You've completed the intense coursework and
Family Project. You've written your online exam. You've sat with two of your
classmates, answering questions from the adjudicator- off the top of your head,
no less. You've earned your letters, and proudly display your “FEA” certificate
in your office.
Now what? Where do I start? How does this work
in real life?
And, of course, the most frequently asked
question from all prospective and new FEAs:
How do I make money from this?
The question is fair. You, or your firm,
contributed a significant amount of money, and you invested a great deal of
time, into differentiating yourself as a Family Enterprise Advisor.
Incorporating this into your business, and having it increase your revenues, is
a reasonable expectation.
Unfortunately, how to make that happen
wasn't covered in your modules. It wasn't covered in your project. Where do you
go from here?
The Map-less Journey
Many FEA designates are from professional fields
such as law, accounting, and wealth management, where career pathways are
frequently mapped and guided. Taking the plunge into this program and gaining
your designation means you stepped off the map, and you've found yourself
without a GPS.
When you chose to become an off-road traveler,
you were already thinking differently. You may have even been thinking
entrepreneurially. You were preparing yourself to map your own path and become
your own guide. You might be a little confused as to how to get moving.
Start by asking yourself a few important
questions:
- What drew me to this program in
the first place?
- What skills, insights and
talents did I gain?
- What problems do I want to help
family enterprises solve?
The field of family enterprise is enormous.
There really is room for much more than the few hundred FEA designates already
in Canada. You can - and should - create your place in it around the very
specific, unique way that you work with family enterprise.
How do you want to use your new knowledge and
skillset? Does it expand upon your existing practice? Is it another layer of
service, in addition to what you've been doing all these years? Is it something
that is a stand-alone, where you want to spend all of your time because
THIS is what you've been trying to get to all these years?
Your answers could be “yes” to some, “no” to
others, “yes” to all, or even - and this is more than okay - “I just don't know
yet”.
Just like the business families we serve, we
need to find our own way into creating the practice that solves the problems we
are good at, capable of, and excited about solving. The way that we do
it, and the manner in which we offer it, will evolve with individual designates
and the families who benefit.
No, but really, how do
you charge for this?
That was an accountant wasn't it? I heard you.
Before you can figure out how you charge for it,
you really need to answer the questions about “why” and “how”.
Remember that family enterprise advice is a
service like any other. Whether you are paid for advice or implementation, or
both, you're probably already living in this world. It's no different from
selling widgets. Determining the right price and format is dependent on the
same things:
- What you deliver
- Expectations and results
- Expenses
- Profit margins
- What the market will bear
Yes, there's more to it than that. This is just
a 10,000 foot view. Stay with me.
Your business families expect you to make money.
They're business owners - they'd probably doubt your intelligence, ability, or
honesty, if you didn't have a profit strategy.
There are as many different ways to deliver and
charge as there are FEA designates. There is no singular “right” way.
If you already charge by the hour, and are folding
this service into your existing day-to-day offerings, you may choose to
increase your hourly rate. Or you may offer it as a separate service, with
different rates.
If you are a wealth manager you may not be in a
position to charge for advice. Maybe your firm will develop an offering around
it, and with your help, develop a strategy for you to spend more time here, and
be rewarded for it.
Maybe you'll develop a team of associated
specialists who work together like you did in your project. Together, you
can build a fee strategy that works for you and the clients.
Maybe you'll come up with a different model.
Get out there and talk to people in the field
about how they deliver and charge for their service. At the May 3rdVancouver Event six different advisors will be speaking to exactly this
question, and I’ll be sharing their stories with you afterwards.
Like any other business offering, we must try
different things, tweaking and pivoting until we reach the place where we and
our clients are happy. Experiment. Research. Keep trying until the right fit
for you and the families you help becomes clear.
Since our designation is new, we have the
ability, the choice, and the responsibility to craft how it is used to
serve family enterprise.
Your mind may have been left open and a little
battered by the FEA program. That's good - a little trauma can create growth.
“As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.”
Your twig is pretty bent. How will you grow?
Julia Chung is an FEA designate, and CEO of JYC Financial.
She is a member of Lead Family Enterprise Advisors, and of an enterprising
family. She volunteers on the IFEA Vancouver Events Committee as part of her
commitment to growing the field.