Did you know that India’s population is more than 134 crores, out of which mutual fund investors account for a very small fraction?
With increased awareness of the benefits of investing in mutual funds, the number of mutual fund investors has great potential to grow. However, for the investors to grow, mutual fund distributors have to play a crucial role.
The task of a mutual fund distributor is to understand the personal finances of an individual and to provide guidance on how to create wealth by investing in the right mutual fund scheme, depending on the investors’ risk profile. This task can be difficult since it requires intensive research, creating marketing materials, solving client queries, completing clients’ paperwork and much more. More than 29000 active distributors in India are provided with this support by NJ Wealth, one of the biggest platforms for mutual fund distribution in India. NJ offers the distributors a business platform so that they can serve their customers with NJ’s robust digital platform.
NJ Wealth provides its partners with complete support in terms of marketing, sales, technology and much more in order to grow the business and increase the clientele. NJ Wealth Distributors will undoubtedly be able to describe how NJ has significantly influenced the growth of their enterprises and the course of their lives. Let's hear it from one of our distributors who transformed his career from being an engineer to breaking it into the distribution field.
"I am Mahesh V Rege and I am a qualified electronic engineer. I want to share how my career took a successful turn when I became a mutual fund distributor with NJ Wealth."
Tell us about yourself and your professional journey before becoming a mutual fund distributor.
I live in Dahisar and operate my office from Dahisar. My professional journey has been one with a lot of twists and turns. I worked as a service provider for companies like videocon and Onida until 1989. Then, I became a sales executive at Sai Service Station Ltd., which is a Maruti Udhyog authorized dealer. My job was just fine, but I wasn’t satisfied. I did not want to do a job, I wanted to run a business. So, I had to start again from scratch. I got particularly interested in the stock market. However, not having a finance background, I was still in the learning phase, trying to comprehend the stock market.
Around this time I started trading as well in the stock market. However, it wasn’t the best experience since I lost my money. After this incident, I refrained from trading and I was only working on client acquisition. This made me realize that to learn more about the market, all I need is some good mentoring. So I researched and enrolled in an online trading academy based in California. My drive to learn was very strong which increased my ability to grasp the concepts to make me one of the best students in the batch.
When and how did you find out about NJ?
In 2017, I joined hands with NJ. Before partnering with NJ, I was NJ’s client through NJ’s partner Vijay Dakshini. It was he who suggested that I work in mutual fund distribution rather than the stock market business. Already having thoughts of closing down the stock market business but not having anything else to fall back on was the only thing not letting me close it down. However, this suggestion by NJ’s partner seemed like an option to explore, and this was the time that I became an NJ partner.
What motivates you to work at your best capacity?
My mission or any finance enthusiast's mission would be to promote financial literacy. When I joined the business I had a lot of questions regarding how to move forward in the distribution segment. Talking solely about the potential of this business, I think of my target audience to be 135 crore people, the entire population of India. I always ask myself this question: “Have I catered to all these 135 crore people?” Whenever the answer to this question will be yes, I would know that my work in this industry is done, however, I feel that as long as I am alive, this goal cannot be achieved.
How has NJ made mutual fund distribution easier for you?
Talking about NJ, the best thing about it is that despite being here in Dahisar, I can look after my clients in Chandigarh or any other place in India which has been possible only through NJ's online medium (platform). The astonishing fact to note here is that I haven’t met 90% of my clients. My business has worked fine even during the pandemic. My medium of communication has been google meet, Facebook and other social media platforms. Another interesting fact is that when I go to hotels and restaurants I tend to talk to bartenders, waiters and waitresses and onboard them as clients. Similarly, when I go to hospitals I talk to nurses and wardboys and take them on as clients.
This journey has been very rewarding for me and I want to share an incident with you to tell you why. I very aggressively recommended a person to invest in SIP knowing his salary. He started investing in SIP based on my recommendation. When he came to visit me again, with his daughter’s wedding invitation, I could see tears in his eyes which changed my perception altogether of this profession. I am glad that I am contributing to the benefit of the people no matter what the volume is.
To sign off, I would like to thank NJ's management and all of its staff for supporting me and my business at all times.
