(2 December, 2004) Smooth sailing

Could you take six months holiday and come back to find your business ticking away, or would it fall in a heap if you were away for a week?

According to Peeyush Gupta, chief executive of ipac securities, that’s the key to having a business, rather than just a job.

“A business has to be able to run without the key individual being present. That’s the bottom line,” Gupta says.

In his address to the FPA Convention, Gupta will draw on the collective experience of ipac, whose original shareholders executed their own succession plans and which now provides consulting assistance in this area through a change management service.

“The industry is still affected by cottage operator syndrome at many levels — running the business, growing the business, and succession planning.”

Gupta distinguishes between having a low paying job in a low value business, a high paying job in a low value business, and a high paying job in a high value business.

“Many advisers have good incomes, but not good businesses. We want to help advisers get to that last state — lots of income while you wish to work, and to leave behind a win-win legacy.”

“The biggest mistake advisers make is not having a clear client value proposition which is then corporatised in terms of processes in the firm, and that impacts on efficiency — income, ability to grow, and business value as well, apart from chaining themselves personally to the job to make it work.”

Other issues Gupta will cover are getting the right type of succession plan in place, and the difference between buying and selling a business or a client register.

And while the industry is now awash with consultants able to tell financial planners how they should be restructuring their businesses, it can be all talk and no action.

“They can diagnose but they can’t perform the surgery. The key part is to address how you actually get started,” Gupta says.

“It’s all about the ability to execute large scale projects, which most small businesses can’t do. People try to go through this process with the resources they’ve got. And the truth is you can’t. You have to gear up — it can cost money, so often a shortage of working capital or a reluctance to take a step back in income means it doesn’t work.

“Some groups have the money, but then who are the resources? Your own people can’t always do it. So it’s having the working capital and then finding the right resources that can actively assist in the execution of the change.”

Gupta says he would like to help advisers take that first step.

“I’d like to give them the courage and the tools to be able to execute significant change to better their firms, and to create win-win-win outcomes for their staff, their clients and themselves.”

Peeyush Gupta’s presentation, ‘Is Your Job a Business or Is Your Business A Job?: Take Six Months Holiday and Find Out’, is on Thursday December 2 at 3:15pm-4:15pm.