Archive for the ‘My Practice’ Category

Hard Lessons from a Lost Account

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Every couple of weeks for the past year and a half, I’ve taken an evening or a weekend morning to talk to investors – discussing their mood and  chatting about what they’re thinking and doing.

A couple of weeks ago I talked to an investor who had recently switched advisors – and who  provided an example of  the stress that investors experience when they’re not sure whether their advisor is really on top of their financial affairs.

“I’d been working with this advisor for a few years” he said “and I liked him well enough. He’s actually a really nice guy.

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The Entrepreneurial Journey: From Survival to Succession

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

Typically, financial advisors are entrepreneurs who have chosen to be in financial services. The decision to become an entrepreneur is an act of courage. It is estimated that 50-70% of entrepreneurial startups fail in the first five years. 90% of all new businesses do not survive beyond the tenth year. And only three out of 100 companies are still prosperous after 40 years.

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Lessons From India

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Surprisingly!

I just returned from a ten day business trip to India. During my trip, I learned many lessons about life, business and people in India. Hopefully, you will find these lessons of value in your business and personal life.

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Shaping your brand

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Go to Source

by-nc-nd

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Building your business

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Go to Source

by-nc-nd

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Is Your Focus Narrow or Broad?

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

In defining your business, there are a number of decisions you have to make in order to appropriately position what you offer. You can choose to have a narrow or broad focus to your business. By choosing a narrow focus, you have opted to specialize. A financial advisor may choose to focus on a specialty such as investment advice, life insurance planning or estate planning and, consequently, offer a particular set of products and services. Another way to narrow your focus is to specialize in defined market segments such as retirees or pre-retirees. If you specialize in the retirement market, your clientele would primarily consist of people in their 50s, 60s and beyond.

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Patti Branco’s Words of Wisdom for Advisors

Friday, March 5th, 2010

This article is a guest contribution from Patti Branco, author of The Path to Million Dollar Production.

It doesn’t matter if you are new, connected or from a rich family. These are clearly advantages, but a lack of them is not a deal killer or a career breaker.

People buy people. ‘Sales’ is often more art than science. It is a continuous learning process, where listening is often more important than speaking, and learning should be your food for success. Product knowledge, people skills, enthusiasm.

  • First, learn to block your time so that all of the important activities are not left to chance.

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Your Best Use of Marketing Dollars in 2010

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

As you think about marketing in 2010, one under-utilized strategy to consider is running a series of small, unique and focused client-oriented events.

Recently, the leading online US resource for advisors, Horsesmouth.com, featured an excellent article on this subject. This article is reprinted with permission (I’ve added a few comments of my own in italics.)

Note that for a trial subscription, go to www.horsesmouth.com

Guest article from Horsesmouth.com

The thinking behind event-driven marketing

With a client event marketing strategy, you commit to a series of regular get-togethers with your best clients outside of the normal meetings to talk about their finances.

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