Data Shows Leading Advisors Work the Press (Smart)

Quality over quantity to build longstanding relationships

As our 5th annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™  draws to a close, several data points stand out. More than four out of five surveyed advisors (81%) told us they expect their practices to grow over the next 12 months. Even more encouraging, nearly two in five respondents (38%) expect their practices to grow by more than 10 percent in the year ahead—up from 21 percent who felt this buoyant in March of 2020.

What are high-growth firms doing differently in 2021?

For one, they’re working the press. They’re not just garnering press mentions; they’re leveraging those interviews into guest columns, background interviews and podcast appearances. Nearly half of respondents (47%), told us they find press mentions to be “very” or “extremely” effective for enhancing their status as thought leaders. And 46 percent said publishing bylined columns was a “very” or “extremely” effective thought leadership tactic. In fact, press mentions and bylined articles both ranked among the top 5 leadership tactics out of nearly 20 we asked respondents to rate.

The firms most optimistic about their growth prospects in 2021 were even more likely than average firms to seek press mentions and publishing opportunities. High growth firms were 5 percentage points more likely than average firms to rate press mentions a “very” or “extremely” effective thought leadership tactic (51% vs. 46%). They were 4 percentage points more likely than average firms to rate bylined articles “very” or “extremely” effective (50% vs. 46%).

 

Here are recent examples from our clients:

 

• Tax specialists BLAKE CHRISTIAN @taxcredits_CPA  and JAY DARBY  (HCVT, LLP) were published in Bloomberg Tax (O-Zone Alchemy: Turning Net 1231 Gains Into Gross 1231 Gains (and Losses)), which led to an appearance in the Millionacres/Motely Fool magazine and podcast (Bitcoin Boom Got You Facing Tax Hit? Consider Opportunity Zone Investing). 

 

• Estate planner RANDY FOX (Two Hawks Consulting) @randyafox1 was published in WealthManagement.com (Why Are Aging Rockers Cashing Out Their Music Catalogs?) and featured in Medium.com/ Authority Magazine (Social Impact Heroes: Why & How Randy A. Fox of Two Hawks Consulting Is Helping To Change Our World). 

 

• Tax-centric wealth advisor @KYLEWALTERS (L&H CPAs) has earned a twice-monthly guest column spot in Accounting Today. Don’t miss his latest Tiered huddles help firms manage busy season
  
  
• Wealth advisor DR. GUY BAKER, Ph.D (Insight Wealth Solutions) was featured in U.S News & World Report (When Do You Become a Senior Citizen?), Money Geek (Expert Insight on Conventional Loans) and Bank Rate.com (With rates so low, are CDs worth it in 2021?)
  
  
• Tax specialist RANDY CRABTREE (Tri Merit) was published in Accounting Today Down Economy Offers Great Opportunity for CPAs to Hit Restart

 

 

By the way, our clients don’t have to resort to “pay for play” (sorry Forbes Advisory Council) or “spray and pray” press releases. They take a highly targeted approach to becoming trusted go-to sources for top journalists on tight deadline. Next time, I’ll tell you more about how they do it.

*** NOTE: We’re keeping the survey open for another week. Give us five minutes of your time and we’ll send you a 20-page pre-publication summary of the findings. See how you stack up to your peers.

Conclusion

Our 2021 survey is a joint initiative of CPA Trendlines, Elite Resource Team, The Financial Awareness Foundation, the Investments & Wealth Institute and HB Publishing & Marketing Company. We don’t make money from the survey or share email addresses or individual responses of participants. We’re just trying to give back to the profession.

What’s your take? I’d like to hear from you.

 

#practicemanagement, #wealthmanagement, #PR, #credibilitymarketing, #thoughtleadership

Survey: Top Advisors to Speak, Educate and Publish More in 2021

Most remain optimistic despite interest rates, tax changes, market volatility and bumpy VAX rollout

Our 5th annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™  is coming to a close. Despite recent market turbulence, preliminary data indicates that only two in five advisors (44%) believe a market correction of more than 10 percent is “very likely” in 2021 and just one in five believe the COVID-induced recession will last more than six more months. While investors were unnerved by the prospect of higher interest rates and inflation last week, just one in seven (15%) advisors we surveyed believed rising interest rates are a “significant” concern over the next 12 months.

