I always wanted to have my own business, but never new when or what it could be. I spent almost 8 years in a corporate career working for Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management in London, UK and when the bank sold the department to Credit Suisse I saw it as a sign for me to finally attempt my own business. Throughout my career I was astonished by the lack of women within the banking industry and even more perplexed by the lack of women clients, especially in the private wealth management department. I was part of one of the biggest team within the department globally in terms of revenue and we only had one female client. That is when I put the two together and decide to make a change. After researching to find out the reasons why, I came to a conclusion that financial education played a very big part in this. So Lily Advisory was born in May 2015 aiming to create a community and platform for women to become financially sound.
What were the biggest initial hurdles to building your business and how did you overcome them?
One of the biggest hurdles was suddenly having to wear many different hats within the business. In a corporate environment generally you have one set of responsibilities and infrastructure surrounding you that helps you focus on what your job is. It was quite challenging at the start to not only be the client contact, but also the CEO, the marketing manager, social media expert, website guru and many other roles. Soon I realised that for me to succeed I need to learn to delegate and find ways of finding help form others rather than spending too much time trying to learn a ton of new skills. I had to focus on what my strengths were and accept help where I needed it. Branding was another major hurdle. When I left Morgan Stanley I underestimated how important a brand name is and it took me a while to realise that for my business to be successful I need to build a strong brand that will be recognised as the go to for financial education for women. It is challenging to accept that even if you are excellent at what you do, it is not necessarily enough to have a successful business as people need to recognise you and trust you. One way to go about building your brand outside of the usual marketing, is to establish yourself as an expert in your industry by participating in various conferences, having public speaking engagements and writing for publications.
Did you ever deal with contention from your family and friends concerning your entrepreneurial pursuits?
How did you handle it? What would you do differently in hindsight?
I was very lucky to have full support from my entire family and honestly I don’t think I could have done it without them, because you need your tribe that will encourage you and push you when you are about to give up.
What would you say was the single most influential factor in your business success?
There really is no one single factor. It is a combination of many different things that makes your business successful.
What do you know today that you wish you would have known when you first got started as an entrepreneur?
There are many things that I would do differently now in hindsight, but I also believe that I had to make the mistakes and wrong judgement calls in order to learn, so in all honesty if I had to do it again I would do it exactly the same. I believe being an entrepreneur is a learning curve and you must make some mistakes, otherwise you will be none the wiser.
What advice would you give to an upcoming young and old entrepreneur locally and internationally?
You have to believe in yourself and your idea and persevere. You will always encounter backlash and people who will be negative, but do not take that to heart, keep pushing and you will succeed.
Connect:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/lilyadvisory/
LinkedIn Personal – https://www.linkedin.com/in/indrebutkeviciute/
LinkedIn Business – https://www.linkedin.com/company/lily-advisory-limited/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/IndreButke
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/indrebutk/
