business valuation Archives

Practice Growth Requires Leadership More Than Management

by Tony Vidler The most frequent thing I see that prevents great practice growth and holds advisers back from developing their dream business is a lack of vision. I don’t mean “vision” in the namby-pamby buzz-word sense of having a beautiful set of words on a plaque on a wall that nobody really cares about. […]

Effective or Efficient? Which do Advisers need to be?

by Tony Vidler Which is more important when running an advice business: being effective or efficient? You chose Effective? Wrong. You chose Efficient? Wrong. The correct answer is that you have to balance both. In days gone by plenty of people in financial services could build a business just be being effective, regardless of how […]

5 Things You Need To Do Before Buying A Practice

by Tony Vidler For many advisers buying another practice or book of clients will be a serious growth strategy to be considered. It is a primary strategy for attaining scale and a viable (and relatively predictable) revenue stream quickly. However buying another advisers practice is usually a much more complex matter today than it was […]

How To Balance Satisfied Clients With Profitability

by Tony Vidler What impact on practice profitability does this have: “Despite ongoing efforts to improve service, positive customer experience levels decreased significantly across the world” This was from a report released a little while ago on the performance of the insurance sector globally, and it highlights a real dilemma for practitioners. Can we […]

What is “Good Content” For Advisers To Use?

by Tony Vidler Nearly every advisory firm says “we need more prospects“. sure, more prospects helps build a business but what builds a business faster is good prospects who are a right fit, and who don’t really consider going anywhere else when the time is right for them to use an adviser. And frankly […]

6 Things Banks Taught Us About Building A Super Profitable Business

by Tony Vidler The most profitable business to have in financial services is a bank. They know how to make money. They understand that the more you know about your customers the more business you can do with them. Not “will do with them”….but “can”. And that makes a lot of money for them. […]

Compliant Advice: Here are the only 3 things that matter

by Tony Vidler Whenever the topic of compliance, or the “advice process”, comes up most advisers see themselves like this: Everyone is throwing everything at you with the sole intention of destroying you, right? As a consequence, compliance is largely considered a burden. As is usually the way of these things a substantial body […]

What you need to know if you buy to grow

by Tony Vidler As many advice businesses reach maturity it is common to consider whether they should “buy to grow”. Should they buy another practice, or more commonly, should just buy a book of business from another practice. The typical reasons suggested for wanting to grow through acquisition are: 1. Get new […]

Is Acquisition – or Merger – Worth It?

by Tony Vidler Many firms facing increased overheads and infrastructure costs in the next few years are considering acquisition or merger strategies as a survival or growth strategy. Generally there appears to be 5 main reasons that advisers suggest as their reasons for acquisition of another business. They are: 1. Get new […]

What Value Is A Practice?

by Tony Vidler Given some of the trends in financial services there must be serious questions about how to accurately value a practice of a financial adviser. The short answer to what is an accurate value of any practice will of course always be “whatever a buyer is willing to pay, and which you […]

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