Plan your work
Are your plans set for 2010 already? What are your plans for business growth? Do you have a marketing plan to make progress into markets that you can add value to? What growth rate do you want to achieve for 2010? How about your target goals for gross and net revenue?
This year, our firm is planning for the third record year in a row. We are adding new team members to build our human capital to deploy to the demands for our services. The firm is making room for new team members through a new and expanded office space. We are upgrading our furniture, technology, systems and client service offerings. We are so excited!
But this article is all about you and your plans for 2010 — not mine. I only give you personal stories to encourage you to think big and act upon your goals and dreams for the sake of all your clients, present and future.
You should have plans for how many calls you are making to clients and referrals each week. You should have plans to grow your business through business development in the markets you add value to. Have a plan to call on a certain businesses or niche markets of people that you can really help. Make plans to add another Administrative Subject Matter Expert¹ like a Director of First Impressions². Next month, we’ll talk about how your team should be built to become a Million Dollar Advisory Firm.
Here’s a question: What has to happen over the next three years in your personal, professional, business and financial life for you to be happy with your progress³?
Personal ________________________________________________________
Professional _____________________________________________________
Business/Financial ________________________________________________
Now, think about how you can improve the four main areas of your present reality — Inner health; physical health; relational health; and career success. (feel free to expand this list):
Work your plan
Don’t add staff members to your team until you have the cash flow to do it. I made the mistake of growing to a team of 10 back in 2000 with only 20% recurring revenue to support this overhead. We were dependent upon receiving 80% of our revenue through obtaining new clients during 9-11 and a bear market. New retirees who were in the Retirement Red ZoneSM4
were then putting off their retirements for a few years until the markets recovered. Do you remember that time in the markets and economy?
Our revenue dried up and I had to pay myself and my team out of my personal savings until they were nearly depleted. The pain of living my life this way was so great that I decided to change the way I did business and the way I managed money for clients and the way I was compensated.
We now manage money on a fee basis and have recurring revenue that is 85% of our total annual overhead expenses. Hiring new employees comes out of that stream of recurring revenue so I don’t have to go into debt again to grow our company.
Take a moment and think about what you want to do this year to make it a record year. As my friend Don Speakman told me, “The single most important thing that you can do in this business is hire great people.” Surround yourself with great people can help you burst through the ceiling of complexity to a new plane of service.
Brent Welch, CFP, ChFC, CLU, started as a financial planner in 1984 and is founder and managing member of Welshire Capital, LLC, a firm specializing in private wealth management, retirement and estate planning. He is a past president of The International Forum, a past board member for the AALU, a 17-year MDRT member and an 8-year TOT member. You can reach him through his Web site at www.welshirecapital.com.
Footnotes:
1. Bill Bacharach, www.baivbfp.com.
2. Ron Carson’s PEAK consulting, www.joinPEAK.com.
3. Dan Sullivan, www.thestrategiccoach.com. (This is a modified version of Dan’s R-factor question.)
4. Prudential Insurance Company owns the service mark for Retirement Red Zone.