Collusion between a client and a staff member saw Christine Hornery nominated for the Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Female Excellence in Advice Award 2012.
“It was daunting right at the beginning, because I went, ‘I don’t have time to do this’,” Hornery says.
“It does take a lot of time, valuable time, and it was probably at the busiest period of the year for me. And, of course, it’s been challenging times over the past couple of years. So to stop, step outside and look at the business took a number of days, probably a week, to put together. So it was quite a lengthy submission.”
Hornery says she wants to exploit the profile that being a finalist will giver her to “mentor women and try to get them to join the financial planning profession”.
“[The profession] gave me an opportunity,” she says.
50 ways to be a planner
“I started my business in 2001. My husband left me four months later, with four children and a mortgage, but I still had the vision and I still had the passion, so I just continued on, with the support of my children.”
Hornery’s planning business, Financial Management Solutions, now employs nine people and has annual turnover of more than $1.1 million. It’s valued at about $3 million.
“So any obstacle that anyone could tell me, as to why they cannot join the profession or why they’re not enjoying the profession, I could probably give them another 50 reasons why they should join or why they should stay,” she says.
Hornery (right) says she did not have a mentor when she was starting her business, but having one would have been “extremely helpful”.
“You know what? For the first three months I didn’t get paid, because I didn’t now how to submit anything to get paid,” she says.
“It’s amazing. It was through a licensee, but that’s [another story]. I was one woman, one female, in an area that contained about 30 financial planners, in an office up on the central coast [of NSW]. I moved out within the first two years and went to my own offices.”
Hornery says that women in the financial planning industry “typically undervalue ourselves”.
“We tend to undervalue the relationship we have with clients, “she says press-ganged
“So I think some of the challenges we face are ourselves. Because it’s such a male-dominated profession, it’s hard to have a large voice in what is happening within the profession.
“There’s flexibility, there’s opportunity and there’s reward, so the challenges are more around how the profession is seen. It’s not seen as one of caring and sharing or relationships; it’s more seen as having a product focus than a strategic and advice focus.”
Bit of a giggle
Hornery says she first realised she’d been ganged up on by her staff and clients when she “got the acknowledgement that I’d been nominated – and then I had to fill in all the rest of the information”.
“But that was a great exercise, because I had to step outside my day-to-day working and look back at my business.
“It was an excellent opportunity. I had a bit of a giggle over it. I had a look at how the business started, and where it is now, and it brought out some really humorous moments.”
Hornery was one of about 150 initial nominees who made it through the first cull to about 30, and then through the second cull to determine the six finalists. Making it to the final was a genuine surprise.
“I didn’t think I was doing anything different than anyone else,” she says.
“I didn’t think I was doing anything better than other financial planners, and to even reach the semi-finals was amazing. I didn’t think I stood a chance at all.”
Hornery says it’s difficult to know what the judges of the award are looking for, “but I guess it will be something unique in that particular person”.
“Is it whether that person can be held up as a role model to the profession and in particular women who are thinking of entering the profession? Or for women who are facing the challenges in the profession at the moment? Someone that other people can draw inspiration from.”
Hornery was a winner in the 2009 Telstra Business Awards “for our social responsibility [work]”.
“I think we are the only financial planning business that’s ever won anything like that – the only one in NSW anyway,” she says.
“And I’ve been involved with the Telstra businesswomen’s Awards judging process as well,” she says.
“My exposure to them is very different to the exposure we have here. This award is a culmination of your profession; it’s reaching the pinnacle of your profession.
“For a woman, that’s probably the biggest achievement you can get, because it’s an achievement of yourself, what you’ve achieved, and what you’ve done for yourself. That’s the difference.”
