Tools to meet your firm goals in 2023

In a world of increasing costs and falling returns, 2023 is the year to look to technology to streamline and enhance operations for your business. Here are some ideas to help you set your firm's goals for the new year.

Goal 1: Reduce manual tasks to save time and cut costs
Valuations, Annual Reviews and Onboarding form the core of your business, but are also extremely involved and time consuming processes. To automate these tasks completely, it would take a lot of time and resource, but small gains and optimisation could make a big difference. Here are some process investments that will be worth the time in the long run:

• Gaining a top down view of tasks with a Kanban board. A Kanban board is tool that allows you to visualise work through columns of cards that represent tasks in a process. You can move them through the columns from left to right, for example, starting on "to-do", then "in progress", then "for review", finally "complete". The key of a Kanban, is to discover your maximum "work in progress" and to smooth out the flow of tasks between people and time. Try a free tool like Trello to give it a try. 
• Investing in and using your back office's document creation templates. All of the back-office systems have document templates where you can manage the content centrally. We've all tried them, they all have their limitations, but they will save you time and money in control over sharing and changes to templates. Perhaps its time to try again with an open mind..
• Adopting a client facing factfinding tool. There are an increasing number of factfinds that are available for you to share with your clients. There are many arguments against them, namely, integrations, lack of customisation, "clients don't want them", but having the option, or trialling the process on the odd client review is the only way to actually be sure of their benefits. Your clients might surprise you or at least be impressed with the investment in technology on your part. Give CashCalc a go with their free trial for a highly rated client experience.

Goal 2: Acquire new clients to improve your metrics

As the market tightens, opportunities to increase funds under management from existing clients become fewer and increasingly challenging. It is therefore a good time to look to new or younger clients that are looking for guidance navigating the markets. As a financial planner, you are more than just a money manager - so now is as good a time as any to start building the relationships of a trusted adviser that can help people through this tough time.

Onboarding new clients is a great way to keep resource busy and soften the curves of falling AUM whilst bringing in new revenue streams. Need to freshen up your marketing strategy for millennials? Here are some ideas to start with: 

• Company run webinars.
• Online content, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram.
• Referrals from your existing clients - reaching out to your clients offering guidance or services to the children of your clients. Double win to help future proof your business.

Goal 3: Get on top of your data 

Although data cleansing is a task that no one enjoys, there is no doubt that only good can come from it. We know that quality of data does not, reflect on the quality of advice, but that doesn't mean they both aren't exceptionally important. Without quality data, it will take you longer to service clients, it will make things harder in an audit and it will always be hard to get through the first stage of due diligence in any type of corporate transaction.

Need convincing? Some of the benefits you can expect to experience with cleansed data include:

• Faster valuations production for reviews
• Reducing time spent on review KYC and dual keying across systems
• Ability to manage your firms risk, value it for funding, growth opportunities or acquisition. When it comes to your firms data, ignorance isn't bliss.
• With tidy structured data, you'll be able to buy and utilise new software tools to automate your business further and increase your capacity to service. 

Of course cleansing data is an ongoing job. But if you can built it into reviews or create a project, you will be able to start to focus on more interesting project that help you grow to the next level.

On top of these goals? Get busy with the next stage:

-Explore options for hybrid / automated advice for your firm and look to the next generation of clients.

- Implement a client portal and help your clients get the most out of it.

- Start using a client servicing tool or CRM outside of your back office to automate engagement, track marketing and reduce ongoing servicing costs.

- Get deep and insightful management information and business intelligence to understand the bottlenecks and opportunities for your business. Knowledge is power.