When I onboard a new advisor with Impact, one thing I immediately seek to understand is how their practice is set up. This includes everything from the appointment process to marketing, staffing, budgeting, etc.
Staffing is an essential component of a growing practice. Depending on an advisor’s needs and goals, the proper amount and quality of staff are imperative.
Here are some things to consider when deciding if you need to hire:
- It saves you money in the long run.
This is a conversation I have right away with an advisor. There may be opportunities for growth through different marketing streams, but without the proper support, the advisor is running every facet of their practice: marketing, operations, appointments, follow-up — you name it.
While this may be saving the advisor money in the short term, they may also be losing out on even MORE money by not having the support they need to take care of all those things so that they can get in front of more clients.
Not to mention, the goal is to grow your practice. If you have more time to put toward converting leads into clients, you’re well on your way.
- Quality is everything.
Quantity is not always the best route to go when you think of staffing. In fact, the thought of needing to hire multiple people for a small office can overwhelm a business owner. When staffing up, quality is everything.
New hires must be individuals your clients will love because these are the people who will be representing you and your practice and speaking to your clients and prospects on your behalf. Make sure you have a solid individual or group of people who are representing you well.
It also helps to find a charismatic employee. Anyone can be trained on a job’s day-to-day requirements, but charisma is hard to find. That person who is speaking to your prospects could make or break the opportunity to turn that prospect a client.
- Staff roles need to be defined.
We talked about not overstaffing, but now let’s discuss a scenario where hiring more than one person may be a good idea: role definition. From what I’ve seen, practices that have clearly defined staff roles tend to create experts in those roles.
Rather than one person wearing multiple hats and not being able to allocate the right amount of time to each role, it can be worth it just to have that extra person who can take some of the duties and do them extremely well.
- Plan now.
You may not have the need to hire at this very moment, but you know you will need someone soon. Plan it now. Don’t get yourself into a position where you must hire too quickly, thereby sacrificing some of the qualities you’re looking for in an employee. Start the search now and find the person or persons to best fit your business model.
Bottom line: When handled properly, adding quality staff members to your practice can save you time, money, and a lot of headaches. To grow your practice, you should consider growing your staff.