James Nevers of Seattle-based Soundmark Advisors told us the markets endure a 20-percent correction only once every five years--even the average “intra-year spread” is about 14 percent from market high to market low.

These are just some of the reasons that advisors of all stripes remain optimistic about 2021. More than four out of five surveyed advisors (81%) told us they expect their practices to grow over the next 12 months. What’s more, nearly two in five respondents (38%) expect their practices to grow by more than 10 percent in the year ahead—up from 21 percent who felt this buoyant at this time a year ago.

What are firms doing differently in 2021?

• They’re contacting their clients more frequently. More than half (54%) are contact clients 2-or-more times per month, up from 47-percent who said so at this time a year ago.
• They’re doing more public speaking (65%), holding more virtual client events and webinars (52%), getting more press mentions (47%), publishing more bylined articles (46%) and producing more videos (37%).
• They’re offering more business exit planning services, more estate & gift planning advice, more executive compensation advice and more trust services.
• They’re also being more aggressive about seeking advanced certifications (45%).

“A thought leader must have channels to effectively communicate her/his message of influence to people,” observed advisor and consultant Lionel Shipman. “My most effective communication channel is speaking, whether it is giving a presentation with slides, hosting a radio show, or facilitating a seminar/workshop because I can closely connect with people as we share a common space,” Shipman added.

So, what actions are advisors taking to help clients feel more confident about reaching their financial goals?

• Nearly all (95%) said “go beyond investments.”
• More than nine out of ten respondents (91%) said helping clients “focus on the long-term” and “doing more frequent reviews.”
• Seven out of eight (88%) said “delivering on core expectations.”

*** NOTE: We’re keeping the survey open for another week. Give us five minutes of your time and we’ll send you a 20-page pre-publication summary of the findings. See how you stack up to your peers.

Conclusion

Our 2021 survey is a joint initiative of CPA Trendlines, Elite Resource Team, The Financial Awareness Foundation, the Investments & Wealth Institute and HB Publishing & Marketing Company. We don’t make money from the survey or share email addresses or individual responses of participants. We’re just trying to give back to the profession.

What’s your take? I’d like to hear from you.

#practicemanagement, #wealthmanagement #investorconfidence #economy

7 Steps to a Better Website

 

By Patricia Creedon, Guest Columnist

Whether you are meeting prospective clients online or in person; whether they find you through a referral or a talk you gave--one thing is sure. They looked you up on the web first.

That’s why you need a website that holds their attention, explains why your firm is just what they are looking for, and shows them how easy it is to work with you. Follow these seven steps to make your website more effective at getting clients!

1. The Header

As the old saying goes: “You only get once chance to make a first impression.” People decide whether (or not) you are offering them what they want within three to five seconds of visiting your website. You need a clear message. Make it simple enough to be understood in those few seconds!

You can accomplish this by making sure your site answers these three key questions:

1.       What do you do?

2.      How will it make your client’s life better?

3.      How do they get it?

Have a clear Call to Action (CTA) such as “Call Now,” preferably in a button. This can even replace the Contact in the navigation menu. These all should be “above the fold” as they used to say in the newspaper world. Remember papers? I do. I used to deliver them on my bicycle as a kid! Now, of course that refers to the area of the website that first appears, before scrolling down.

This site immediately describes what they are (a financial group). They tell how they make their clients’ lives better and there’s a number right there to call as well as a Contact Us button.

https://www.dixonfg.com.au/

Below is a site that I worked on before I understood how much more effective it could be. The “before” is nice in that it has my client’s calming brand colors. After we redid the website recently it is able to deliver a better call to action while also enabling the viewer to get a sense of who they would be working with and how she can help.

https://www.jlhtherapy.com

Notice how we made it very easy to get in touch by putting the phone number in the upper right. There’s another CTA after the quote describing how she serves her clients. Although this site is for a therapist, the same logic applies for financial services firm.

