by Jim Stackpool | Jul 13, 2026 | Activity v Productivity, Benchmarks, Business Performance, Capacity-To-Serve, Competitive pressures, Complexity, Consequences, Goals, growth, Growth Stress, Hiring advisers, Hiring Team Members, Measures of Success, Productivity, stages of growth, Talent
Charmeon runs a $1.8m advice firm. She has just hired another junior adviser. Her plan: hit $3m by 2030. She left a big bank in 2018, starting with no clients. She is excited about her firm’s future. She has a great team, good clients, aligned centres of influence,...
by Jim Stackpool | May 25, 2026 | Best Interests, best practice, Business Performance, Capacity-To-Serve, Growth Stress, Hiring Team Members
Nathan’s spreadsheet looked perfect. His cost-to-serve model showed a team of six costing $520,000, generating $1.4 million in revenue, with a margin on every client segment. On paper, the firm was thriving. Day-to-day, however, Nathan was drowning. His two...
by Jim Stackpool | Mar 9, 2026 | Best Interests, best practice, Brand Development, Business Performance, Business Planning, Capacity-To-Serve, Consultative Approach, dependency, Goals, Greater Good, growth, Growth Stress, Hiring advisers, Hiring Team Members, Leadership, Mindsets, Ongoing Relationships, Planning, Priorities, Professionalism, recruiting, Talent, Wealth Management, worth
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...
by Jim Stackpool | Apr 6, 2022 | Advice Clients, Advice Pods, Advice Pools, Business Performance, Business Planning, Career Management, future of advice, Future of Financial Advice, Hiring advisers, Hiring Team Members, Impact, Leadership, Leverage, Measures of Success, Ongoing Relationships, Planning, Productivity, Professionalism, Quality Advice, Successful On Purpose
Advice firms start like most things in life – tiny. Like parents and their newborns, tiny firms owe their early years to their founders. They grow client by client, either delivering value or not. The value deliverers attract more clients, service existing...
by Jim Stackpool | Mar 9, 2022 | Hiring Team Members, recruiting, Uncategorized
I’ve long admired the business and advisory skills of Fausto Pastro. I’m grateful that I met him in 1995, relatively early in my consulting career as he epitomised the foundational principles needed to build great advisory firms. I was quoting him again...
