Designing Your Day, Part 2

Fourth Article in the Series:
Pulling It All Together

If you look back at last week’s post on Designing Your Day, you will notice that I did nothing administrative that day. Everything was client or marketing/prospect-oriented and played to my strengths.

I run a small business, just like many of you reading this. There are bills to pay, emails to answer and manage, continuing education, technology challenges, blogs to write, websites to update and so on. Some of these I enjoy doing and others not so much, yet they are required for a business to move forward.

As a business owner, it is easy to fall into the trap of doing everything yourself. As you are growing a business, the justification for this is that it preserves a precious resource — money. Yet the reality is doing everything yourself costs so much more than money. If you think you are “saving” money by doing those tasks yourself, you are wrong and are costing your business more than you think.

Start now by making a list of all the things you are doing. Invest two weeks of tracking everything that you do. At the end of two weeks, mark every task or to-do that you don’t enjoy or that frustrates you. Now look through the list again and mark every task or to-do that someone else could do. I bet you now have a job description for part or full time help. The remaining items on the list will be your strengths shining through!

For most financial advisors the items on your list will include:

  1. Client Meetings: With requisite prep and follow-up time
  2. Continuing Education or Market Research: Both requiring a dedicated block of time
  3. Human Capital Issues: Requiring focused and flexible time to deal with of-the-moment situations
  4. Client Service Issues: Most of which are delegated and only occasionally require your attention
  5. Quarterly Letter or Blog: Requires a dedicated block of time
  6. Prospecting: Requires scheduled time for meetings, events and outreach activities
  7. Compliance: The annual meeting and continued maintenance
  8. Strategy: At least annually with quarterly review

Aren’t you glad you got the other tasks off your list and into more capable hands? The items above are plenty to fill your days and aren’t you the most qualified to handle these?

With the items remaining that require your input or participation, you can see that many can be planned and scheduled. Decide which days of the week and what times will be dedicated to client and prospect meetings in your office. You can then plan for the prep and follow-up to each of those meetings. Your marketing plan and community events will already be on your calendar from the work you did a few weeks back. That includes any writing or speaking you may do for these groups. HINT: You must schedule time to write a blog or newsletter. It doesn’t just magically happen!

Now you are beginning to see how your days can be designed so that the majority of your time is spent working in your strengths, an energizing proposition. Do set aside some time between now and the end of the year to review the prior year and lay the plans for next. Does that seem a bit overwhelming to get accomplished? Then contact me to schedule a Strategy Session for your year and life ahead.

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