Opinion
Certainty Blog
Read this when the trust runs out
Paul has been running his financial advice firm in South Sydney for twenty years. He enjoys his clients. A former school teacher himself, many of his pre- and post-retirement clients come from teaching and principal roles. They have been with him for years. He knows...
This is for those who believe AI Advice won’t challenge their advice approach.
I met Richard and Wayne a couple of weeks ago. They run a well-regarded financial advice firm in Sydney's Hills district. Ten people. Strong reputation. Good enquiry flow. Long enough in the game to have survived a few industry upheavals. They couldn't wait to tell me...
When is it time to adjust your focus?
Sophie runs a great advice firm practice in Rockingham, WA. Unfortunately, as her firm grew, so too did her anxiety. It was a condition of growing worry caused not only by ‘big’ issues surrounding her clients, compliance and cash flows, but increasingly by simple...
What working ‘on’ your advice firm actually means.
Five years ago, Mark, a Canberra-based adviser, transformed his proposition and pricing. He doubled his average client fees from $6,500 to $13,500. He didn’t do this by engaging more of a high-net-worth market. His niche is mums and dads running their own small...
Build expert teams not teams of experts
The principals at one of our comprehensive advice firms based in Redcliffe had a problem. They were charging $15,000 for new clients. Their four associate advisers were signing new clients closer to $6,000-$8,000 for their new clients. Clients would ask: "Will I be...
When ‘clients for life’ doesn’t work
Meg runs a boutique advice firm on the NSW South Coast. Late forties. Divorced. Twin teenage daughters, both talented triathletes and keen surf club competitors. She is independent-minded. Self-licensed. Fitness fanatic herself - former junior gymkhana champion,...
When your value proposition becomes your biggest problem…
Last week, I told you about a recent client - Carlos, the 50-year-old Melbourne-based writer who agreed to a $12,000 engagement for an advice relationship despite having only $135,000 in super. Advisers Matt and Kath could charge that fee because their fees are not...
Why would a 50-year-old struggling writer on reduced pay and recently separated pay $12,000 for advice?
For most advice teams, Carlos isn't an ideal advice client. 20 years ago, the Colombian fell in love with a gorgeous Australian working at his local bar in Barichara, Colombia. They hit it off, he immigrated, and they married. They started life in her hometown,...
How $12,000 access pricing eliminated expert dependency
Last month, Joe and Tom from Canberra engaged three new clients. The minimum annual fees for all three were the same - $12,000+gst. For Joe and Tom, it doesn't matter if the prospect meets with a junior or senior adviser, nor does it matter if the original enquiry is...
The Value of Expert Teams
Decades ago, when you filled your car with fuel, a bloke would meet you, say G'day, flick a lever on his bowser and start the flow of petrol into your tank. Occasionally, he'd check your oil and radiator levels as your tank filled. When he wasn't filling cars, he was...
Same type of advice clients, double the fees in 18 months – How?
Steve and Nick Mayne run a father-son advice firm outside Melbourne. Eighteen months ago, their average new client fee was $12,200. Today their average new fee is $22,025. They haven’t changed their clients. They repositioned their approach and engagement process....
He tripled his average client fee. He doesn’t attend new client meetings anymore.
Reine Clemow runs a comprehensive advice firm in Southport. His average client fee used to be $2,400. Today it's $12,000. New clients average $20,000. He hasn’t significantly changed his ideal client profile. And he hasn't attended a new-client meeting in the last 6...
Got three minutes for an insight that has taken 30 years?
Oli runs a good advice firm. Possibly too good. Revenues of $1.23m. He's built a solid young team of six, including an adviser in her mid-thirties, an associate adviser who completed his professional year last year, an award-winning paraplanner/client service lady,...
2026? Don’t look back to 2025 if you want 2026 to be different.
Many advisers will plan 2026 the same way they planned 2025. Look at last year's numbers. Add 15%. Call it growth. That's not planning. That's more of the same. Busier growth, not better growth. Better growth for 2026 starts with answering one question: What are you...
You reckon your advice fees are reasonable? Henry used to think that as well.
Henry’s firm hit $3 million last year. Revenue-wise, he is two years ahead of his post-Covid plans. New client flow is above expectations. He is growing. Two more client support in Vietnam have raised their headcount to fourteen. However. With more to manage, he is...
