The New Year is upon us, and that means it’s time to start thinking about resolutions — the promises you make to yourself (and are often quick to break) to change a behavior, a personal goal reach or give back to your community. Making realistic New Year’s resolutions and sticking to them can improve the quality of your life. But what about resolutions for your financial advisory business?
As a consultant, setting achievable goals for your business can help you start the year off on the right foot. And if you stick to a plan, you’ll be happy with the results when you look back on everything you’ve accomplished.
Here we outline four common New Year’s resolutions and provide ways to adapt them to your practice.
1. Improve the health of your business
One of the most popular resolutions is to eat better and exercise more. In business, this would mean improving the health of your business. Just as you don’t improve your own health by doing nothing, you must work consistently at your business to move it forward. Depending on where you are and where you want to go, you can achieve this by:
2. Spend more time with customers and employees
Another common resolution is to spend more time with family and friends. In business, your relationships with clients and employees are critical to the success of your practice. Deciding to spend more time with them instead of doing hectic work can pay off in the long run. Here are two ideas that can help:
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Consider outsourcing many of the tasks that fill your day. By giving someone else responsibility for operations, marketing, and human resources, you free up time to focus on customers, employees, and other aspects of business growth.
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Create a partnership path for your younger Consultants. Not only will this provide you with a succession plan to secure your company’s legacy, but it can also buy you time by delegating more responsibility.
3. Invest in the future of your financial advisory practice
Saving more and spending less are good ways for individuals to prepare for the future. Your practice is a little different. As a financial advisor, you want to prepare for the growth and development of your business and you need to invest in it today.
Think about the future of your practice and how you can get there. Then look for financing options that can help you with various aspects of building your business, including:
4. Create a solid strategy to give back
Many people would like to do more to help those in need. Donating money, volunteering, or getting more involved in the community are common resolutions people make for the New Year. If you want to adapt this to your practice, you can create a formal return strategy.
Here are five reasons why it’s a good idea:
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It can help improve customer relationships.
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It can motivate your employees.
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It’s an investment in your community.
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You can market your philanthropic efforts.
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There are potential tax benefits.
Start the year off right
Accordingly The Economic TimesAbout 84 percent of people break their New Year’s resolutions within the first one to six weeks. Why? Common reasons are unrealistic expectations and not committing to a plan. In your financial advisory business, you can avoid these pitfalls by starting early, setting achievable goals, and tracking your progress.
Then, as you look back at everything you’ve accomplished in a year, you’ll see how much you and your practice have benefited from setting and sticking to your business resolutions.
