Shweta Jain, Founder, Investography, chats with Ravi Samalad about her entrepreneurial journey as shares tips for advisers.
You started your practice a year back. Tell us why did you decide to take the entrepreneurial plunge and how has been the journey so far?
The journey has been tough but fun. I've been in the personal finance industry for 15 years now. And after 14.5 years working with a financial advisory firm, I started on my own. I wanted the freedom to do not just what I want to do but also how I want to do it.
This was not just about managing wealth further. It was more about educating people on how they can manage their money better. We take a myopic view when it comes to investments because this is the investment industry. But as an adviser, I like to talk to people about the money that they are earning, spending, and the difficulties that they have when they are trying to save. So, money is a more comprehensive term than investments. So, we help people manage their money. I believe it's a long-term profession and I'm in it for the long term.
Watch the video interview here.
You have conducted more than 1,000 financial literacy programmes. What kind of topics do you cover and what feedback you get from investors?
We do workshops for individuals who are either part of a company, as employees or different groups. The topics are focused on the challenges people face. For instance, ‘Good Money Habits’ is one of the topics which is received well. I realized about eight years ago that while everybody is focused on making money, nobody is really helping people on how to manage that money once they have started earning. And I saw more and more young people into debt. People are struggling when it comes to managing money.
I know of my own close circle who are not in finance didn't know how to write a cheque. So helping people with money became my calling. I think it's a life skill and it's not being taught today.
We help people do retirement planning, which is not just financial. We probe people into what do they want to do post retirement, what kind of life do they want to live. It's not just financial. Like everything that is around us will impact us financially and if you don't have the money to do some of these things, it really hurts us emotionally. So, money and emotions are very closely linked. Most of our workshops are not necessarily all the time talking about money; it's about what do you want to do in your life and how money can be an enabler. We even do workshops on regular tax planning for a simple reason that companies have that as a mandate sometimes. And we are happy to help people save taxes.
What do we do differently in these? We use these as building our credibility, not building our business. Most of the companies that we work with pay us for the simple reason that we are not there to peddle our services or products. We are there telling these people where nobody is telling them open a PPF account. We're telling them open a PPF account, you are young, you have time on your side. Even if you are investing as low as Rs 1,000, open that account today. Because I was somebody who did this 15 years back and I know it helped me and I want to make sure that people know some of these things and are able to help themselves by attending some of these things.
So, coming to social media, what is the approach that advisers should be taking? Which kind of medium should they adopt? How do they go about generating content for social media?
Social media is a way to build my brand. It's not to actually generate leads. The brand Investography is much more than the business we generate. It's what we stand for.
They should use the platform that they are comfortable with. If you are not comfortable with any of these, try and see where your audience is. Connect with them on that media, be it Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Curate content which you think you can stand by, whether you've written it or not is irrelevant. If you are all for term insurance, talk about it. If there are articles that you can refer to, be it by any publication, be it by any author, share these with your prospects, business connects, family and relatives. We undermine our social circle tremendously. WhatsApp as a medium is being used for business much more than any other platform because you just can't avoid it today. I'm definitely on WhatsApp. And most people are more active on WhatsApp than we'd like to. It's become an addiction. And the fact that you have to reply to that message is more than any addiction could be.
Keep sharing things that you think your prospects would like to hear and what you stand by. You have to be consistent and you have to keep doing it regularly if you want to see results. I think we give up too fast. We don't give it time. Just like equity is for long-term, social media or any kind of media presence for that matter, you have to be consistent, not just in your presence but in your messaging as well. So, you can't keep going back and forth on anything that you believe in.
Don't push. I know a lot of people who have come back to us as clients after six months even appreciate the fact that we've not called them to sign up with us?
Use education as a way to generate business for you. Don't have an ulterior motive. What you want from these posts that you do. Is it education? Is it business? There are ways to pursue business subtly rather than be in their face. Nobody likes a salesman today. But each one of us is a sales person, right? We are selling ourselves to the media, to people. We want people to like us, whether it's an interview, whatever it is. So, if you are upfront about what you are doing, people will appreciate that more. People today appreciate honesty even more because it's scarce.
What are the things that advisers should avoid on social media?
I think they should not get into trolling on social media, arguments, sell a particular scheme or a product or a fund house. I'm aware that we have all our recommendation baskets, but you do not want to just look like you are promoting one product for the simple reason that one product will not fit all. It may be right for some people. And if you are going and putting your neck on the line for a product, tell who it is for and who is it for not. If you are going to be that clear, then definitely do that. But otherwise, I think just stay away from product recommendations and specific recommendations because you don't know who is following what.
So, Shweta, your first book as an author "My Conversations with Money." Tell us what inspired you to write this book and what are the key takeaways for investors?
It is for people who want to learn about money, for people who want to tell their money what to do for them. If they have questions, they should be able to go back to something and understand what answers or what options they have.
The other reason why I wrote this book is because I believe it’s a medium to tell stories that I've heard. Like I said, a lot of workshops that we do, we have conversations with people about their money. And the more and more stories I heard, I understood that people have similar issues, but they all feel that they are alone in that that nobody else has these difficulties like they do. So, with this book I wanted to tell their stories. I wanted them to know that they are not alone. I want them to know how other people have gotten out of issues like that. One of these may work for them.
Simple things like saving first versus later and how it could have a material impact on their lives. How they can actually trick their minds into simple hacks and deal with their own insecurities or deal with their own difficulties with money. Is paying off a home loan better or investing that bonus better?
Of course, not everything is right for everybody. So, they have to pick and choose where they relate to.