Mark Palmer, SCC Financial Planners, Geelong.
It was March 2005 when we finally made the move to Lonsdale. In that time we’ve already increased revenues by over 60%. To think we could have made the move back in 2003 when we first started talking to Lonsdale.
Life before Lonsdale
SCC Financial Planners is the Financial Planning arm of SCC Chartered Accountants. We’d been with one of the big, long-established, dealer groups since 1999. It’s probably best if they remain nameless. They were poor at generating referrals but good at taking me out for a long, expensive lunch once or twice a year. But that was about it.
One of the big problems is that we had to use their brand. This wasn’t much use to us because our own brand was much stronger in our local area. Using their brand actually held us back. By contrast, Lonsdale actually encourages us to use and develop our own brand.
Major problem #2 was the old dealer’s platform. It was more expensive than other good platforms in the market place. We were not allowed to use the best platform in the marketplace like we can at Lonsdale. The Lonsdale platform choice has actually been a major factor in generating additional revenue of +60%.
Our old dealer’s reluctance to allow us to advise on SMSF business was a major drawback too because we had the potential to do a lot of SMSF business within the accounting practice.
They were old, tired and flabby – overweight head office of 100+. And despite the big head count, services like business development were very poor in comparison to Lonsdale.
Enough about them. Suffice to say we weren’t too happy. So we talked to a few other dealer groups and eventually narrowed it down to Lonsdale and one other dealer group. Out of the two, we preferred Lonsdale because they could deliver similar resources but were small enough to keep it personal. That was in 2003. Unfortunately for us – and we only have ourselves to blame – we agreed to give our old dealer group just one more chance to lift their game. We gave them a year but there was no real change. That’s when we decided to make the move.
How was the transition?
It was smooth as silk. To their credit, our old dealer group was very co-operative in transferring our clients and trails. We didn’t lose one client.
How’s life with Lonsdale?
This is supposed to be a warts and all version, but I can honestly say I haven’t found any warts yet. OK, so they don’t do the long lunches (not that I need them!). The Lonsdale people are more interested in providing substantive assistance than diversions. So there’s really been no downside.
Here’s my upside list:
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Clients. They’re better off. We can offer a broader range of services – including best value platforms and SMSFs.
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Our Practice. It’s 60% better off. We have had to increase our staff levels but we’re actually more efficient and I manage to spend less time doing paperwork and more time with my clients (about 6 hours a day).
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Business Development. The Lonsdale Blueprint program is brilliant. Witness the revenue growth.
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Platform. Fully featured platform and its much better value.
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Research and Compliance. Competent, responsive and practical.
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Personal. I feel a lot more satisfied with my life. I’m providing a really first class service to my clients. I’m not working as hard and my business is getting stronger and healthier by the day.
All in all, Lonsdale is a really professional outfit. Everything they do, right down to the smallest detail is professional. Highly skilled and disciplined people who take great pride in their work.
The moral to the story?
If you think you could do better than the dealer group you have now, don’t put it off. Think about the cost of delay. Start now
