How I Built a $4.4BN Global Wealth Firm in 8 Years

When I started Hoxton Wealth in 2018, we had $35 million of assets, five people, and two small offices.

Today the business manages over $4 billion for more than 10,000 clients globally, with licences and offices across multiple jurisdictions.

But the journey from there to here was not simple.

In this episode of Don't Shoot the Messenger, I sit down on my own to walk through the full story of how Hoxton grew.

If you are a financial planner thinking about starting your own firm, or someone building a business from scratch, this episode will give you a realistic view of what the journey actually looks like.

If you enjoy the episode, make sure to subscribe and follow the show.

If you want to see what life in Hoxton Wealth is like, please visit:  / @hoxtonlife 

For more information on Hoxton Wealth careers, please https://www.careers-page.com/hoxtonwealth.com

For my videos by Chris, please visit his Youtube:  ⁨@ChrisBallHoxton⁩  

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Aim

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Don't Do the Messenger. And in this episode, I'm going to turn the camera around and interview myself. We're going to go over how we went from five people in two small offices with$35 million of assets under management to$4 billion of assets that we've managed today. And what I'm going to cover is the life lessons that I wish I knew I had back then in 2018 and all the learnings that have taken me to get there. I really hope you enjoy the episode. Thanks very much for watching. So when I started Hoxton in 2018, I never ever expected it to get to where it is now. We started with five of us and$35 million of assets that we managed. And today we've got multiple global offices, managed, you know, over 10,000 people's wealth and$4 billion globally of that wealth. It's, you know, it's definitely grown a lot of legs. Uh and it's gone much, much faster than uh I um I ever would have imagined. I think a lot of people ask me how we've grown so quickly, and that's really what the purpose of today's podcast is, is really to go through how we've grown so quickly, how we've managed to get all of these clients and assets and licenses and people working for us, and to distill some truths behind what you might think and what actually in reality it was uh it was really like.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Okay, great. So what was the how it's about the steps?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So what was the hardest part? Well, the hardest part of the start, I think, was not giving up. Um, because I think when you're like any business has challenges, it's although if if you were looking at a business, you'd just think it's done that. There's obviously been ups and downs along the way, and I think look a lot of those, um a lot of those downs you would always keep yourself and you would always keep them private, and then obviously a lot of the ups, we've got much better at sharing, but well, we didn't we didn't do that you know as well before. Um but we definitely do that much better now. Um, I mean the hardest things at the start were I had people that I thought were good around me and then they ended up stealing money from me and running off, and that wasn't business partners, that was people said they were gonna do a job, took money to do the job and then didn't do it, you know, just left. Um that hurts when you're a small business. I had incredibly hard starts at the start when I'd left my old business, I was getting legal letters from them, I was, you know, getting uh regulators knocking at my door because they'd said that we didn't have the licenses that we needed and all that kind of good stuff. So it wasn't um it wasn't a um it wasn't an easy start, but I think you know it was the perseverance of having to make it work as well. Because I've got like three kids and a wife to support, you know, ultimately that was it. And I also you know took the responsibility of the people that I'd bought over with me. I had you know a duty of care to them as well. So I knew that I needed to make it work, but that's easier said than done. I mean, there's many times you sit with your head in your hands and you think, God, what funny you know why did I decide to go on my own? It would have been much easier to go and work for someone else and they worry about all this crap. But I love it, so I'm very, very happy I did.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

How did you stay strong enough while during those very things?