Wayne’s experience could change the way you think about your pricing…
Wayne is a client of mine. He has a problem with two of his clients, Tom and Jerry. Tom is paying Wayne $22,800 a year and rarely makes contact. Jerry is paying $10,780 and is constantly in contact. They have opposite problems. But they are paying for similar value....
Want to start 2026 with 10% more revenue before any new clients?
Rick is a recent client of mine. He does a great job for his clients. But he undercharges. He understands how this has happened, but he is missing a crucial part of the solution. For instance, he has been charging Rachel & Nic E. $6,250/year for services similar...
Who is getting ripped off here?
Many years ago, I conducted a series of pricing workshops around the country for principals from advice firms aligned with Deutsche Bank. The bank was 'franchising' their wealth advisers, helping them take steps from being representatives to becoming successful...
The conversation too many advisers avoid – raising fees
Ever had the feeling you are doing too much, for too many, for too little return? There is a better way. Learn to uplift. Consistently. Specifically. Successfully. Sam and Sarah are a father/daughter advisory team building a solid, comprehensive boutique advice firm...
Is this the perfect advice niche…
Most founders of advice dream about this. The niche that fills the new business pipeline with quality opportunities, keeps clients coming back, and doesn’t depend on one subject-matter-expert adviser to survive. Is there such a thing as the perfect advice niche? I saw...
Forget About Planning – Focus!
"Failing to plan is planning to fail," right? Nearly. But not quite. Like you, my clients are financial advisers. They plan for a living. They are usually very good at it. For their clients. Not for themselves. It is a classic "plumber's pipes" situation. So, if...
Don’t Give Clients What They Want
Beth and Gav had had enough. They are potential new advice clients of David’s advisory firm in Melbourne’s suburbs. They want to sell everything and make their tree change. Gav will find new work and leave his toxic $270k/annum job. Beth will open her dressmaking...
Asked to justify your advice fees? There is only one way. Don’t!
Deb runs a boutique advice business in Sydney's outer suburbs. She followed up with prospects Katrina and Stephen, hoping they would be engaging as new clients. Deb's Terms of Engagement quoted $14,500 for the coming twelve months. After some phone tag, she made...
Don’t quote your advice in components – Here’s How to Quote…
Still quoting your comprehensive advice in parts? Don’t. Here’s a better way. Sally lost a client, a $15k prospect, last week. She was disappointed. Mainly for them, as their issues are significant and their options are tough. They need so much more than a cheaper...
If you can only take one thing into client meetings, take this…
Helen is 26. If you can only take one thing into client and prospect meetings, take a tip from Helen. Technically, she is a paraplanner. Professionally, she is a principal adviser. What's the difference? Focus. Let me explain. Last week, Helen prepped to perform...
Uplifting Existing Clients Fees Without Additional Services
Why would an existing client agree to a fee uplift without something additional provided in return? This was in the back of Sarah’s mind as she prepared for an upcoming fee uplift conversation with an existing client. Last week, adviser Sarah lost an opportunity to...
Uplifting Existing Clients Valuably
Sarah was concerned about her upcoming review meeting with existing clients, Adrian and Jane. Still in her late-20s, being qualified for only eighteen months, working a small client base of ‘lower-end’ clients her firm had inherited from when they purchased a client...
How to Let Go to Grow
Owners of financial advice firms face two different types of business risk. The risk of starting & the risk of growth. I reckon the most significant difference between these risks is ignorance. Initially, most brand-new business owners are ignorant of what is...
Decency Caps – Could advice pricing freedom be at risk?
Had a conversation with a London-based client last week about a potential challenge to the pricing of independent advice as we know it here in Australia. It’s referred to as the "Decency Cap", and it’s been slowly spreading in the UK advice market since the Retail...
Your median fee is your best capacity measure
Owners of advice firms track plenty of numbers: total revenue, new revenue, recurring revenue, profit, new clients, funds under advice, active clients, and cost-to-serve. These traditional KPIs measure progress, returns, and growth effectively. But they don't measure...
Your access price controls your time, your capacity & your success
From Fiefdoms to Grower's Markets: An Evolving Team Model Comprehensive financial advice teams are approaching a crossroad. Although scarred by compliance red tape and adapting to work-from-home models, unthinkable pre-COVID, these are golden times where demand...
Your access price controls your time, your capacity & your success
Advice firm access fees work like a golf club membership. Regardless of whether I play once or twenty times a year, I pay the same annual fee for access to the club. This is an access fee. This doesn't cover lessons, fees, gear or drinks on the 19th - but it...
