It is often the effect of small yet significant meeting, occurrences and sometimes the everyday which changes our direction of travel.
For many years, I had been a technical consultant and latterly an Investment Specialist for one of UK largest product providers.
I was proud of the work I did, and very much a woman in a man’s world, but I never put a great deal of store in this, as I always believe it is about the right person for a job irrespective of their gender.
The thing which did trouble me though was the casual attitude some of the advisers had towards their clients. Some even thought it was a ‘laugh’ or a ‘game’ in terms of advising people on their future. It did amaze me how trusting people can be with someone their barely know.
I moved on and joined a discretionary fund management company.
Sadly, after only 18 months the entire team was made redundant.
The whole process was quite surreal, my line manager invited me to afternoon tea at the Savoy hotel in London and told me to look for another job, and advised me we would receive a call to be invited to London for the official announcement of the redundancy.
The phone call came, and I arrived at the train station in Birmingham, without a ticket as my train which got me there was late.
I sat down in First Class rather flustered and got my book and purse at the ready.
Looking around the carriage and across the aisle from my seat was Richard Branson.
Yes, Richard Branson.
It was funny to observe the person who was with him, as he was a Government official (or mandarin as they are often referred to), and clearly trying very hard to emulate Mr Branson, he wasn’t wearing a tie and hanging onto his every word.
Obviously, wanting to play it cool, I buried myself in my book.
Suddenly, Mr Branson, lent over to me and asked me what I thought of John Reid the then Health Secretary. The reason being, there was a great push towards integrating the private sector health to help the National Health Service.
To which I answered:
‘Well Mr Branson, he seems to rather like having his photograph taken a lot’.
Mr Branson, ‘oh, but so do I like having my photograph taken’.
Me, ‘Ah yes but some faces are far nicer than others to have their photos taken’.
Mr Branson was rather amused by this.
He asked me why I was going to London and explained I was going to be made redundant but I had a plan already to set up my own business advising clients about their pensions and investments.
The rest of the train journey was a delight.
Every train employee who came pas him was asked what they liked and disliked about working for Virgin Trains and when the ticket inspector came along he even paid for my ticket.
When the end of the journey came I shook his hand and Mr Branson handed me a note which I still have today framed in my office.
It says:
‘Welcome to the world of the entrepreneur, good luck with your business’.
The rest as they say is history.
After the train journey and redundancy, I set about starting my business.
I had no clients, no office, no team to help.
I had a beautiful AGA in the kitchen and a very small upstairs room to set up 2 small desks.
During my time at Scottish Equitable, they had trained me very well in how to communicate complicated concepts and products into practical solutions.
By talking to many professional people, I joined local Chambers of Commerce, business clubs and the like and offered training to the teams of mostly lawyers in what they needed to know about pensions for their divorcing clients.
I invited them to contact me with any questions which then often followed with a client who was in need of help.
It is fair to say most of our divorced clients are ladies as their ex-husbands were the ones with the pensions and investments and often had not been included in any of the decisions in their financial affairs.
The ladies wanted to be heard and to have things explained to them in a way they could understand and to give them some freedom, meaning and direction to their lives. Remember, they had been rejected by their ex-husbands, more often than not by a ‘younger model’.
I made it my mission to help and care for these ladies and to make them feel worthwhile again.
The way my mind operates in the world of advising people on their finances has always been to organise their monies in exactly the same way as I do for my own family.
At the same time, I wanted to and have created a truly family feel to the business.
Whenever clients ring in, within a couple of sentences the team know exactly who they are talking to.