SPEAKER_00 3:25

So I stayed um stayed strong just knowing that I what I was doing, I had the long game planned, and I also like I said I had responsibility, like I've got kids, it's not just me. If I you know fuck this up for want of a better word um or mess this up probably better, you can bleep out the the other bit, but I you know I number one, I wouldn't have wanted to be able to have to tell my family I failed, I think. Number two, I wouldn't have wanted to see it put them in a you know in a bad position because I hadn't been hadn't been able to do what what I wanted to do. Um and number three, I knew that others had done what I'd done before. So if they can do it, I've always had this mentality if someone else can do it, why can't I? Um, you know, so I'm not the first person to build a financial planning business. I'm not the first person to build an international financial planning business, so it can't be that hard. Someone has done it before. Um, so you know, therefore, um, you know, if they can do it, why can't I? So though those kind of things keep me going, and also knowing that actually just like I think you come to accept that it's part of the process, like tough things mould you into who you are and who you you know and make you who you know what you become. So, you know, tough times, they say what they say diamonds are made in pressure, and yeah, it's true, it's like you know nothing good happened easily.

Winning Client Trust During The Jump

SPEAKER_01 4:54

When you first left, how did they do it first?

Prospecting As The Growth Engine

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Well, my clients, um, I took about 60% of my clients, I think. I think I actually spoke to 80% and I left 20% where where they were. I mean, like it was completely different because I was I wasn't basically saying, Well, I'm going to work for Merrill Lynch or I'm going to work for you know massive another another massive financial plan business. I was just like, I'm going out and doing this on my own, and um, you know, I'd like you to come with me. And that's a big step for them because this is their life savings. It's not of oh, Chris is a good guy, I'll give him a go. You know, like you have to be sure that he uh, you know, you I mean, I'm very, very lucky that uh a lot of them chose to come with me, and I, you know, still count those clients as very, very loyal clients today of Hoxton, and you know, they were there with me from the beginning, and I will always be eternally, eternally grateful for them, so always do what I can. But it was very different. And how I kind of prepped for that was basically said that if I was in their shoes, what would I, what would my Egyptians be? Like being honest, like what would I be worried about? I'd be worried that the company is small, I'd be worried that I'm going from this big established business to something that's just a startup. What happens if something happens to you? Am I gonna lose all my money? And actually, a lot of their fears or my perceived fears that or their perceived fears that I thought that they would have um were actually all really overcome, you know, you can overcome them. Number one, your money doesn't sit with me. I'm not an investment platform, I'm just managing your money. So if it doesn't work for whatever way, shape, or form, I'm definitely gonna have to work. So I'd love you to come with me after that. I hope it does work, and I'm pretty sure it will, but if it didn't, that's the reason. Number two, umber two, uh, if you you know, if if you were if it wasn't to work and if you weren't to have your money with me, um you know you had half a million pounds, a million pounds in your pension or in your GIA or whatever it was, you will not find someone to struggle. You know, you're not struggled to find someone to manage that money for you. There will always be someone that wants to help you manage that money um on the basis that it's going to generate a good fee for them. You know, you're paying customer. So, you know, if it doesn't work, I'll I'll you know, I would happily introduce you to someone else. So you have my word on that. Um, and a lot of people to that face value. There was there was obviously people that didn't come over straight away, and that's cool. Um, but they actually what I learned was I just kept in touch with them and just used to send them a monthly email, and it wasn't like you're coming over, it was just like just letting you know this is how things are going, um, these have been my market updates, yada yada yada. And then after a while, the service they've been promised from the other advisor fell down, and they realized that they'd always had good service for me, so they came over and you know, as I said, a lot of them are uh still with us today and very happy, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

How did you grow so fast?

Hiring Mistakes And Culture Fit

SPEAKER_00 7:44

How did we grow so fast? We grew so fast. Um we grew so fast because we focused on prospecting a lot at the start. We really, really focused on bringing new clients in and moving them forward and moving them through. Like that was something we always focus focused on, and we always still and we always will and we always have. Um I think a lot of people get lost in the oh, you know, I've got to make this process, or I've got to do this, or I've got to do that, and actually, you won't have a business unless you have clients, so all the other stuff is lovely, and yes, you do need to get it right, but 90% of your energy at the start needs to be focused on going bringing in clients, and a lot of people forget that.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

When you're expanding the team, did you face any hurdles?

