Five years, still going and (importantly) still growing !

Last week I realised that I have been running my medical insurance advisory practice (which I blog about here semi-regularly) for over five years, although planning and work began behind the scenes around a year before that, with business planning and meetings. Looking at whether I would be regulated directly with the FSA (this was pre FCA obviously), work with a network/compliance provider or even go into partnership with an IFA or broker - so lots of decisions, in that pre-set up phase to be made about marketing, route to market and so forth.

The five or six years that followed have then been quite a journey for me both professionally and personally as launching a business reliant upon sales/client acquisition from scratch was certainly a challenge. It's been a roller coaster for certain but over five full years in I would (without tempting fate too much) say that things have gone well.

What brought it home to me was a discussion I had with a prospective new professional introducer yesterday. This gentleman runs an IFA practice combined with a commercial general brokerage and is interested in working with me on the PMI side of things. We got to talking about how he had found me as, unusually, I really had no idea who he was when he called other than being vaguely aware of the business name from long presence in the market. It transpired he had googled and found me on the Premier Choice website and also Linkedin along with two other potential contacts in the medical insurance market. However he decided to work with me based on my on-line presence and age (he didn't want to work with someone a lot older than himself - we're both in our mid forties and at similar levels in our careers - which can sometimes help I think in terms of creating a 'like mind').

The point is not to blow my own trumpet (although he did talk about professionalism of approach with regards to both my on-line material and also how I handled the phone call) but rather to consider that after five years in the market and hundreds of hours of work on social media and thousands of hours supporting clients it is nice to feel that clients and introducers come to me not by direct effort but also they arrive indirectly through previous work, referrals and social media.

So overall I'm really pleased with how things are going. Would still like more introducers, clients and business of course - but who wouldn't !

2016 is an important year for me, with a growing client portfolio and the balance to be found between servicing my current clients whilst expanding my book of business.  An important and challenging year but still on balance it's been a fun journey.

I'm planning to be around for the foreseeable future, growing my business and working ever more closely with my introducers (thanks guys). If you would like to be part of the Phil Knight 'team' and are interested in either advice on your own, or your company's medical insurance cover. Or if you are a professional adviser of some sort (IFA, Accountant, General Broker et al) and want help with medical insurance then just call or message me and we can talk.

Thanks and heres to the next five years.