How to advertise the financial coaching start up?

[MumOfEllynnAnAngel]

Hello fellow mums,

I wanted to ask for a little brainstorm here.

My partner and I have just launched a Holistic Finance Coaching start up.
We are focusing to help people to restructure their personal finances, get out of financial traps, and create passive income or to invest. We also help with business development on other start ups.

As we are just taking our business off the ground, I wanted to ask the audience here what would you see as optimal way to spread the word out and attract customers.

The first thing on my head was the obvious - the adverts in magazines, and organizing seminars. But it doesn't feel enough. Has anyone done something similar and could you share your experience(s)?

In case of making seminars would anyone recommend any location in London?

We are based in London (Canary Wharf and West End) and are quite mobile.

Many thanks for your thoughts!

Evelyn
(mum of a 1yr old girl)

So your target audience is people who are in debt and need help getting themselves sorted? Or not quite as bad as that.

Could you advertise in company magazines local to you? Or in Metro?
Facebook is a very effective way of advertising locally, a lot of people I know who have their own businesses get most of their business from there.

I don't know much about your industry but would seminars work? Would people who are struggling want to admit it in front of others I wondered?

Either way, advertising takes time to get a response, you would be best to invest in a few months/weeks worth of adverts. You could also go for an 'advertorial' (if they still do them, my advertising experience is ten years old...) which is a kind of promotional article in a magazine where they talk about what your company does and it looks like it's part of the magazine.
Hope that helps a bit? And what is a passive income? I like the sound of that......

By company magazines I mean internal magazines.

Many thanks for your answer RadioMusicola

I would like to know more about "advetroial"? How do I make one? (And who is "them"?) :-)

So the target audience is actually not as bad (as you wrote), my target people are actually those who are looking for a change. Those seeking a financial freedom. It could be for example people who are employed, getting a salary but are not able to save enough to move on and hence are trapped. Or those who want to start a company, or those who have assets but their assets are not making enough money for them.

In another words I provide educational insights, practical experience, and support focused on timeless, proven wealth building principles. It is quite different from IFA work... I don't offer any products.

The passive income in a simple words is the way to make money generating more money. It is as simple as that :-)

Many thanks for your help and answer!

It sounds really interesting! I am sure there must be thousands of potential clients around the Canary Whart area.

An advertorial is something we used to do when I worked in women's glossies an age ago, I will try and find one...

the middle page is an advertorial

a hair one

And here you are metro rates information but you would need to ring them.
With an advertorial, you would pay for a page or a double page spread (used to cost a couple of grand but god knows how much it would be now!!) and you would go in and talk to an advertorial person at the paper. They would then brief the designers who would come up with a proof for you to look at. Then when you are happy, you could go for it and it would appear in the next edition.

I reckon your local area is a brilliant place to start. If I were you I might also do a mail shot (a leaflet explaining your services) and see if you can drop leaflets around the properties around canary wharf. This would be done by British Mail tend would go out with the post.
.

You could also do this within a newspaper, something like Metro would be good after you have advertised a few times.

You might be able to ask some of the companies to put leaflets in their shops/cafés/hairdressers etc.

If you are feeling really ambitious you could hand out leaflets in the wharf plaza or somewhere central. It has changed loads since I was last there I am sure!! You could also have on you those little carts (think an ice cream cart type thing) and have a couple of chairs so that people could come and ask you what you do and you could also get a couple of mates to hand out flyers! You know like you see some companies doing, sky or The AA for example.

Depending on your available budget you should be able to combine a mailshot in the paper (or any paper or magazine for that matter) with a series of adverts and an advertorial. That's what I would recommend!!!

But it really depends on how much you have to spend.

Facebook is also a good move, as you can closely target people and postcodes and you only,pay if someone clicks on your advert. I think it's about 30p for each time someone clicks on your advert.

The other option you have is to find an advertising agency who will do all this for you!!!

I am impressed that I have remembered all that!!! Maybe I should go back into it!!

I gave my dad a thousand pounds to invest for me a few years ago and he bought some shares in red rock, a mining company and then they fell right out the bottom of the toilet so I am no good at financial stuff!!!

Canary WharF area

RadioMusicola,

Wow - Many thanks for this! I think you should definitely get back to it! It is more brainstorm that I would have hoped! :-) I am very impressed and will use quite a few things you mentioned! I am almost thinking I should email you in case I get stuck! :-)

Can I ask you where did you work before, or what did you do since you were able to brainstorm all this?

Oh and on a financial side - yeah - mining companies and commodities are quite risky, no one really understands what creates its share price, so for those who don't do this professionally it is better to stay away from oil&mining. Even quite a few professional traders don't like to invest in them...

It is actually my job to make these financial things digestible and enjoyable (or at east not boring) for wide public. Explain them in simple English and no secrets!!

:-)

Will pm you!

Could you advertise free webinars on related subjects ?
One company I know if offering to donate £1 to children in need for every attendee between now and xmas

There is a very fine line between offering advice and recommending products. I think you would need to be regulated as an ifa as you will in effect be recommending products and so you would be insured if things go wrong. If you don't go so far as to effectively tell people what to do, then you won't be much use to them. You can get general advice already for free ( eg Money Advice Service), and there isn't a very big market for it because people want to be told what to do and have the comfort of redress if things go wrong. Those who don't need this generally work things out for themselves and won't pay for a half way house. Have you checked you don't need to be regulated and have you done any market research? What would happen if you gave dodgy advice and someone lost a lot of money?

@Hoppinggreen:

Many thanks for this thought! Yes - I think it would be quite possible, I know quite pressing issue tbh - and I could make a few powerPoint slides from it. But I have never organized a webinar myself so I wouldn't know how to go about...

@wobbleinprogress:

You are quite right - if I was an IFA I would have to be FCA regulated, and indeed insured when things go wrong. Thankfully I am insured and have diplomas / education in the field etc..., but FCA doesn't offer any regulation on financial coaches, because in effect we are not selling any products. i.e. insurance/mortgage/saving account/fund. We are helping people to reach out to the potential that comes from the inside.

From the coaching session comes a bespoke solution that fits the exact need of the individual himself because the person shares his visions/beliefs/fears/values and coach in effect is a skilled guide to help to uncover the possibilities that are hidden deep inside. And only explain where there is lack of understanding.

Money Advice Service is not really an alternative to this. If the service is independent (and not supported by the retail bank) then often it is governmentally owned and provides just generic information information on what currently exist. But they don't go deep enough in terms of creating real plans, or practical exercises with finances / cashflows / passive incomes and don't collaborate with you to create bespoke solution.
But they are equally important to provide you with up-to-date information on stamp duties/pensions/retirement etc...

Sorry for the lengthy reply. I appreciate your comments a lot! Just wanted to add my thoughts here.

Thanks
Evelyn