SPEAKER_00 8:34

When I was expanding the team, um, I did face hurdles. I've obviously said before I had you know some people who I thought were really good, I had some people who I thought were you know not so good. Um, but I gave a lot of people a go. And I think as I've said before, again, you know, that's probably the worst thing that you can do when you're growing is just to give people a go. Like you I have to believe that it's 100% right because if it's not 100% right, it's unlikely that it will work. And if it doesn't work, I've invested six months into that person, nine months into that person, and then I have to restart again from scratch, and that's not a good uh that's not a good outcome. So I would probably have been more selective over the hiring decisions when I first started than actually, you know, just going, oh, I need this person, and therefore I just shoehorn whoever. And that's and you see that with a lot of businesses and a lot of mistakes that they make, they genuinely just give people a go. They try and put their friend in marketing who's got no bloody marketing experience, they try and take this person, and yes, when you're smaller, you have to be a generalist as well. You can't just be specifically focused on one thing, you do have to be a generalist across a lot of different areas, however, you need to know as well when to gear that up through this through the you know, through the business's life. Now, today we have much more specialists than we do generalists, and that's because we're a bigger business and we started, but there was no point in me hiring specialists right at the start when I needed generalists because they wouldn't have worked and their you know perception of what was needed and what wasn't needed versus our perception was different. That was another thing, is make sure, like you have cultural alignment, culture to me was fluff and was um was like you know, blue sky thinking, you know, kind of like it's always I always used to think yeah, I don't really kind of you know, I don't really buy into all that stuff, but I can tell you now, having operated this business for eight years, having people with the same cultural beliefs as you doesn't mean you all have to be the same, we can all be different, I get that, but actually understanding like values and principles that are important to you, it's cool if people don't have that as well. It doesn't mean you don't have to dislike them, you just mean it's it's probably not going to work in your business, and there will be issues with it later on. So making sure you get those cultural alignments across, and it came to me that the three values that I really you know look for are hard work, no ego, um, and um making sure I I was surrounded by people who wanted to grow and wanted to do better. If people weren't like that, and normally you go, all right, it's probably the hard work bit um that people don't actually not, it's normally the no ego bit. A lot of people have big egos, you would be surprised. Um, and actually um they can't admit when they're wrong, they have very high feelings of themselves, they don't work well in teams, it's all about me, me, me. That is probably the biggest killer, and the one I'd watch out for now.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

When did you start having this before Sun Tech?

