Writing
Running the firm
Running a firm of five with the obligations of a firm of two hundred: the file, the pricing, the hires, and the client conversations.
18 pieces
All pieces
Running the firm
The file has to show the reasoning, not just the result
Most firms make good decisions and keep bad records of why. Those are different failures and only one of them is visible in an examination.
Running the firm
Why you cannot call yourself the best at anything
It is not squeamishness. Defending a superlative requires a documented survey in the file before publication, kept current, and it buys nothing the specific version does not.
Running the firm
Why every advisory website says the same thing
Comprehensive, personalized, client-focused, independent. Four words that appear on nearly every firm’s site and distinguish none of them.
Running the firm
The client you should have let go two years ago
Every principal has one. The cost of keeping them is real, spread out, and almost entirely invisible on the revenue line.
Running the firm
Write down who you are not for
It takes an hour, almost nobody does it, and it improves everything downstream of it.
Running the firm
The annual review is usually the wrong meeting
A performance recap, a market outlook, and a rebalancing note. The client already knew the first, does not need the second, and does not care about the third.
Running the firm
Pricing by imitation is how firms end up underpaid
Most new firms adopt the schedule they inherited. That number was built for a different cost base and a different service.
Running the firm
Referrals are not a growth strategy
They are the best clients you will get and the least controllable input in the business. A firm whose plan is referrals does not have a plan.
Running the firm
You have never experienced your own onboarding
It happens once per client, so nobody in the firm sees it often enough to notice how bad it is.
Running the firm
Hiring when every hire is twenty percent of the firm
In a firm of five, one hire changes the culture measurably. That is a different problem from filling a role.
Running the firm
The hour after you find the error
The mistake is rarely what damages the relationship. What damages it is the twenty-four hours afterwards.
Running the firm
The notes are the asset
Everything the firm knows about a client that is not on a statement lives in the meeting record. In most firms that record is inconsistent.
Running the firm
The obligations that only happen once a year
Weekly tasks get done because you notice when they are missed. Annual ones get missed because nothing reminds you until it is late.
Running the firm
The call you will get eventually
Every firm handles this eventually and almost none has thought about it in advance. The family will remember how it went.
Running the firm
A procedure nobody follows is a liability
Documenting the process you wish you had is worse than documenting the one you have, and it is what most firms do.
Running the firm
Clients cannot refer you if they cannot describe you
The reason you get fewer referrals than you should is almost never reluctance. It is that your client does not know who to look for.
Running the firm
Being busy is not the same as being full
Firms hire because the founder feels at capacity. Frequently the capacity is there and it is pointed at the wrong work.
Running the firm
You cannot decide what to delegate without this number
Every outsourcing decision is a comparison against the value of your time. Most principals have never calculated it.
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