2. The Stakes

On the home page you can describe how prospects are missing out if decide not to work with you. “Loss-aversion” is a very powerful concept in behavioral finance and it also comes into play when it comes to website design and marketing. Motivate visitors to take action by asking them about things that your clients are also concerned about. Say things like, “Are you worried about…?” Or “Are you frustrated by…?” The insurance firm’s site below cites statistics such as “17,ooo are forced out of the workforce for a prolonged period of time” (hence the need for insurance).

https://www.dixonfg.com.au/

3. The Plan

Have a 3-step process that is simple and tells what the client must do to get what they are now convinced they need. Even if more steps are involved no need to overwhelm them with the details here. It can be something like:

1.       Get an estimate.

2.      We do the work.

3.      You get this benefit when it’s done!

The website below has a clearly spelled-out process and highlights happy clients who have used the firm’s services. Another example shows a way to get your point across without literally numbering the steps. However, it does give them as:

1.       Schedule a free consultation (by using the button).

2.      Complete the included form.

3.      We will reach out to you shortly.

https://staroftexasfinancial.com/

 

https://www.armeniacpa.com/

4. Show Value

Here’s where you talk about the value, prospects will get after hiring you. Use visual language and be as specific as possible. Describe the benefits, i.e., “The process is easy”; “We incorporate your unique needs/vision;” or “We are able to work remotely.”

The below example shows the benefit of financial success in the image and describes it as well:

https://vanddfinancialsolutions.com/

5. Address Concerns

This is where you diffuse typical objections by stating the top reasons people don’t hire you and the reasons why these fears are unfounded. Be empathetic and show you understand.

For my own firm, I constantly acknowledge to prospects that I know design may be an area they have trouble relating to and that they have had a hard time getting “creatives” to understand their goals in the past. Trust me, I get it!

I can explain how I understand financial branding from years of working closely with those in the industry. Therefore, I can help you get back to what you do best and take that design burden off your plate.

The website in this sample has a listing of why you might want to choose IAA.

https://independentadvisoralliance.com/

6. Free Offer

A great way to offer value right away-- before anyone takes the leap of hiring you--is to have a PDF available for free download. It’s said that each email you collect is worth $20, so offer something that has at least that much value.

Create an enticing title that makes them want to know more, as in the below example “8 Pitfalls to Avoid…” Or, “6 common mistakes financial planners make.” If you want subscribers to a newsletter, make sure you explain the valuable tips or news they will get, maybe showing past issues with topics of interest.

https://independentadvisoralliance.com/

7. The Rest

Here’s where you put the extras like a hiring link, map, locations, disclaimers, etc. There should be a CTA here as well as in most of the other sections.

https://staroftexasfinancial.com/

Conclusion

The seven best practices above may not be necessary for every website, but for most businesses and professional services firms, heeding this list will help you grow. Test them out with some tweaks and see how they work for you!  I’d love to hear from you.

The websites in this post were all created by Pat Creedon Design, Inc. (New Canaan, CT) and/or her web design and development partners.

#practicemanagement, #webdesign 

Advisor Survey: Even the Affluent Lack Financial Awareness

Most advisors we talked to are optimistic about their growth prospects in 2021. But they don’t seem as confident about their clients’ financial acumen. 

Early results of our 5th annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™  showed more than half of advisors (55%) believe America’s financial literacy has NOT improved over the past year. More than half of advisors (53%) told us the majority of their clients lacked a clearly defined investment policy statement or asset allocation plan when they first started working with them. Further, 51 percent of advisors said the majority of their clients did not know how much retirement income they would need when they first started working with them. And nearly half (47%) of advisors said the plurality of their clients did not have current estate and gift plans in place when they first started working with them.

*** NOTE: We’re keeping the survey open for another week. Give us five minutes of your time and we’ll send you a 20-page pre-publication summary of the findings. See how you stack up to your peers.

This data is even more concerning when you consider the affluence and educational attainment of clients working with high-end financial advisors.

“Some people do not consider financial planning a high priority in their busy lives,” explained respondent Lionel Shipman, a financial and life empowerment professional. “Unfortunately, as life events happen, many will regret not having a financial plan in place and will have to endure the consequences of their lack of prioritization,” Shipman added.

According to our respondents, the biggest reason why Americans don’t update their estate and gift plans are because:

·         They don’t see it as a priority (76%).