Don’t price advice as if you are running a restaurant
I had a conversation this week with an advice firm that is convinced its fee-for-service pricing is working well for them. I disagreed. Here's why I don't like fee-for-service pricing for comprehensive advice firms: it creates misalignment between what advice teams...
Are you still trying to advise every prospect?
What makes an ideal advice prospect? Are they the ones with the most money? Is a client with $2M in assets more ideal than one with $1M? For some advisers, yes. For most, it depends on other factors. Financial advice revolves around money, but is the...
In Charge & Letting Go of Control
A 24-year-old adviser in one of our Certainty Advice firms, engaged a $12,000 new advice client last week. The striking aspect of this engagement was that the 24-year-old adviser is still in her professional year. Technically unqualified? Yes. Compliant? Yes....
AI Advice – The Consequences.
$88 Advice? Welcome to the future. Financial providers are releasing new advice offerings in response to the first tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes legislation. An annual $88 will give Colonial First State (sorry, firewalled) superannuation members...
Bigger is not always better
As a kid, I always wanted to be bigger. Grownups could stay up late, didn't have to go to school, could do what they wanted and had money to buy whatever they wanted. Little did I know my life as a kid was privileged, safe, happy and secure. I also didn't appreciate...
The future of advice?
Seen the latest predictions for the Australian financial advice industry? Check it out - Deloitte’s – “Advice 2030 – The Big Shift” The main objective of ‘trend’ reports is to position the authors as experts. I’ve done it myself several times, starting twenty-two...
Black and White Advice Syndrome?
I have a weird memory. Particularly for far too many old TV ads. Joe the Gadget man. You need Palmolive Gold. Mrs Marsh’s Chalk. Louie the Fly. It gets weirder. Sometimes, my brain replays, re-visualising an old commercial during random conversations. This happened...
Start with Why, Pay for What?
Simon Senek's book "Start With Why" is a phenomenon. Published in 2011, the book extolled that people don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it. Sinek's theory suggested that of the two methods of influencing behaviour, manipulation and inspiration, most influence...
TOUGH CHOICES
I'm a COBOL programmer. We moved out of our family home of 32 years last weekend, and I found an old coding template with a few punch cards that I have kept since the late 1970s. I didn't think I was a hoarder (maybe?). It took me back to when the talent supply could...
ADVICE FOR THE MAJORITY
What do advisers do? Maximise returns, protect risks, anticipate complexities, minimise costs, reduce stress, remove distractions, test assumptions, and change client’s long-term habits. Advisers are in the confidence business. They convert a client’s doubts into...
Don’t Fly Solo
4:52 pm March 23rd, 1995, will be special until my last breath. I had never been so elated before this moment. It was the birth of our first baby – Bec. At least half an hour later, as emotions settled, I wondered what had happened to our obstetrician. Nice guy,...
Advice MoneyBall
We listen to a lot of adviser-client Discovery conversations. That’s our job. We can’t transform advice skills without working deep into the details of what’s said in client meetings, which only recordings of Discovery and Engagement conversations can provide....
Discovery Gates
DISCOVERERS & EXPLORERS A great influencer of mine died last week. He was 95 – a close cousin of my father. He fought, laughed and played hard until his last tough weeks. A showman. A preacher. A rebel. A community-builder. Gawd, he could talk and boom his way...
YOUR UNWRITTEN STANDARDS
Molly recently cared for a client facing an unexpected life-changing decision to move directly from a hospital stay into a nursing home. Going home was not an option. It was a challenging situation at the best of times, but in this case, it became heart-rending when...
What advice for Laurie?
Laurie wants to stop and retire. Originally from New Zealand, he built a landscaping business from nothing in 1986 to the best on the north coast. He reckons he is working harder than ever. Finding and keeping staff is getting harder. Dealing with their attitudes is...
Bella’s Transition
Bella has run her small architecture firm for over 20 years. As the demand for her work grows, so do her costs. At 52 years old, she had hoped for more options. Since a messy divorce seven years ago, she has spent all reserves from the settlement and parent's...
Lower prices are just the beginning…
I spent many Saturday mornings at Harry's Hardware on Whistler Street in downtown Manly after Anna and I bought our "renovator's delight" on Manly flat. Harry had an old-style cluttered store when hardware stores used to be as common as butchers, grocers, and milk...
Financial adviser, imposter or both?
