One in four Australian advice practices have developed a clear plan for their business going forward.* These practices have made decisions as to where they want their business to be in 3-5 years, alongside what it will take to get there – objectives, strategies and actions required, timeframes agreed and accountabilities allocated.

Sadly, for the majority of practices, this isn’t the case, but with most of this year behind us, now is the perfect time to begin your business planning for 2023+:

  1. Select a date now to hold a business planning workshop (in-person, not virtual, please). We favour the month of November, as this will allow time for the actual plan to be completed, signed off and fully documented before 31/12/22. (You’ll be in the perfect position to kick off 2023!)
  2. Invite all stakeholders now before diaries fill up. In addition to all working owners, consider key staff, business adviser/coach and critical business partners such as your licensee BDM/PDM.
  3. Using an external facilitator can provide valuable feedback and an independent view of your business. If you are thinking of using one, lock them in now.
  4. If off-site is your preference (as is ours), book the venue.
  5. Start pulling together the basic information you’ll need to gauge where your business currently is – plans for 2023 must be built upon a realistic objective assessment of the business as it currently stands. Ideally this will include your most recent client and staff satisfaction results, key performance indicators, industry benchmarks and trends as well as key financials. This may take some time to pull together – hence the generous lead time.

As our latest Future Ready IX analysis clearly shows – well thought out and conscientiously implemented business plans can deliver significant benefits:

*<<Future Ready IX Report: Insights into the Australian Advisory Profession, Jan 2022>>