Is it that time already?

Yes, believe it or not, it’s time to start thinking about strategic planning for 2009.  So, what should you be doing right to prepare for your planning session?

Begin loosely developing your agenda. If you’ve never done this before, here are some ideas to get started:

1. Ask your employees to begin thinking about their personal and business goals for 2009 and for five years from now.  Where do they want to be in five years?  What do they want to be doing? 

2.  Do the same thing for yourself.

3.  Now begin thinking about what your priorities are for next year.  Do you need to upgrade technology?  Do you need to get a formal comp plan in place?  Do you need to examine your service model?  How about your compliance program, is it where it needs to be?

4.  Last but not least, ask your employees for their ideas on improving your firm and for what they see as the priorities for 2009.  If you guys have alot of the same ideas, you’re probably all on the same page.  If not, there is a disconnect and the strategy session will be a great opportunity for you to find out where the disconnect happened, fix it and re-enforce the vision for the firm.

Start to put your agenda together now and then plan on having your session this fall.  Send emails to your team about once a week reminding them you are interested in their ideas for the planning session.  Two things will happen here:  you will get some great ideas and you will solidify your relationship with your employees by giving them a voice in the planning for the firm.

One caution – this is not a time for whining, complaining or any kind of negativity.  This is a positive, team building exercise and that stuff should be dealt with on a individual basis with your employees, preferably BEFORE the strategy session.

Take the time to do this right and plan for the strategy session and you will come out with a great plan for next year, accountability for the subsequent tasks and an excited team!

Please feel free to call or email me if you’d like to talk about this further.

Hire before you can afford to.

Okay, now did she just say what I think she said?  Hire someone before I can afford to?  You better believe it.

How many times have I seen it?  You start working your marketing strategy and guess what?  It actually works.  You actually start to see referrals coming in.  So now what happens?  You have to do the work you promised and you go from sixty to zero in 10 seconds.  You have to pause your marketing in order to do the work and this is a sure fire momentum killer.  What happens in your car everytime you come to stop sign.  It takes more energy to get it going again than it would have to just keep going (I’m not advocating you run stop signs, just giving an anology!).  Marketing is the same.  Every time you have to stop, it takes that much more energy to get back the mindset again.

Hire someone before you need them.  You know you will need them…your marketing strategy will work.  It’s never been a better time to be a financial advisor.  So, get a top notch person on staff right away.  If your concentration is comprehensive financial planning, get a junior planner in there.  They can always double as an admin person for a while.  If you’re more on the AUM side, less comprehensive planning, get a top notch admin in there who can process all the back office work, run some simple MoneyGuidePro worksheets, keep your calendar straight, set up/confirm appointments, start putting systems in place, etc.

Don’t wait until your spouse is mad, your kids can’t remember what you look like and you feel like a truck ran over you.  Get a loan, do whatever you need to but get help and get it early.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Stop living the “status quo”

Change…YIKES! In business, it can be a scary proposition and it when it comes to changing out personnel, it can make you sick to your stomach.  But, sometimes it is necessary to reach the next level.  When this is the case, try and keep the long view in mind.

As those of you know who’ve read some of my blogs, I’m a real stickler for having my clients write a strategic plan with me.  It doesn’t cost extra, it’s all part of my quarterly retainer.  It’s probably more for me than for you (although it should serve as a reminder as to why you’re doing all of this) but I cannot help you get where you want to go unless I know where that is.  Very similar to the way you work with your clients…I mean, let’s face it…most of a financial plan is for the advisor but what’s wrong with that.  Again, how can you help me go where I want to go if you don’t know where that is!

The next step in my process is to look at the personnel you have on board and really assess whether or not they are the right individuals to go to the next levels with you.  Think back to when you hired them…you didn’t have much money to spend, you didn’t really know what they’d do so it’s entirely possible they were hired to do much less than you will need going forward.

Does this mean we have to throw the baby out with the bathwater?  No!  In many cases, the person you have can be brought up with the process by incentives (get them vested in the firm success, make it a mission not a job), training and being included in the strategic planning process over time.  When this happens, there is usually a re-alignment of their thinking and the way they view themselves within the firm and that can be a great day!  You can really start to cook at that point.

However, sometimes they just don’t fit.  It’s not their fault, it’s not your fault (well, not entirely).  It’s just one of those things.  You are not doing yourself, or them for that matter, any service by hanging on to them simply because you don’t want to go through the pain of getting a new person.  Yes, it will be painful on the front end, like it is for many of your clients when they must save large amounts of money for college or whatever but your job is to help them see the payoff on the back end.  You must do that now with this decision.  Keep your eye on the payoff…higher level of understanding, efficiencies, trust, ownership in their work, vision, etc.  These are all things that will go directly to your quality of life as you move down the road.  If you need it, hire someone like me to help you sort through candidates, do preliminary phone or in person interviews and to help you remember why this is so important to you meeting your goals and living the quality of life you want for you and your family.

Call me with any thoughts. Thanks!

It’s time to celebrate! Go ahead, pat yourself on the back!

As we approach the 4th of July (I can’t believe it’s that time of year already), I’ve been thinking about all the financial planning industry has to celebrate.  Seems like negativity has ruled lately (the CFP board, the markets, the Fiduciary issues) and I want to remind each and every one of you just how important what you do is to folks like me.

Because of you, my husband and I know our financial future is safe, we sleep at night.  We are long term investors and thanks to you we understand what that means.  You took the time to find out what is really important to me, not just my financial goals but my personal goals…what do I want this money to do for me?  You wrote a plan for me and you keep me accountable to it.  For that, I am very grateful and I celebrate the fact that you want to share in my vision of a great life!

Take some time today to think about the value you add to your client’s lives.  Trust me, they may not tell you enough (or at all) but the majority of them really appreciate what you do and hold you in very high esteem.

Have a wonderful and safe holiday and call me if you’d like to talk about any challenges you are facing right now (225-751-8009).

Ginny