When you think about outsourcing elements of your advisory practice, does it leave you with a positive or a negative reaction? We strongly believe in the power of outsourcing for advisors because we have seen firsthand how it creates more efficiency and, ultimately, helps drive growth for advisors.
In fact, a 2015 study by the FPA found that 42 percent of firms outsource at least one aspect of operations, and that number has only grown.
Of course, not every role can be outsourced; you wouldn’t want to ship out the responsibilities of a CEO to someone not intimately involved in managing your company each day. But many—like your CIO—can be handed off to trusted partners to help you focus on what matters most: your clients.
In today’s article, we’ll look at why you should consider outsourcing another large part of your day to day operations: your back-office.
Focus on your clients
Outsourcing your back-office can help you put your focus where it needs to be, which is on servicing and building relationships with clients and prospects.
What would you say are the top three things that are slowing your firm’s growth? While every advisor is different, most would say one or more of the following activities takes up too much time: generating reports and statements, running bills, and trading accounts each and every day.
If you’ve never done an evaluation of where your team spends your time, take a week as a group to track every task you do, who it’s for, and what type of work you’re doing – sales, running reports, talking to clients, etc. You may be surprised by how where you want to spend your time compares with where your team actually spends their time.
The Simplicity Solutions outsourced model handles all these things for your team, so you can continue meeting with clients instead of prioritizing paperwork.
Focus on growth
Firms don’t grow and succeed when running a report or stuffing envelopes. While these are important tasks in their own right – it is critical that clients receive timely reports – they are not actions that put you directly in focus with your clients. When you put the focus back on clients, you also put the focus on actions that can result in growing your company.
Less time creating reports means more time for finding new prospects. Outsourcing your quarter-end statements and billing can save you hours of time each month that you can instead reserve for new prospect meetings, or grabbing coffee with that long-time client that may result in a new referral.
Focus on internal operations
While we mostly talk about growing your business in an outward perspective with a focus on prospects and clients, a healthy business also must make sure its internal operations are running smoothly. Too much focus on one side or the other will result in an advisory firm that operates in a suboptimal state. When you outsource your back-office, you can take a high-level approach to operating your business.
You are no longer “in the weeds” and managing every small detail, so you can step back to take a look at how your internal operations are running. Taking that bird’s eye view can tell you which workflows are smooth and which aren’t, so you can make the appropriate adjustments to how your team works and interacts internally and externally. Ultimately, the time you don’t spend on your back-office can help you make more thoughtful changes that help your company flourish.
The Simplicity Solutions model
You may be wondering how Simplicity Solutions helps you accomplish all this.
We are industry veterans who have modeled our support to assist you in the unique ways you run your firm. The Simplicity Solutions outsourced model builds an experienced team around you that has been in the industry and knows how to support RIAs. You’ll be assigned a Relationship Manager to coordinate the entire experience and make sure your reporting, billing, and trading needs are handled according to your unique approach.
The Relationship Manager is your advocate who also connects you with our full staff of Subject Matter Expert teams who can provide additional guidance and advice as you navigate the best solutions for your firm.
Our support also extends beyond the friendly voice you work with each day. Each advisory firm connected with Simplicity Solutions also receives a dedicated Analyst and Operations Associate to be sure that your data and technology is running as smoothly as your service. We take a comprehensive approach to what we do, so you can do more of what you enjoy in your business.
Expand your possibilities with an outsourced back-office solution from Simplicity Solutions. Contact us today to schedule your personal demo.