Are you caught up in the day-to-day operation of your practice? Do you appreciate how much this is costing you? Your availability is the bottleneck that is limiting the growth of your practice. You are spending too much time in the office for too little return. And you have built a practice that grinds to a halt the instant that you stop working. It's time to start evolving from an operational role to a managerial role. Once you free yourself from the time-consuming operational side of your practice, you can focus your energies on the much more important management side of the business. The result? Unlimited growth. Less time spent in the office. And a practice that runs without you.

Picture the following. Greg and Mary are both new wealth managers. Greg feels that he can build a successful practice by utilizing his winning personality and his attention to detail. So he establishes a practice where he plays a central role in virtually every aspect of the operation. Greg's approach wins him some clients and his practice quickly becomes profitable (after all, he has avoided the expense of building a team). But as the years pass, Greg's book of business plateaus at a relatively modest size. Try as he might, Greg can't grow beyond this sticking point. It seems that for every new client that comes on board, an established client leaves. All the departing clients say much the same thing - service was fine at the beginning of the relationship, but lately it seemed to drop off. Mary on the other hand takes a different approach. She feels that building a successful practice involves developing a system that provides her clients with a high level of service and finding the right staff to operate her system. Mary borrows some money to launch her practice, so that she can immediately begin developing both her system and her team. Mary's practice isn't profitable quite as quickly as Greg's, because she has additional staff and financing expenses. But long after Greg's practice plateaus, Mary's practice continues to grow and prosper.

Look at your peers. You see examples that drive home the truth of this story every day. Top performers like Mary focus on continually improving both their system and their team. Struggling wealth managers like Greg are too bogged down in the operation of their practice to see the forest for the trees. Wouldn't you like to be a top performer like Mary? Wouldn't you like a practice with an unlimited growth potential? Wouldn't you like to spend less time in the office? And wouldn't you like a practice that continues to run smoothly even if you take a vacation or become ill?