Here at Lawton Marketing Group our clients are much more than just clients, they’re part of the team. We celebrate the successes of our clients and are filled with excitement at their accomplishments. We love partnering with top advisors to help them do a phenomenal job reaching more people and we’re overjoyed when they’re honored for the incredible work that they do. We have 49 clients on the list, and from all of us here at Lawton Marketing Group, we want to send a heartfelt “Congratulations!” to:
- Steve Braun
- Lizzie Dipp Metzger
- Bradley Baune
- Peter Tillinghast
- Paul Ludacka
- Alison Flaum
- Mike Flynn, Jr.
- Ed McGill
- Michael Testa
- Doug Lambert
- Christie Mueller
- Joel Field, III
- Tina Dandry-Mayes
- Travis Gerhard
- Robert Petrocelli
- Rick Paulsen
We are ecstatic to see you succeeding and are proud to partner with such incredible advisors!
How to Hire the Right Marketing Agency for Your Financial Practice
Hiring the right marketing agency is an important decision—you pour your time and energy into your business day after day, so when you spend its resources (money or time or both) to advance its growth, those resources better be well spent. As an advisor, the decision to outsource your marketing can be especially complicated—once you decide to hire an agency, how do you find someone who understands your unique industry and won’t get you into trouble with compliance? How do you know the agency you hire will be worth your time and money?
Like I said, it isn’t easy.
Just like advisor marketing itself, finding the right agency to work with your financial firm comes with a unique set of considerations. In this blog, we’ll provide some helpful guidelines so you can find an agency that will help your business grow, keep you out of compliance trouble, and ultimately make your life easier.
To start, the marketing firm you hire should be three things:
#1: Highly Experienced
One of the most important “rules” of hiring the right agency is to find a firm that has ample experience working with advisors. That’s because many of the traditional (and trendy) marketing strategies most agencies use won’t work for an advisor’s business. Instagram and other social platforms are extremely popular right now and as such, they’re strategies a savvy marketer might suggest—but they likely won’t work for an advisor.
Not only are these platforms typically not allowed, but reaching advisors’ target markets usually requires different strategies altogether. It’s an important, often lifelong decision when people choose their advisor—and not one they take lightly. They’re looking for someone who they can trust with their livelihood and the wellbeing of their families, and they’re generally not looking for that person on Instagram. The bottom line is, there are a ton of creative and timely strategies that a well-meaning agency might suggest—but if the agency hasn’t worked in the financial sector before, many of those strategies won’t be effective (or allowed) for an advisor.
Apart from potentially wasting your time, this can also be frustrating for the agency because they can’t leverage time-tested strategies they know to get results. They won’t have benchmarks with which to measure your progress, and it’ll be difficult to set expectations and create a repeatable process. Because of that, they might want to charge you additional fees for the time it takes to sort out your strategies. You’ll also likely spend more time explaining compliance rules—which of course, defeats much of the purpose of outsourcing.
An experienced agency will offer effective ways to leverage current trends while also working within compliance boundaries. For example, they might suggest a modified lead generator for your website—if you’ve ever tried this before, you know that adding a lead generator might seem like a compliance impossibility, but a firm that’s familiar with the industry will know that you can create one so long as you adhere to specific rules.
#2: Compliance-savvy
A marketing firm well-versed in the financial industry should have a solid understanding of basic compliance regulations, as well as a system for discovering unfamiliar rules before they cause an issue for you. Some rules vary from broker to broker, which means an agency might be educated about compliance rules for a particular broker, but not as well-versed in another. But that’s okay—a reputable agency will take time to learn what’s allowed for your specific situation, even if they haven’t worked with your parent company before (or if you’re an independent agent). And because experienced agencies are well-versed in the compliance arena as a whole, they’ll know what they can and can’t do without first getting approval from your compliance department.
That said, there are some regulations that apply to all advisors, and the right agency should be aware of these too. For example, the former inability to include testimonials on an advisor’s website was a ruling determined by the SEC, so it applied to advisors at any company. The right firm will not only be willing to gain an understanding of your broker’s regulations, but possess knowledge of these broader rules regulated by FINRA and the SEC.
#3 Results-Driven
Most advisors grow their business through referrals, rather than directly targeting strangers—that said, measuring your ROI for relationship marketing requires a little more digging. But that doesn’t mean agencies that focus on this type of marketing can’t provide proof that their strategies are effective. Agencies that have experience working with advisors should be able to define how and why their methods help advisors grow.
