When I first started Crown Wealth Management, not only did I have to look for new clients and provide Financial Planning advice, I also had to complete all the administration, research, RMAR reports, market the company, source IT systems and look to achieve my main goal of working closely with professional connections - all at the same time.
Like many new business owners starting out my work life balance was in complete turmoil, something that was perhaps not unexpected but still a shock to the system. However, when you have a vision for success, a determination to succeed - like many of you reading this article will have - it is possible to enjoy your work and put in perspective that you are doing all this to improve the standard of living for your family and to ultimately be your own boss. This brings many advantages in the longer term in terms of flexibility of holidays or taking time off to be at those important events you may have missed when you were an employee of a company.
Four years later I now have a team of six employees and delegate many of the tasks I used to do myself. My goal of working closely with professional connections has been achieved and this has given us the funds to grow into a sustainable business whereby we can provide clients with the peace of mind that we are here for the long term.
Looking back over the last four years my work life balance has improved significantly. I can now go on holidays and know the team can handle 95 per cent of anything that is thrown at them and with two excellent locums, Derek Capelin and John Booth, I know the other five per cent is covered.
It was a huge decision to recruit our first employee. I still get reminded by my PA, Mary, of the day I took her on and said: “I am not sure what you are going to do all day”, however I knew that in order to grow I could not do it alone. She was quickly followed by Roger, who took on the role of part-time report writer as business was stacking up and we had to take action otherwise our high service levels would start to slip. In our third year we took the plunge and employed Matthew as a full time Paraplanner and only this summer have welcomed Eleanor to the team, who initially will learn the role of administrator and will support Matthew as her experience grows.
It is so important to get the right staff, as you will need to delegate many of the tasks you used to do yourself. I recently read a tweet that said delegate but don’t abdicate, however much trust you have in your team you cannot forget that it is still your business and you are responsible. When we take on new clients it is important for them to realise that they do not always have to talk to me as others within the firm can often provide the answers they are seeking.
Create a process to make it easier to train new employees and reduce the chances of a mistake being made and provide your employees with job descriptions so they know where their responsibilities lie. Time blocking and grouping tasks together also helps to ensure you get your work done during office hours. I am a big fan of Stephen Covey and a follower of his book: ‘The seven habits of highly effective people’. Putting first things first and taking time to complete those important tasks helps to take the strain away and keeps me organised. His policy of ‘sharpen the saw’ (enhancing yourself as your own greatest asset) has also helped me go from having basic qualifications to becoming a CFPCM professional and Chartered Financial Planner in less than three years.
It is also vital to outsource to other professionals to help reduce your work load, Compliance First provides compliance support and we use the ASP version of Plum Software back office, this is the online version where they carry out the updates which saves a lot of time. We are currently moving our commission reconciliation to Plum as well which will help us complete our Gabriel returns and reduce administration time.
Use technology whenever you can, the extra money spent will be repaid quickly by increased efficiency and will give you extra time to spend with the family or to increase your productivity as it has with me. We scan all correspondence utilising Volume from Watermark, it is straight forward to use and stops paper being misfiled and also helps to reduce the number of filing cabinets we need, a great saving on space.
I love playing golf so often combine business with pleasure by supporting charity events, I normally invite a mixture of professional connections and clients, it is a great way of building long term relationships and supports local charities at the same time. I only live a two mile ride from a local landmark called the Wrekin so I try and cycle on and off road at least twice a week. We have converted the old office above the garage to a gym. It looks the part, treadmills, steppers, Olympic bench and weights, however being honest I could do with using it a bit more often.
In previous employment I used to travel a lot, now it takes less than 20 minutes to get to work and my only worry is whether the traffic lights at the end of the road will slow me down by an extra minute or two!