It’s the time of year for clear thinking on how you are going to grow your business in 2018 and beyond. Chris Baigent-Reed, of Jigsaw Tree, gives some practical tips on how you can be more effective in this key area.
Yes, it is that time of year again. The time when, in those rare quiet moments, you can reflect on your progress made during the last year and consider your strategic plans for next year and beyond to get you to where you want to be. The aim of this article is to provide you with some practical ideas on how to take those thoughts forward and turn them into a structure which will support a more formal review and future planning exercise, to give you the best possible chance of achieving your business goals.
Start with what the numbers say
It is vital for any business to stay on top of its numbers. I am working on the assumption that in your financial planning business you will have identified some specific metrics against which you are measuring success. Make assessing your performance against these goals your first activity.
Lessons learnt
A great next step is to bring together the key people in your organisation and debate as a group how you feel you have performed during the year, as well as examining the key data and KPIs of course. It’s always a good idea to make sure you celebrate all your successes. By identifying exactly what went well and why means that you have the best possible chance of doing more of the same in future. You also need to remember to get clarity on what did not go so well and consider some of the reasons why. It is helpful to consider what may have prevented you from achieving other aspirations, so you are clear on the areas in need of improvement. In particular, what is it that is missing and needed? Of course, performance might have been impacted by factors outside of your control. Even in those situations it is useful to assess your reaction to those and to reflect if you could have done anything differently. Learning from our past actions is an important way of improving what we do and how we do it.
Don’t forget your clients
Look at your client feedback mechanisms, such as Net Promoter and see if the results point to a clear trend. Are satisfaction levels rising or falling? Are your clients more or less likely to refer you to a friend, colleague or family member? This insight is even more valuable if you can spot a correlation. For instance, did client sentiment improve at the same time you introduced an online portal?
Ok, that is enough looking back for now. It’s time to turn our attention to the future and to look at how to make 2018 the best year ever.
Drivers for change
Before diving headlong into your planning, take a moment to think about what, if any, factors are leading you to change what you do today or how you do it. There might be external considerations like new regulation, take MIFID II for example, or broader changes like the growing use of technology. They could also be internal, such as an imminent switch of platform, which means a change to your business processes. List these factors and give them due consideration as part of your overall strategy plan.
Foundations of a good business plan
I like to keep things simple here. So, start with a clear vision of what business you are trying to build and those particular developments you want to see in 2018. Think about both quantitative and qualitative aspects. Partner these with the set of SMART objectives that you believe will make that vision a reality. Just in case that term “SMART objectives” is not immediately apparent, I’m referring to objectives which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timed. I recommend making sure that you are quite ruthless when it comes to these elements as this will help you. You will then need to come up with the detailed strategies, all the underlying work to be done, that will enable you to deliver on those objectives. It’s relatively simple when you put it all down on paper but we all know that in practice, achieving your goals means you will need to put in lots of hard work, have a clear focus, the support of a great team plus a bit of luck along the way.
Areas of focus
When Jigsaw Tree is working with firms to help them become better businesses, we aim to bring clarity by asking them to view their organisation as being based on two models; business and operating.
Your business model comprises of creating something that people need or want (value proposition), attracting demand for the product or service (marketing), turning that potential interest into a paying customer/client (sales) and doing it all at a price, which is sustainable (finance). So, from the review work I mentioned earlier, it is feasible that you identified a lack of client communication as a reason for not achieving some goals and in your strategy work. Maybe you decided that organising a seminar would help you achieve the objective of creating four new introducer relationships, in both cases the focus area for improvement is your business model and specifically your marketing.
The operating model comprises of people, process and systems. So, when planning for 2018 you might conclude that you need to improve the consistency of your process, perhaps restructure your management team so there is somebody in the organisation accountable for each component of your business and operating models. Alternatively, you may conclude that this is the year in which you are going to crack systems integrations. Whatever your plans, it is vital to ensure that you identify who is going to be doing what, by when, and to what standard.
Making it a living plan
When you have done all the hard work, you want to make sure this is not a flash in the pan exercise but something that will drive your business forward from here on in. A weighty written document is not the answer. Instead look to technology for the solution. There are many online tools available now which make it much easier for your team to collaborate on building your strategic plan. It makes sense to put your plan somewhere where you can all access and work on it as individuals and can review it easily together in your management meetings. Smartsheet is a great solution for this.
Of course, you must chunk it down to make it digestible. Put the objectives at the top. Create sections for the different models and the various levels within those i.e. one level is Business Model and next level down is Value Proposition, then allocate individual projects/initiatives to the relevant section. Each must have a clear owner and target delivery date. You may want to break these objectives down into quarters and prioritise them accordingly. I should give a word of warning though. Do try to be realistic as to what you can in fact do as a business each quarter, but be relentless in the discipline of creating your clarified action.
I very much hope that you will be able to take away at least one idea from the points made above that you can use and which helps you in your business. Of course, if you would like to explore any of these ideas further then do contact me. It remains for me to wish you a very happy and successful new year.
About Chris Baigent-Reed
Chris is a financial services professional with over twenty years’ experience in this sector. Having worked for FS advice and technology companies for many years Chris founded Jigsaw Tree and Jigsaw Tree Outsourcing. These businesses are support companies specialising in providing expertise and outsourced resources where they are needed most. Jigsaw Tree focuses on combining people, process and technology in order to deliver the right results.
www.jigsawtree.com Twitter @JigsawTree or call 07764 232188