Additionally, they should be able to help you determine what methods could be most helpful for your situation. Experienced agencies will have a conversation with you about your practice and your goals and be able to outline a tentative strategy from there. They should also be able to provide case studies or examples of their work so you can get a better feel for their capabilities.
Finding the Right Agency
Now you know what you’re looking for, how do you identify if a particular agency is the right fit? One way is to ask a fellow advisor—if you know a peer who’s had success outsourcing their marketing, ask them who they work with. Your broker also might have a list of approved vendors they recommend. If you start your search outside the financial industry (by asking other business owners or friends), you can use the questions below to determine if a specific agency will be a good fit for you.
If you’re considering different agencies, here are a few questions to ask them:
- Have you worked with financial advisors before? As we mentioned above, there are multiple reasons you’ll want a firm that knows the financial sector inside and out. Ask the agency how long they’ve been serving advisors and other financial professionals—if it’s less than at least 3-5 years, you might want to consider other options.
- How do you handle compliance? While every broker is different and, in most situations, the advisor will be the one interacting directly with compliance, a reputable agency should still be able to give you an idea of how they navigate compliance rules. You should also ask if they charge additional fees for compliance revisions.
- Can you provide case studies and/or proof of ROI? The agency should be able to explain if and how their strategies have delivered measurable results (even if they can’t reveal specific client information).
- What are my options for services? Some agencies bundle or package services together, so you end up paying for three or four things when you only need one or two. To avoid paying for services you don’t need, try to find an agency that offers one-time projects and retainer services for your ongoing initiatives.
- What do I need? While you probably have some idea of what you need or want from your marketing, a great agency should be able to help you decide what’s necessary and what isn’t, what will work and what won’t, and what your marketing priorities should be.
Ultimately, the right company should be able to guide you through the marketing and branding process similar to how you guide your clients through their financial plans. You should be able to trust them to keep you out of compliance trouble and they should make your life easier, not harder. There might be questions for you to answer along the way, but if they know what they’re doing, the right firm should be able to familiarize themselves with your business, offer specific recommendations, then take the ball and run with it. After all, one of the goals of outsourcing your marketing is to keep it off your plate so you can focus on what you do best.
How Outsourcing Your Marketing Could Save Your Financial Practice
In a world where everyone is crunched for time and our attention is pulled in a thousand different directions, you can’t waste your efforts on ineffective marketing. For advisors and other entrepreneurs, the decision to pour time and money into marketing is a big one. You want to know you’re reaching the right people, staying compliant, and doing something that will benefit your business in the long run.
So when it comes to creating and implementing those strategies, does it make sense to do it all yourself, hire an in-house professional, or outsource the job?
You may know your business best, and an in-house team member might seem convenient, but there are multiple reasons why outsourcing your marketing is often the most effective approach. In this blog, we’re covering four reasons why outsourcing your marketing can save your firm and make you love your career even more.
1. Save Your Expertise
At LMG, one of our hiring philosophies is to get the right people “on the bus,” then make sure they’re in the right “seat.” We want our team members to use their talents where they’ll provide the most benefit to the agency and get the most satisfaction from their workday. You should look at your firm the same way—if you’re great at building relationships, solving problems, and identifying creative solutions others don’t see—why waste your valuable time writing your LinkedIn bio or creating a slide deck? Outsourcing your marketing can ultimately make your job more fulfilling because you get to focus on what you do best. After all, you’re in this business for a reason—don’t waste your talents on something you find frustrating or tedious.
That said, your next thought might be to hire a college intern or one of your relatives to handle some of these tertiary responsibilities. But while these young hires are typically driven and even marketing savvy, their best intentions could also turn into your worst nightmare. Which brings us to our next point…
2. Save Yourself from a Compliance Disaster
This is usually one of the biggest concerns for advisors when it comes to hiring someone to do their marketing. Your industry has a unique set of rules and restrictions, and while they’re inconvenient at times, it’s important to remember that compliance exists for a reason, and they’re on your side. They’re the ones who keep you out of (potentially) serious trouble.
And while you may know the rules, it can be difficult to communicate all of them to a team member, intern, or agency that isn’t used to working with advisors. Anytime you outsource your marketing (even to someone in-house), you have to make sure they’re clear about compliance rules before they ever have control over your marketing initiatives. Otherwise, their proactive nature and marketing know-how could mean your firm inadvertently breaks a few compliance rules—which will only make your life harder. That’s why if you outsource, you need to find an agency familiar with compliance rules (we’ll cover more about this in our next blog, How to Hire the Right Marketing Agency for Your Financial Practice.)
