Distraction-Proof® Advisor Ideas

AdvisorBlast – Quick Tips to Accelerate Your Practice

In this issue:  Make any needed adjustments now and ensure you’re on track for the end of 2012.

My summer didn’t end up looking exactly like I anticipated. I had unexpected things arise on both personal and professional fronts requiring more time and energy than I had planned to spend. Maybe, like me, you’re ready for a new start with the new season. 

Whatever your summer looked like, with the end of more relaxed summer schedules upon us and the closing of 2012 in sight, September is a great time for a “target check-up.” Assess your activities and productivity now, and make any needed realignments to ensure you’re on track to reach your targets for the end of 2012.

If you don’t already have them posted where you see them daily (I hope you do), pull out your 2012 goals. How are you progressing? Are you allocating your time to actions that are the most beneficial and productive? What worked well for you last quarter or earlier in the year – and can you repeat those things this fall?

Take Care of Yourself
Post-Labor Day can feel like a new year, and so it’s a great time to get back to resolutions and habits you may have let go over the past months. How’s your physical, mental, and relational health? Consider getting back to or starting these good-health habits:

• Get up from the couch and go to bed so you can get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night.  
• Make time for that extra class at the gym or going for a walk (even better to do with a spouse, child, or friend) one or two evenings a week.
  
• Find some new, quick, healthy recipes to try for dinner at home, with the whole family sharing a meal together.

Connect With Clients
Most people are back from vacations – reach out.

• Pick up the phone and reconnect to check in. See how their summer activities were and suggest strategies and planning activities for year’s end.  
• Organize a client appreciation event to cement good relationships and explore further connections.

Pursue Prospects

• Set yourself a concrete number of new business meetings you want to have by December 21st and start going after it.  
• Update and polish your explanation of what you do and how you help. Buzz is building and questions are growing about the “Fiscal Cliff” – if it feels like a good fit for you, offer yourself as a resource who can clearly explain things and offer ideas about how to plan and respond.  
• Return to a networking group you haven’t participated in over the summer.  
• Organize a lunch’n’learn event for business people in your area before the holiday rush.

Return to Routines

• Time-block your day to ensure that what’s really important (not just what’s urgent) gets your attention and effort.  
• If you lead a team, make some time to individually ask them how they’re thinking about pushing toward the end of year.

Use this checklist (and other ideas it may spur) as a jumping-off point to build momentum for the last quarter of this year. Pumpkins are already on the shelves and Thanksgiving and Christmas merchandise will appear before we know it. Focus on some first steps to make, enjoy the progress, and keep pushing on.

To your wildly productive Q4,
Paul

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