The Secret Weakness of Growing Firms: The Official Client List
The Secret Weakness of Growing Firms: The Official Client List Written By Mark LewinPosted March 2026 Most financial planning businesses don’t have a growth problem. They have a clarity problem. On the surface, everything looks fine. Clients are engaged, revenue is recurring, and the team is busy. But beneath that activity sits a fundamental gap, […]
Why Financial Planners Must Build a Business System to Increase Valuation
Why Financial Planners Must Build a Business System to Increase Valuation Written By Mark LewinPosted March 2026 Most financial planning businesses believe enterprise value is created through growth, more clients, more revenue, higher funds under advice. In reality, acquirers and investors place far greater value on durability. They are not buying ambition; they are buying […]
The Five Principles to Build a Better Business System
Working with your clients to help them achieve their financial and lifestyle objectives is the ultimate goal of your financial planning business. But financial planners get distracted, and this reduces the hours in a day that can be applied to helping clients. As you build efficiencies across your business processes you save precious time. Only then are you in a position to enhance your service to all clients.
Our guide, The Five Principles to Build a Better Business System, will step you through the process to grow a prosperous business delivering exceptional service.
From Impossible to Predictable
Back Office Hero’s guide ‘From Impossible to Predictable – Transformation Guide is an easy-to-use roadmap to transform your practice. Focusing on efficiency, systems, and processes for unlocking growth our guide is a must read for all practice owners.
Listen to your Business
Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process. Good listening allows you to demonstrate that you are paying attention, even when you are surrounded by distractions and white noise.
Quite often practice owners will rack their brains searching for the ideas that will deliver business success. They will faithfully attend conferences and professional development sessions and may even engage a business coach, but to no avail. Their business results never seem more than just average.
Back Office Hero (BOH) recommends that you simply ‘listen to your business’ to find the answers.
The context of this framework is similar to taking a ‘helicopter view’ of your business and removes you from being obstructed by the day-to-day urgency within the business. It involves thinking about the bottlenecks slowing down processes, the quality and completeness of your data or underutilisation of technology. Just like the power of a mantra, you should be continually asking yourself, “If my business could talk, what is it telling me to do?”.
Business Planning with an Information Memorandum
Crafting an annual Information Memorandum (IM) is critical for a financial planning practice trying to survive in an ever-shifting business environment. An IM is traditionally used during the sale of a business, but it is equally important as a vital, ongoing strategic management tool, that outlines the current state and trajectory of the practice in an authentic, comprehensive manner.
For a financial planning practitioner transitioning into an astute business manager, having an IM not only epitomises a well-organised and competently managed business, but also serves as a continual, tangible reflection of the firm’s client relationships, financial data and operational efficiency. As such, the IM becomes an intrinsic part in steering daily decision-making, shaping business plans, and strengthening the practice’s position in any future sale scenario.
The Strategic Value of a Board of Advice
Establishing a Board of Advice presents an opportunity for financial planners to enhance their business performance. This strategic move can elevate a financial planning firm’s effectiveness by leveraging diverse expertise, ensuring compliance, and attracting referrals. Your Board of Advice is not a board of directors, so it is more flexible and provides non-binding advice to a business owner that may or may not be implemented.
One Good Idea Four Times A Year
During a typical year, all of us are capable of coming up with at least one good idea to improve our business prospects. One innovative idea can be the catalyst for success.
Now imagine having access to not just one, but a series of such transformative ideas throughout the year. This is the promise of establishing a Board of Advice, a strategy with endless potential and minimal downsides, and Back Office Hero is here to illuminate the path for you.
The process of forming a Board of Advice is simpler than you might think, yet the benefits are profound. By collaborating with Back Office Hero, you can gather a diverse group of experienced individuals whose collective wisdom can guide your decision-making process.