It’s been a busy start to the year for Siân Davies Cole, having established her own outsourced paraplanning business – Snazzify – and the launch of face-to-face training company The Complete Paraplanner, with fellow paraplanner Beth Messenger. Siân talked to PP editor Rob Kingsbury about finally stepping out on her own.
The first question to ask Sian, of course, is: What’s with the name? Why Snazzify?
It’s derived, she explains, from a time when she was working for a bank and walked into the front of house with pink shoes on and was told they were too “snazzy” for the public side of the bank. “It just stuck. It’s also a reflection of how I work and what I offer my clients – which is avoiding the staid, jargon-filled side of financial services and thinking differently to bring a better connection with clients.”
As she moved from bank to employed work with financial advice firms through more recently, four years as joint director of outsourced paraplanning firm Plan Works, Sian has always had her sights set on finally owning her own business, she says.
“When I joined Nathan (Fryer) at Plan Works it was my first step into being a business owner and all that entails. Partnering together to grow the business was a great answer and a great opportunity for both of us.”
Four years on and some dramatic life events, including the effects of peri-menopause, meant that Sian was ready for change.
“I hadn’t realised how devastating the symptoms of peri-menopause can be. You can be fine one day and really not up for anything the next (to put it mildly). And it’s a much more prevalent than even most women realise, because there’s hardly any mention or education on it. That has to change.
“Running my own business I am able to manage my day to fit around the symptoms; I have a lot of respect for women in employed roles who have to go into the office every day feeling I’ve done. You just kind of work through it but I can understand why women leave the workforce at this time.”
With her ambition to run her own paraplanning firm and personal circumstances also leading to her desire to have more control over her hours and build her working life around health and family, she decided the time was right to set up Snazzify.
“I’d worked in-house and outsourced and I now had experience of running a firm so I felt it was the time to create more of a lifestyle business, where I work with clients and on projects that fit with my views, experience and specialisms and I can work on my terms,” she says. “So, I kitted out an office at home – my work cave – and made the move.”
This has included working with some of her existing clients, “who loved what I bring to paraplanning and their clients”, but also consultancy and project work, which has included working for investment companies and platforms on areas such as whole of market research on SIPPs and managed portfolio services (MPS) and providing the independent work needed to produce central investment propositions (CIPs).
The Complete Paraplanner
Having set up the lifestyle business she wanted, you might think that Siân had achieved her ambitions for the moment. But far from it. Alongside fellow outsourced paraplanning business owner Beth Messenger, she has launched The Complete Paraplanner. This is a face-to-face training programme for paraplanners where they can brush up on and/or learn new skills that are essential to delivering a first class paraplanning service.
“Helping paraplanners develop their skills as well as helping to bring new talent into the profession is something both Beth and I are passionate about,” she says. “The big question at the moment is how do we get that next generation in and how do they learn the things that we’ve learned over the past 10 years or so as paraplanning has developed and improved, but do so as quickly as possible. We think this is a good way to achieve that.”
The programme is aimed at paraplanners of all skills sets, from newbies through to experienced paraplanners. “We’d like to think that advice companies will put their teams through the programme to upskill and hone their in-house talent as well. We’ll also be offering training for in-house teams on any specific aspects of paraplanning that they need.”
The in-person training programme will take place in Swindon and will run once a month starting this June. “We start off with a deep-dive into the skills all paraplanners need, especially how we create the best relationships and communication with the people we have to work with. We then move on to fact finding and file notes, and the tools and research facilities that make our live easier and we go from there,” she says. “This year’s programme is mapped out (see programme page below) and we’re already looking at next year too.”
And if this wasn’t enough to keep Siân busy, she continues her mentorship work, with Chloe Phillips and Sam Patterson, as co-founder running The Paraplanner Club.
“We’re as busy as ever with The Paraplanner Club. We have a great group of mentors who volunteer their time to help their fellow paraplanners with all sorts of guidance and issues. By the end of the year we hope to have launched a podcast and we are working in partnership with NextGen Planners on spreading the word about paraplanning. Any paraplanner who feels they could offer their experience and expertise in helping their peers, or paraplanner who would like a friendly professional ear to talk through any issues, do get in touch.”
If you want to contact with Siân, the best route she says is LinkedIn and you can find out more about The Complete Paraplanner HERE and the Paraplanner Club HERE.
Main image: alexander-grey-W7cPLHOa0eQ-unsplash
