Financial adviser, James Clough was barely 30 when a unique opportunity to set up his own business arose. Clough established Pinnova in January 2025 and, in this article, he recaps his first year in business and shares his tips for going out on your own.
When asked to sum up his first year in business, James Clough, uses the expression, time flies when you’re having fun.
That’s not to say there haven’t been challenges because there have been many including financial pressure, forcing Clough to eat into his personal savings to keep his entrepreneurial dream alive.
Clough established Pinnova Partners in early 2025 and started seeing clients in April. It took another couple of months for revenue to start trickling in.
Clough has never been more energised by his work and excited about the future.
“I love the uncertainty heading into each week,” he says. “I get to say that I’ve been in this business since day one, hopefully I’m creating something special and that’s a cool feeling”
At age 32, Clough feels “fortunate and grateful” for the confidence and support of his three silent business partners, who own the general insurance business that backed Pinnova.
“It took some time to get moving but we factored that into our planning,” he says.
“Having supportive business partners made the decision to leave my salaried job and set up Pinnova easier because it was low risk in that it didn’t cost me a lot upfront.”
“They were prepared to effectively fund the first year, I’m on a pretty low salary, around half of what I was previously earning, but these are sacrifices that we are all happy to make because we’re building for the future.”
Clough also credits his licensee, Akumin, for helping him put in place the right structure, processes and technology to efficiently deliver advice. Akumin’s team has been an invaluable sounding board, he says, providing direction and guidance, and exposing him to experienced principals and business leaders across the community.
“I get to meet to a lot of senior people and experienced advisers and gain insights into their success,” Clough says. “I’m making a lot of connections and I’m learning how they toughed it out in the beginning and built their businesses.”
While revenue is ticking up and there are positive signs (the business got its first client referral in January), Clough still hasn’t given himself a pay rise, choosing instead to invest back into the business. Last year, he hired an operations assistant and the business recently added an associate adviser. There are plans to add another adviser later this year.
“We’re investing in growth and I’d rather employ people to help drive the business forward than pay myself more,” he says.
Three must-haves
The barriers to setting up an advice business today are much higher than they were historically, due to greater compliance and regulation, reduced access to capital, and higher education and training requirements, according to Clough.
He says that advisers thinking of going out on their own should have at least one of three elements: the ability to purchase a client book, effective referral networks, and a strong online brand and presence.
“Buying a book is capital intensive and building a strong, trusted online brand takes time and money and is really hard so I’m very fortunate to be backed by established business partners that provides a steady stream of referrals,” Clough says.
“Without the referral networks we have in place, things would have been much, much harder.”
This isn’t just Clough’s opinion. It’s backed by data.
A benefit of being part of Akumin is that Pinnova leverages the group’s technology experts and technology stack which can track and measure everything including the source of new clients.
“Where new business comes from is a key datapoint and it shows that my personal networks represent a very small percentage,” Clough says.
“We’ve had a couple of referrals from my networks and we had our first client referral this year, which was a nice milestone, but the majority have come from the wide range of partnerships we’ve built.”
Other data captured by the business include the breakdown of revenue by advice segment, time spent completing tasks, and cost to serve.
“Data helps ensure that we prioritise the right things because I need to make sure that there’s enough revenue coming in to pay my team each week,” Clough says.
“We are focused on building our client book so we need a clear picture of where the biggest client opportunities lie, also where things are breaking down in the advice process and where clients are getting stuck because our goal is to be as efficient as possible.”
“We also need to know that we’re meeting all our obligations and the areas that may need more attention.”
Looking ahead, Clough has ambitious plans to grow and, ultimately, turn Pinnova into a multi-disciplinary advisory firm with a national footprint. He is inspired by the large, national general insurance business that his business partners have built and feels supported pursue a similar route.
“When I think back to where we were a year ago and where we stand today, it’s amazing to see what we have achieved and very exciting to think about what can be achieved in the next 12 months,” Clough said.
“It has been a lot of fun so far. When we started, we were unsure where we’d be after the first year. It could’ve been bugger all but, from a financial year perspective, we’ve actually surpassed our expectations. Everything is going well. I have a clear understanding of the organic growth we can expect, based on referrals from our partners without doing a lot of social media. I’m not looking too far ahead. We said we would assess our position at the end of year one and do some more planning and that’s where we are at.”