SPEAKER_00 11:40

So, yeah, technology is a really interesting one because actually I started investing in technology in 2018, so I hired my first developer in 2018, and a lot of people at the time were like, Yeah, you know, kind of skimmicky, you know, but I had a very specific I I've always known that technology would be a core part of our business, and there has definitely been points during the journey where it would have been much easier and probably cheaper for me at certain points, now definitely not, and I'm very glad I did it, but certain points where it was I could have just gone and maybe purchased the sales force off the shelf and it would have been a bit cheaper to do, but it wouldn't enable me to scale as fast as we have and build the systems around us that that we have today and enable us, I believe, to take on more clients and have more visibility in what in what we um what we owe. There's a certain sense of pride you get in something in building something yourself. So I don't know if you've ever built uh like a bookshelf or uh or uh you know or you put a shelf up. I mean I've got a funny story about a shelf. I put I might I'm not very good at DIYs, my wife would attest, and uh she said that she needed some shelves and I put them up instead of putting them up, basically I said I was gonna build them. So I built them and then we were to sleep that night and it just went crash almighty down. But I was super proud that I built those shelves and I was super, you know, I I built that. Um, and it's you know, and it's the same with the technology. You're super proud that you built it and that you've implemented it, and therefore you use it, yeah. Um, and because we involve so many people in here in the build, and we make sure that it is super integrated across our business, the rewards we get from that are amazing. It's great saying you've got great tech, but if no one uses it, what's the point? Like there's there's zero point, and actually getting adoption from planners, from advisors, from clients is the most difficult bit. Building the tech is actually it is difficult, but if you've got talented developers and project managers and CTOs like we have, it's not difficult to build the tech. Actually, ingraining technology in the organization and making sure that people go, Well, yeah, all right, we're a tech first business and we have these tech solutions and we'll use them and we will work as a team to try and make them get better is is is important, and we've seen huge benefits from technology across the business now. I mean, our MI is amazing, um, you know, the we've got client data all the way back to 2018, like all of this stuff is super, super cool. We have one system across all the jurisdiction you work in UK, US, Europe. Like it's one system, you don't have to log in if you've got a client in the US or the UK or Europe, you know, different it's it's the same place as a planner, and it's the same place as a client, which is fantastic. However, when we first started, that wasn't the vision either. And I think with some of these, I think what people need to sometimes focus on is realize that and and this is probably something that I wish I knew when I first started, was things change over time. What remain something today might not remain true tomorrow? And actually, what you want to try and focus on is actually what will always be the same, what won't change, because if you focus on those things, you know that you're you know you're kind of influenced. So the the question I posed myself when we started was will technology be important with what we do always, or is it just kind of a gimmick or uh you know kind of griff? And actually to me, in Hoxton, technology was always going to be important in what we did, and I could see that. Um so that's that's what I focused on. You know, I spent a lot of money on it, um, I input it, and now we've got market leading technology, and it's a huge USP to our business that no one else has. And for them to catch up realistically, you're gonna be spending years doing it, and I'll be further ahead than than you will. Um, and I've got it ingrained in my culture of my of my business. Um, so it's a tough thing to follow up on, but I think there are things that you need to kind of focus on the like will it always be true for you and your business? And if so, double down on it.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Obviously, there's been a lot of dormant changing. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when you're expanding globally?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Biggest challenge is expanding globally, is different mindsets in different places. Again, like culturally, the different places work differently. So, although we're the same business and we try and have the same kind of you know core values, the UK financial planning business is much different to the international one. Um, international one is kind of very new business focused, and that doesn't mean they're you know out there running around just trying to sign clients up and be super transactional. That doesn't mean so, but they're much more hunter mindset than farmer mindset, I found. Um, and actually the people that we employ in the international space seem to have more of that mindset around them across all the different you know disciplines planners, business development managers, marketing, um, you know, back office support staff. Um in the UK business, that was a bit of a shock for me when we started because the the way that it operates and the suitability and everything else like that was you know was not necessarily the market that I had been operating in internationally, and I had to get my head around that. US is kind of somewhere in between, Europe same, Australia is more like the UK. So he's actually adjusting to these different regimes and different ways that people want to work. Regimes kind of sounds almost like dictatorship, doesn't it? But um but you know what I mean, regulators. Um and that would that was tough like to get around, but actually what you realise is actually principles remain the same. Like, what does a regulator really care of, uh really care about? Um a regulator really cares that you're not ripping people off and that you would do trying to do the right thing. Like there will be nuances underneath in each jurisdiction, but clearly we're not trying to rip people off, and clearly we are trying to do the right thing across all the different jurisdictions, so therefore we just need to make sure that we get the nuances and how we tailor the advice, how we present it, making sure it's got the things in there is is correct. Um, and then you know, kind of once you kind of start with those bases, basically it goes from there.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

What about getting the licenses?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Licenses are tough to get, they're not a quick thing. I mean, we purchased some, um, but most of them we actually started from scratch. I mean, these things can, you know, regular mice here, six months, six twelve months, eighteen months, twenty-four months in some cases, um, going backwards and forwards. So it is not a quick thing to do. Um, and it's not a cheap thing to do either, because to get a license in a jurisdiction, you have to have people that are based in that jurisdiction. They have to be typically, you know, they're not planners, they're not revenue generating, let's say. They would be, you know, senior people who get paid a lot of money that maybe aren't going to be utilized for a period of time until you've got revenue going through that that business, and trying to do that not just once, but across seven different jurisdictions is tough. Uh, it's not easy. Um, so you know, the licenses and getting the licenses definitely are are hard, and then you've got the ongoing maintenance of them as well. And I'm really painting kind of a bit of a neggy picture on this, and it's not, I love it. Um, but they it is a difficult part of the of the business. And I think had I known a lot of the stuff I know now, would I have probably gone, would I have done it at the start? Probably not. Um, but I think that's the beauty of when you start, you're ignorant and you believe everything is possible and you don't see the problems, and I think that's the beauty of it as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

