hubIT :: Word from the CEO

I sold my FSP practice

and this is

part of my story

My name is Julius Strydom and I have been in the Financial Services Industry since 1961, the year after I graduated at Stellenbosch University. At that time I thought I was clever enough to qualify as an actuary but I was wrong - I capitulated halfway and started selling life assurance for Sanlam. Eventually I became an independent adviser, doing short term insurance as well. I sold the latter in 2004 and the financial planning part in 2007.

My eyes have always been wide open to innovation because business and technology fascinates me. I am still learning, still trying to figure out how to get things done even quicker and easier. Probably because I hate repetitive work I have always looked for easier ways to do things.

Now none of this qualifies me in any way to tell you what to do but it DOES mean that I KNOW what it is like to be where you are at.

In this business you are the unsung heroes.

While corporates and governments try their best, they still manage to make life almost impossible for us. We are the ones who create jobs that stick and who pay our taxes because we can't afford those expensive tax experts. And some of us believe it's the right thing to do.

The industry we find ourselves in is one with bad guys and good guys, like everywhere else. Accuse me of prejudice if you like but you, the independent intermediaries are the good guys with VERY few exceptions.

You built up your practice by creating trust with consumers. That did not happen overnight and there is no way that you are going to do anything to betray that trust. There are exceptions who prove the rule -- ones where greed gets the upperhand. But they are a tiny percentage.

Underwriters and Administrators appeared on the scene as the industry matured and became more and more specialised (by and large they have not yet discovered fspOFFICE™)

Which leaves the product providers.

Guess who is the focus of the regulators? The guys who do not really need to be regulated.

Since 2000 I have been part of a team that decided to develop software that corporates have been using for many years but business owners and professionals could not remotely afford. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams and our clients who use it are absolutely delighted.

The fundamental truth is that your practice needs to be process-driven, not because the FSB insists, which they do, but because it makes sense. If you do not actually work according to processes they are just paper documents sitting in a file, of little use to anybody. So the functionality had to be put in place to allow you to do your work in accordance with the processes.

I need to tell you in normal language a bit of what it can do for you:

you can do all your work (except the technical stuff) in ONE place
you can access everything from wherever you are because it is web based
you can become paperless. Well, almost
if you are able to design a world class company this system will help you make it a reality
you can do more than double the business without increasing staff numbers
you can determine the image that is consistently projected to clients, prospects, providers
talking about consistency -- that is what makes your clients stay
drastically reduce the mistakes that are made
everything is transparent to those that are authorised to see it
you do not need a techie to implement your business processes, so tweak it until its perfect
improve your communication beyond recognition
do much more business by sending prospects on automated email voyages
automate everything that can be automated
train new staff in the system -- so do it only once, then show them how to use the system
create peace of mind for yourself because all information is a few clicks away -- from anywhere in the world