To build a successful independent advisory business, it's essential to have a very clear understanding of what "success" means to you — the owner.
Is success about generating a large amount of revenues (as many owners today seem to believe)? Being able to spend a significant amount of time with your family? Increasing your personal income? Or having control over your working environment and how you serve the client?
These are all worthy goals. And over the years, owning an independent firm has proven to be a good way to attain them.
However, there is another essential element in attaining business success that's often overlooked by many business owners: what "success" means to employees.
If an advisor-owner has more than a few employees, they may not spend much time thinking about what the employees hope to get out of their affiliation with the firm. This is a mistake.
The problem throughout the growth cycle is that most business owners don't like to think that the success of their businesses depends on anyone but themselves.
The reality is that as a business grows, its success depends increasingly more on employees and partners, than on the owner. For instance, in many larger firms, most of the clients never come into contact with the owner.
The takeaway is that the success of a business depends upon employees' happiness with their jobs: that is, their definitions of success.
How many owners have actually asked their employees how they define "success"? For owners to get what they want, they'll need to make sure employees are getting what they want.
Unfortunately, there's no universal answer to what employees want. Like business owners, each one is different. Discovering the answer is hard work, since it means getting to know employees and taking the time to talk to them.
What Makes Employees Happy?
There are some basics that can make the job easier. Most owners think what employees really want is more money. As it turns out, even employees who seem focused on their compensation, usually aren't any happier within a couple months after a raise.
Study after study has shown that people usually are happier for a short while after a pay raise, but then as they adjust their lifestyles, they realize that not much has really changed.
