Transitions

A few years ago, I decided to focus my business on helping financially inexperienced people navigate the financial side of their divorce.

I’m incredibly glad I made that choice – I’ve met a wonderful group of other professionals with that fantastic combination of experience and the generosity to share it freely.

It reignited my excitement about helping people with their money, by forcing me to learn and extend myself more than I had in years.

And, most importantly, we’ve been able to help people make better decisions at difficult moments - while alleviating their stress and anxiety.

Boat Burning

Setting off in this direction with my business was a big decision too, with not a little bit of ‘boat burning’:

-?????????We sold our former, traditional financial advisory business.

-?????????I got my own Australian Financial Services License.

-?????????I decided to no longer accept commissions.

-?????????Which helped me set up as one of the few completely independent financial advisers in Australia.

As a result of these choices, my practice looks quite different to a few years ago and - from what I can tell - different to many other advisory businesses.

I’m quite happy to see how these decisions are directly benefiting the people we work with:

-?????????Selling the former business let me concentrate on helping people going through divorce, to learn what advice and services they need – and how we can best deliver them.

-?????????Having my own license helps me keep the product providers so central to much else in advice, at arm’s length.

-?????????Independence tackles some of the (oft-unspoken) reservations people have about engaging a financial adviser.

We’ve built a solid foundation for a business that appeals to a very specific type of person when they’re looking for a financial adviser. Namely, somebody seeking independent advice to help them make better decisions about something they're very uncertain about.

In other words – we’re in a good place, and I’m loving it!

So, naturally, I’m making some changes…

Photo by?H?kon Grimstad ?on?Unsplash

Why Divorce, Again?

Before I get into the changes I’m considering, it’s worth revisiting what set me off down this path.

There were three reasons I chose to focus on helping people through divorce:

-?????????I’ve learnt that I need to do work that has a meaning beyond the financial. I worked for a long time without that element of purpose, and it was an unfulfilling professional existence.

-?????????Helping somebody navigate the challenges of a property settlement – where the stakes are high, the data hazy and their needs are uncertain - makes a significant impact.

-?????????The complexity – technical, emotional and personal – that comes from helping people through such a challenging time is immensely rewarding.

These elements have certainly been reinforced in my work in recent years. It’s been a deeply rewarding phase of my career.

Helping people work through one of the biggest changes in their lives – one of the big transitions, really – requires a certain approach, skills and focus. Which has happened to align with how I like to go about things.

It’s really quite a wonderful way to work.

But what I hadn’t realised was how readily an approach based on these priorities would translate to other times in people's lives.

Which is where the change comes in.

So, Why Change?

Over the last few months we’ve had queries from people who wanted to work with PlanningSolo. They were attracted to how we worked, our structure, or our approach to helping people without much financial experience make better decisions.

Except they’re happily married or cheerfully single – either way, they're most definitely not getting divorced.

So, they’ve asked, do we still work with ‘people like them’?

The answer has generally been ‘yes’ – and I’ve enjoyed helping them find the best answers to their financial questions.

But the growing frequency of these conversations got me questioning whether we should be keeping our focus so specific.

These thoughts have been made more urgent by the recent discovery that some people have chosen not to work with me because of our website. Specifically, its heavy focus on helping people through their divorce.

Now, when you decide to focus your business in a particular niche, you accept that a big part of it is going to be saying ‘no’ to prospective clients. By being clear on what you do, how you do it and for whom you do it, you are naturally excluding anybody that doesn’t fit.

Yet, I’ve found a tremendous amount of meaning, impact, complexity and, yes, commercial benefit with the non-divorce engagements we’ve taken on recently.

This work outside our niche, in other words, has been ticking the same boxes of our work in our niche.

All of which is propelling me to a point where I need to decide:

"Is this about divorce specifically - or is it about helping them through the big transitions in life?"

Photo by?lewis pratt ?on?Unsplash

The Pickle

When it comes to big decisions, I’m like an oil tanker - slow, lumbering and almost impossible to turn around.

It takes me a lot of dwelling on a point to come to a decision – but when I’ve made a decision, I don’t tend to go back on it.

Which leaves me in a bit of a pickle.

I made a series of considered, determined decisions to get to this point. Revisiting those decisions isn’t something I do lightly. Or with any great comfort.

But then there are quite a few novel considerations that have popped up recently:

-?????????Our approach is resonating with an unexpectedly diverse audience.

-?????????The work we can do for them meets the three criteria I used to design my practice.

-?????????Finally, the realisation that our experience of working with people through divorce has shown us the value in helping people with any big transitions in their lives.

This final point has been a revelation for me – that our approach, skills and experience reflect how we help people through the transition phase of their divorce.

That it’s this journey through the experience that carries much of the meaning I get from my work – and where our value really lies.

This has refreshed how I look at my practice. Because, after all, a divorce is but one of the big transitions people go through in their lives.

And if the group of people I really enjoy helping – financially inexperienced people looking to make better financial decisions – are going through these other transitions, why shouldn’t we try to help?

At this stage, is it just my tanker-esque stubbornness preventing me from making this change?

If so - well, that's just daft.

Transitions

What kind of transitions are we talking about?

Divorce, of course.

Bereavement.

Retirement.

Moving into an aged care facility.

That point where business owners go from only thinking about work, to thinking about their wealth as well.

People go through these huge changes every single day, and many of them are doing so alone, with a great deal of uncertainty, fear and worry.

They’re looking for somebody to trust, who can guide them through the most turbulent periods of their life – and I believe, for the right people, we can be that somebody.

Photo by?Tim Graf ?on?Unsplash

What It All Means

Which is my long-winded way of saying that we’re going to slightly modify our approach.

We’re going to expand our practice from helping financially inexperienced people navigate their divorce, to helping them navigate all the big transitions life throws at them.

Our aim is to become the kind of adviser that people, who are not confident or experienced with money, can turn to for help as they go through one of these big changes. ?

Is it a big change?

Not really.

I expect the bulk of our work will - in the short-term at least - still be about divorce and separation.

But over time, you'll notice some slight changes in our messaging, and in who we're talking to.

I expect expanding our audience will require us to expand our operations which I find terribly exciting. I believe we've built a rock solid foundation to build upon - and look forward to growing in line with the people we're helping.

We'll keep developing the mechanics of the advice we provide, expanding our capability and capacity over time.

But who we're providing that advice to won't change.

Because we're here to keep helping uncertain people make better financial decisions during times of great change and vulnerability.

And I look forward to all that means.