Ever get that feeling that you’re run off your feet and you’re not convinced that the rewards you’re getting from your business are worth it all? There are so many great ideas you hear, and you see other advisers that look so successful, but you don’t have time to stop and think about how you can tweak your business strategy to do things differently.
It probably frustrates you to hear statements from people like us about how our clients have tripled their revenue in three years, or they’ve doubled their net profit in one year, or they’re spending more time with their kids and less at the office?
When your reality is that you’re so caught up in the day to day of running your business and taking care of your clients that you don’t take care of yourself…
Guess what? You’re not alone!
Last week I was fortunate enough to spend time with two very different groups of business owners – and was interested to note that they shared many of the same challenges about their business. One was a group who were keen to work on their business as they weren’t getting the results they wanted – they would consider themselves as very ‘average’ businesses, and the other was a group of the top businesses in one of the country’s biggest licensees – they were rated at the top because of their growth, revenue, profitability and compliance ratings (no – not because of the level of FUM they wrote in house product as might have been the case in the olden days.)
What stood out to me so plainly was that in many ways, these two distinct groups of businesses are not so different after all!
When asked to share their challenges, both groups were frustrated with a bunch of things – just a couple of them included:
- email overload and finding the time to work ON their business,
- determining a better engagement process to help clients understand what advice is and combat negative perceptions,
- articulating value to clients over the long-term,
- margin squeeze and finding better ways to reduce the cost of delivery,
- sorting out their back office processes to deliver a consistent client experience (and improve efficiency!),
- and of course, the old chestnut – how to price their services.
The environment we are in today means that no business will thrive if they continue to do things the way they did even five years ago! Now more than ever, it is important to take evolutionary steps in your business – to plan how you will achieve your success in the future.
The thing is; none of these challenges are insurmountable. This is the stuff that my coaches help advisers to get past every day.
Just as you teach your clients that the best savings strategy is to pay themselves first, the best success strategy is to pay yourself first – allocate time to spend on how you run your business, before you actually do the running – if that means an hour every week, or a few hours each month.
Ideally, seek expert help from someone who knows exactly what you’re facing, so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and figure it out on your own!
I’m running a free webinar that might help you with getting maximum return on your investment of time working on your business. I’ll spend an hour sharing the observations we see – call it insider secrets – on the things we know that successful advice business owners are doing. You’re more than welcome to attend – click here to register, or if you know that you want some help to drive your business forward, why not reach out and one of our expert coaches can get in touch with you directly?
Sue Viskovic CFP is the Founder of Elixir Consulting; a sought-after speaker; a business coach; and author of a number of books and programs designed for advisers.
With over 15 years’ experience in financial services, with roles spanning banking, funds management, advice and licensee services, Sue has built her career and her business on helping financial advisers, accountants and risk specialists to improve the way that they run their businesses and deliver advice.