Finish Strong 2025: Five Moves That Set Up a Powerful Start

Every year, there’s a specific period that decides whether your business finishes the year feeling exhausted or energized. It’s the interval between Labor Day and Thanksgiving — what I consider the most valuable time of the year.

During this brief season, the pace changes. Kids go back to school. Clients return from summer trips and begin focusing on taxes, liquidity, and year-end planning. For advisory firms, this is the time to assemble the components that ensure a strong finish and an even better start.

With over twenty years of coaching financial advisors and leaders, I’ve observed one consistent pattern: those who finish strong are the ones who start strong.

If you lose momentum in Q4, you spend the first quarter catching up. But if you plan intentionally before year-end, you start January already ahead.

Here are five key focus areas to help you finish 2025 strong.

1. Financial Capital: Know the Real Numbers

Now’s the time to clarify what actually happened financially this year.
Not just total AUM or top-line growth, but the details that reveal the truth.

• • How did your firm really perform?
  • Are profitability and productivity where you expected them to be?
  • Which client segments, advisors, or service lines are driving the results?

Go beyond surface metrics. Analyze profitability per client, per segment, per advisor. Remove market appreciation and focus on genuine organic growth. Determine what new client acquisition contributed to your organic growth.

This is also the time to set your investment plan for the upcoming year. If you intend to grow marketing, improve technology, or expand professional development, those decisions should be included in the budget now.

Revisit your 10-year financial forecast. Are you ahead, behind, or on track with your long-term growth plan? Strong firms don’t just meet budgets; they intentionally build future capacity. Top-performing firms take forecasting to the next level, they pressure test. They model three realities: a Moonshot, where the firm grows 10X in three to five years; a Steady State, where growth tracks with the rolling three-year average; and a Crash and Burn, where a market downturn cuts revenue by 20% or more.

2. Human Capital: Invest in the People Who Drive Performance

Your team drives your results. Now is the time to assess, reward, and develop them.

Take inventory:

• • Who’s growing and ready for more responsibility?
  • Where do you need new skills or additional support?
  • Are performance and compensation aligned with values and results?

Revisit your training and development plans. Is your firm building capability, capacity, and confidence — not just checking boxes?

Recognition counts. Teams that feel appreciated and valued end the year on a high note and start the new year fully committed.

3. Strategic Focus: Narrow to What Matters Most

Every leader has more ideas than time. The key difference between strong and scattered firms is discipline.

Ask:

• • What are the three strategic priorities that will define next year’s success?
  • What will we stop doing to make room for them?
  • Who owns execution on each priority?

Great strategy is about subtraction, not addition. When everything is important, nothing is.
Use this time to clarify and focus on the few actions that truly make a difference.

4. Opportunity Prioritization: Plant Seeds Now for Next Year’s Growth

The best in the business create momentum before the year ends, starting in October and November.

Review your relationships and opportunities:

• • Which clients and centers of influence should you reconnect with before year-end?
  • Which prospective clients deserve follow-up?
  • Which new initiatives can you quietly set in motion now?

Momentum builds with ongoing projects. A January client event, a new podcast series, or a refreshed marketing campaign — these should already be in development before the calendar turns.

The best “Januaries” are built in the fall.

5. Succession: Build Beyond Yourself

Succession is about continuity and confidence, not retirement. It’s about developing others to lead.

Ask:

• • If you stepped away tomorrow, who’s ready to lead?
  • How are you transferring trust from senior advisors to the next generation?
  • Have you communicated that plan clearly to clients and your team?

One of my clients recently took a sabbatical between Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Six months earlier, he created opportunities for his next-generation leaders to perform — allowing them to budget, make decisions, develop people, and take ownership of outcomes. The result: the firm didn’t just survive his absence; it thrived.

That’s succession in practice — not stepping down, but stepping up as a leader who empowers others.

The Real Test

As the year closes, ask yourself: are you coasting toward the finish line or compounding toward what’s next?

Your ending shapes your beginning. Use this last stretch to focus, invest, and ready your team to step into 2026 with clarity and confidence.

Coaching Questions:

1. What would it look like for us to finish this year stronger than we thought possible?
2. What commitments or investments do we need to make now to create a powerful start to 2026?
3. How can we set up our people and processes not only to thrive, but to compound our growth next year?

Finish strong. Start even stronger.

About ClientWise LLC

ClientWise is the premier business and executive coaching firm working exclusively with financial professionals. We specialize in helping clients optimize growth and maximize revenue by engaging as a knowledgeable partner in accomplishing specific and significant business results. Our full-service coaching program empowers financial advisors, wholesalers, managers and executives to enhance performance through customized, action-oriented solutions based on each client’s specific vision and situation.

Our certified coaches are members of the International Coach Federation (ICF). They adhere to ICF’s strict code of ethics and have the experience and insight to work with you on the unique challenges and opportunities you face each day.

Drawing from an in-depth knowledge of the financial industry, ClientWise’s mission is to professionally develop industry leaders and consistently raise the bar for industry service, commitment and integrity. Simply put, our singular focus is to help you get clear, get focused, and get results.