·         They think it’s too expensive (55%).

·         They don’t know where to turn for advice (52%).

·         They don’t think they’re old enough (50%).

“People are reluctant to keep a financial, estate and gift plan in place because they mistakenly feel it limits their day to day lifestyle,” observed respondent Jim Stovall. “In reality proper planning brings freedom,” Stovall added.

Survey respondents also revealed that most of their clients did not realize how much their home equity worked against them when it came to financing college tuition. Hypothetically speaking, if families could no longer tap their home equity to pay for higher education, how would higher education costs be impacted?

·         Two thirds of respondents (65%) believed tuition rates would stabilize or start to decline.

·         Only one third (35%) thought tuition would continue rising faster than inflation.

So, what actions can advisors take to help clients feel more confident about reaching their financial goals?

• Nearly all (95%) said go beyond investments.
• More than nine out of ten respondents (91%) said helping clients focus on the long-term and doing more frequent reviews.
• Seven out of eight (88%) said delivering on core expectations.

Perhaps that’s why advisors are contacting their clients more frequently than ever before. Nearly half of respondents (45%) indicated they are communicating with clients multiple times per month, (up from 43% who said so in 2020, 38% in 2019 and 35% in 2018).

Conclusion

Our 2021 survey is a joint initiative of CPA Trendlines, Elite Resource Team, The Financial Awareness Foundation, the Investments & Wealth Institute and HB Publishing & Marketing Company. We don’t make money from the survey or share email addresses or individual responses of participants. We’re just trying to give back to the profession.

What’s your take? I’d like to hear from you.

#practicemanagement, #wealthmanagement, #investorconfidence #economy

Advisors Remain Cautiously Optimistic for 2021

Reasons for optimism may surprise you

Preliminary results of our 5th annual CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™  show the vast majority of U.S. financial advisory firms (92%) expect to grow in 2021. In fact, nearly two in five (39%) are expecting to grow by double digits or more this year—comparable to pre-COVID levels.

While more than half of advisors (52%) expect to see at least one sharp market correction in 2021, less than one in five (19%) expect to see a continued recession this year (i.e. two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth).

*** NOTE: We’re keeping the survey open for another week. Give us five minutes of your time and we’ll send you a 20-page pre-publication summary of the findings. See how you stack up to your peers.

What’s keeping affluent Americans up at night?

In addition to the pandemic, nearly three in four respondents (74%) cited “turbulence in Washington DC” and an equal amount (73%) cited “changes in tax laws.”  Nearly two-thirds (62%) pointed to “concerns about the federal budget deficit” and nearly half (45%) cited “lifestyle changes post COVID.”

The young generation and financial literacy

As has been the case since we launched the survey in 2016, Millennials (42%) where overwhelmingly cited as the generation most pessimistic about its financial future. Generation Y (age 36-52) was the next most pessimistic cohort (23%) followed by seniors (19%) and Boomers (16%).

Less than half of respondents (45%) felt America’s financial literacy has improved over the past year. About one third (35%) believe our nation’s financial literacy has remained the same and nearly one in five (19%) worry that it has fallen behind.

*** Please share this survey link with professional colleagues who might be able to benefit from our findings https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3T836CB

Conclusion

Our 2021 survey is a joint initiative of CPA Trendlines, Elite Resource Team, The Financial Awareness Foundation, the Investments & Wealth Institute and HB Publishing & Marketing Company. We don’t make money from the survey or share email addresses or individual responses of participants. We’re just trying to give back to the profession.

What’s your take? I’d like to hear from you.

 

#practicemanagement, #wealthmanagement #investorconfidence #economy

We’ll Miss You Hammerin’ Hank: Master of Consistency and Tolerance

Last weekend marked the passing of baseball great, Henry Aaron. He was just shy of his 87th birthday. 

Aaron was my first boyhood sports hero at a time when kids could still look up to athletes, celebrities and even Presidents as role models. At the time, I didn’t know the 20-something Aaron would go on to club 755 career home runs and break Babe Ruth’s all-time record of 714—long considered one of the most unbreakable records in sports.

