What does it take to be rich in today’s India?
There are two types of people who become rich quite fast.
One is the type of people who can build products or a service delivery mechanism – this is why engineers, entrepreneurs get rich.
Service entrepreneurs also exist – someone who builds a law firm, architect firm, fashion designer or CA/CS firm is essentially a service entrepreneur.
Second type of people who get easily rich are those who can create distribution for a product or a service – essentially marketers and those who can build large sales teams.
So what happens to all the other professionals? What about HR, lawyer, CA, CS and such other professionals? Are they not valuable? How can they get rich?
As a CA or CS or finance professional, you are someone who debottleneck the company from finance, tax or compliance perspective.
Your work ensures that show goes on and the entrepreneurs, engineers, creators and marketers do not face any challenge from compliance, regulatory or tax side.
After all, a serious slip up in this department can cost a lot, can even bring a business in grave trouble.
Look at what happened at Paytm Payments Bank – the entire trouble got created due to lack of compliance. It cost thousands of crores to the investors and the business lost its licence!
This is what makes compliance professionals like you valuable to businesses.
But can the top compliance or tax guy @ paytm hope to be as rich as Vijay Shekhar Sharma or some other cofounder of the company?
Who do you think gets paid more, the CTO, CMO or the Chief Compliance Officer? I am not sure whether the CTO or the CMO is paid more, but definitely they get paid more than the Chief Compliance Officer I would suspect.
Like it or not, what do you guess?
Such essential professionals are valuable enough that they can command a good salary and get good, secure jobs in top organisations. But as a team member in such organisations, you are still a side player, not a main character.
You go from being the side character to the main character.
How?
So how can I be rich as a CA or CS or finance professional? Am I supposed to learn software development or become a marketer if I want to get rich?
Not at all.
You become rich by becoming a service entrepreneur.
If you can build a successful business around compliance, finance or tax services, you can be as rich as a marketer or a software engineer.
However, most CAs, CMAs and CS have to worry about how they will navigate the ICAI/ICWA/ICSI restrictions on solicitation and advertising.
Online platforms, social media, and YouTube are loudspeakers in today’s world.
Today, a client list that took decades to build can take only 2 years because of AI, internet and social media, if you know how to use these superpowers correctly.
Most professionals do not.
Before they can learn how to wield these superpowers, it’s important to identify what CAs/CMAs and CS can and cannot do.
We referred to the ICAI’s Code of Ethics, and we realised
Here is what you are prohibited from doing:
- Directly or indirectly asking for work in your cold emails
- Asking people to reach out to you for paid assignments on your social media posts
- Paid social media advertising
- Sharing your client names publicly – you can only share this with potential clients when they request it
- Posting an invitation on social media to hire you – “I will do your taxes for Just Rs 5000. Hire me!” – Not allowed.
Here is what you can do:
- Educating your community and sharing insightful content (articles, reels, shorts, infographics, videos, presentations) on social media
- Publishing blog posts on your website, on your social media account, or guest posts on 3rd party websites (Firstpost, Logical Indian, Quartz, Newslaundry, etc.)
- Delivering TEDx talks or sessions at other events to build your personal brand and authority
- Publishing case studies on your website (as you do not name the client and you don’t mention the fee charged)
- Authoring books around your area of expertise
- Sending newsletters to people who have signed up on your mailing list
- Sending updates, regulatory developments, insights and checklists through Whatsapp broadcasts and emails
- Organising Insta Live, AMAs, Twitter Spaces, etc. to interact with your community of potential clients, give them valuable information or clear their doubts
- Building your own website (all regulatory bodies actually allow you to build a website as it is based on a “pull model”, that is, an inbound model)
- Creating a brochure which can be accessed by clients who visit your website or read your newsletter
- Getting quoted in newspapers and mainstream media on recent developments and controversies
You must ensure that you do not market your services at this point.
Of course, if any of your readers want to reach out to you for further information, book 1-on-1 calls after going through your content, they are free to do so.
Here are examples of some compliance, finance and tax professionals whom we have professionally trained, who are doing some of these things:
Mehul Mehta, senior Chartered Accountant who authored 5 books!
Mehul Mehta, a Chartered Accountant with 25 years of experience has been actively posting on LinkedIn and building his strong social media presence with more than 26,000 followers. He has authored 5 books till date since 2008, and the recent book “The Complete Guide to Start-Up Funding” is published by Notion Press. (Link)
Vivek Suman, a finance professional who delivered a TED talk and authored a book:
Vivek Suman (December 2022 batch), a CFA and investment banker with over 20 years of experience in the financial sector, started networking and building his brand after joining us. He delivered a TEDx talk on the growing importance of ESG investing. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/8RCwibwsjN0
He has also authored a book named From Underdog to Unicorn: (Book link)
Manoj Sonawala, a senior compliance professional who delivered guest lectures at ICSI Ahmedabad and Bombay Stock Exchange, and he also got appointed as an independent director, which is a masterstroke for brandbuilding!
Jayesh Bhanushali, a Jamnagar-based CA who built his website catering to international clients, and has an active social media profile and YouTube channel where he posts educational content:
Can senior citizens also use social media, write books and build an online presence?
One of our learners, Satish Bhattu is a senior CS, and now a faculty in our corporate governance program, actively posts on LinkedIn! You can see the traction on some of his posts here and here.
He has taken lectures at ICSI for over 50 batches of compliance professionals and is also co-authoring books with several other professionals.
Would you also like to get started with your brand building?
Some of you may have the following questions on your mind:
How do I find the time and resources to build my own social media presence?
How do I build my own website like these professionals?
How do I build a content generation engine so that I can share my insights through blog posts and social media, and even start a newsletter?
How can I deliver my own TEDx talk?
Is it possible to use AI to do some of these things?
How can I get started in the next 10 days?
Is it worth exploring these things for 9 hours over the next 3 days?
What are the key skills that can set you up for success in this journey? Are compliance skills enough or do you need to learn some basic business development & marketing skills too?
Can it be a game changer in your journey to get rich?