That said, if you decide it’s best to hire an in-house marketing professional, be sure you have the time to train them properly. Even the most experienced professionals will need clear instructions and systems in place if they’ve never worked in the financial sector before. Otherwise, you run the risk of them taking the reins (with perfectly good intentions) and doing something that could get you in trouble with compliance. Even if they are committed to learning, that’s time, money, and energy your firm could better spend elsewhere.
3. Save Time & Money
Everyone is busy, and the more successful you become, the more precious your time is. You could hire someone in-house to focus on your marketing, but as we mentioned, you’ll have to spend time training and onboarding them, which is a hassle you can avoid by working with a reputable agency. And by outsourcing your marketing, not only do you give yourself more hours in the day, but the agency will likely be able to achieve what you could do in half the time. And while it is an extra expense, when it frees you to focus on building your business in ways only you can, you get more out of your time and money.
It’s also more cost-effective than hiring a full-time team member to do the job. (That said, you could hire a part-time person to work on a few marketing initiatives, but again, unless that person has ample experience marketing for advisors, you run the risk of him or her doing something that isn’t compliant, or simply isn’t effective for your market.)
4. Save Your Energy
Targeting the right people and generating referrals requires an in-depth knowledge of your industry and understanding of your clients’ behavior. When you outsource to an agency that understands advisor marketing, you gain access to professionals who help you avoid much of the trial-and-error strategies many entrepreneurs waste time on.
Hiring an agency also gives you the ability to “set it and forget it.” This is especially beneficial for ongoing initiatives like social media. An experienced agency should be able to spend time with you gathering initial information, then handle your social media completely so you don’t have to keep track of it. When you’re on retainer with a reputable company, you don’t have to delegate or brainstorm (not often, at least) to keep things moving—you just get to relax knowing someone behind the scenes is making you look good.
Finding the Right Agency
Are you convinced yet? At the end of the day, only you know when you’re ready to take the next step. Outsourcing your marketing is a great option for many advisors, but sometimes your business is in a place where it makes sense to DIY your strategies for the time being. Eventually, though, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and headache if you find a professional to take the reins. If you think you’re at that point, be sure to check out our next blog, How to Hire the Right Marketing Agency for Your Financial Practice.
4 Myths About Advisor Business Cards – BUSTED.
Small But Mighty
Creating a referral-worthy brand involves a lot of moving parts. When a client interacts with your firm, there are multiple interactions and impressions that make them decide whether or not to refer you to someone. Sometimes the decision is a conscious choice; other times the actions you take and the brand you present simply elicit a good (or not-so-good) feeling. If the feeling is good, you get referrals. But if there are some discrepancies in your brand or your service, you run the risk of missing out on new business.
That’s why it’s important to pay attention to every detail. Your clients do, and so should you.
Business cards are just one small representation of your brand, but they can create a huge impact. They’re often the first impression a prospect has of your brand, and that one perception can make or break their decision to contact you. Business cards are sometimes a little overlooked, but if you want to establish a referral-centric practice, creating custom cards should be on your list.
Here’s what a great business card can (and should) do for your brand:
- Create a bold first impression
- Provide a physical reminder to new prospects and clients
- Add an extra touch of excellence to the client journey
- Polish your brand (No matter how digitized our society becomes, you run the risk of coming across as unprofessional if someone asks for your card and you don’t have one—or your card is cluttered and off-brand.)
Business cards are a foundational element of your visual brand, which I discuss in my book, The Referral Magnet. In this blog, we’re debunking some common myths about advisor business cards and sharing our pro-tips for designing a card that generates referrals.
Design Punch List
If you’re already sold on the idea of creating the perfect, custom business card, here’s what you need to know:
- Bear Your Brand: Your business card should include your custom logo, brand colors, and fonts.
- Make it Legible: The font should be large enough to read, but not so big that you can’t fit the necessities on the card (which, remember, aren’t much).
- Don’t Skimp on Printing: The standard material for most business cards is 14- or 16-point cardstock or 100-pound cover stock. Anything of a higher or different quality will give your card an extra edge. If you want to make it extra snazzy, try printing with a satin finish or unique texture.
- Be Bold & Have Fun: Add bonus features that reflect your personality and make the card unique— consider a card with painted edges, foiling, embossed letters, or spot UV printing. The one place you don’t want to deviate too far from the norm is shape—if your card is an awkward shape or is too big or small that it gets overlooked because it doesn’t fit in a card holder, that can work against you. But other adjustments like rounded corners or printing vertically rather than horizontally can make you stand out in a positive way.
