Starting a new asset manager - highs and lows of the first six months

It is pretty much 6 months since this post:

When telling people I have started a new business, a common reaction (amongst many varied reactions!) is one of intrigue – “how’s it going?”.

So I thought I would write down my thoughts, feelings, highs and lows of the last 6 months.

Feeling of freedom

The overarching thought that comes to my mind is one of freedom. This covers a multitude of things. There is a freedom to decide the strategies we employ, what our plan is, what our website looks like, what we want to build. Importantly that freedom makes it feel like it is easier to get things done. There is also freedom away from work – freedom to work how and where I want to work confident that all the team cares about it what gets done. This has meant far more school runs and seeing my family more.

Freedom also causes stress

I have also seen that freedom comes with associated stress. The freedom for us to decide what to do also means that if we make the wrong decisions then we suffer the consequences with no one else to blame. I would characterise this stress as background – it never flares up too much but it never goes away. For me personally this has meant that having the balance in life – being able to step away from work – has been incredibly valuable.

Team

Both the benefits of freedom and coping with the stress of freedom have only been possible because of the team we have. No BS, no political wranglings just an inherent trust in each other. I hoped this would be the case 6 months ago but it is pleasing to see it actually being true.

Financials are stressful

Starting a new business requires money. For obvious reasons I cannot talk about the details of this but you notice very quickly the difference between having a “stable” job and the pressure of working out how to make the numbers work. This was expected to a certain extent but the pressure of it does pervade everything – from work through to personal life. Fortunately we had a plan before we started so have come through it but even so the pressure was there.

Satisfaction from mundanity

The early part of our journey was spent building out things we needed to work with clients. Having done this before, what we needed to do was fairly easy and therefore prospectively quite mundane. However, being in control of it meant that getting stuff done – no matter how basic – felt like a step in the right direction.

Luck always plays a part

Would we have done this without the LDI crisis? The answer is a resounding yes but without doubt the LDI crisis has played into our hands and this was just luck. I expect luck to feature as we go through our journey – whether that is market conditions and dynamics or even people we bump into.

Offering something different makes things easy

Following our build out we started to speak to people to talk about our ideas. We started Novum because we thought we had a different way of doing things and it was really refreshing, and confidence inspiring, to hear confirmation of it from third parties. This has means people are wanting to hear what we want to say. A perfect example of this is our peripheral BBQ at the PLSA Local Authority Conference – we have previously done BBQs at this conference (with us cooking and in lieu of a stale corporate dinner) but this year we had the biggest turnout ever and we didn’t even attend the conference. If we were not doing something different and trying to compete on a like for like basis I think life would have been harder.

But being a new business is always a hurdle to overcome

Without question our biggest challenge has been being a new entity. This is something we expected but I suppose we hoped that it would be easier than we thought to overcome, perhaps relying on our reputation and track record. It certainly helps but it hasn’t been easier! Being a new business with no clients is difficult. There are not many people that want to be the first client – but that is a numbers game. We are confident that there are people who feel they need something different and aren’t scared to do so – it is just a question of finding them which is part confidence and part patience which again is a source of background pressure/stress.

A rollercoaster…but I wouldn’t change it

One thing I have noticed is that it is a proper rollercoaster of feelings – one day it feels like you can do no wrong and then the next I might have a crisis of faith and question everything. On reflection though I think this dynamic is actually important. To start a new business you need confidence in your ideas so you need those days of feeling good. But you also need challenge – you need those down days to spur you on to do better. This is, maybe, not necessarily any different a feeling to a “normal” job but I would say it is amplified significantly by the stakes being higher.

What it means is I have had to feel comfortable feeling uncomfortable. This is a feeling, for whatever reason, I quite enjoy and as a result probably is the best explainer of why I wouldn’t change it and can’t wait to discover what the next 6 months brings.