Aaron was the only pro athlete I knew who had my same first name (Henry), nickname (Hank) and almost the same birthday. It didn’t matter that Aaron came up through the racially segregated South (Mobile, AL) and I was a young, white Jewish kid from partially integrated West Philly, and later the mostly white suburbs. I felt a special bond with Aaron, even more so after reading one of the early biographies about him “I Had a Hammer.

For a legendary power hitter, Aaron was on the small side (6 feet tall and 180 pounds in his prime). I was a scrappy undersized singles hitter. But when they started calling me “Hammerin’ Hank” after a rare over-the-fence home run on my scraggly Little League field, that was the ultimate compliment you could give an impressionable 12-year-old.

For some reason, the moniker, Hammerin’ Hank stuck with me, even after I switched sports, towns, and schools. And I felt duty bound to follow the real Hammer the rest of his illustrious career.

I still have my first Hank Aaron baseball card circa 1970. It’s a little worn around the edges, but it still smells faintly of bubble gum and it hasn’t faded much. In those days you got 10 random cards in a pack for a quarter—plus a large slab of stale bubble gum. After blowing my allowance week after week as I accumulated half a dozen duplicate Jose Cardenals, Denny Doyles and enough Alou Brothers (Matty, Felipe and Jesus), my luck day finally came outside the local drugstore. I tore open the pack, held my breath, and there was Aaron’s likeness right on top, was staring at me, quietly confident in his Atlanta Braves uniform. Finally, a bona fide superstar to add to my mediocre collection of cards! It was like getting the Golden Ticket from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory!

Life lessons from baseball cards.

That early life lesson taught me to keep plugging away and never give up in pursuit of your goals. More on that in a minute.

Aaron finally eclipsed Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record on a cool April 1974 night in racially tense Atlanta, Georgia. I wasn’t old enough to know about all the hate mail and death threats Aaron and his family endured as he closed in on Ruth’s seemingly unassailable home run record—one of the last remaining monuments to Caucasian superiority in the major team sports. I just celebrated with baseball fans everywhere as we watched Aaron circle the bases on TV with two young white fans, equally exhilarated, serving as his unofficial escorts, before they were tackled and hauled off by security.

Only later did I learn that Aaron was barred from playing on his high school team because of the color of his skin and that as a teenage young professional in the southern minor leagues, he had to overcome endless racial taunts and a cross-handed batting grip (left hand above his right). But it was that athletic dyslexia that gave the righty, Aaron, tremendous forearm and wrist strength—deceptive power that allowed him to launch baseballs further than any slugger in the game’s history (except one).

Aaron retired after 23 seasons, but his home run record stood for three more decades until it was finally broken by Barry Bonds—a much larger man—later found to have taken anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) as he chased Aaron’s home run record. Even with modern training and PEDs, Bonds barely broke the record when he retired with 762 homers.

Aaron was gracious after being eclipsed by Bonds in 2007. “I move over and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historical achievement,” Aaron said. “My hope today, as it was on that April evening in 1974, is that the achievement of this record will inspire others to chase their own dreams.”

To his credit, Bonds last week tweeted a thank you to Aaron, calling him “a trailblazer through adversity” and credited him for “setting an example for all of us African American ball players who came after you."

Master of consistency

What many don’t realize about Aaron is that he not only had tremendous longevity, but was an outstanding fielder, a smart, speedy baserunner and a hitter who set a number of other all-time Major League records that remain on the books today:

• Most runs batted in (2,297).
• Most total bases (6,856).
• Most extra-base hits (1,477).

Another remarkable thing about Aaron’s body of work is that he only led the league in home runs four times during his stellar 23-year career. He just kept hitting 30 or 40 dingers per year for an incredibly long time. Same thing with his extraordinary career RBI total. He only led the league four or five times in that category as well—he just kept driving in 100+ runs per season year after year after year.

The mantra of consistency has served me well as a lifelong distance runner, triathlete and entrepreneur. You just have to set the bar high and keep grinding away, day after day after day.

Tom Seaver, another recently departed Hall of Famer, once said: “In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics, you get shortsighted. If you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.”

Conclusion

“What I deeply admired and respected about [Aaron] is that each time he rounded those bases — an astonishing 755 trips home — he melted away more and more of the ice of bigotry to show that we can be better as a people and as a nation," President Biden related last Friday. "For generations of athletes and civil rights advocates who followed, he showed how to be proud and be unafraid to stand up for what is right and just," the President added.

