You invest a substantial amount of energy into running, growing, and evolving your business. Knowing when, where, and how to best direct your efforts could mean the difference in thousands, or even millions, of dollars long-term. Having spent two decades accruing and organizing essential datapoints on more than 15,000 businesses, we’ve got a tight grasp on what matters most at each step of the way.
Depending upon your goals, certain areas will move the needle faster than others. Rather than guess at the best use of your limited resources, our team has compiled a list of places where your ownership and C-Suite team can start assessing opportunities for increased firm value.
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Topics:
Selling Your Practice,
Business Growth,
M&A,
Revenue Strength,
Business Value,
Revenue Sharing,
Multiples,
Benchmarking,
Valuation & Appraisal,
KPI
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Editor’s Note: We originally posted this article by Colleen Jordan Hallinan in 2018. Since then, the need for business owners to focus on building the right team in order to grow and establish sustainability has only increased. And so, five years later, Colleen’s guidance on nurturing your team, evolving your own role, and adjusting your mindset to cultivate a stronger, more capable group of professionals is just as relevant.
Successful, ambitious, and conscientious advisors ask questions like: How do I create next-level growth? What will it take to build a firm that delivers an extraordinary experience to my clients and their families? How am I going to achieve my own next-level life?
The answer starts with another strategic question: What has to happen to give you the freedom to focus on precisely those aspirations?
Your catalyst for growth in all three areas lies in the talents of your team. Make your A players your #1 priority and you’ll have an alchemy that expands your available time and transforms exhaustion and obstacles into more space and energy.
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But it doesn’t come without a cost. The cost is personal sacrifice of current habits, beliefs, ego, and behavior, plus an investment of more time now to blend together the ingredients for that alchemy. Your results will come from your ability to:
- let go and stay focused on the big picture,
- place yourself in service to your team, and
- treat them like your best clients.
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Topics:
Succession Planning,
Business Growth,
Next Generation,
Sustainability,
Building Your Team
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Growth can be enabled – or hindered – by your technology. And not only that, but it can also seriously erode your profit margin if it costs you clients, requires constant fixing, or slows down cross-department collaboration. But here’s the thing: NOT using tech is the bigger mistake you can make. With so many best-in-class solutions on the market (and more appearing everyday), certainly having something is almost guaranteed to be better than nothing…right? Let’s explore your best tech investments that enable revenue growth in 2023.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Industry News,
Next Generation,
Compliance,
Client Retention,
Wealth Management,
Trends,
Branding,
Tech,
marketing,
Client Experience
I rarely meet a financial advisor who doesn’t immediately mention that they want to buy a practice. It seems to be every advisor’s goal. Of course it is. And in my fifteen years in the industry, I have seen why.
One of the fastest ways for a firm to grow is to acquire another book of business. However, the process is more nuanced and competitive than most advisors seem to think. Most assume they will figure it out as they go along. If you take the unguided DIY approach, however, mistakes will be made–perhaps big ones–and you’re likely to leave money on the table. Our EMSTM Grow members know this more than anyone, which is why they've engaged our experts to help them prepare and achieve their acquisition goals.
Like every aspect of business ownership, acquiring a book of business takes advanced consideration and preparation. These are a few steps you should be taking now, prior to developing and executing your acquisition strategy.
1. Develop Your Buyer Profile
Membership to fptransitions.com is free. We don’t believe there should be a series of hoops to jump through before you can explore the largest open market of M&A opportunities; or even to access our library of business building, acquisition, and succession resources.
Step one to taking advantage of your fptransitions.com membership is to complete your buyer profile. This series of basic questions gives the team at FP Transitions an overview of your company and team so we can best help you find acquisition opportunities that would be a good fit.
Pro tip: FP Transitions uses the information provided in your profile to search our database of 25,000+ advisors to find the right buyers for private sales, continuity partner matching, and successor searches.
The buyer profile is your opportunity to offer information that makes you stand out from your peers. The Practice Description field especially. If you offer a few concise thoughts on what makes your practice unique, you’re already setting yourself apart.
