It can be tempting to have a “do it yourself” attitude when it comes to business, especially when your enterprise is on the smaller side or is newly launched. But while it’s important to have a strong grasp of all business areas for which you provide leadership, it can be a mistake not to make the most of the specialist skills and experience of others.
Working with a good financial advisory service can help your business grow and succeed. It’s important for any business owner or start-up founder to understand the underlying principles of finance and business management, however, financial professionals can contribute much deeper industry knowledge and experience to help you make the best decisions and investments.
There are various types of financial advisory services and professional support available. Financial planners may specialize in a specific area or industry, or provide more general advisory services across sectors. They are certified professionals who are tasked with understanding complex financial products and solutions. By staying abreast of historic developments, ongoing trends, and informed projections they can help you navigate the market more effectively.
If you have specific ideas that you would like to explore with regard to growing, development, financing, or investments for your business, you can task a financial adviser with researching and reporting back on the benefits or drawbacks of all available approaches. They will use industry knowledge, specialist access to information, and certified advisory experience to investigate all available opportunities,
They may also be able to help you access exclusive products or services that will benefit your business. Asset management and stock brokerage are common services to receive help with, but certain types of financial products or solutions may only be available through the financial advisory service acting as an intermediary. They can also monitor your investments and other financial products, provide regular reports, and be empowered to take specific types of action in your best interest.
Another valuable benefit of working with a financial advisory service is peace of mind and legal protection. While some things are by nature volatile and subject to unpredictable gains or losses, such as investments, working with a certified professional adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority gives a measure of legal protection. If you believe you are not receiving good advice or have been misled in any of the financial matters entrusted to your financial adviser, you can address that with the Financial Ombudsman.
It should be noted that, while there are avenues of legal recourse if you are unhappy with your financial adviser, you do need to ensure you work with a reputable, certified, and fully authorised financial advisory service in the first place. There are unscrupulous parties that may try to represent themselves as financial advisers without adequate experience, good reputation, or certification. It’s always best practice to do your research ahead of time, ask for references and visual confirmation of credentials, and avoid services that “cold-call” or otherwise approach you.
If you have strong industry connections, you may want to ask colleagues, mentors, or other members of your network for a referral to services they have used and found valuable. Reputable financial advisory services are generally well-known, well-established parties that can be confirmed by reputation. Shard Capital is a London-based independent financial services company that offers a wide range of expert services. It is relatively simple to research the offerings of such professional companies and assess their track record with various services such as investment management, capital markets, fund management, and institutional broking.
The right financial advisory service can help your business thrive, grow, make the most of its assets, and take advantage of the right opportunities. Knowledgeable, certified, and experienced advisers can help you identify goals and steps to reach them; research and recommend the best financial products and services to support your goals, access and manage investments, funds, or other brokerage services, and keep you abreast of market shifts and trends so you can shift strategy and approach as needed to make the most of your opportunities.
While it’s undeniably valuable to have some awareness of the market and a foundational grasp of markets, options, business targets, and other financial matters, a dedicated, certified financial adviser brings high levels of experience and skill to the work, as well as legal protection and peace of mind that is unavailable to an outside party. They can also provide access to financial products and services that are not otherwise possible to obtain. It’s in your best interests to find a reputable, experienced financial advisory service to take your business to the next level at the earliest opportunity.
