Start afresh Whatever you do this year, don’t just start where you left off last year. In the first week or two of your return, you’ve got an opportunity to review and reset. Hopefully you’re feeling rested and refreshed after some time off; the perfect time to look at how things are going. 1. Get clear - why are you doing this? With a fresh mind, the perfect questions to be asking yourself right now are around what you are really trying to build. It goes without saying you have to earn … [Read more...] about 5 Things to Focus on for 2019
Business planning
Five Forces that Will Shape Financial Planning in 2019
2018: The Year of Looking to the Future Wow. What a year. If you’re like me you’ve been head down from September to now. The last three and a half months after the summer break have been a sprint to the end of the year. Here are five observations from 2018: 1. Succession or Sale is looming larger To be honest, the average age of advisers has been 55 ever since I joined the industry in Australia in January 1991. I’m not sure how that works mathematically, but hey, maths was never … [Read more...] about Five Forces that Will Shape Financial Planning in 2019
No Money? No Problem: The good side of business constraints
Money isn’t everything Do you ever wish you had a little bit more money to play with? Or a bit more time? I was presenting to a group of adviser/owners recently and made the statement that “Lack of cash is a blessing, not a curse.” As I expected this caused a fair few comments. It might be hard to believe, but bear with me. There’s a very good reason. The upside of limits The truth is that every single business that succeeds does so while constrained. That almost certainly means … [Read more...] about No Money? No Problem: The good side of business constraints
How to Get Yourself Off the Treadmill
Losing focus? Is it time to refocus your efforts? One of the great frustrations of running your own business is feeling like you’re on a treadmill, or stuck at your current level of growth. This happens to everyone from time to time, but if you’ve been stuck for a while, here are some ideas to kick-start moving forward again. Start small When you’re in the thick of it, everything seems urgent and important. In my experience, this is never actually the case. The reality is, small … [Read more...] about How to Get Yourself Off the Treadmill
How to Make Mistakes the Right Way
Prepare to be wrong How do you deal with mistakes in your business? I mean the really big mistakes that probably have serious consequences for the business. For example, a mis-click that buys the wrong investment for a client, costing them money. Or a mistake that has significant negative tax consequences for a client. Most firms I know would like to think that they’ve taken steps to minimise mistakes, by designing good processes, hiring good people etc. However, big mistakes are … [Read more...] about How to Make Mistakes the Right Way