Mr. Sharan C Patil,
Inspire India Financial Solutions Pvt Ltd., Bangalore
Meet the man who set sail and made his mark within the shortest and toughest possible time – the last seven years. Sharan Patil, the founder & CEO of Inspire India Financial Solutions Pvt. Ltd., is doing a pretty impressive work in Bangalore and adjoining regions. What makes his work stand out is his client centric approach which is even reflected in his own business targets.
His latest achievement of securing 1 Cr. In his SIP Book says a lot about his journey as a Financial Advisor and his vision for being in this profession. Banking on Indian Middle-class families, Mr. Sharan has already taken a challenge to transform the lives of Indian middle-class families. Being firm on his vision he said “Our vision is to transform middle class individuals to Crorepatis.” In-line with the vision his efforts have started paying off when we learnt about his one more achievement of creating 8 Crorepatis who started from a humble middle-class background.
Team e-Saathi feels immense proud in sharing an interview of an NJ Partner who has set an benchmark for others. He is marching towards history creation by playing a role of catalyst for his clients in achieving their dreams and bringing financial prosperity in their lives. We again congratulate Mr. Sharan for his remarkable achievement and wish him good luck to have more success in coming years.
ES: Please tell us something about yourself.
Sharan:I am an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer and an MBA in Marketing and Finance. I come from a middle class agricultural family from Gulbarga. I began my career as a Trainee Engineer in Air-India. My passion in the financial field and circumstances made me to become an OTC Dealer where I used to manage huge portfolios of HNI clients in International Commodities Trading in global exchanges before I joined the industry in year 2004. I became a NJ Partner in year June 2010. Currently I am the CEO and MD of Inspire India Properties Limited and Inspire India Financial Solutions Private Limited, Bangalore & Belgaum.
ES: What were circumstances and reasons that made you choose the career of financial advisory?
Sharan: My Passion in the finance subject and my eagerness to educate everyone about the need for financial planning and investments to attain financial freedom in their lives, made me choose this career and dedicate my time to it. Probably not by chance I took up this noble profession but by Chance.
ES: Say about your Conviction for MF SIP?
Sharan:
We’re all born in either low or high mid class families.
We can’t change that. But we needn’t die as middle class!
Investing in SIP is one of the simplest, stable-most and a proven strategy to create wealth. Being in the financial industry for around 12 yrs I’ve had an opportunity to experience various avenues of investing - major ones being MF SIP, Commodities and Equity trading. But honestly, it was only thru SIP that I could create wealth of a considerable proportion. So it is with this rich tried-tested experience that I can so confidently advise my investors to go for SIP. Apart from creating the corpus required by an individual for his/her short or long term financial goals, investing in SIP brings in a lot of financial discipline. A well analyzed portfolio with periodic reviews goes a long way in reaping rich corpus.
ES: What it takes you to reach a Mark of 1 Cr., Can you share your approach to promoting and building on SIP book?
Sharan: Frankly, reaching 1Cr SIP was not at all our goal. Our vision was to transform middle class individuals to Crorepatis. We hitting a Crore’s mark was a byproduct of realizing that vision! Our motto “If you are good, it’s your social and moral responsibility to become rich” speaks volumes for our success. It is this belief we try to instill in our clients and help them achieve it. Nevertheless we take pride in reaching this milestone of 1 Cr. Also, this dint happen from having just a few HNI clientele, but from 5000+ retail investors, that too from tier-3 cities. In India, MF SIP folio nbrs right now stand just at around 1.25 Crore. Such low penetration can be attributed to low financial literacy, especially in investment arena. Inspire India has gone a step ahead and educated around 30,000 people in this regard. India’s future investment potential lies in middle class investors of which 65% are below 30 yrs.
ES: Any special experience you would like to share with our readers.
Sharan: There’s this famous saying, “When you teach someone, you gain more knowledge”. Also, there’s a tremendous sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. Each passionate financial literacy program that we’ve conducted has graduated me to a level that most B-schools can envy of. With right intention, right approach, right strategy and right team, success just follows you.
“Dream big – that’s the biggest secret. Do your best and leave the rest. Be ready to accept short term pain (market crash) for a long term gain.“
This is how we could create 8 Crorepatis who started from a humble middle-class background.
ES: Tell us more about your clients? Do you follow any client classifications and on what basis?
Sharan: We have always put-in untiring efforts in approaching the clients spread over geographically not just in Bangalore but to other parts of Karnataka as well. We believe in one to one personal sitting with each client and evaluate their status and goals, which has been rightly acclaimed by our investors as “WEALTH CHECK-UP’. Before designing any portfolio, it is extremely important to understand the client’s present financial condition, financial literacy, wealth creation experience and future goals. We also understand if he/she is a spender, saver or investor. This client centric approach helps us in aligning their portfolio as per the needs and lets us fine-tune, thus customizing each client’s portfolio uniquely. With our expertise in financial planning we give the best possible advice. We are proud to have nearly 6,000 clients with an AUM of 70 Crores INR. Based on their investment structure and goals we segregate our clients into Platinum, Gold and Silver categories. Though we give equal importance and care to ALL clients; we take the portfolio management of Platinum and gold clients by top executives and periodical client interactions over business dinner are carried out on a monthly basis.
ES: Strong communication in today’s world is very important, specially in our industry. Please tell us about your approach towards the same with Clients.
Sharan: Our Communication with clients is multi-faceted. Let me start by quoting some specifics. We conduct regular paid workshops and training courses to enhance the financial literacy for minimum 6 times in a year with not less than 300 investors attending each course. We also conduct monthly in-house workshops for our clients on products, technical matters, etc.
As a general practice, our dedicated relationship managers make regular interactions with clients and share product updates & market info. We conduct investor dinner or lunch meet during weekends and have personal interactions with our entire staff on a monthly basis. On special events like client birthdays/ anniversaries our executives make sure that they visit them personally with greetings and bouquets /gifts. Also I am writing regularly in the bi-monthly magazine “Business Guru” articles in Kannada language related to investments, directed at prospective and new investors. These articles have inspired many to park their money with us in various investments.
ES: Tell us about any tough questions or challenges that clients have posed before you.
Sharan: Very frankly, we do not have to face any tough problems. And there are two reasons for it. First, our practice of doing investor level detailed analysis of their financial conditions and goals and second, our clear approach in giving investment advice for long term basis only in their interest.
On the challenges, there are again two observations on redemptions front. First is that whenever market is in an uptrend and clients see good returns they prefer to redeem. Next, there are often unforeseen or urgent requirements that crop up and prompt redemption. We deal with the first problem by educating on long-term power of compounding story and projecting greater wealth creation. For the second problem, we try and communicate the importance of staying invested to achieve life goals & wealth creation targets, the importance of having patience and finally by suggesting them other possible ways to meet their emergency financial needs.
ES: Please share some of key lessons you have learnt in your in rich experience..
Sharan: The experience has taught me many things. The most import lessons are related to client management. We take maximum care of our investors through innovative ways & tools of client relationship management. Next, we have to reduce the risky investments and aim for safer returns while planning for their portfolio. Lastly, only patience and waiting with a long term horizon will definitely benefit the investors, the maximum way.
ES: Going ahead what are your targets for 2016 and beyond?
Sharan: In 2016 we look forward to cross the 1.5 Crore mark. Year 2020 should easily see us touching a net SIP of 10 Crores.
ES: Any advice to fellow NJ Partners?
Sharan: I just have to say that our caring approach to our clients, coupled with best financial advisories will keep our clients always with us. Our growth should be built up only on our clients’ growth.
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