Are you spending your time wisely?
by Diane Yohn, Operating Officer
As a financial advisor, YOU are the business.
In the beginning, this is very clear. You must be an excellent marketer, administrator, AND advisor to succeed in those critical first months and years.
But there comes a time when it’s time to hire out some of your daily responsibilities to maximize your efforts.
You’re an advisor first and foremost, and at a certain point, your growth takes a sharp turn when you focus on your clients only and outsource the rest
You should consider hiring new staff members when you feel you’re spending more time on operations than helping clients or when your existing employees are overwhelmed and customer service has suffered.
Step one is taking advantage of the resources that already exist at your firm.
Then you may need your own administrative assistant. (A half step is sharing an admin with another advisor, an option available at North Star.)
Next is a practice coordinator, investment coordinator, insurance consultant, marketing coordinator, and so on based on your specific needs.
Unfortunately, in all this hiring, you may end up spending that time you were trying to buy back with the new positions.
Many advisors spend a good portion of their time sourcing, selecting, and training their support teams. If they aren’t spending this time, they likely spend their money on hiring someone else to source, select, and train their teams.
For our internal advisors, North Star has a different approach.
We want our advisors to use their valuable time doing what they do best: Meeting with prospects and clients and helping them with their financial futures.
To make this possible, we have a full human resource department that takes most of the burden from the advisor, freeing up their time. Our team finds candidates, interviews them, and puts only the best finalists in front of the advisor. Then the advisor does the final selection.
Upon the employee’s start, we handle all the new hire forms and paperwork, train the staff, manage benefits administration, and review timecards.
Another advantage of the North Star advisor is North Star’s competitive benefits package for their support team, making the pool of candidates much larger.
We handle the HR side of the business, and the advisor manages day-to-day work direction. This system allows the advisor to ensure the team does the most important tasks for their practice while keeping those same criteria for their own daily to-do list.
We consider our advisors as our customers, so we will create a process for you and your team that is unique.
Do you want to be more involved in your team’s reviews, feedback, and duties? Or do you want us to handle your annual reviews and get a final approval for any salary changes before they occur?
Your involvement is determined completely by you.
As a business owner, where you spend your time, is certainly critical. We are happy to work closely with our advisors to ensure, you get the time you need in front of clients. This is another way North Star is unique.
Author: Diane Yohn, CLU®, RHU, FLMI, CLF®
Diane has served as COO of North Star Resource Group since 2016. In her role, she manages over 165 team members in Minneapolis and across the country.
Diane started in the financial industry in 1979 at Securian Financial Services, and she joined North Star nine years later, where she held multiple leadership positions before becoming the highest-ranking female executive at North Star in 2016.
Diane contributes to the financial services industry through various group and board memberships, including Securian’s Women Inspiring and Supporting Excellence (WISE) Group, elevating the careers of female financial professionals. She is also a past president of the Minnesota Chapter of GAMA and a past board member of National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) of Minneapolis.
In service to her community, Diane has served on the executive board for TeamWomen, a female-led organization that coaches women to reach their full potential, and she mentored a number of the female leaders of the organization. She also regularly volunteers with her church, works with Volunteers Enlisted to Assist People (VEAP), and is actively involved in North Star’s Bikes for Kids event, which gifts local children in need with bikes and helmets.
Diane is a graduate of Drake University in Iowa, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. She currently lives in Bloomington, Minn., with her husband Garry and near her two sons and two granddaughters.