As the summer season quickly slips into fall, you may be wondering what’s next in our industry? What do the ever-changing market, the volatile economy and anxious clients have in store for you and your business for the remainder of the year?
The truth of the matter is these external events don’t matter as much to your ultimate success as do your internal ones—your attitude, determination and desire. The market, economy and investor confidence can hold some clients back from making decisions but if you let external events keep you from recommending sound investment advice, you are doing your clients a disservice, not to mention ensuring that you do not hit your annual business goals.
At this point in the year you should be evaluating where your business is and ask yourself—Am I on target to hit my yearly goals or do I need to make course corrections to have a strong fall finish before the holiday season begins?
Here are Four Fall Strategies to help you either get back on track or provide you with ideas to motivate you to hold onto your momentum:
Fall Strategy 1: Dust off the Business Plan
If you haven’t looked at your business plan since earlier this year, it is time to dust it off and review it again. Many advisors find admitting to the fact that their optimism at the start of a new year has unfortunately turned into a very different reality by fall. However it is much better to determine what you wanted in the first place in order to help you increase the probability of getting it before the year runs out. In other words, there is a reason why you created your original plan so now it is time to find out what you can do to follow through with it.
Fall Strategy 2: Get Your Business Bearings
Once you understand what your initial goals were and why you wanted to reach them, it is time to get your business bearings. Maybe you are closer to meeting your goals then you think. One advisor client of mine realized that by having just a few more appointments each week, it was very possible for him to hit his yearly goals. When I asked him how he felt after this realization, he simply stated, “I’m glad I got over my fear of finding out how bad I thought things were to realize how great I actually have it.”
Fall Strategy 3: Create Your Business Course Correction
Now that you have evaluated your plan and mapped out where you are with it, it is time to get back on track! Creating business course corrections can be as simple as determining that you need one, two or three additional appointments each week. Or, maybe it is setting a goal of gathering an additional “x-number” of assets from your client base. The point is, once you determine what your business goals were and make the determination of where you are now, compartmentalize your goals down so that they are manageable and then move forward with action!
Fall Strategy 4: Stay the Course
All that is left at this point is to stay the course. Keep doing the activities that you have mapped out in your plan consistently and remember to reward yourself to boost your motivation.
By following these Four Fall Strategies, you will soon be perfecting your plan and finding yourself with a strong fall finish!