Launching An Entrepreneurial Career As An Investment Advisor

Many of us dream about becoming our own boss. No matter what the size and scope of the business are, there are entrepreneurs behind every business and private company. Any famous company that comes to your mind, and there was an entrepreneur behind it. With passion, hard work, a great idea, and a knack for learning, anyone can build a business and become a success. I receive many queries from young people who want to set up an entrepreneurial project as an Investment advisor. Before stepping into how you can build yourself as an advisor, let’s briefly understand what would be your role as an advisor.

What does an investment advisor do?

An investment advisor is a professional who gives financial advice to their clients in order to help them achieve their life goals. As an investment advisor, you undertake financial planning of your clients which is the process of meeting their life goals through the proper management of their finances. Life goals can include buying a home, savings for your child's education, planning for retirement or estate planning. Being a financial advisor also comes with a lot of responsibility because you are managing the finances of other people. Hence, it’s important to make the clients feel comfortable and establish trust with them. A person having knowledge, desired passion and an ever-growing interest can be a good financial advisor. 

When you become an investment advisor or a financial advisor, you're not entering into a new field or starting a project, you're making a lifetime commitment to this profession. There’s more than just getting a degree. 

Skills required to become a financial entrepreneur:

• Attention to detail
• Building strong client relationship
• Comfort with numbers and analysis
• The knack of simplifying complex ideas

Tips to Launch your Career as an Investment Advisor:

Use small projects/ assignments to develop business ideas

If you’re a student, use research projects to identify audiences for your business idea. Take up your college assignments and projects as your real client and work according to the market conditions. Run a feasibility study as part of your business class assignments. This will help you improve your skills through experience.

Educate yourself

Getting a degree does not mean you are all set to launch an entrepreneurial career. Your main job as an advisor would be to educate your clients and answering all their questions about investment options and potential risks. In order to be able to do that, it’s crucial that you educate yourself with thorough research and knowledge by understanding proper risks and crisis management.

Record all your ideas

Get in the habit of writing all of your ideas down. Keep a notebook by your bed and another one in your bathroom and yet another in your kitchen. Make lists, identify your goals, keep a tab and make a daily note of fluctuations in the market. You never know which of these might help you in the future.

Grow your network

Networking is a no-brainer for entrepreneurs, not just in finance but in every field. Although, that doesn’t have to begin after graduation. Network while you’re in college as much as you can. Some of your classmates will go on to start investing once they get a job and you might play an important role there if you keep your networking game strong. 

Always keep an eye on the market

You can learn the most from your observation. Always keep one on the market and learn how it works. Critical news too can affect the market. Newly introduced national policies can make or break the market and in turn the investors.

Embrace your role as a problem solver

Being a problem solver goes hand in hand with being an investment advisor. Most entrepreneurs are not inventing something new but making an existing product or service better, or positioning it to solve a problem. That’s what you’ll be doing as an advisor. You will be managing other people’s finances and helping them avoid risks. Hence, you must focus on embracing your problem-solving skills.

Above all, have faith in your vision and determination to pursue your passion with purpose.

Prashant Sawant

Guest Author The author is Co-founder, Catalyst Wealth