3 Savvy Observations for Your Financial Advisor Business Plan

Tim Berry is an entrepreneur and business author. He encountered his first business plan 40 years ago, and has built/read thousands of business plans over the years. His book, “The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan”, eschews the overwhelming, traditional, formal; cookie-cutter business plans in favor of an easier, and more practical and modern approach.

Recently, he authored this article in Entrepreneur magazine, “How and Why Business Plans Have Changed”. Although his insights apply to all business owners, they also have a special resonance for successful financial advisors.

3 of his business planning truths seem especially relevant for financial advisors who want to excel at the business planning process:

1. It’s the planning that matters, not the plan. Without regular review and revision, a plan is just, at best, an interesting exercise. It's not a document, it's a process.
2. Form follows function. A business plan should be just big enough to cover the business need. It should grow organically. The plan contains only what's required for its business use. 
3. It’s about the business and the results. The value of a plan is its business impact, the decisions it causes, not its ideas, formatting, writing or appearance. A beautiful plan, unexecuted, is worth nothing. A mediocre plan, well executed, creates business value.

At ClientWise, we see all sizes and shapes of financial advisor business plans. One common characteristic of business planning success parallels Tim Berry’s observation, “It’s the planning that matters, not the plan.”

We see this often. Indeed, it seems to be an important precursor to financial advisor success. The most successful financial advisors carve out time where they are focusing ON their business (not IN it.)

In other words, don’t get hung up on what your business plan ultimately looks like. It’s not a business plan beauty contest. Focus on the planning process (which is not a one-time thing either.) As Berry also points out in his article, the shelf life of business plans these days can be a matter of weeks, not months or years. Consequently, you will want to build-in planning time that assumes that your plan will be continuously revised and changed as you and your team learns and grows.

Want to spend time working on your own business plan, in the company of other successful financial advisors and a ClientWise coach? See below: