on this size business; that requires patience, perseverance and reputation.”