- Hire a Professional: If you want to nail all of these points, hire a professional. Graphic designers will be able to mimic your brand style, design something custom, and ensure your card is print-ready.
Myth #1: I don’t need a Business Card in the digital age
We may live in a digital age, but advisors are in a personal business. Consequently, the first time a prospect encounters your brand is usually when a client refers them, or you meet them in person. And when someone asks, “Can I get your card?” you don’t want to let them down with a boring, cluttered, or nonexistent card. If you’re an advisor serving the youngest generation, you may leverage a digital business card for some of your clients, but in the end, you should still have a physical card to reference and share. Digital card apps don’t always allow you to personalize the design the way you can with a physical card, and certain apps only allow you to share your card with others who have the same app.
Your card is often the first encounter a prospect or client has with your visual brand—so it should be impressive and memorable. And because your card is used to point people back to your website, your online presence should be up to par when you hand out your cards. Your website, social media profiles, and anything else a prospect sees should have current contact information, a cohesive style, and compelling messaging; all of which will round out the story of your brand.
In the end, the purpose of your business card is to do one of two things: 1) Give someone a way to contact you directly because they’ve decided they want to speak with you, or 2) direct someone to your website so they can learn more about you.
Myth #2: I can’t have a Modern Design and be Compliant
Because of the disclosures and licenses required on advisors’ cards, they often assume they can’t create one that’s visually appealing and compliant—but that’s simply not true! There are creative ways to include all the necessary information as part of a beautiful design. That’s why using your parent company’s standard template is a huge missed opportunity. Most advisors think they can’t have a great card that meets compliance standards, so you have a greater chance of standing out by creating something custom. Check out Miguelangel, Hillary, and Chris’s business cards—they’re sleek, effective, and totally compliance-friendly.
Now that we’ve busted that myth, what exactly should you include on your card? It might be less than you think…
Myth #3: I have to Fit Everything In a 3.5” x 2” space
Your business card should tell people how to contact you directly or find your website for more information—it doesn’t have to tell the entire story of your brand. Some people are afraid to make their business cards too simple, but you don’t need much to create an effective card—just enough to leave an impression and guide someone to the next step.
Your card should include:
- Your name and title
- Website URL
- Email address
- Phone number
- Required licenses and disclaimer
That said, including a disclosure and licenses often throws advisors for a loop (where do you fit all that extra verbiage?). That’s why you should always leverage a two-sided design; otherwise, you’re wasting valuable card real estate. If you want a more minimalist design but can’t sacrifice any text, this card we created leverages a folded style so you have twice as much space to work with.
Myth #4: Templates are the Best Option because they’re cheap and easy
Companies like Vistaprint are successful because they create multiple templates that thousands of people use—which means your chances of creating a card that looks like someone else’s are pretty big. Your goal with a business card is to stand out and give people a glimpse of your brand—and you can’t do that very well with a template. Even when you pay for a custom design, business cards are a relatively low-budget marketing expense, and they’re well worth the price. You can choose a cheap template that delivers a so-so card, or you can pay just a little bit more for a card that wows people—the choice is yours.
When you hire a professional, designers will pull the custom color codes and replicate fonts from your website to create a card that matches your brand (even if they didn’t design your website)—so ordering an on-brand card should be a seamless process for you.
Business Cards: Check. Now What?
Of course, business cards are just one aspect of creating a referral-worthy brand. If you want more tips about growing your practice through the people you already know, check out my new book, The Referral Magnet. I discuss the visual, verbal, and experiential aspects of your firm that can help you generate new business without asking for it.
Why You Should Care About ADA Compliance for Your Business
If you’re reading this, you care about the health of your business, and you know that your digital presence matters. You know that showing up on Google is important too, and that your website is like a digital salesperson (we’d argue it’s even better). That being said, here are answers to the three questions we get most often about ADA Compliance from our advisor clients…
How does the ADA relate to my website?
While you’re probably familiar with the Americans with Disabilities Act, you may not know that it applies to websites. The ADA’s goal is to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities in “places of public accomodation,” and in our digital age, that means the World Wide Web. In short, your website should be accessible to everyone.
Why should I care about being compliant?
