Busy = Good Business?

My mother asked me today, "What business are you doing? Why need to work till midnight so often? You business so good meh?"
A friend also asked me over the phone today, "Wah. Saw your blog recently that you are taking the last train home everyday. Your business must be real good! right?"

Is my business really that good? Busy = Good business? Busy? Yes, I'm very busy. Good business? I can say "Not really". Contradicting? Let me tell you why.

As an FA, we attended lots of training. There are new product launches, fund managers investment updates, providers briefings, Company's trainings, Branch meetings, sub-group sharings, conducting trainings for new advisers, etc. There are sure to have something almost everyday and it can take up 3-4 hours of our time.

As an FA, we adopt the international 6 steps approach in Financial Planning. Client-Planner Introduction, Fact-finding, Plan development, Recommendation, Implemenation and Review. Each client, meet at least 3-4 times before implementation. Not like a roadshow, 1 time close.

As an FA, we do a lot of research. We represent as many as 10 Life Insurance Companies, 20 General Insurance Companies and probably over 30 Fund houses. We are expected by clients to do product and investment comparisons. Comparisons can sometimes take up quite a bit of time. Proper comparison also means proper understanding of each product and we need time to study these products.

As an FA, we have more paperwork. Due to compliances issues, we learn to use more forms than a tied agent. Due to unfamilarity of each forms by different insurers, we sometimes missed out 1 column or 1 form and got rejected by the insurer for resubmission. We have to log down each meeting with clients for future audits. We are required to track our own income and expenses for income tax purpose as well as compliation of training hours for MAS license renewal, etc.

As an FA, we have to work harder in prospecting because insurance company will not help us in generating businesses and do any marketing for us. Most people we prospect will most probably not even hear of our companies before. They may hear about Great Eastern, AIA, but never IPP, Finexis, PIAS, etc

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So, is busy = good business? Yes. If each case size is big enough or we are charging large enough fee for each planning.

I'm busier but happier at the same time because deep inside me, I know this is the right platform to give Financial Advice. There are a lot of job satisfaction and I do it with pride.

I tried explaining to my parent about my job and what I do but they live in the era where an agents sell insurance by sweet talk. They know I can't talk well. Thats why they will always tell me to go get a job and a salary...


Footnote: I'm not trying to say that FA are more professional or what because there are also many FA who sell by sweet talk and know nothing about Financial Planning.