The Fact: Just over half of financial advisors have a formal, written business plan in place.

The Implications: Business plans will become increasingly necessary, gaining greater importance as practices grow, competition increases and the scope of products and services expands. Successful advisors will begin to use the business plan as a road map for the team and take a more analytical approach to setting goals.

The Idea: As important as creating and updating a business plan is tracking progress. Too often business planning becomes an onerous exercise as the result of lack of information on the past. Ensure that you are able to measure progress on all aspects of your business plan, including overall goals, your budget and your return on individual marketing tactics. Other critical numbers should relate specifically to your goals and might include client satisfaction ratings or the number of financial plan updates, client meetings held, prospects in your pipeline, new clients (by source), calls made to prospects or plans presented to prospective clients. Your goals should inform your tracking process and may differ from one advisor to the next.

The Next Step: The Business Success Kit provides you with the tips, tools and templates that you’ll need to enhance practice productivity and profitability. It’s the most practical and comprehensive guidebook available for financial advisors. For more information, visit www.AdvocisStore.ca and click on the Business Success Kit.