Building a book of women clients can present its own set of challenges, but it can lead to many opportunities to grow your business.

In fact, there is definitely a need for female-focused financial advice, says April-Lynn Levitt, a coach with the Personal Coach in Calgary. That’s because women have many different financial needs than men, as they often don’t earn as much, they live longer and often have to take time out of the workforce for child-rearing purposes.

Try these tips to build your business around a female clientele:

Be sincere
Make sure you care about dealing with the different financial needs of women before jumping into the market.

“It’s best if it’s something you feel strongly about,” says Levitt. “If you’re interested in helping women and passionate about that area, you’re going to do a lot better than if you pick it up just because someone says it’s a good market.”

Find more focus
Find a niche to work with to make your marketing efforts toward women more effective.

There are so many different financial and educational needs for women — from the stay-at-home-mom to the career-oriented physician — so it’s best not to lump them all together, says Levitt.

Provide learning opportunities
Build your clientele with educational seminars geared toward specifically women.

Women are interested in learning more about investments, says Rosemary Smyth, owner and coach with Victoria-based Rosemary Smyth and Associates. So, bring more punch to your seminars by focusing on financial products and including other professionals such as accountants, lawyers or mortgage brokers.

As well, have the option to include children at the seminars, says Smyth. Women want to include their families and make sure they learn about finances as well.

Create a network
Instead of cold calling, focus on building a referral network to meet this demographic.

“Women tend to have more connections, they have support systems of friends,” says Levitt. “There is a natural market for referrals if you do a good job with a couple of them.”

Gain their trust
Honesty and integrity are important characteristics regardless of your client base. But women in particular want to feel an advisor is trustworthy from the first meeting.

“It’s very important that at the beginning they feel they can have an honest open communication with you,” says Smyth.

Being honest and up front about your qualifications and your fees is also very important, she says.

IE