Interview with Chris Browne.WMV

Key Takeaways

hello and welcome to today's interview I'm honored to have Chris Brown from Financial design for life with us today welcome Chris good day R how are you good good Chris please tell us um how long have you had your own business for and what do you specialize in um we set up the business about 5 years ago um uh I was working with the National Australia bank at the time and Ned to get some Financial advice myself uh had a couple of client meetings which were pretty disappointing and as a consequence I just thought there were a lot of people who looked like myself who needed help um so as a consequence I set up a uh financial planning business that specializes in advice for Gen x's and Y great nich love the story Chris Tony what awards have you won uh I was lucky enough uh in 2007 to win the um Association of financial advisor um rising star of the Year award which is um which is given to uh the best up andc comers so uh yeah it was very pleasing and good recognition fantastic congratulations well done what do you think makes your business look successful Chris I I think uh our success particularly in the last two or three years has got to do with the fact that I've built um great processes within the business and I've also attracted great staff members members into the business we've got a uh you know young well qualified energetic team that really delivers on the uh client value proposition that we um that we promote to our clients fantastic what would be your five business Improvement tips if you could offer any to a business owner now what would they be I I actually um was thinking about this and I think the the uh the key thing would be um at day one is to sit down with someone um because I had all of these ideas and I actually engaged a business coach like yourself and uh and I and I said I I literally just sat down with him just to validate the direction that I was taking and validate the financial targets that I'd set and validate my decision to focus on gen x's and y's and although they agreed with a lot of stuff they actually challenged me on a number of issues um and I think that it made the business plan for financial design for life a little bit more robust and um they brought up issues that I hadn't simply thought about so just make sure that you that you have someone in your corner that that challenges you and uh and that you can work with and and you've got a good open um working relationship so that would be number one um the next thing is and and this was something that I suggested to a young advisor PE group just recently is always put your clients first always um because I think it's really easy in small business to worry about your financial objectives and sometimes compromise on that um and I just think that if you absolutely never ever ever compromise on that and you always do what is in the best interest from the client from a product point of view from an advice point of view from any point of view success will come so that would be number two yep um and there's nothing number number three I'd say there's actually nothing wrong with selling um when I ENT the industry um there were a lot of my peers out there and they just said that I'm not a Salesman I'm not a Salesman don't call me a Sal I'm a strategic financial advisor at the end of the day to make a success in small business you actually need to generate revenue and unless you're prepared to do that and get off your backside and make the calls um that that generate that sort of success uh you're not going to have any luck so don't be afraid to uh tell people what you do and don't be afraid to sort of say you know could could I have some of your time just to sit down and and explain what I can do and whether or not my services would be valuable to your situation so I think that's important also number four uh number four number four don't over capitalize um it was interesting I've got a lot of peers when who started out the same time as me and they went in and they got the best office and they got the you know the 30-year-old personal assistant and they just they got the you know the iPhone they got all of the the UB things um and I and I my own cour was I was actually working out of the front bedroom of my home um I made sure that every fee that was paid I scrutinized and I got it down to the lowest lowest amount possible um and and I think that served me really well cuz although it was torturous in the first 6 months uh it meant that you know I had sign I had good cash flow you know it was probably one of the most profitable times for the business and it meant that I could actually use that cash flow to grow and keep moving forward whereas the other punters who really sort of spent too much um it created sort of financial hardship for them they were under the pump to make the next sale and I think that was really that's reflected in you know they ended up being a little bit more desperate than I needed to be so so that would be number four and uh number five would be uh never lose sight of the fact that we're in um business to be profitable um at the end of the day that's my number one objective to make a profit at the end of the day FDL certainly isn't a charity um we're a client centered business that is always looking to put the consumer first but at the end of the day we must also make a profit every time that we meet with a client so um and and I think that was born out of the fact that my financial um sorry my business coach actually sat me down and slapped me a couple of times because as you know um I've got a bit of a philanthropic streak in me um but he just sat me down and said look Chris if if this is going to be a success if this is going to be a long-term sustainable business model you need to never lose sight of the fact that we're in it to make a profit beautiful Chris thank you for sharing today really do appreciate it um I appreciate the time and advice that you've that you've shared that was Chris Brown from award-winning company Financial design for Life thanks Rachel for