We’ll miss you Hammerin’ Hank. The game was lucky to have you.

What’s your take on podcasting? We’d like to know.

#HankAaron, #Baseballgreats, #equality, #Hall of Fame #consistency

What’s keeping your clients (and peers) up at night? See our 2021 CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™

Using Podcast Interviews to Establish Credibility

By Tina Dietz, guest columnist

With 65 million Americans monthly listeners, podcasting is one of the fastest growing platforms that professionals can use to establish authority. Whether you’re just starting a firm, or your organization has long-established credentials, podcasting can catapult your influence beyond the capabilities of many other expert-building marketing channels.

Getting featured on TV, publishing a book or doing public speaking are gold standards for expert status (see CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™ ), but podcasting has made it possible for all types of financial advisors to share their knowledge and expertise with a wide audience.

One of podcasting’s biggest advantages is that it’s open publicity. This means the host has the freedom to generate the message and control the content. Podcasting also requires fewer resources than video and is more accessible. That’s because audio is available to consumers even when text and video are not such as when driving, jogging, gardening or cycling. The convenience of listening to downloadable audio files on smartphones or tablets has created a new wave of attentive, on-the-go listeners.

Voice of authority

Using your personal voice to reach your target market is a powerful channel for conveying your firm’s values and brand authenticity. Doing so deepens trust and develops loyalty with clients, prospective clients, strategic partners and future employees. By using a conversational format, podcasters have the freedom to articulate what makes their firm unique, without using typical marketing jargon.   

Below, we’ll focus on leaders who are looking to establish themselves as experts and to develop their spheres of influence.

Getting started with podcasting

You don’t need to be a host yourself. One of the best ways to introduce yourself to a new market is to be a podcast guest. Hosts are hungry for content. They are searching for experts like you—people in the know who can keep their shows fresh to provide value to the audience. There are over 30 million podcast episodes today, and that number has grown significantly over the past 10 years.

The key is to reach out personally to hosts of podcasts most appropriate for your subject niche – don’t ask your assistant to do it for you.

Podcast hosts want a good fit for their shows. After they book you, they will take the time to suggest ways that you can most effectively resonate with their audience. One way to find podcasts that are looking for guests is to do a keyword search in Apple Podcasts or Google for shows with topics that appeal to your ideal clients or target market. Apple Podcasts is to podcasts as what Amazon is to books; it is the premier platform for broadcasting your audio message to an eager audience.

You don’t have to start with cold leads, however. Ask colleagues who’ve been guests on podcasts you like to introduce you to the hosts of those shows. As with developing your practice, referrals go a long way toward establishing credibility and building relationships.

If you have the resources, you can also use a booking service to acquire guest spots; there are several excellent companies that can take care of placing you on the perfect shows.

Leveraging podcast interviews

Once you’ve secured a podcast spot, there are infinite ways you can use, and re-use, this valuable content. You can now post audio clips on your website or blog, include audio clips in your media kit, or feature them on your company profile or LinkedIn page. You can share the audio across social media, or use the transcribed content for new articles or blog posts. A wealth of marketing assets is available at your fingertips when you have podcast content.

Conclusion
Podcasts are free for everyone to access. It takes almost no technical know-how to get started as a guest. These characteristics make being featured on podcast interviews one of the best “expert platforms” available today. What are you waiting for?

What’s your take on podcasting? We’d like to know.

Tina Dietz is an internationally acclaimed speaker, audio publisher and podcast advisor to HB Publishing & Marketing Company. Visit her at Twin Flames Studios

 

#Podcasting, #practicemanagement, #thoughtleadership

Voices of Reason Amid the Chaos

After a year like 2020, many were hoping for some normalcy in 2021. It didn’t last long. This first week of the new year saw a record number of Covid deaths, an armed insurrection of the U.S Capitol, a surprisingly weak jobs report, new calls for Presidential impeachment, Democrats gaining a Senate majority for the first time in a decade, and a jet liner disappearing shortly after takeoff with 62 passengers on board. Whew!