Both my parents smoked. Like chimneys. As kids, we'd munch down our morning cornflakes surrounded by last night's dirty ashtrays. The perfect Christmas present for Dad was a sparkling new ashtray. Little did we know the dangers of smoking. Kind of like imposter...
GET ACCOUNTABLE
I’ve run three marathons and a dozen half-marathons. I take my running gear whenever I’m travelling overnight. I love what running does for me. That’s thanks to Pete Talty. Regardless of the conditions, Pete was always there. 6am every Saturday, waiting at the bottom...
Get Agile
My wife Anna loves book club. She comes home from their dinners with a new thought-provoking discussion sparked by the book, regardless of whether she liked it, read it or hated it. Their latest was Lessons in Chemistry, which also recently began as a series on Apple...
Get Prioritised
I'm a rugby union tragic. I loved playing the game until one too many concussions meant I shouldn't run on ever again. I love watching local games. A highlight of my sporting year used to be watching our Wallabies in national games. Unfortunately, our team seem locked...
Building Deep Client Trust
How do advisory firms methodically create and manage deep client trust? While protecting profitability and reducing dependency, building advice platforms and skills for advice teams to build deep trust in their client relationships is the third of six principles...
Reducing Dependency – Building Great Advice Firms
I know the problem with my golf game. The guy holding the club. My instincts want to hit the ball too hard because my ridiculous golf brain believes 'bigger is better'. On the odd occasion when my instincts produce a great shot, it's usually a fluke. Tim Carrigg and...
How to Grow Profits
I can still see the surprised looks on their faces. It was November 1989, during a three-day "Agent As A BusinessPerson" workshop MLC asked me to design and facilitate. One of the last sessions for the twenty-five accountants and financial planners had each attending...
Advice is Not About Goals
Every August, I spend an evening at my old school answering questions from Year 11 students as they share their post-school career options. My sessions are generally Q&A events for kids interested in small businesses. Last week’s questions ranged from what...
How to Avoid Becoming Part of the Problem
These are interesting times. Interesting is probably an understatement, thanks to regulatory reform, ridiculous compliance guidelines, depleted advice talent, and increasing demands from teams and clients. Advisers don't need more hassles - particularly self-inflicted...
The problem with super is super
The problem with super is super. Since the 2002 Financial Services Review, there have been at least a dozen enquiries, commissions and reviews into Australia’s superannuation, insurance, investment, and financial services industries. Last week APRA and ASIC jointly...
Building Teams – Outsourcing & Thriving
My Dad was a radiologist. Many Saturdays, after watching me from the sideline of a sport-field, I would accompany him to his rooms as he worked his Saturday morning of patient appointments. I enjoyed these mornings working with his dark-room technician in the dim red...
Amazon Advice – The consequences of ‘good advice’
Amazon Advice is coming to a screen near you. It is already happening. Wesfarmers recently bought a large telehealth business - Instantscripts - for $135m. This purchase was in addition to the company's $1B acquisition of the Priceline Pharmacy chain last year. Not to...
Better is better with proactive referrals
With two good friends, Anna and I just completed a 17-day walk across Northern England – the Coast to Coast – a through-trek charted fifty years ago by Alfred Wainwright. It was challenging. It couldn’t have been better. Britain’s Right to Roam offers walkers...
Fighting Helplessness
Heard of Learned Helplessness? It is a condition first researched in the 1960s by a team of psychologists that included Professor Martin Seligman. A group of dogs were given mild electric shocks. Some dogs could press a button to stop the shocks, while a second group...
The Three Myths of Fee Increases
I've got the best job in the world. Clients pay me to observe and recommend paths they've already considered. Such as a pricing session I ran for a fast-growing advisory firm. I knew it would be interesting when I read in the pre-work that one director had suggested...
Quality or Quantity of Advice Reviews?
If plumbers need new pipes, and if the cobbler's kids need new shoes, does it follow that a lawyer needs new laws? Maybe. Michelle Levy's three-page plea to the government to adopt her Quality of Advice Review recommendations in this week's AFR is a curious political...
The problem with systems…
Michael Gerber was right. Systems can improve every aspect of our work lives by providing the necessary frameworks to help busy technicians create solid businesses. Gerber's book - "The E-Myth Revisited"- created a new language for small business development. His...
Lacking talent or vision?
Have you heard Nigel Marsh speak? He is good. An ex-marketing executive, he started EarthHour in 2007, the Sydney Skinny Swim in 2013 and has managed to accrue over 5.3m views of his work/life balance TED talk. His message was about navigating the constant white water...
