How to Start Scaling Your Financial Firm

Before you attempt scaling your financial firm, you must take an objective look at it and answer a few questions.  Did you become an independent financial advisor to manage the nitty-gritty of your entire practice? Or was your real mission to serve clients “the right way,” safeguard their wealth, and assist them in reaching their life goals — while running your business “your way?”  In fulfilling your vision and mission, does the current state of your business make a big difference in your life, your clients’ lives, and in the lives of those you love?

Way too often, “busy-ness” gets in the way of an advisory firm owner’s best intentions for growing a practice into the fulfilling business of their dreams. The secret is to catch yourself when you begin to wear too many hats.  This is not an easy task in an industry that normalizes (if not expects) 60- to 80-hour workweeks.  However, if you don’t examine the inner workings of your business, your bottom line and personal life will suffer as you go from frustrated to overwhelmed to just burned out and wondering why you went into business for yourself in the first place.

An Honest Look Before Scaling Your Firm

If you’re not careful, your business becomes just a job with very long hours and a paycheck.  When this happens, you’ll end up working “in” your business as an employee, instead of “on” your business as a boss.

Often advisor-owners can be heard saying, “I’m overwhelmed and working 60+ hours a week, trying to service my current clients the right way. I don’t have time to do much else — let alone bring on more clients.” You’ll never hear them say, “I’m not coming in today. I decided to take the day off!” or “I’m going on vacation for a month. My team can handle it!”  They can’t say this because when they take any time off, their firm makes no money. Nada, not a penny.

If you’ve been running a solo practice for a while or are responsible for your own book of business, chances are, your practice is running you instead of the other way around. It’s like you’re captaining a burning ship — running a business stuck in “practice mode” and frantically putting out fires. Often, independent financial advisor-owners get to this point and start questioning if they’re in the right profession — or wondering if they should go work for a company again!

There comes a day when financial business owners realize that they must shift from practicing in the business to running the business — when they must change their mindset from being an advisor to being an Advisor-CEO.

An Advisor-CEO Perspective on Scaling

The question of scaling your financial firm begins with planning for and developing the right team to service clients and run the firm for you.

Take a look at the list below and review all the departments you’re trying to handle by yourself. It is an exhausting list!

1. Operations
2. Administration
3. Marketing
4. Sales
5. Human Resources
6. Technology
7. Client Services
8. Research & Development
9. Finance & Accounting
10. Facilities/Logistics
11. Compliance/Legal

Make the Shift

When you are determined to make the shift from running a practice to owning a business, your entire operation and culture will reflect the change. You become the CEO of your business, looking at it from a bird’s-eye view. Your activities will be focused on what you enjoy doing the most and on the best use of your time.

Transitioning from being a lone advisor-owner to the CEO of your firm starts with three shifts:
1) a shift in your mindset about hiring others and delegating
2) a shift in your business structure
3) a shift in

Begin the mindset change by looking at your business for what it truly is:  a place to service clients the way they deserve to be serviced, a great investment of your time and talents, your retirement nest egg, a valuable asset to sell later, or a legacy to leave behind.

Advisor-CEOs give themselves the gift of time and others the gift of a paycheck (and the pleasant experience of working with a well-rested boss) when they hire a team.

Who Should Be On Your Team?

Advisor-CEOs plan for the growth of their firm. Scaling your business cannot happen if you don’t have a team.  If you’re a financial advisor who is ready to start planning for growth, take a look at the list of activities that require you to work overtime “in” your business in order to best service clients.

• President/CEO
• Salesperson
• Purchasing manager
• Business planner
• Planner
• Trader
• Office manager
• Event planner
• Technology specialist
• Speaker, trainer
• Coach and/or consultant
• Social networking/internet guru
• Human services manager
• Marketing director
• Accounting/finance manager
• Compliance/legal manager
• Desktop publisher/designer
• Customer service rep
• Quality control manager
• Para-planner
• Organizer
• Writer
• Janitor
• Interior designer
• Assistant to you
• And at a minimum, assistants to all the managers/specialists above

Most of the above-listed tasks are better left to your team members and technology. Your team can consist of part-time or full-time employees. They can work for you virtually or in your office. They can also be consultants you hire on a project basis. Once you have reassigned all your firm’s busy-ness activities, your business will operate like a well-oiled machine on most days.

Take Steps Today

Today, take a step towards being a CEO. Look to get rid of as many hats as possible and create a more sustainable, scaleable business model based on living your ideal life and owning an ideal business. If you aren’t yet able to hire more employees or consultants, create a 12-month plan and start taking the steps to get there.

Transform your business model into one that serves your life and allows you to help as many people as possible, fulfilling many dreams in the process — which is the real reason you started your business to begin with, right?

Action Steps Toward Scaling Your Business

Step 1. Many advisors “to do” all day. Even they don’t know all the tasks they do. So the first action step is to   You’ll use it for a few months to record the accumulated tasks you do daily, monthly, quarterly, etc.

There is no need to record how much time each task takes unless you want to.  It’s more important to identify all your tasks so you can determine which ones to delegate.

The process of filling in an Activity Audit can, over time, help you to reduce the number of “hats” you wear. Here are some benefits of completing an Activity Audit:

• helps you spend more time with your clients
• delegates fairly across your team
• determines hiring gaps
• defines more accurate job descriptions
• helps determine who to cross-train
• plans for future hires
• a first step towards living a better life

Step 2. Although financial advisors deal with finances, most don’t know what their hourly rate truly is. Figure it out.

Step 3. This is the most difficult for advisors. Start delegating. Here are some steps to help you do so once you complete your Activity Audit.

A) Delegate the hats you don’t like doing.
B) Delegate the hats you like doing, but you can pay someone 1/2 of your hourly rate (or less) to do.
C) Delegate the hats you love doing, but take you away from retaining clients, being with clients, and working with new clients.

Are there other strategies to give yourself more time and more clients whom you love to work with? For sure. Update your business and marketing plan and use it daily. Create a clear message about whom you work with and how you help them (a crucial part of your marketing plan).  Implement that you and your team will use over and over again instead of reinventing the wheel.

It’s time to take all those hats off your head and lighten up! You’ll enjoy your business and clients so much more! And you’ll have the necessary time to serve new and old clients in the way you know they deserve.

(c) 2012 Updated 2019, 2021, 2023 Elevating Your Business

A variation of this article first appeared on RIA Biz.

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