Being involved in your client’s business is the best thing you can do

Unlike many salaried employees, business owners (the successful ones at least) never stop thinking and obsessing about their work. They are always acutely aware of the sacrifices they have had to make in establishing and growing their business, and they know how easily it can all go wrong. Simply put, they don’t take anything for granted because they know that their hopes and dreams, and those of their families, are intimately linked with their business’s fortunes.

A successful business owner will never truly respect a financial planner who is not interested in the business but only in the money it generated by it. Talking about “risk and return” and “creating wealth” is unlikely to impress a business owner unless the adviser takes an active interest in the business itself. Taking risks and creating wealth are daily realities – not buzzwords – to an entrepreneur.

A business owner’s most trusted adviser is often his accountant because the accountant (by virtue of his job) knows about that which is most important to the entrepreneur: his business. That is why financial planners are often exasperated to hear a business owner say “I just want to run it by my accountant”, even when seems obvious that the accountant wouldn’t know the first thing about the topic involved. It’s all about credibility, and many successful financial planners are today in the same enviable position because they make the effort to truly understand the client’s business.

Best advice

Nobody starts a business by accident. Do you know what your client wants to achieve with his business? Some typical objectives are:

• To have greater freedom and more time with loved ones.

• To grow the value of the business and to sell it after five years.

• To be able to do what you like without corporate pressure.

• To build up the business, put managers in place and then receive ongoing passive income without further direct involvement.

• To attract outside investors and to list on the JSE in 10 years’ time.

• To build up a family business and to hand over the reins to the children upon the owner’s retirement.

However, one business owner’s objectives may be fundamentally different from another’s. What is true in all cases is that these objectives represent important personal goals. Can we really be the client’s “personal” financial planner if we don’t know his objectives? The fact is that most business owners consider their business and personal affairs to be two sides of the same coin. The fortunes of their business will, to a large extent, determine whether their personal lifestyle goals will be realised. By the same token, the state of the personal affairs will often determine whether the business objectives are attainable or not.

It is doubtful whether we’d be giving “best advice” unless we take this delicate interplay between personal and business affairs into consideration. To truly understand a business owner, and to take the professional relationship to the next level, we need to understand his business and his objectives.

More business

Taking an active interest in a client’s business is likely to uncover a whole range of needs and a ready source of new business is likely to uncover a whole range of needs and a ready source of new business, such as buy and sell cover, key-person cover and staff retention schemes, to name but a few. The more you know about your client’s business, the more you can grow your own business.

Owning the client – the “trusted adviser”

If your client is a business owner, you will never become his trusted adviser if you don’t take an active interest in his business. On the other hand, there is nothing more difficult than “stealing” a client from a trusted adviser. The glossiest brochures and the slickest presentations are powerless against a relationship built on trust and understanding.

Moving to the next level

Many advisers feel that they don’t have the technical or practical know-how to get involved in their clients’ businesses. Momentum acknowledges this and that is why we offer qualifying advisers the support that they need to enter into and thrive in this dynamic and lucrative field:

FULCRUM is widely acknowledged as the leading business needs analysis system. This software, which offers seamless integration with the Momentum Quota system, will not only guide you in asking the right questions but will prepare a comprehensive FAIS-compliant needs analysis for you.

We also employ a team of experienced legal and CFP® professionals who can provide technical assistance and specialised consulting support.

If you want to start taking advantage of the opportunities in corporate financial planning, or if you want to take your skills to the next level, ask your marketing adviser to put you in touch with the legal BDM in your area.

Danie Rossouw: senior legal adviser,

Business & Personal Solutions, Momentum