Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
Advisors face two big traps when it comes to vacations. The one that gets the most attention is not taking enough time off and burning out as a result; this is especially common in the early years of building a business.
But there’s a second, more subtle trap: Taking so much vacation that you compromise your ability to grow your business.
Attention Amazon shoppers:
A painless way to help African street kids
During a 2004 trek up Kilimanjaro, I visited Amani Childrens Home, a grassroots charity in Tanzania that helps house, feed and educate homeless children.
Amani has recently partnered with Amazon; use the link below for your purchases and between 4% and 15% will be rebated to Amani. There is no cost to you you wont pay a penny more.
Use this link when shopping on Amazon.
Heres a video of Amanis work.
Here’s a video of a Kilimanjaro climb.
Last week I had coffee with an advisor, whom I’ll call Dave, who’d approached me looking for suggestions to accelerate the growth of his business.
Based in a large city in the northeast, Dave is a lawyer who joined a bank-owned firm after a couple of years with a large downtown law firm. Fifteen years later and with assets of $150 under management of million, he’s in his early forties and generally comfortable with the practice he has built.
“The problem is that my business feels stuck,” Dave said. “I think I should be doing better – I’d really like to double my revenue.”
When I asked him to describe his typical day, I got my first clue as to the potential problem: “Summer isn’t typical of my schedule,” was his answer. “I’ve got a great assistant, so after private school ends in mid-June, we go up to my wife’s family cottage and I stay there for about six weeks; then in August I’m in the office from Tuesday to Thursday.”
I commended Dave on his commitment to spending time with his family – and then asked whether that time away had an effect on his business.
“Not really,” was his answer. “My book is primarily fee-based so being away has no impact on income. The first three or four years in the business I really busted my butt, but today I’m a big believer in Steven Covey’s idea that you need to take time off to sharpen your saw.”
The cost of time off
“Sharpen your saw” was the last habit in Steve Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey used the metaphor of a woodcutter sawing for hours on end, becoming less and less productive as the blade gets dull.
The solution: Periodically stop and sharpen the saw.
It’s not that I have any issue with vacations – we all need to take regular time off and I’ve written about the research on how frequent short holidays can help you stay motivated, since you always have an upcoming break to anticipate. Indeed, advisors should feel free to take as much vacation as they can with family or to pursue other interests – provided that they’re crystal clear on the tradeoff entailed.
But here are two fundamental misconceptions when it comes to taking extensive holidays.
The first fallacy is that there is no cost to time off. I recently observed advisors bragging about how much vacation they took, using the amount of time off as a badge of honor and a measure of success. At a firm’s conference at which I was speaking, I heard one advisor tell another that he takes off Fridays and books three weeks of vacation in the summer.
“Is that all?” was the response. “Last year I took off 10 weeks, this year I’m taking off 12 weeks and next year my goal is to take off 15 weeks.”
Provided that you have the support team in place to serve your clients in your absence, there’s clearly nothing wrong with taking off as much time as you can. Just don’t kid yourself that there’s no opportunity cost to large chunks of time off; while the transition to fee-based business can be positive for clients and advisors alike (as well as advisors’ firms), it can lead to the kind of complacency that Dave articulated. Even with an exceptional team, it’s hard to imagine there’s no revenue impact to being away for six out of eight weeks or to taking off 12 weeks a year.
Sharpening your saw versus putting your saw down
That brings me to the second misconception. Taking vacation time with family may well boost your morale and motivation, but in and of itself, taking time off isn’t sharpening your saw; it’s putting your saw down. Guess what? When you put a dull blade down and pick it up a few weeks later, chances are you’ll be able to saw with more energy for the first while, but the blade will still be dull.
To increase productivity, you have to work differently. One way for a woodcutter to do that is to sharpen her saw, but that’s not the only way. She can also improve her effectiveness by engaging in a training regimen to become stronger or by hiring a woodcutting assistant. She can also attend a conference on leading-edge woodcutting techniques and best practices among woodcutters. Alternatively, she can increase her customer base by raising her profile through volunteering and other community activity.
The difficulty: Some advisors commit so much time to holidays and recreational pursuits that there’s no time left for saw-sharpening activities.
When I asked Dave about community activity, he paused:
“I know I should be doing more simply to give back and that it would probably be good for business,” he said, “but I just don’t have the time. I have a work-hard, play-hard philosophy – from May to October, I spend lots of time with family and get in a fair amount of golf.
The other six months, from November to April, I really focus on making my time as productive as possible. Aside from a couple of weeks down south at Christmas and then two more at spring break, I get in the office at 8 and don’t leave until 5 or 5:30; my only break is getting out of the office for a workout and a sandwich at lunch. Beyond helping coach my three kids’ hockey teams, I just can’t fit in more volunteer time.”
The reference to golf piqued my interest and I asked Dave how many rounds he got in last year.
His response was a bit hesitant. “About 70 or 80,” he said. “When my golf course is open, I normally play four times a week, but some of that is with clients and some with my wife.”
The diagnosis
My conclusion from our 30-minute conversation:
Dave would like to increase his business, but doesn’t appear willing to pay a significant price to make that happen. While he talks about wanting to build his business, his mindset is in the cruising stage. Dave views arriving at 8 and working until 5:30 for five months of the year as going flat out; if he’s really serious about growing his business, no matter how efficient he is, that’s unlikely to be enough to fuel substantial growth.
Essentially Dave’s in his comfort zone – there’s nothing in the slightest wrong with that, just so long as he’s clear on the cost of staying in that comfort zone and doesn’t feel aggrieved that other advisors produce at a higher level than he does.
As you think about your business, by all means schedule ample time off for family and other pursuits. But if you’re serious about maximizing success going forward, you also need to ensure that you invest enough time and energy in saw-sharpening activities to expand your thinking and increase productivity.
In next week’s column I’ll outline some of the saw-sharpening activities that position your business for success.
conducts programs to help advisors gain and retain clients and is an award winning faculty member in the MBA program at the University of Toronto. To see more of his written and video commentaries, go to www.clientinsights.ca. Use A555A for the rep and dealer code to register for website access.
Read more articles by Dan Richards