- Everyone should be able to experience your website
Since these days practically everyone uses the internet, your website should be easily accessible and usable for any individual. Simply put, that means folks who can’t hear have a way to watch your videos, and people who can’t see have a way to read your text. - Be ahead of the curve
As of 2020[1], businesses under Title I and Title III are required to have ADA compliant websites. That refers to businesses that operate 20 or more weeks a year with at least 15 employees and those categorized as “public accommodation,” respectively. It’s pretty likely every website will need to meet those requirements soon, so it’s best to get on board now. - Avoid a lawsuit
On top of that, we’re seeing more and more lawsuits issued against websites that aren’t in compliance. Many of these are what you’d call “ambulance chaser” lawsuits, but either way, they’re becoming more and more successful. Granted, we can’t claim to offer legal advice, so if you have any questions or concerns about the legal ramifications for your website, it’s best to ask your attorney. - Improve your SEO
When you optimize your website to be ADA compliant, you have to implement a lot of “best practices” that Google likes, too—which means you improve your search engine rankings. For that reason, the two services are typically coupled.
How do I make my site ADA compliant?
While the tasks required to make a website ADA compliant are mostly code-based, there are a few things that you can do without involvement from a web developer:
- Add captions to your videos
There are multiple platforms you can use to create and add captions to videos you use on your website, which allows the hearing impaired to easily enjoy your videos. Think of all the educational content you have offered solely in video form on your site—you want that to be accessible. We like a service called Rev.com for creating the captions from your video. Then, you just need to add the SRT file that Rev gives you to your video with a video editor like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. - Share transcripts of videos that don’t have captions
There are also services that will transcribe spoken text for you – and Rev.com does that too. This is a simple way to offer a read-only version of videos you share. These are also a nice bonus for those clients who’d prefer to quickly scan text rather than watch a video, and it allows Google to offer your page in search results for appropriate terms that may otherwise have gone unnoticed because they were all contained in your video. - Make sure every image on your site has “alt” tags
Alt tags are mini-descriptions of photos or other images on your site. You can add them to the code on the back end of your site (and we do with every site we build), but most platforms have a way to type them in when you upload an image. These essentially tell Google (or screen readers for the visually impaired) what an image is, since they can’t view the actual image. - Avoid putting text in images
For the same reasons as #3, this makes it bad practice to put important text in image form. For instance, if you have a cool graphic that describes your planning process, but it’s on your site without any accompanying descriptive text, this prevents screen readers and search engines from “seeing” it. So not only are potential users missing your information, but you’re missing out on valuable keywords for your site’s SEO. As much as possible, make sure your text is in text form, not an image. (If you can’t highlight the text with your mouse, there’s a good chance it’s not in text form.) There are a couple areas where you can’t avoid this (like including logos from awards you’ve received), but that’s where the alt tags come in. - Avoid low-contrast text and audio
To make your content easier to read and hear, you should also avoid low-contrast backgrounds – this applies to your text as well as audio. Putting dark gray text on a light gray background can make it very difficult to read, even if it’s something a screen-reader could translate. Similarly, if you create a video of someone speaking over background music, make sure the music or other background noise is approximately four times quieter than the speech content[2]. Not only does this help your site be ADA compliant, but it creates a better user experience overall.
In the end, making your site ADA compliant is a win-win for you and your clients. If you’d like to know more about optimizing your digital brand for ADA compliance, please don’t hesitate to reach out!
[1] https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10900-ada-website-requirements.html
Benefits of Using a Word or Phrase for your DBA Name
This is part three of three of our series, To DBA or Not to DBA. Be sure to catch up on the first post, To DBA or Not to DBA, and the second post, Pros and Cons of Using Your Name to Brand Your DBA.
In Part 2 of our series, To DBA or Not to DBA, we discussed the pros and cons of using your own name to brand your DBA (i.e., Edwards Financial Group). Using your name is a great approach in the financial industry because your clients typically know you by name and often refer you as such. But not everyone has a name that’s great for branding, and some advisors like to get a little more creative. Whether you choose the Name route or the Word/Phrase approach, there are benefits to both methods of naming your DBA. If you’re considering creating a DBA using a word or phrase, here’s what you need to know.
Using a Word or Phrase Allows Room for Growth
Using a word or phrase for your DBA as opposed to your own name can provide more flexibility for the growth of your business. Despite the ability to add team members or partners to a DBA with your name (using the “Edwards and Associates” or “Edwards Group” model), some people (even subconsciously) prefer to work for a company that’s not associated with one specific person. Sometimes the “your name” approach gives the impression that the business is yours alone, and there is no room for a partner (even if that’s not your intention). Because of this, using a word or phrase can make it easier to attract talent, grow your team, or recruit a partner in the future. Similarly, your business and brand could be easier to sell in the future if the name is less tied to your person.
