There are significant differences between managing and growing a wealth and asset management firm.
If you’re managing your firm, you are focused on juggling the needs of clients with the needs of your team, which means you’re most likely maintaining the status quo. It’s also likely that during the COVID-19 pandemic, you were so focused on surviving today that you didn’t have time to focus on tomorrow.
In contrast, if you are growing your firm, you have a strong vision and are strategically implementing your growth strategy.
Neither approach is right or wrong. It all depends on what you want the future of your firm to be and where it is in its lifecycle. One thing is for certain: Uncertainty can sink your business in the roller-coaster economic recovery as we emerge from the pandemic.
To help you figure out what direction you’re headed in, ask yourself these two key questions:
- Where do you want your business to be in five or 10 years?
- Do you want more clients, offices or staff?
Those may seem like easy questions with simple answers, but they’re not. Growing a wealth and asset management firm takes a different kind of leadership than managing one.
When you run your own firm, it’s easy to get bogged down in so much detail that you don’t take a pause and really weigh those questions. It’s important to take a break from the daily dance of running your firm so you can take a step back from the details and get a clearer, more strategic view of what is going on in your business and your industry.
If you don’t, you won’t be able to work out what you need to do in order to grow your business and achieve your goals.
Here are eight key questions to ask yourself:
- Do you have a strategy in place to preserve or grow value?
- Do you have the capital and resources to achieve your plan?
- Do you have the right people and culture in place?
- Do you have a differentiating value proposition to draw clients?
- Do you have the technology needed to improve your margins?
- Do you see avenues for generating new sources of revenue?
- Do you have a succession plan to ensure the future stability of your firm?
- Can you adjust your leadership style to lead versus manage?
Your next steps
The key to growing your firm is a strategy and vision that encompasses the right revenue, people, technology, business model and operational efficiencies.
Not sure where to get started? Our team of wealth and asset management professionals can lead you through an assessment that will help identify where your firm is in its lifecycle and what specific steps you need to achieve your goals. Contact us today to get started.
You can also learn more by exploring our educational articles:
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