Increase your productivity

Taking steps to increase your productivity can make your practice more competitive and profitable. Improved productivity can also help you serve your clients better through more efficient use of technology.

“Improving productivity involves a combination of planning, discipline and a team effort,” says Aiman Dally, CEO of Copia Financial Solutions in Toronto. You must first identify areas in which you can make productivity gains, Dally says, and involve your team.

“Your staff plays a key role in the day-to-day operations of your practice,” Dally says. “They know where improvements can be made.”

We often know where we could make changes to improve productivity, he adds. “But we have been doing the same things for so long that we don’t stop to look at more innovative ways to do them better.”

Here are some considerations for improving the productivity of your practice:

> Assess your current processes
Together with your staff, assess your business processes to determine where productivity could be increased.

“Identify what you are doing well and where there is room for improvement,” Dally says.

For example, you might find that you need to be more efficient at prospecting, providing services to your clients or holding networking events.

“Brainstorm ideas with your staff,” Dally says. You may wish to benchmark your own processes against those used by other successful advisors and “borrow” ideas from them for your own practice.

> Set priorities
You and your staff might come up with a long list of proposed improvements, but that list can seem overwhelming. To simplify matters, prioritize your list based on importance, ranking items according to the impact they will have on your productivity.

You may find that some of the higher-ranking items might also be the most costly, Dally says, especially those that require new technology or have longer implementation periods.

“You have to take a hard look at what you can do first, or what would have the greatest positive effect on your practice, and implement those ideas first,” Dally says.

In certain instances, you might be able to implement less important initiatives while you are working on more important ones because they might not require a lot of time and effort.

> Make better use of technology
Many productivity enhancements are technology-based. For example, technology can be used to improve client-relationship management (CRM), review client accounts, provide more efficient reporting and maintain client profiles. Automating your CRM system is a big step toward improving efficiency and productivity.

Strategically adding client communication technology can help you reduce the amount of time spent on contacting clients. For example, you can use videoconferencing and webinars to communicate your message to many clients at the same time.

The cost of technology can be high, Dally says, but it is usually worthwhile when you consider the improvements in productivity and efficiency it can bring.

> Measure progress
The only way to determine whether your productivity initiatives are working is to measure them. This can be done by establishing metrics and key performance indicators, Dally says.

“Whatever metrics you set to monitor increases in productivity,” Dally says, “measure your results at defined periods and make adjustments, if necessary, to make sure you are making gains.”