Skills you need to be successful

Hi there. My name is Jason Ayres, CEO of the Croft Financial Group, and here’s what you need to know when considering going independent.

Well, the idea of going independent is not about going it alone. You know, you’re not leaving the mainland to go live on an island to sort things out yourself. What you’re doing is you’re moving into an environment where you have more flexibility and freedom to grow your business, to entertain new ideas, to adapt, evolve, to experiment if you will, of course within the constraints of our regulatory environment.

I just, I think that’s something that everybody really needs to understand because oftentimes the word “independent” is, you know, mistaken for alone versus freedom, which is really what this is all about.

So when I think about entrepreneurship, I mean, really at the core of it, if I just look at it from an individual and maybe, to a certain extent, selfish standpoint, it’s about being able to invest in one’s own success and to benefit from the hard work, the time and the effort and the passion that you put in. But I think it’s important to recognize that that has to start with the desire, and again, I’ll use the word “passion,” to solve a problem, to make a difference, to implement the change to the betterment of others. And for us, you know, it may be our clients, it may be your investors. For our firm, it’s a portfolio manager who’s looking to maybe spend more time with their clients and do what they love and to do better for their clients. And how can we help them achieve those goals?

The goal of the independent space is to provide portfolio managers and advisors with the services and solutions that they need to deliver, you know, a high level financial service to their clients, to do so at a comparative, if not lower cost to the clients, while ultimately protecting and preserving their margins and in a lot of cases, actually increasing their margins. I can’t think of any other better solution than that if you are somebody who is—you know, possesses the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s a win for the client, with greater flexibility and services and solutions; it’s a win for the portfolio manager or the advisor in that they have more time to spend with the clients to build those relationships, to build their business; their margins are greater; and they’re able to build an exit strategy that allows them to benefit from the years and years and years that they’ve put in, the hard work and the passion, while ensuring a warm hand-off to the clients on a comfortable timeline.

Again, what more could you ask for as a professional?

This goes without saying but it is and always will be about delivering value, service and solutions and support to our clients.

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