It seems that modern financial planning businesses are finally uncovering and realising the truth that work culture goes beyond bean bags and useless perks. To make our people truly happy, they need a challenging and rewarding work environment in safe surroundings.
Better workflows and processes
This may sound dull and boring, but it’s one of the true differentiators of modern financial planning businesses. Working hard is a common trait amongst successful business owners, but so is working smart.
We have probably all seen (or at least heard of) some financial advice firms that have no processes or workflows, where each client’s experience is different, nothing is written down, and all files are printed and kept in a dusty (flammable) file cabinet.
Modern financial planning businesses have effective technology in place and repeatable workflows and processes for every single touchpoint of the client journey.
A lot of these are automated (through things like CRMs), which means that they are scalable, allow for more time with clients, or for financial planners to take care of their own wellbeing.
Eighty per cent of financial planning firms that we surveyed have repeatable workflows and processes that work in their businesses.
If we want to bring our profession into the 21st century, we need to be flexible, be able to adapt and move faster. That is where systems and processes are going to come in the most.
Modern marketing methods
Although we’re not quite seeing it across the board just yet, modern financial planning businesses are realising the true opportunities that are on social media and online in general.
Existing client referrals are still number one for most financial planners, but we talk to contemporary financial planners in the US who are getting most of their clients from social media. It is coming. Online presence is not something to be overlooked.
This is vastly different from what our profession’s history looked like, surrounded by sales calls and the phrase, 'Do you know anyone else who might need a pension?'.
With a bit of tweaking and using social media for adding value through content (rather than for simply promoting your services), imagine the reach and impact that we could gather from harnessing the digital audiences out there.
Having a niche
This is something that is getting a lot of air-time among modern financial planning business owners.
One counterargument we hear against going niche is “but won’t I reduce the opportunities that are out there by reducing the size of my audience?”.
We actually think the contrary is true. By becoming a thought leader and speaking to a smaller audience but with more impact on a deeper level, this can actually increase opportunities for modern financial planning businesses.