Sounded like a bad Hollywood movie script, but sadly it wasn’t.

Despite the market’s resilience (for now), it was enough to test the resolve of even the most optimistic among us. I’m sure you received calls from nervous clients asking if it was time to take a more defensive position. See what’s keeping your peers and their clients up at night.

In these extraordinarily volatile times, several advisors who participate in our PR Light program shared common sense wisdom about maintaining one’s financial cool during unsettling times. We hope you find their insights comforting and enlightening:

DR. GUY BAKER, PH.D. (Wealth Teams Alliance, Irvine, CA) told Forbes that not all assets are created equal, especially when calculating your net worth. He also counseled Yahoo Finance readers to prioritize their credit card debt during their post-Holiday hangover and told Moneywise readers to brace for “higher tax rates, higher interest rates and slower economic growth during the early years of the Biden administration as the Fed acts to offset rising inflation.”

*** Contact us here if you’d like to learn more about our PR Light program. Give us one hour per week of your time, and you can 10X your profile.

Prepping for a new Administration

At a time when commercial real estate seems at the abyss, BLAKE CHRISTIAN, senior tax partner of HCVT, LLP (Long, Beach, CA) believes the Opportunity Zone (OZ) program may have a unique role in leading the comeback of businesses in disadvantaged communities. It may also reinvigorate commercial real estate overall. Christian told National Real Estate Investor that both President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris have praised the Opportunity Zone program as an economic development tool and that they’ll give it even more support as greater transparency and accountability is being built into the program.

“I’ve been doing this for 40 years and, and OZ is the most flexible and impactful economic development program that I’ve seen in my career,” observed Christian. “It works really well for real estate, it’s way more flexible than a 1031 exchange and it’s fantastic for operating businesses.”

Part of the power of Opportunity Zones is that they’re not restricted to real estate. “A third of my opportunity zone business is on operating businesses,” Christian told The New York Times recently. “They’re accelerating quicker than real estate projects at this point.” Practicing what he preaches, Christian is creating an OZ fund to finance the expansion of a manufacturing business, of which he is a co-owner, that converts shipping containers into housing for homeless and low-income earners.

In these uncertain economic times, KAREN KOCH, a partner of Bedford Cost Segregation, (Louisville, KY) told The Tax Adviser that research and development (R&D) tax credits can be highly effective way for all kinds of businesses to replenish valuable dollars spent on new and innovative products or processes. Koch said many companies leave thousands of potential R&D credits on the table because they think they must create breakthrough innovations from scratch. In reality, Koch said they can earn valuable R&D credits simply by properly documenting improvement they’ve made in their products or internal processes.

Speaking of processes, KYLE WALTERS (L&H CPAs, Dallas, TX) shared great tips for cutting through “analysis paralysis” and “expanding the power of your network” in separate recent columns for Accounting Today.

Finally, RANDY FOX, founder of the advanced planning firm, Two Hawks Consulting, (Skokie, IL) told WealthManagement.com why he was committed to raising $10 billion for charity. Hint: It’s about better educating advisors; not about finding big money donors.

Conclusion

My dad always told me things are never as bad as they seem when the chips are down, just as things are never as good as they seem when you’re on a roll. There are plenty of ways to prosper in good times and bad. As financier George Soros said: “Markets are constantly in a state of uncertainty and flux. Money is made by discounting the obvious and betting on the unexpected.” 

There will be plenty of time for that in 2021. While you’re at it, give your folks a call. They’d love to hear from you and chances are they’re right.

What’s keeping your clients (and peers) up at night? See our 2021 CPA/Wealth Advisor Confidence Survey™.

 

#practicemanagement, #thought leadership, #wisdom, #blakechristian, #GuyBaker, #thepersonalcfo, @BedfordCostSeg, Randyfox, wealthadvisorconfidence

Focus on the One Thing You Need Get Done Today, Tomorrow (and Next Year)

I don’t care how disciplined you think you are; the Holidays are a time of huge distraction. Even in a normal year, it’s easy to let slip our to-do lists, budgets, client follow-ups and timesheets when gift lists, parties, family gatherings and travel plans are tugging at our subconscious. That’s okay. If ever we needed a reason to celebrate with friends and family it was 2020.

