ADVISER KNOWHOW THE WEEKLY TV PROGRAMME FOR ADVISERS BY ADVISERS HOW TO CARVE OUT A NICHE IN YOUR BUSINESS Finding a niche is one way of making your business stand out, particularly in the retail distribution review world. So how do you decide what to specialise in, and what sort of process should you go through to build it into your proposition? KEY POINTS 1 You might not have to look very far to find your niche 2 Focus and keep working away at it 3 Look at what is being offered on the market
KEY POINTS KEY POINTS FOR THIS WEEK S EPISODE, FEATURING AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW LIDDLE OF FINANCIAL FITNESS. YOU MIGHT NOT HAVE TO LOOK VERY FAR TO FIND 1 3 YOUR NICHE 2 It will credit your proposition if your niche is in a field you are familiar with already If your niche is not immediately obvious, you should look for gaps in advice as you may just stumble across it Combine something that you are, or something you enjoy with skills that you already have FOCUS AND KEEP WORKING AWAY AT IT LOOK AT WHAT IS BEING OFFERED ON THE MARKET The industry your niche points at might move on quite quickly, so you need to keep on top of changes there as well as changes to regulatory requirements Listen to what your clients want, or people already receiving advice in this area Consider outsourcing parts of your offering and/ or developing bespoke products to make your proposition stand out even further Development of your niche is like the development of the iphone, it can take years and will need to be honed regularly Thorough research will show your clients your dedication and in turn, attract more clients
PROGRAMME TRANSCRIPT How did I discover the niche? I am living the niche. I am the American ex-pat in London Kris Heck, Partner, Tanager Wealth Management Providing core expertise in a certain area will not only help you stand out from the crowd, but will also justify your fees to your clients in the RDR world, as well as provide value to your business proposition. So how do you carve out a niche? Today I ve got in the studio. Andrew is the managing director of Financial Fitness and he s here to talk about his business, which provides specialist business advice to professionals working in the fitness industry., New Model Adviser Welcome Andrew., Managing Director, Financial Fitness Ltd Good morning, Amy. So, Andrew, what sort of clients are on your books and what advice do you normally offer them? It s very simple, really. We work exclusively in the fitness and healthcare professional market, and it s a range of products from covering their protection needs and we re just about to launch a life and pension offering as well. There are a number of other advisers across the country that also specialise in a niche. Let s have a look and see what they had to say. VOX POPS What is your niche? Kris Heck, Partner, Tanager Wealth Management My niche and our niche at Tanager Wealth Management is working with American ex-pats in the U.K. Jarrod Ellis, IFA, Delta Financial Management One of our niches is advising media clients, pop stars, actors, etcetera. How did you discover your niche? Kris Heck How did I discover the niche? I am living the niche. I am the American ex-pat in London, I am the one who has had the pension problems, I am the one who has had to find out what investments are appropriate for Americans. I am the one who has had to do my own taxes, unfortunately. I am the one who had to find the specialist just for myself to do U.S. and U.K. taxes. So the niche happened to me; I didn t happen upon the niche. Jarrod Ellis What happened is, the accountancy firm, who refer a lot of clients to us, who also own our firm had been specialists in the media industry for about thirty years. So, we kind of stumbled across it by accident, really. How do you build a business through advising a niche? Kris Heck I think you focus on something relentlessly and you keep working away until it is perfect. You see this in other products as well, whether it s software, such as Microsoft Office, it s been honed to do exactly one thing over the course of thirty years or whether it s an iphone that s been honed over the course of ten years to do one thing. It s the same with the advisory practice. You find a certain client base, you develop the specialist knowledge and you keep honing your own skill set to add value to those clients that they can see and they appreciate. Then you ll attract others clients of the same niche and it then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Jarrod Ellis Well, I think firstly, if we take music industry clients, it s very important to understand their cash flow and taxation issues. Quite often they will come into large amounts of money and they ll need to set money aside for tax. You also need to realise that sometimes those careers can be very short lived. How do you make your way into a niche? Kris Heck I think that every adviser should be able to find a niche, and I think that you have to combine something that you are or that you enjoy along with some skills that you have and that you can apply to that segment. Maybe it is working
We analysed what we ve done, we ve looked at what works well, what hasn t worked as well, and we ve tried to refine that Jarrod Ellis, IFA, Delta Financial Management with divorcés, maybe it is working with recent widows, maybe it s working with American ex-pats in London. Whatever it is, find something that you understand and that you can relate to and you can apply your own skill set to. Jarrod Ellis I think what we ve done as a firm is analyse what we ve done, we ve looked at what works well, what hasn t worked as well, and we ve tried to refine that and then obviously promote that to the accountancy firms that refer clients to us, so that they understand that we understand the issues faced by those types of client, and that we can provide appropriate solutions for them. END OF VOX POPS So, how did you discover your niche, Andrew? How do you build up to that? The fitness industry is an industry that I ve been interested in for many years. I met a key individual back in 2009, Andy McGlynn. Andy McGlynn is a bit of a mover and shaker in the fitness industry, one of the best personal trainers I ve ever met. He started to explain some of the issues that these guys and girls were facing and I immediately went into potential solution mode. I guess that our working relationship is now history. How do you specialise and build up a business once you ve discovered that niche? One of the major issues that the industry faces is that there is a legal requirement to have public and professional liability insurance to be able to train with clients, and the market offering was quite poor. The industry moves on quite quickly with new training regimes and that sort of thing coming on all the time. The existing policies that were around in the market place that I was referring to are quite historic in nature and weren t covering the latest training techniques. So we worked closely with a wellrenowned broker, Stackhouse Poland for about 12 months or so, in terms of what we needed within that policy, looked around the various insurers that were available and settled on Hiscox. So for the last year or so, we have been working very closely with Hiscox, who are Europe s largest commercial insurer to bring a bespoke product to the market, which is only available through ourselves. Talking about RDR now, do you think that has made it easier or harder for an adviser firm to be specialist? Good question, Amy. I think, to be honest I take a fairly neutral stance on that one. We embrace regulation in whatever format that takes and personally I have done for the last 25-plus years now. We ve been through a number of different regulatory environments and organisations. You need to embrace it; otherwise it slows your business down. Thank you Andrew, it s been a pleasure having you in the studio. Thank you, Amy. Much appreciated. You can download the cribsheet for this week s edition at citywire.co.uk/ adviserknowhow or bnymellonam. co.uk/adviserknowhow. Or you can add your own views at @ AdviserKnowHow on Twitter.
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