To thrive, it helps to be extraordinary
I enjoy the New Philosopher. It is easy to read, provocative, and past editions are a reliable source when I need something to clear my head, which is getting more often. For instance, a recent article – The Courage to be Different - in Edition 38: Courage quoted...
Advice – The Best Debt Ever?
“You have got to be joking?” "Ten thousand dollars?" “What on earth will you tell me for $10,000 that I can’t discover myself?” Nicole’s advice fee was a bit of a shock. While understandable considering the circumstances, the reaction took her by surprise. Why? ISSUES...
The (Challenging & Prosperous) Road Ahead
Twenty-one years ago, I conducted a qualitative survey of Australian financial advisers with John J. Bowen Jr and Russ Alan Prince. The objective was to identify the client proposition advisers regarded as crucial to the future of financial advice. Russ’ team had...
The Quality of Advice Review
There’s good and bad in the Quality of Advice Review (QAR) released by Treasury last week. The good is the proposed framework for the delivery of affordable financial products. For Australians less interested in advice and more focused on making simple purchases, the...
How much for that Statement of Advice?
How much do you charge for a Statement of Advice (SOA)? Do you price based on complexity? Do you have a minimum fee regardless of complexity? Do you reimburse the SOA fee when the prospect becomes a client? CRUCIAL There is no question that SOAs are crucial when...
Why Buy a Client Base or an Advisory Firm?
I'm currently working with several firms considering a client base or business purchase. Each has different reasons. One wants to achieve more significant 'economies of scale'. One wants to fill a gap in the range of expertise. One is on an aggressive start-up path...
Advice for 2033…
All the best for 2023! Ready? Neither am I. A reflection on the 2013 advice marketplace and three thoughts on what advice might look like in ten years - 2033 - might be helpful for your steps in 2023. Despite the exceptional upheavals over the past decade, financial...
The Four Advice Hurdles of 2023…
Advisers thrive because they anticipate, worry, prepare and manage complex client issues. Good advisers are masters at it. Great advisers are masters at doing the same for themselves. There are several hurdles facing advisory firms in 2023 - for advisory teams...
JOE, THE GREAT ADVISER
Listened to any of Pushkin’s podcasts? They pump out some great ones. A favourite is “The Happiness Lab”, which lives up to a promise showing how our brains are not always our best guides for our well-being or progress. Another one – “Against the Rules” – is just as...
GETTING OUT OF THE RED
Brian “Digger” Booker taught me to fly. One cool Sunday morning, after landing VH-TUC at Camden airport, Digger asked me to pull over into one of the aircraft waiting bays just off the runway. He was getting out. He believed it was time for my first solo flight. What...
WHAT IS MARKET PRICING?
We've been looking at rural properties. One near Little Hartley looks special. Why? It sounds ridiculous, but it's the driveway. It has a long, winding, tree-lined driveway lined with well-established liquid ambers. As you near the home, the trees open onto a large...
THE JIGSAWER & THE TOUR-GUIDE
A tell-tale our family is on holiday is a jigsaw puzzle. A Stackpool holiday isn't a holiday without a tricky new puzzle. The puzzling can take all holidays, with the puzzle spot remaining frustratingly off-limits for non-puzzling activities until the puzzle has...
HOW MUCH IS THE RENT?
Do you ask your doctor what her fees will be next year? No, neither do I. Why do clients ask what the future ongoing fees will be for their financial advisers? Because, unlike doctors, they pay ongoing rent to their advisers. Is that typical of professionals?...
PRICING KNOWLEDGE
I used to sell shoes. Florsheim shoes. I thought I was pretty good at it. However, my mates used to say anyone could sell shoes when the shop is just outside the foyer of a Hilton Hotel. “What do you expect? If you’re going to sell fancy shoes, you’re in the perfect...
SUPPORT
I've messed up again. I've used a story in two of my books incorrectly. The story is of a small group of WWII refugees scared so witless they have paid a guide to flee through freezing, mountainous, and enemy-infested terrain into safer territories. The ordeal takes...
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
Ever over-eaten? To almost being sick? My mother, Meg, had no sympathy for such a thing. Like sunburn and talking too much, she reckoned you only had yourself to blame. That’s the tricky bit. Realising you are the problem. Similar to the feeling of over-filling an...