You Can Tell Your Brand Story
If you have a unique name idea (along with an explanation for that name), your DBA title can be a great talking point with prospects and even help tell the story of your business. The name doesn’t need to be complicated or even have an immediately recognizable significance—one of our clients, Forge and Link Financial Group, draws a connection between the forging of metal and the cleansing of old financial habits, along with the link between client values and their goals for their finances. You might not be able to decipher the connection at first glance, but the name allows them to tell their story and explain their brand promise when they meet new clients. A clever name can express your company’s mission in a memorable way and describe how you run your practice.
A Caution with Creative DBA Names
There are a few basic rules when choosing a name for your DBA which I’ll list below, but the first one is this: don’t confuse people. Don’t try to be so creative that people don’t grasp what you’re trying to portray. (I have a similar rule for answering the question, “What do you do for a living?”) If the name is so obscure that it takes you ten minutes to describe why you chose the word or phrase, it’s probably too complicated. It’s also not a good idea to choose words or phrases that are difficult to spell or pronounce. Even something seemingly simple like “Entrepreneurial Financial Strategies” can leave people a little tongue-tied and consequently more likely to forget the name or misspell it when trying to find your website.
Make Sure It’s Your Own
As with using your own name in your DBA, using a word or phrase in your branding requires some research before you make a final decision. No one can stop you from using your own name, but there are existing trademarks on certain words and phrases. If you have a DBA name idea, you should complete a trademark search before you purchase a domain name or submit it for approval to your compliance department. You can have an intellectual property attorney do this for you or let us help you with the process.
Slim Pickin’s
One downside to the word or phrase model is that in this day and age, so many of the good options are taken. You may have an idea that sounds clever, but the name has been used or several other people have had the same idea. That’s why it’s important to do your research as you brainstorm DBA names.
Getting Started Choosing a DBA Name
If you know you want to create an original DBA name, searching for existing businesses and domain names on Google and GoDaddy is a good place to start. When you have an idea, search for it and see if the business already exists or if that domain name is taken. If you have a concept you like but the word itself isn’t catchy or original, you can consider a translated word or Latin phrase. “Always Strong Financial” might not sound catchy, but our clients at Semper Fortis have established a brand name that resonates with clients by using the Latin phrase for “always strong” as their DBA name.
You can also choose a nonsense word or something less literal (think, Yelp, HubSpot, and Coca Cola). People don’t always consider this option, but because it’s not English or directly related to your industry, these options are more readily available. Your nonsense word could even be an acronym that expresses your brand promise, so you have a story to tell clients and prospects when they ask about the name.
Whichever word or phrase you choose, remember to pick a DBA name that’s…
- Not confusing
- Memorable
- Easy to say and spell
- Available from a domain perspective
- Different from others in your market
Whether you choose your own name or a new word, your DBA name should reflect you and your brand promise. If you want additional guidance choosing a DBA name, we’d be happy to help!
Pros and Cons of Using Your Name to Brand Your DBA
This is part two of three of our series, To DBA or Not to DBA? Check out the first post here.
If you’ve made the choice to create a DBA, the next step is deciding what to call your financial firm. Typically, the biggest struggle advisors face when choosing a DBA is whether to name their company after themselves (i.e., Edwards Financial Strategies), or to create a whole new name with a word or phrase (i.e., Prairie Financial Group). There are benefits to both routes, and in this blog, I’ll discuss the pros and cons of using your own name in your DBA.
Myths About Branding with Your Name
Lots of people hesitate to use their own name in their company’s title because they believe it will work against them—they fear they won’t be able to hire someone or bring on a partner because that person won’t want to work under their name. Or they think it will prevent them from selling their business in the future. But this isn’t necessarily the case—for one, if you name your business something like Edwards Financial Group, you have room to add staff or partners under the “group” umbrella later. If you go the law firm style route of “Edwards and Associates,” you can easily add a partner by transitioning the name to something like Edwards, Walker, and Associates. Law firms, CPAs, and other financial firms adopt this method all the time, and it works incredibly well.
People Hire People
The best part about using your own name is that in your industry as a financial advisor, people hire people. Your clients work with you because they like and trust you as a person, and you’re the primary person handling their account, or at least overseeing it. When a friend asks your client who she uses for her investment management, she’s usually going to mention your name, not the name of your practice. That’s why at the end of the day, using your name can be a very simple and effective approach—because people hire people. I’ve even known advisors who named their DBA in memory of a family member, which provides a personal touch but also opens a door for storytelling with new clients and prospects.
