Re-engineer Your Practice For Growth

It will become necessary at some point for you to re-engineer your practice as your business and the environment in which it operates evolve. The truth is, as your practice grows, it becomes more complex and you might find that you're spending more time managing your business than building it. It is therefore necessary to step back and refocus your practice to take charge of its growth.

 Here are five steps you can take to re-engineer your practice.  

 Start with the big picture

 Ask yourself: "What do I want my world to be?" Review the competitive landscape to determine your advantages and disadvantages relative to your competition. Establish whether you can match or exceed the capabilities of your competition, or decide not to compete at all in specific areas.

 Review your product and services shelf

In a competitive environment, differentiation is critical to success. All firms typically have similar products, so success comes down to ascertaining the areas in which you are unique, and what you can do differently from other advisors. To establish what products and services you want to offer, you may decide to rationalize your product shelf and drop certain products. Alternatively, you may want to broaden your value proposition by expanding what you do.

 Evaluate your client base

 Over time, you may develop certain specialties and preferences on which you want to focus on to build your business. This leads to the question: Who are my existing clients that fit or come close to fitting my preferred client profile?

 In considering the answer to this question, you may need to evaluate the resources you will need to commit to serving your clients. As your business grows, you may find that you have clients with widely divergent asset levels. However, if you want to focus on a specific size or type of client, you may have to cull your client base by recommending another advisor to those clients who do not fit your preferred client profile.

Examine income and expenses

An analysis of your clients should determine client profitability and what action you should take regarding clients who are not profitable. You should make sure you cover your costs per client. You may either cut or increase costs, depending upon how you plan to grow your business.

Check your marketing strategy

Your marketing activities should appeal to your preferred clients or be appropriate to the clients you are trying to reach. Learn as much as you can about your clients and prospects so that you can customize your communications to them as individuals. Essentially, you must know your audience to determine what marketing activities would appeal to your target market.