This is one of my favorite questions to get asked because it allows me to highlight what truly separates Hyche Financial from the “competition” in West Alabama. Yes, I use the word “competition” like that because there is no one who does exactly what we do at Hyche Financial. When I first got into the industry over ten years ago, one of my mentors told me to make a list of all the things I do for my clients and keep track of how long it takes. From there, decide what your hourly rate is and back into the fee charged by keeping track of the time you spend to make sure that you’re getting your money’s worth as a business owner. That’s how you maximize your time and make sure you are paid what you’re worth, he said.

First of all, this is great advice for anyone in any business, and it is advice that I’ve given to my own business-owner clients from time to time. At the same time, it is not the exact approach I take to running my business. Why? Because for me, it is not all about maximizing revenue. One assumption we make about business, negotiating, and life in general is that people all want the same thing all the time (money). Sometimes, it’s not about money, at least for me. It’s about reputation. It’s about lifestyle. It’s about pride. I enjoy working with the people I work with, and I take pride in what I do. I know I do what I do better than anyone else, and my clients know this too. I really like all of my clients, and we develop a long-term relationship that allows me to serve them in many different ways. By design, I don’t work with everyone. There are some people I meet that are pushy, arrogant, or unreasonable. I reserve the right to choose who I work with in the same way that you as the consumer do.

I’m not saying one way is right or wrong, but I am saying this is how I like to run my own business. I believe in doing the right thing for people and taking my time to do things right. You can always make another dollar, but your reputation is immeasurable by time and money. Am I crazy to take a phone call that lasts half an hour and doesn’t make any money? I couldn’t care any less what someone thinks about how “efficient” a use of my time that is.

If you do the right thing for people long enough, eventually things will pay off. You can’t always look for everything you do to pay dividends, but there are instances where I’ve helped someone immensely and didn’t make a dollar for it. Later on, they referred me to someone who turned into a great client, which made the initial time spent all the more worth it. I’m very thorough with the people that I work with, and I don’t measure any relationship by revenue. That’s the best pitch I can give to anyone considering working with Hyche Financial.