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It’s the second month of a new financial year, and now is the best time to set new financial goals for yourself and your business.
In financial services – specifically lending – I see so many business owners overlook this essential piece in their business, and as a consequence, their business suffers from a lack of direction and correct allocation of resources. It’s often difficult to find the time between meeting customers’ expectations and completing paperwork to sit down and not only focus on where you want to go in the next 12 months, but how you are going to get there.
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Business planning is one of the most enjoyable parts of my current role, helping business owners turn their thoughts and aspirations into reality.
When it comes to business planning, it needn’t be a major essay. Instead, focus on the format of the document.
Here are my top three tips for creating your road map to success with your business plan this financial year.
Tip 1: start with structure esoteric to your industry
With financial services, it is vital to ensure your business plan incorporates your customer value proposition – what value do you offer your customers that none of your competitors provide?
A good business plan in this industry also needs to cover your referral partner proposition, as well as a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis with a detailed marketing/action plan and your financial goals.
Tip 2: ensure you include your competitors in the digital space
This is an area I see overlooked on a weekly basis. Business owners are often able to tell me who their competitors are in their local area in relation to shop fronts. However, when I ask who their top five competitors on the first page of Google search results are, nine out of 10 times I am met with a shrug.
This is extremely important to know. When your customer is sitting on the couch on a Friday night in their PJs watching TV, chances are they are also surfing the net on their hand-held device. If they happen to impulsively search ‘mortgage broker’, ‘lending specialist’, or ‘home finance solutions’ in their local area, does your business rank in those top five organic search results?
By the end of 2014, the number of internet users globally reached almost three billion. This means that 40 per cent of the world’s population are using the internet.*
This is just one of the reasons why it is so important to know who your competitors are in the digital space, and ensure you have a strong digital presence, as it is your virtual shop front.
Tip 3: the key elements to include in your action plan
There are three key elements that make a successful business in financial services:
1. Leads
2. Conversion
3. Business and people development
Therefore, I always encourage the business owners I am working with to ensure they include an ‘intent’ section to their action plan to articulate what the intent is of the action detailed. Is the action to drive leads, to enhance conversion? Or is the action’s intent to grow the business or staff?
This is a great way to ensure the actions in your plan are not all operational-focused, and that you are working on your business in a holistic manner rather than a narrow focus. Articulating your intent mitigates target gaps.
Having a robust business plan is your passport to success in any business, and it is why it is a big part of what I do to support our franchisees, both those coming into the LJ Hooker Home Loans network as well as existing franchisees.
*Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ ICT Indicators database