GET LEVERAGED
Some lessons from the covid pandemic promised to unleash new productivity growth. Studies don’t prove it. Yet. The Economist reported that post-pandemic spending is reinforcing supply lines, re-building inventories and attracting talent from the tiniest unemployment...
Showing Up – The #1 Advice Productivity Measure
An advisory team's best days are usually those spent in front of their clients. As most people join the advice industry to help others lead better financial lives, the time spent in client discussions, resolving issues, identifying forward steps, and creating greater...
WHAT IS PROGRESS?
The first benchmark of significance to me was a number of flip-flaps. When I could do ten flip-flaps at one time, I’d make the school’s gymnastic team. Gary Kurtz from my class did it. But I could never get to 10. I have slowly moved on from my missed benchmark of...
ADVICE SKILLS OF THE FUTURE
I was a COBOL programmer. Not a very good one, but that didn’t matter in the early 1980s. Back then, every Tuesday’s Australian newspaper featured a twenty-four-page IT section, of which many pages advertised programming and analyst positions available, with most from...
ADVICE IS LEADERSHIP
I had my own brush with Queen Elizabeth II. It was 1986, and I was running late for a meeting in Sydney. I somehow did not notice a barricade intended to block south bound traffic coming off the Cahill Expressway and heading down Macquarie Street. As I drove...
GOOD ADVICE?
What is good advice? Is it cheap advice? Is it easy to implement advice? Is it advice that provides better options? Is it advice that saves time or money? Is it advice from a trusted friend? Is it advice from an algorithm that assumes you aspire, behave and resemble...
The Four Pricers
I had a coffee with a 'comparer' last week. Although busier than ever, he was bewildered by a response from a significant prospect. He had pitched an advice strategy that would have saved the prospect tens of thousands of dollars in the first twelve months of an...
Bankers becoming Advisers
For different reasons, all our kids left home once they finished school. The eldest, the family’s best writer, went west to Bathurst to study marketing. The determined actress left Australia to chase opportunities in Vancouver’s film industry. The quiet achiever and...
Under-Delegation – How to cripple an advisory firm
Know any Texans? If you have to think about it, the answer is probably no. These guys stand out. I've been there several times and have never met a timid one. In the early 1980s, I worked in a small Australian software firm founded by Bruce – a tall, lanky Texan....
The De-Brief Meeting – A Key to Build Firms Not Jobs
The old fisherman with the summertime job running the rusty merry-go-round on Terrigal Beach taught me how to rig my fishing lines. He reckoned there was only one fishing knot I'd ever need – the locked half-blood knot. While my mates say I'm wasting money renewing my...
AVOIDING REAL POTENTIAL?
I love my vinyl record collection. It started when I discovered Electric Warrior in early ’76. The collection continues to grow despite Anna’s opinion that I’m a hoarder. Regular vinyl still beats the best digital sound – vinyl is so much bigger, brighter and better....
The Value is Within
I reckon Shaftesbury Avenue was one of Australia's greatest weight-for-age horses. Although dominated in handicapped races of the early 1990s by another great horse, Super Impose, I have always believed Shaftesbury was a better horse. I'm biased. My Godfather – Jimmy...
The Value is the Journey
I love trekking. I used to regard anyone walking with poles as a tad too keen. Now I’m one of those pole people. It is not just the poles. I’m discovering all sorts of great, weird stuff. For instance, I don’t know what it is, but I find the combination of conversing...
The Value is in the Detail
I used to coach a guy I call Adviser Tony. Nice guy, experienced, founder of a successful advisory firm and well-respected in the advice industry. Tony once told me that when his clients ever squabbled about how they wanted to spend their retirement monies, he...
The Illusion of Control
"I just want a handful of good clients without all the stress and grief." This was from the principal of a well-established firm with a fast-growing team. It is a common situation facing owners who appear to have built a successful advisory firm but who are unprepared...
Lessons from Debt – a path to Advice?
Heard about Grameen Bank - the bank for the poor? It presents a powerful working model of trickle-up development. Founded in the mid-1970s by Muhammad Yunus in a country lacking first and second-world finance infrastructures, it has sprouted up in over 80,000...
The Toughest No’s of Growth
With apologies to my first favourite author - Dr Seuss. No is no foe to grow. For grow without no is the toughest of grows. In his book "The Cat In The Hat Comes Back", Cats A through Y unleashed incremental mayhem until the tiniest Cat Z makes everything good. "And...