threesixty to Stage Business Planning Workshops
threesixty, voted the number one IFA support services provider, will be staging a series of IFA business planning workshops in the New Year.
The workshops will instruct IFAs on how to design and implement the plans, specific strategies and tactics that can be used to drive businesses forward, the practicalities of business planning, what to expect from plans and the benefits they bring. A key strategy to be explored will be the benefits of ‘backward planning’, whereby the desired position for a business is established and then a plan is drawn up in reverse on how best to achieve it. Client relationship management, market positioning and business structure will also be addressed.
The obstacles that have to be faced in order to change a business and what to look out for in other businesses’ plans will be key areas of discussion in the workshops. This will be highly relevant to the many IFAs who wish to move their businesses from a transactional, commission basis to a fee basis or who want to acquire other business.
threesixty has already been running free workshops for IFAs this year on how to prepare businesses for sale and has mailed a number of network members and directly authorised IFA practices, inviting them to advertise their details on threesixty’s client intranet. threesixty is also building up a database of its own clients who are interested in mergers, employing experienced advisers or para-planners, or simply purchasing the client banks of other firms.
Ross McArthur, partner at threesixty, commented: “A number of IFAs want to have an acquisition strategy as part of developing their businesses. But they need to work out who they are going to acquire and how to do it. To maximise the benefit of doing so they need to devote enough time and commitment to understanding business planning.”