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Topics:
Acquisition,
Business Growth,
Business Value,
Continuity Partner Matching
For many years, our data has shown that firms with over $2M in annual revenue tend to grow twice as fast as those with $250K in annual revenue. Contrary to how it might seem, this is actually a function of their structure, not necessarily their size. These firms have cultivated efficiencies in cash flow, capacity, expenses, and operational systems to support scalability and growth. These sophisticated structures are accessible to most businesses–in a wide range of revenue levels–if they’re willing to explore and dedicate time and resources to improve.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Business Value,
Client Retention,
Benchmarking
Business growth is a never-ending, and ever-changing objective of all business owners; financial planners included. While the lingering social effects of the pandemic and the challenges of upscaling during the Great Resignation/ Reshuffle can make the task-at-hand seem insurmountable, there are still tangible ways that you can steer the course of your enterprise. Here are a few tips to help grow your financial planning business.
1. Invest in Human Capital
Most advisors have built their business from nothing into their single most valuable asset. Finding talent can be a challenge these days, especially with unemployment settling into lows not seen in over 50 years. Data from FP Transition's Valuation Database has indicated that businesses with multiple professionals accumulate assets at a higher rate than sole practitioners. As your business matures, it is imperative to invest in the next generation of talent, to keep the engine running while you begin to enjoy the reward for what you’ve built.
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Topics:
Acquisition,
Multi-Generational Ownership,
Business Growth,
Tip of the Week,
Revenue Strength,
Enterprise Strength,
Business Value,
Buying & Selling,
Next Generation,
Talent Recruitment,
Building Your Team,
Client Trust,
Business Operations,
Trends
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LLC vs. Corporation. Which entity structure fits your goals?
Understanding your specific needs and specific goals is an important first step of the entity-building process. As Rod Boutin, JD, General Counsel at FP Transitions outlined in a recent webinar, “it is important that we build an entity that clearly identifies and promotes your attainment of those goals. Done right, an entity is a tool to align with your goals.”
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Topics:
Succession Planning,
Organizational Structure,
Business Growth,
Tip of the Week,
State of the Market,
Exit Planning,
Next Generation,
Sustainability,
Wealth Management,
Valuation & Appraisal,
Business Operations
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Topics:
Continuity Planning,
Webcasts,
Multi-Generational Ownership,
Organizational Structure,
Business Growth,
Tip of the Week,
Business Value,
Client Success,
Sustainability,
Client Relationships,
Business Operations
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KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators
During a recent webinar hosted by FP Transitions, several attendees had questions about KPIs. Marcus Hagood Director of Equity Management System at FP Transitions, and Mike McKennon, EMS Consultant at FPT, had previously hosted a webinar on KPIs, and many of those key points are featured in the following post.
Knowing the KPIs
The industry is flush with discussions of KPIs. Surely, you’ve heard the term before, or perhaps seen these indexes described as performance metrics, key variables or key success indicators. At FP Transitions, we use the term Key Performance Indicator; but ultimately, the data these terms convey is the same. KPIs are a unit of measurement leveraged to help you determine where your business is at, where you want to go, and will ultimately provide you with a road map of how you should proceed on your journey.
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Topics:
Webcasts,
Business Growth,
Tip of the Week,
Deal Structure,
State of the Market,
Sustainability,
Benchmarking,
Valuation & Appraisal,
Business Operations
Last month our M&A Director James Fisher, JD and CEO Brad Bueermann delivered our 2021 Mid-Year Market Update and explored marketplace activity for the first half of 2021.
We all know that 2020 was a truly unique year on all fronts. The financial services M&A marketplace was no exception (as we discussed back in January). The effects of 2020 have carried over into 2021 and have impacted transactions in some unexpected ways–and have potentially changed deal term norms from here on out.
Our full Mid-Year Market Update presentation was close to 60 minutes, including a live Q&A session, and covered up-to-date transaction data and trends, realities of today's industry, qualities of successful buyers, and common acquisition misconceptions.
To focus in on some of the most important highlights from the session, Craig Strauser sat down with James Fisher, JD to discuss them further. Watch their chat below.
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Topics:
Compensation,
Business Growth,
Sustainability,
Enterprise
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