Just realize that it could be tougher than ever to get refocused when the calendar flips over to Monday January 3, 2021…. especially if you’re still working from home.

You may not like what you’re seeing when you finally confront your bathroom scale, your credit card statement or your overflowing inbox, but eventually you must pay the piper. You’re not going to reverse a month’s worth of letting your guard down in one day. Don’t let that put you in a post-Holiday funk.

Hint: New Year’s Resolutions rarely work. There is a better way.

Two of my unofficial mentors--Randy Shattuck and Josh Patrick--have some great suggestions for managing your re-entry back to the daily grind.

According to Patrick, founding partner of Stage 2 Planning Partners and host of The Sustainable Business podcast, highly driven business owners and professionals try to get too many things done at once. That’s because their boundless energy and determination makes them feel invincible.

“When I was in younger, I would always have 20, 30, sometimes 40 projects that I wanted to get done,” recalled Patrick. “I spent all my free strategic time starting at this list, wondering what to do first. I would create one, then start another, and then another with nothing ever getting finished.”

Sound familiar?

Ultimately Patrick discovered the concept of “working on a backlog” in which you never allow yourself to work on more than on one or two projects at a time. Everything else should go into a backlog. According to Patrick, you take those 10, 15, 20 projects that you’re desperately trying to attack today, make a list, and score each project on a scale of 1-10 based on importance. Then choose the one or two projects with the highest score and you work only on those projects until they’re done. Isn’t that a lot better than playing Task-List Whack-a-Mole?

Josh’s latest video has more great prioritization tips.

Shattuck agreed. After years of working with leaders of professional service firms, he said he’s learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work to produce growth. Turns out lack of focus--not lack of time--is the real culprit.

“Most leaders of professional service firms can define their top priorities with broad brush strokes, especially when establishing annual plans,” observed Shattuck in a recent Forbes article. “But it’s the stuff of everyday decisions and tasks that get in the way. Most people are so overcome by the minutia of little tasks that the big ideas never get the time or energy they deserve. This is a major problem because big ideas are the ones that produce growth,” added the founder of  The Shattuck Group consultancy. 

Randy believes it all boils down to two things: Getting things done and Focusing on The One.

1. GETTING THINGS DONE. With GTD, you write down everything rattling around in your mind and then categorize the list according to three simple criteria:

a) Do it now, for simple tasks you can do right away. “These are gratifying because it makes you feel really productive,” related Shattuck.

b) Do it later, for longer-term tasks.

c) Do more research, for tasks that are not quite actionable yet.

Shattuck believes the real benefit of GTD is getting things out of your head so you can fully focus on what really needs to get done right now. That requires a different approach that he calls “The One.”

2. FOCUS ON THE ONE. Shattuck admits he worked 80 hours a week when he first started his firm and would immediately tackle every single task that popped up. But after about five years of near-burnout his mindset shifted. Instead, Shattuck said he started to look “very closely” at how certain activities produced growth while others did not produce growth, even though each task on his list was considered important. “That’s when I began to ask myself this all-important question: ‘What is the one thing I need to get done today to ensure we keep growing?’”

According to Shattuck, the activities that produce growth are not necessarily more time-consuming or more difficult to achieve than other tasks. “But if we don’t prioritize them, they won’t get done or they will only get done at half the level of effectiveness that we need.”

As our client Kyle Walters explained in a recent Accounting Today article about The 64/4 Rule….a whopping two thirds of our results (64%) come from just 1/25^th (4%) of our time and effort. Think about that when you feel overwhelmed by your ever-growing To-Do list. Two-third of your results come from just 4 percent of time!

Conclusion

Most New Year’s resolutions fail because we set goals that are too ambitious, too hard to measure or too easy to defer. And that stems from not being honest with yourself. Take a page from Shattuck, Patrick, and Walters. Ask yourself what absolutely must get done today and how much you can reasonably do in a day--and do well. It won’t be an easy transition (trust me I know). But you’ll eventually find yourself with a lot more clarity which will translate into working fewer hours, while spending more time with the clients you like and ultimately higher revenue.

What’s your take? Please share. I’d like to learn more

#practicemanagement, #focus, #timemanagement