Cautions When Branding with Your Name
Despite the benefits of personal name recognition, there are potential disadvantages to using your own name for your DBA. If you have a very common last name, for example, your brand could get lost in a sea of “Smith” financial firms. On the other hand, if your name is very difficult to pronounce or spell, people might have a hard time remembering it or finding it online. Unfortunately, some people also make judgements if your name is associated with a certain ethnicity or religion. It’s not fair, but it happens. It’s good to take these factors into consideration when deciding whether to use your name for your DBA.
It’s also a good idea to search the market in your area to find out if there are any deceptively similar names to your own. You don’t want to try and establish “Edwards Financial Group” if Edward Financial Strategies already has an office in your city.
There are plenty of avenues for adding a personal or creative touch to your DBA, and it’s all about finding the approach that works best for your business. As long as you do your research, using your name can be a great approach—it’s personal, it’s meaningful, and again—people hire people. Using a creative word or phrase is the other common route to naming your business—be sure to come back next week for the last post in our series: Creating a DBA Name Using Words or Phrases.
To DBA or Not to DBA?
Advisors who haven’t established a DBA will often tell me, “Well, I know I need to have a DBA if I want to be successful…”
But that’s not necessarily the case.
When you’re considering whether or not to create a DBA for your financial firm, there are two key questions to consider:
- Do you want to be recognized for your broker’s primary service?
- Are you certain your services will align with your broker’s for your entire career?
Leveraging the Brand
If your broker is known nationwide as a life insurance company and you focus on writing life insurance policies for your clients, then it could actually benefit you to keep your original “John Smith with Life Insurance Broker” name. You get to leverage all of your broker’s credibility as a life insurance agency by maintaining that affiliation and brand recognition.
Don’t Get Pigeonholed
Sometimes though, when you’re affiliated with a specific company, you get incorrectly pigeonholed into whatever their specialty is. People might assume you only do life insurance because you’re an agent with a life insurance broker, even if you also offer business succession planning, investment management, and retirement planning. In that case, creating a DBA is one of the best ways to prevent the pain point of being incorrectly labeled. When prospects and clients assume you only offer a specific service—like life insurance—they might hire someone else to do a job you could easily help them with, like investment management or college planning. When you know you excel at multiple financial services, you want your clients to come to you for all of them—the last thing you want is for a valued client to work with someone else they don’t have a relationship with because they’re confused or unaware of your services. Creating a DBA can help eliminate this service-specific branding.
Flexibility for Growth
If you’re confident that you’ll stay with your broker no matter what direction your career takes, cobranding could be a viable choice. That said, you don’t always know what the future of your career will look like. I’ve had clients who didn’t intentionally target a specific market (like teachers), but their circle of influence and client needs pushed their career in that direction, so they leaned into it. The same can happen with the services you offer your clients. If clients consistently ask for help in a certain area, your business might grow in a direction that your broker doesn’t really specialize in or isn’t known for—and it can be hard to send the right message about the services you specialize in if they don’t align with your broker’s core services.
Similarly, if you do cobrand, but your business evolves in a way that you feel the need to become independent or switch brokers to better align with your services, you’ll lose the name recognition you’ve built in the time you spent with your original broker. Creating a DBA can allow you to brand yourself more holistically so you have the flexibility to expand or alter the focus of your firm in the future.
Making the Choice: What do you want to be known for and what services you specialize in?
Some really successful advisors end up with clients who come to them mostly for investment advice or retirement planning—and if that’s what their broker is known for, they might not create a separate DBA. It all depends on how an advisor wants to be recognized in the field. So, the choice to create a trade name isn’t necessarily a mark of how successful an advisor is or hopes to be, but who you want to serve and what services you specialize in.
If you want folks to see you as a truly holistic advisor and not someone who does solely what your primary broker does—someone they can come to for retirement planning, investments, business succession plans, whatever your specialties are—then creating a DBA makes sense. Doing so is generally the best route to avoid being pigeonholed into specific services. If that sounds like you, go for it.
Remember, creating a DBA doesn’t mean you’ve lost faith in your broker or that they don’t add significant value to your firm. You’ve chosen your broker for a reason, and you can still honor that relationship when you create a DBA. You can brand your firm as its own entity and still leverage your broker’s reputation, too. By creating a DBA, you simply have a clearer way to tell clients who you are and what you do—then you can be as open as you want about your strategic alliances and why you choose to work with them. In our next two blogs, we’ll cover how to choose the right DBA name for your brand, and whether you should use your own name as your DBA.
If you have more questions about creating a DBA or how to best brand your firm, please feel free to reach out! We love helping advisors clarify their message and improve their branding.
