Financial Planning Success: Tough Times…. Tough Mindset

There’s such a ‘doom and gloom’ focus in the media about the financial planning profession at the moment. It can be difficult to retain a positive, proactive perspective – especially – if like many financial planners –  times have been tough in your business.

Regardless of how your business is faring right now, if you do want Financial Planning success for your business, you have to get out of the ‘crisis mentality’ and forget about the doomsayers – RIGHT NOW!

It’s important to remember that it is possible to achieve stellar results in your financial planning business despite the current economic and political climate – in fact many businesses I work with are doing just that. However, it’s not possible if you’ve convinced yourself that your business is at the mercy of the economy, the markets of the regulators.

Savvy financial planners can find new ways to improve or grow their business in any condition. It’s just a matter of looking at the challenges in your business or the industry as opportunities – however you will need to keep an open mind and be prepared to change direction, reinvent yourself and inspire your team and business partners to do the same.

In reality, the success of your business is a function of your ability to make it a success, and whether you like it or not, that might mean:

• Leverage your time – By leading rather than doing – so that you can spend more time working ON your business rather than in it;
• Focusing on results and outcomes – Instead of effort or hours clocked;
• Accepting 100% responsibility – For your business and your team – no excuses or ‘reasons’;
• Being brave – Enough to stop doing what you’ve always done (if it’s not working or no longer working as well as it could) and try a better approach;
• Saying YES – More often to the things that matter and NO to those that don’t;
• Acknowledging – That you are not an expert in every area of your business and then engaging professionals and coaches who are. People who can guide, direct and hold you accountable to the performance of your business;
• Allocating time – And money for self-education – online training, webinars, personal online training, books, workshops etc.;
• Finally getting to grips with the ‘numbers’ – In your business and how you can improve them;
• Surrounding yourself – With people smarter (or at least more objective about your business) than you – such as business coaches, mentors and peer advisory boards;
• Paying for professional advice – Before you need it; and
• Recognizing – That difficult condition demands even MORE persistence, determination and courage than ever before.

I didn’t say it was going to be easy…

That’s why we believe it is so important to celebrate every small success and achievement along the way – it helps balance the scales in our minds and align our thoughts to the positives in every situation. It is scientifically proven that we subconsciously attract more of what we spend our time thinking about, which means that our future business financial planning success could in fact be positively affected by focusing on the success we’re experiencing right now.

By ‘success’ of course I mean anything and everything that’s positive in your business right now. Find ways to document, share and celebrate the little things along the way – and you’ll see the benefits almost instantly.

One such example of celebrating success that works really well is to have a big brass bell hanging in your office. Every time a member of the team does something awesome or achieves a target they get to ring the bell (even if there are clients around… This is all part of a successful environment and people want to be around successful people…) The achievement is easily recognised and acknowledged by everyone within earshot and it benefits the entire team to work in an environment where success is being readily demonstrated. This is just a basic example, but there are many different ways to celebrate the small steps of achievement.

If you’re struggling to think of what you should celebrate or how to celebrate, just ask your team – they know what really matters to them (but remember celebrating should not necessarily translate into spending).

Sharing successes is just as important as celebrating them. All too often team members achieve extraordinary results that go unnoticed, or there is a big win in one department that nobody outside that department knows about. You need to set up a system or process for celebrating, sharing and documenting success, as many team members feel uncomfortable sharing their success (they may see it as bragging) unless it has become a part of your company culture.

Whether they realise it or not, people do believe what they hear and see on a regular basis. If they are exposed to positive messages and communications about the business they work for on a routine basis, they’ll naturally develop a much more positive outlook and determination to maintain the status quo (namely, that of SUCCESS). The same theory applies to you as the business owner – think how much more inspired you’ll feel about driving the success of your business if at the end of each day you’ve taken five minutes to celebrate what’s gone right rather than kicking yourself about everything that’s gone wrong.

Winning in business during tough times means facing the naysayers (and that may include you!) with an even tougher resolve to stay positive, committed and most importantly – successful.

As a former AFA Australian Financial Planner of the Year, Accounting firm CEO & Business Success Coach, we have specific programs designed to more effectively manage your marketing and how small business ‘goes to market’ (including team building and motivational strategies) and other business improvement ideas that really put the X factor into business.

As trusted advisers and business performance specialists, we are on a MISSION to ‘Challenge the Traditional‘ way of thinking and make a positive difference to the personal wealth and business performance of financial planners one business at a time…! We are committed to helping financial planning professionals realise their full leadership potential to improve their businesses at a time where providing quality financial advice and sustainability is more important than ever.

Here’s to your future financial planning success…