Personal finance consultants must possess expertise in accounting, insurance and financial planning to properly advise their clients’ investments and portfolios. In particular, clients frequently possess significant investments and require regular reviews, communication with them openly regarding risk assessments as well as estate plans to address their needs.
Start by identifying what clients you would like and determining how best to reach them, before setting up the necessary business structures: sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation.
Start With a Business Plan
An effective business plan serves as the blueprint for starting and operating a personal finance consulting service. It will enable you to assess what capital you require, how best to market services offered, as well as your short- and long-term goals for success.
As part of your business plan, when creating a description of your firm you should include a company description detailing what services your business provides to clients. Also outline its ownership structure including percent ownership and involvement by each owner; finally provide an overview of how the business has evolved since its conception.
Discovering your target market should begin by studying industry reports, reviewing financial news and trends, and surveying existing clients to gain an understanding of their interests and pain points. Once you have an overall grasp on who your target market is, it will be necessary to divide it further into subgroups in order to craft targeted messaging that addresses specific groups within it.
Your services will likely include providing assistance and guidance with personal finance management for clients, helping them create budgets, set financial goals and receive advice regarding investments strategies and retirement planning. In addition, you could assist clients with debt management, estate planning or taxation needs as well as support/training needs of staff members.
An effective business plan is essential when starting any type of startup business. A written document outlining goals and strategies as well as investors is an invaluable way to sell the idea behind your venture, make evaluating success easier in later years, and give clear direction if something doesn’t go to plan. A solid business plan also can prevent costly errors that could derail it altogether.
Identify Your Ideal Clients
When it comes to client acquisition, the ideal strategy should be targeting those who truly appreciate your expertise. While this may prove challenging for some financial professionals, you can narrow down your ideal client by studying demographic and psychographic data about them such as age, location, occupation or challenges they are currently facing – such as saving for retirement or managing debt.
Once you have an in-depth knowledge of your ideal client, it is crucial that you focus on their pain points and goals. Doing this will enable you to position yourself as a problem solver by offering tailored solutions that meet their specific needs. Likewise, by analyzing data available in your client database or conducting interviews you can uncover more of their preferences and behaviors – for instance whether they prefer digital communication over meeting with an advisor face-to-face.
Additionally, you can launch a content marketing campaign designed to educate your target audience on different aspects of personal financial management. This is an ideal way of becoming an authority figure in this space and attracting new clients; blog posts, articles, infographics and videos on topics related to finances will work wonders!
By targeting a niche audience, you can distinguish yourself from your competition and attract loyal customers. Furthermore, by encouraging this client base to refer their friends and family members to your business, your reach may increase exponentially.
Staying abreast of industry developments and emerging client needs is also vitally important to identifying opportunities to expand services, leverage unique assets to expand revenues, or develop targeted marketing campaigns that align with ideal client interests and needs – for instance running ads in popular financial magazines or local online forums to reach your ideal clients; using social media promotions as another avenue to broaden reach and build your brand image.
Create a Magnetic Message
Now that you understand who your ideal clients are and the value you can bring them, it’s time to craft your magnetic message. No one says this process should be easy or perfect the first time around; but the key to creating something compelling and specific lies in keeping at it until it comes out right.
Once you’ve created a magnetic message, make it work for you by including it in your email signature and LinkedIn profile. This will allow everyone in your network to understand who you serve, the value you can bring them and why they should recommend you – something Jason Fearnow did and used it to quadruple his income! He now sees marketing as a means to solve client problems and produce results – completely changing how he runs his consulting practice and all thanks to creating magnetic messaging!
Get Referrals
Financial professionals rely heavily on referrals as the source of new clients. Referred clients typically have greater trust in your abilities, making them more likely to engage your services and remain loyal customers – this is why it’s essential that financial professionals constantly seek ways to generate referrals.
One effective strategy for increasing referrals is optimizing landing pages that detail your referral program. These pages should not only list what types of clients you seek but should also contain an easy form that allows people to submit their details quickly – this makes signing up simple while giving you an accurate measure of potential new client acquisition with personal finance consulting services.
Focusing on relationships is another effective way of increasing referrals, such as offering gifts or discounts to current clients who show appreciation. By doing this, your best clients will always keep thinking of you when their friends and family need financial advice and will refer their friends when the time comes.
Final thoughts – it is essential that you become active in your local community and attend networking events that pertain to the industry. Joining like-minded organizations, joining boards or hosting seminars/webinars are great ways of meeting professionals within your field while building strong referral networks.
At its core, referrals can best be attained by asking existing clients directly for them. Financial professionals sometimes make the mistake of dropping subtle hints in hopes that clients will catch on; instead it is best to be proactive about asking your existing clients for referrals, making sure you clearly communicate which type (e.g. high net-worth individuals or women going through transition etc) are being sought as referrals.
