Many financial services businesses focus on revenue strength while downplaying–or ignoring–enterprise strength. However, revenue strength and enterprise strength are both critical to the growth and sustainability of a business. When revenue is the sole driver of your value, you’re leaving money on the table and jeopardizing the long-term success of the business.
Since revenue and enterprise strength influence the value of your business in different ways, it's crucial to understand these differences and why balancing the two is so important. While clients, fees, and assets under management (AUM) pay the bills, the absence of a solid business infrastructure will put a company's longevity at risk. Whether you’re determined to create explosive business growth or have a sale–external or internal–on the horizon, knowing how to position your company now can result in a higher return on your efforts and investment for the years to come.
Revenue vs. Enterprise Strength
Revenue strength represents the source, quantity, and quality of your cash flow. This includes your active income generated based on advisory fees, commissions, and other financial planning services. Revenue strength accounts for your team’s compensation and other business expenses. Revenue strength represents the top-line accounting of the business.
It's the value of your book.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Revenue Strength,
Enterprise Strength,
Cash Flow,
Sustainability
With all of the modern tools for practice valuations and equity management solutions available, some financial advisors still choose to use revenue splits, or a revenue-sharing arrangement, as a makeshift succession plan. For a practice owner, this can be a poor and shortsighted business decision for several reasons, including:
- Unfavorable tax implications.
- Potential asset and client disputes.
- Reduced business value.
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Topics:
Compensation,
Succession Planning,
Enterprise Strength,
Cash Flow,
Sustainability
There are two ways to make money from a financial services business: wages and profit distributions. But, there are four ways to build wealth from the same model:
- Wages (including bonuses)
- Profit distributions
- Equity income selling equity
- Equity value, or stock appreciation
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Topics:
Compensation,
Succession Planning,
Enterprise Strength,
Cash Flow,
Sustainability
Looking back over the past few decades, you can easily spot the trends and physical changes in our industry. Since 2000, when FP Transitions formally opened its doors, I’ve seen our profession, especially in those working under an independent broker-dealer or hybrid model, steadily shift to fee and advice-based solutions. Early on, most practices that we represented were made up primarily of transaction or non-recurring revenue; today advisors build businesses with a focus on fee-based income streams. Independent insurance companies are evolving as well with a sophisticated and wide array of recurring revenue.
Along the way, these practices have become not just more valuable, they are also physically larger and stronger. This requires more qualified people to analyze, give advice, produce revenue, as well as the adjunct talent to support these professionals. Looking forward, we see an ever increasing need to recruit and retain the best talent in the industry to support not just where your practice is today, but where that growing business will be ten years from now. Everyone has read about the need for recruiting; but the story has shifted in the past few years and will continue to do so going forward. Rather than simply hiring next gen talent as the need arises, this could well turn into a fierce competition to adequately reward and retain that talent as more and more advisory businesses reach the next level of success and draw upon a talent pool that has scarcity written all over it.
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Topics:
Business Growth,
Enterprise Strength,
Next Generation,
Building Your Team,
Equity Pathways
When a single advisor with a single book of business reaches a certain level of complexity it makes sense to move it into an entity; an entity with a structure that will support business evolution and growth.
Unfortunately, as businesses evolve from single advisor, single book to a more established entity they tend to move into a structure that leads to value that is attached to individual client books within a business rather than to the business itself. This is because, as practices grow and add more advisors, they are onboarded using revenue splitting agreements keeping the books siloed. And, as Brad Says, “If your books are siloed, you’re not a firm – you’re essentially just roommates sharing paper.”
The key to avoiding this is to set up an organizational structure that is an actual business unit instead of just an accounting conduit.
Our new webcast explores different ensembles, and how an improper organizational structure can be dangerous for the ongoing growth and value of your business. We’ll also discuss structures that will ensure your value is tied to your business as a whole and will promote the longevity and sustainability of your firm.
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Topics:
Webcasts,
Equity,
Organizational Structure,
Enterprise Strength,
Revenue Sharing,
Entity Structure
1. Invest in Human Capital
Most advisors have built their business from nothing into their single most valuable asset. Data from our 2015 Valuation Database indicates 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:
Revenue Strength,
Enterprise Strength,
Business Value
Revenue Strength: the cash flow, expenses, and assets of your business.
Enterprise Strength: the infrastructure that supports revenue growth.
Can a business really thrive with just one? In short, no. Each supports the other and together they drive your business to maximum value.
In our new webcast, Christine Sjolin takes a look at how enterprise strength and revenue strength differ, and how they work together to open up your choices for future
business growth and exit planning.
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Topics:
Webcasts,
Equity,
Revenue Strength,
Enterprise Strength
