The Fork in the Road

Last September, I had the opportunity to meet with Mark Tibergien who was in last days with Moss Adams at the time.  Among other issues, we discussed one very difficult hurdle all advisors face at one point is “The Fork in the Road”.

What do I mean by this?  Ask yourself these questions:

1.  Are you working more and more each week and feeling like less and less is being accomplished?

2.  Do you feel like customer might be slipping or could be better?

3. Is there an increase in errors? 

4. Are you spending more and more time on your back office and less with clients and prospects?

This is the fork in the road and the decisions you make here are going to have long lasting effects on your firm and your life.  Mark likes to say that ”all advisors want to get to heaven, they just don’t want to die”.  I interpret this to mean that we all want the rewards without having to really address the problems.

This is the point where you need to spend some money to leverage yourself.  The question becomes whether or not you outsource it (are you comfortable delegating this work to outside work partners?) or do you hire a top notch COO and keep it in-house.  Both decisions are good options…you just need to decide which you feel most comfortable with.

Advisors have never had more opportunitites to create a successful firm both from a financial side and a personal satisfaction side.  However, when you come to the fork in the road, make the decision which way to go or better yet, hire someone to help you take an objective look at your goals and then the two of you can write a plan for making it happen!

Don’t be afraid of the fork in the road but don’t ignore it either.  You’ll be sorry you did.