Susan Mercer – Susan Mercer & Associates
- What is the name of your business and what is your role? Susan Mercer & Associates – I am a Certified Financial Planner and have a post graduate degree in financial planning with the University of the Orange Free State, my role is to enable my clients and their families to protect and create their financial security I am the owner/manager of a holistic financial planning business where my passion is educating and co-partnering my clients in creating wealth, stability and financial security for themselves and their family. I am a well known speaker, coach and educator and a regular commentator in magazines and on radio.
- Describe your business in two sentences. I strive to assist my clients to make quality financial decisions and not “ad hoc” financial decisions – this helps my client’s to decide on what is sustainable, desirable and achievable when creating their financial plans. I am set apart from other financial planners with my holistic approach to financial planning and my deep desire to educate my clients.
- How long have you been in business? Since 2002.
- Why did you start this business? I have always had a deep interest in investments and being self empowered, I was offered a position at Liberty Life in 1996 which I retained till 2002. I left Liberty Lifein 2002 to open up my own independent brokerage where I am not aligned to any one company, product or investment structure because I realized that there was a deep disconnect between what insurance companies pushed out as products with hidden cost structures and penalties and what was actually needed for my clients. I believed firstly in educating my clients to understand their own financial affairs and then to profile the correct product or investment structure that would be needed for them to attain or secure that particular financial goal.
- What makes you go to work in the morning? My passion for my clients. I have never considered myself as having to go to work., I am passionate about what I do and what I can offer my clients and their families – I see myself as partnering alongside my clients and enabling them to achieve their goals and vision for themselves.
- What is your favourite part of your work day? I would have to say either when I am spending time with my clients many whom have become my friends – what a privilege that is or standing up in front of a group of people sharing my insight into financial planning and empowerment – if one person changes their way of being with their money because of something I have said, my day has been successful.
- What is your business goal for 2013? To encourage my clients to look forward and project what the future could be in the next 20 years, in that this year, I would like most of my clients to be exposed to investing offshore and to have investments that are not only rand denominated but are also dollar denominated. I firmly believe that this is the way forward for my clients to achieve long term financial success. It’s to get that message across – investments that pay you an income in dollars so that they are able to travel, see children who are living abroad without fear of currency risk and to live in their country without fear of inflation risk can only aid in their artillery of financial planning.
- Your secret to business success is? To enjoy each and every moment of the day and to continually grow – I don’t look backwards, only forwards, each and every person that I come into contact teaches me so much, it is to be open to that and decide on the blessings or the lessons of that day. Each year I have goals for my business, I define what I want, where I want to go and what I want differently for that year and each and every year I achieve that, so my business is not stagnant and nor am I. That energy keeps me enthused and therefore my business is continually evolving.