Ramping Up

“How do you bridge that gap: bringing high-level knowledge to running an efficient and effective advisory practice and make it more scalable? That’s the problem we’re solving with advisors and the institutions that support them. The advisor needs the help of a partner, just like clients need the help of the advisor,” says Segal. “A lot of firms have great white papers and great stuff on their websites but few have taken it to the next level: becoming a trusted business partner with the advisor.”

ActiFi’s corporate mantra pushes people, process and technology as critical to building a scalable and efficient practice. But Segal is cautious about grading them in terms of importance. “You’ve got to have all three ingredients. Is it a third-third-third? I don’t know. It depends on the people really. Putting the world’s most fantastic whiz-bang technology in a practice with people who have no readiness to adopt it yields zero business benefits,” he adds. “Yet many advisors fail to realize this.”

Segal’s best advice for advisors who wish to become true business owners? First, understand what matters most from a business point of view. What are your goals and desires as an advisor and how do you combine them with client feedback to create a business plan? Next, take that plan and translate it from a set of goals into the optimal strategy, tactics and tasks that give you the highest chance of achieving your desired outcome. Also, make sure you have the right people in place to complete the tasks. Finally, keep score and stay accountable.

“Every day, I have conversations with advisors and I’ve gotten very good at being able to size up who thinks like a business owner and who thinks like a practitioner. It’s like an on-off switch. You’re wired to think your practice is a business you invest in or wired to think of it as a mechanism to earning a living and doing what you’re good at,” notes Segal. “While there are gradations in-between, there’s a point where you say ‘Yep, I’m committed.’”

While he has never tried to convince an avowed practitioner to change stripes, Segal says: “A lot of advisors make very nice livings and are very happy just being practitioners. If there’s no business when they are done, that’s okay. I’m not one to pass judgment. But certainly one has more value than the other, that’s unquestionable.”

The endgame for Segal: the creation of a valuable and sustainable business that offers the same client experience that the founding principal can deliver in his sleep.

“You want a business that’s bigger and beyond them. If you went on vacation for a year and didn’t show up, didn’t check email, the business would grow or be better. You would come back from your round-the-world trip and you would return to more money and deeper relationships,” he adds. “The firm, the brand, represents a consistent experience.”