When did you start becoming less of an advisor and more of a business owner?

Lessons For Your 2018 Moment

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Two years ago. Um, I would say I definitely became and I wouldn't say it's a business owner because I'd always been a business owner with the business. I'd say it's more of operating the business. And I used to split my time planner and then operating the business. But what I realised was is that actually towards the end of that, I was probably not doing the best with either. And it was a bit of a choice for me. It's like I still like the advice piece, I still want to be involved in it. I still am interested to see how advice is delivered and what problems people are facing. But actually, I could probably have more of a positive influence on more people, clients, and planners, um, and all the sports staff if I actually focused on running the business. Um, and that's what I, you know, that's what I focused on, is decided that you know selfishly, I you know, I I I would probably earn more as a planner, like income-wise from the business side, um, and you know, the central equity value in the business, obviously that would be greater if I focused on it. But a lot of that is kind of you relying on other people as well. You don't have as direct influence. So it was really hard for me to step away because I do love financial, being a financial advisor, being a financial planner, I do really enjoy it. Um, but also I you know take the responsibility of growing the business and you know, looking after the people around me a lot, um, and to give them the best outcome and to give you know the business the best outcome as well, and me as well. I'm I'm I'm in there too. You know, actually me focused on running the business is um is is where my strength is.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

What are the biggest lessons that you would give to other people that were in at the same position that you were in in 2018?

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Biggest lessons, number one, make sure it's really what you want to do, yeah. Like, do you want to be a financial planner or do you want to be a business owner? And actually just thinking, well, I'm a financial planner managing a lot of money, that means I'm gonna be a great business owner, doesn't mean that at all. Um, so that's number one. What do you want to be? Do you want to run a business or do you want to be a planner? If you want to be a planner, go and work for a business, much easier, you'll learn much more because you'll be focused on that. Um, if you want to, if you do truly want to go and operate your own business and fully understand what that entails, then go and do the the other one. And I suppose look, you can have a lifestyle business where you just kind of it's just you and a couple of people, or you might want to grow a big business and go from there, but be clear with your mindset. I wasn't very clear when I first started. Um, I think I could have probably grown it quicker had I been had I been clearer. Um, that being said, I don't think we're in a bad position. Um, but that that's one thing I definitely would look at. Second thing is like I said before, make sure you surround yourself with great people the best you can and constantly be leveling up on that. Um that's really important because. Better people you have in the business, the more the better you'll become. Um, and the third thing that I wish I would have learned, wish I'd have known before I started, is don't worry about having crazy business plans, they'll always change. Um, actually, just focus on the here and now, focus on this year, have a have a goal for the next five years and where you want to get to. I think that's important, and I actually think that will propel you further forward, have a bit of a structure, but be willing to adapt it, doesn't have to be lasers targeted. You have initiatives that you want to get done in that year, that's important. Make sure you're sticking to it, make sure you monitor them, make sure you look at them. I didn't do that, enough at the start, and you know, the bigger, wider goal can change. So, what I hope you take from this episode is that Hoxton wasn't grown with some massive master plan, some massive vision. It was actually grown uh from just doing the right things over and over again, making sure that we hired the right people, making sure that we try and kept the culture, how important that was, uh, and making sure that we kept on prospecting and still do. I hope you found this useful. Thanks very much for watching, and I look forward to seeing you on the next one.