“Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win”
– Vince Lombardi, Hall of Fame coach of the Green Bay Packers.
It can be easy to have a vision, to imagine where you want to be in five years time, or what you’d like to build. But it is harder to prepare for that success, the steps to achieve that vision or goal.
When planning for accelerated Growth, it becomes absolutely critical to ensure that your foundation platform is prepared. A strategic approach is therefore essential to safeguard against new problems that can stop you from achieving profits from the very beginning.
Five Strategic Activities to Plan for Growth
In my own journey to grow our practice, I learned many mistakes the hard way. Here is a checklist for getting it right from the beginning.
1. Assign Roles
Growth can only be achieved when there is clarity around what needs to be done, and who is responsible for those tasks. Get clear on the key roles in your team, then assign resources and responsibilities. When we experienced uncertainty and poor performance, I knew that the team were confused or we had people doing things that they shouldn’t be doing.
2. Segment your Clients
I found from experience that the old ‘ABC’ classification doesn’t cut it when looking for more work in your existing client base. Instead try segmenting according to service delivery packages, such as compliance, business and wealth.
3. Use engaging communication
Talking about ‘Tax’ reinforces the perception of you as only a ‘tax person’. I found we had to talk in an alternate way to our clients if we wanted them to understand and buy more from us.
4. Plan your activity calendar
It’s a common mistake to expect growth to happen without a detailed plan. Whilst growth is a desired objective, it can be impossible to achieve if you don’t make it your specific focus.
I attribute my success to knowing the precise activity plan I needed to follow in order to triple my average fee.
5. Automate Packages
Growth can be directly linked to automation. Automating tasks within your practice allows you to process tasks faster, requiring less hands on work and ensures standardised results.
The three areas of automation are:
- IT,
- Systems & Processes, and
- Tools & Checklists
It took us six years to get this right. Without a mentor, I used trial and error which lead to some critical mistakes that cost us money. I even lost a $45,000 client along the way!
This checklist offers a safe and secure way to get it right. Using this, we are achieving desired results in as little as 18 months with some of the firms I work with today.
