Ratnasri Karra and her husband lost money in their maiden entrepreneurial venture in the dot com bubble. But they didn’t give up. Ratnasri started her advisory practice called Her-Mony in 2013, a SEBI Registered Investment Advisory firm. Since then there has been no looking back. Ratnasri talks about her journey and how she is helping women be on top of thier finances.
Tell us about your initial journey. What made you gravitate towards financial advisory?
I am an Arts Graduate from Calcutta University. Post college, I pursued a course from National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), through which I got placed in ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1991. Marriage, kid and moving cities put a break in my career. However, when my daughter was two years old, I bounced back and joined the combined CFA PGDBA program with ICFAI. I completed my CFA from ICFAI in 1998, the only girl from a batch of 55 students.
My husband and I were keen on becoming entrepreneurs, so I took up a franchise of a Software Training Company, while he was earning a monthly salary working for an IT company. We thought that the IT industry was booming, and life will be good since we now had a fixed income from salary and had invested in a business that can give us long term returns. What we didn’t factor in was the market cycle. We were caught up in the dot com bust of 2000 and lost money heavily in the business.
Tell us about your second innings.
An important realisation was that knowing about economics, industry, markets, finance etc. is only one aspect of knowledge. What is more important is knowledge of self and one’s own behaviour that leads to success in life. We closed the business, moved cities once again and started life afresh. But this time, things were different. I took a career break and had another child. I took charge of our finances and became a partner in all the important financial decisions we took.
We made money and we made mistakes. But we took the risks and invested always.
It was real estate, equity, mutual funds, private equity, businesses, and even gold. As time went by, we started planning for specific goals that we wanted for ourselves - Children’s Education, Health, Travel, Retirement. We didn’t always agree on the decisions. We had different risk profiles and had different views on investing. That’s when I started tucking away some investments for myself realising that some investments should be separate for me based on my goals even if I was not earning.
Investing gave me a new sense of freedom. I had an opportunity to make money sitting at home and I started to explore myself intellectually. I learnt about products, risk return trade-offs, market cycles, my own investment behaviour, processes, trends, economy, industries and so much more. It also gave me confidence since I was now completely responsible for my financial goals.
Where are women lacking, in terms of managing thier finances?
I have met many women who don’t take active part in the financial decision making of the family. Women are more in touch with the long term and short-term financial needs of the family and there is a need for them to know and understand investments so that they are closer to achieving their life goals. Also, when life throws up unexpected challenges, they can handle themselves better if they understand finance and investing.
How did you acquire clients in the initial phase of your business? How have you been helping women make smart investment decisions?
I did not know where to look for clients. I simply attended networking events for women and became a member in a few groups. That’s where I met my first client. She was starting a new business of Cab services that was for women, driven by women. I was so impressed with her passion that I simply went ahead and helped her in every way that I could. Success happened in the form of funding under Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) through National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC).
I work with women, coaching them to invest, plan their finances – both personal and businesses, and advise them on becoming profitable and scaling up. I work on a fee model that works flexibly to serve the unique client needs. Investment Advisory and Financial Advisory is a trust-based business and most of my clients have come through referrals from friends, clients and networks. I was always social media averse, and not very sure of how to go about it. I got a breakthrough when I started collaborating with other women’s organisations.
There are many women organisations that are working towards women empowerment. Each organisation is trying to do something unique, and I have associated myself with the organisations to reach my prospects. I have participated in events through these organisations that have given me an exposure on social media which in turn gives me visibility to my target audience – women.
Tell us about your business model, team, assets under advisory and future plans for the business.
I have touched 35 lives to change their behaviour towards their financial goals. Currently, I work alone but I am in the process of expanding my team. I sub-contract some work out for efficiency. My current assets under Advisory is Rs 35 crores. I charge a fixed fee to my clients. I am adding a team of experts to expand the services that can be provided to my clients as well as increase revenues. I am looking at creating a model where more women are joining the team to create influencers.
You have been through many ups and downs. What is the best advice received by you which has held you in good stead?
One of the best pieces of advice that was given to me was by my mentor. He said, that I should first achieve all my financial goals before coaching others. My success comes from the trust that I build with my client. I follow the Mantra “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest” – Benjamin Franklin.
