Working on your business

Are you building a business or simply working a paying job?

If you were to leave today on a one-month cross-country hike, would your business continue to run or would you return to an angry clientele?

If you’re able to take the trip and not have any problems, it probably means you have spent a lot of time working on your business. However, if going away will cause problems, it’s probably because you have spent too much time working in your business. It’s not too late to turn your practice from a paying job to that of true entrepreneurship.

Taking a big picture approach

• What measures will be used to determine whether your practice is successful? How much money do you want to make? Do you have an exit strategy in place once you have reached your target? Just as you wouldn’t want a client to plan for retirement the day he retires, succession planning should take place at the very beginning of the planning process.

  What is your time frame to develop your business? Three years? As long as your career? Whatever your goal, the important thing is to be specific.

• Independent financial advisors may find it unnecessary to create an organizational chart when they are the only one, but it’s an important part of the process. Independent advisors must leverage the expertise of others to meet the ever-changing needs of clients.

  Step aside from the business and look at all the strategic partnerships you’ve formed.Where do these individuals or businesses fit into the mix? Are there any existing relationships you need to sever so you can continue moving forward? Are you missing key partnerships? Learn to leverage the time and energy of others.

• If the operations manuals for a coffee franchise vanished, it would not run as efficiently. People are at the heart of everything that we do, but having a system in place keeps everything afloat because everyone is playing by the same rules.

  If you need to hire more staff, spend some time documenting your operations so when you fill these positions, things operation run with minimal interruption.

• If you’re hiring people, help them understand why they are being asked to do the tasks that you’ve assigned them.Work on creating an environment of excellence, where the people in your organization feel part of the organization in both word and deed.

• Does your existing marketing strategy place you or your customer at the forefront? When working on your business, market with the intent of putting your vision aside and focusing exclusively on what your client wants—not what you think they want. You can get this information from your existing CRM database, but a questionnaire or survey could also do the job.

  The more information you can gather about your client, the easier it will be for you to focus your marketing efforts on the right audience.You want all of your lead generation, lead conversion, referrals and client activities to flow seamlessly through your marketing process.

Seize the moment

Does your financial practice run like a fully integrated system, or are there areas that need some work? What are five challenges your business faces today? If you’ve identified areas that need some work and are aware of your challenges, the only question that remains is what you are going to do today to make the necessary changes.

Tyrone Matheson, FMA, is a business and personal development coach and CEO of Inside Out Training (www.insideouttraining.ca), a firm dedicated to helping individuals, organizations and their teams achieve personal and professional excellence. Tyrone also has a newsletter that offers solutions to help advisors propel their businesses to new heights.