Better Business  

Business managers are the 'future' for professional advice firms

She sums it up more distinctly: "A firm run by a financial planner will only ever achieve professionalism, which is the mission, right. But a firm run by a business and operations manager will only ever exceed excellence."

The BOMS network

For the past 15 years Hoskin, has been toying with the idea of setting up a support network for business operations roles, providing training, mentorship and career development.

Article continues after advert

She recently set up a Linkedin group, which saw 100 members sign up globally in a short space of time without any real marketing effort, validating her assessment of the considerable interest from the business manager community.

Today (September 12) marks the official launch of the BOMS network, which includes a community app and platform called The Vault, and offers paid membership across several tiers, starting at £27 a month. 

The tiers are designed to cater for managers at various stages in their careers, from aspiring business managers to established managers.

"The reason we're creating an aspiring category is because we recognise that we want to create a career path that's not just technical," says Hoskin.

"There isn't any career path in financial services unless you're a paraplanner or an adviser and we want to create this aspiring path to become client service managers, business and ops managers."

The community will hold bi-monthly webinars, an annual conference, awards ceremonies and an annual retreat, alongside offering face to face sessions and training courses complete with certifications.

The portal also includes a projects board where business managers can help each other solve problems, and a jobs board.

But there's a strict rule, says Hoskin: advisers are not allowed in.

"We want this to be a safe, collaborative place, because one of the big, big challenges [for operations managers] is a lack of confidence in their role for themselves and imposter syndrome.

"They don't think they're good enough. And if we let advisers in, they've got all these qualifications, that know more and think they know better, then it's just going to completely overpower the group. And that's not what we're trying to do here."

The issue that needs to be solved

Operations managers tend to face a number of issues in their roles, observes Hoskin.

One of the main issues is a lack of confidence. "They don't believe in their own ability." she says.

While often they have a lot of experience in running the business, they lack any qualifications or designations to validate their role, she explains.