Nurturing Self Improvement in Your Business & Team
When my husband Coby and I started our company in 2012, we knew we wanted to create more than a job for ourselves and our employees. We wanted to nurture an environment where our team could see themselves retiring—where they could connect, grow, and find lasting purpose in their work. But even in a team of incredible people, personal growth doesn’t happen organically. It’s a skill you have to foster like any other: with intention, consistency, and accountability. We view our workplace like a sports team, and as coaches, Coby and I have the responsibility to foster personal development in our players. Specialized skills, communication, team mechanics—these are all elements that coaches work to improve in their players—why should our workplace be any different?
If you want an incredible team that works hard, plays well together, and accomplishes what other teams can’t, you have to help them grow. Part of how we do that here at LMG is through our weekly Character Development sessions. Each week, Coby sends an assignment to our team related to personal and professional development—it might be a Ted Talk, a chapter from a book we’re reading together, or an article. (We’ve studied everything from time management to breathing techniques.) Everyone reviews the material, and at the end of the week, our team of 13 splits into two groups to discuss the topic for 30 minutes. We’re all busy, but unless it’s a holiday or there is something else big going on, it’s non-negotiable for our team to participate, and we believe that’s part of what makes it successful. We want our team to consistently pursue growth at every level, and personal development is just as important as professional achievement. Not only does this meeting help our team members grow as people, but it also gives everyone a chance to see each other face-to-face and catch up. Since about half of our team is remote, this is a great chance for people to connect outside of email and Slack messages.
If you’re looking to help your own team connect and grow both personally and professionally, I’d highly recommend your own version of Character Development. Here’s why…
Get Out of a Rut
How often do you take a moment to stop and evaluate how your career is going? Or how stressed you are? Or whether your current method of time management is serving you? Without being intentional, it can be easy to get stuck in a rut of unproductive or unhealthy habits. If you’ve identified something that is damaging your team’s productivity or morale, or that several of your team members struggle with, Character Development sessions can be a helpful way to address those kinds of difficulties without blaming someone or calling them out as a problem. Instead, you can frame it as an opportunity to grow as individuals and as a team.
When you make time for you and your team to focus on just a small aspect of personal development on a regular basis, you open a world of opportunity to break bad habits before they become big problems—for your people and your workplace.
Learn to Grow
One of the greatest strengths a person can have is self-awareness, because only after you realize who you are and how you operate can you take a step toward improvement. Setting aside time each week forces us to analyze where our strengths and weaknesses are—and when we do that, we’re able to challenge ourselves and each other to get better.
Collaborate
Not only does our weekly Character Development session encourage us to listen to and read expert advice, but our weekly discussions give us a chance to bounce our ideas off of one another. Oftentimes, more than one person struggles with the same habit or wants to achieve a similar goal—whether the topic relates to time management, stress, or a junk food habit—and we’re able to share ideas and learn from each other when we discuss what we’ve read or watched.
Open the Lines
If you’ve ever been in a job where you had an annual performance review, you know how frustrating and confusing it can be if that’s the only time your boss (or yourself) takes to analyze your progress and communicate how you can do better. Of course, we don’t use our Character Development to unpack everyone’s faults in front of each other—but it does give everyone a chance each week to share where they might be struggling or what they need help with, even in a small way. We make it a point to be open and honest in our CD sessions, whatever the topic, and this serves to foster a culture of understanding and connection. No one judges each other, and it reinforces the idea that we truly do want our team to succeed—not just for our sake as a company, but because we care about them as people. Our LMG team really is our family, and that means we grow together, celebrate together, and even hurt together.
Learn More About Each Other
If you’ve had employees for any amount of time, you know that everyone communicates a little differently. People have their own learning styles, and methods that help one person might be incredibly stressful to another. Some people excel working autonomously; others like consistent feedback and accountability. Discussing personal development gives you a chance to get to know your people better—what makes them tick, what matters to them, and when they’re at their best (and worst). And when you know your team members’ strengths and weaknesses, you can leverage that information for the growth of the individual and the strength of your team as a whole.
Get Started
Simply put, if you want a stronger team, feed your players. Feed every part of them—mind, body, and spirit—with positivity. Then inspire them to do the same outside of work. Listen to each other, encourage each other, and be open to growth in your own life, personally and professionally. If you’re ready to start your own Character Development sessions with your team, here are just a few of the resources we’ve used to get you started:
Videos:
- The Happy Secret to Better Work, by Shawn Achor
- How to Stop Screwing Yourself Over, by Mel Robbins
- The Things I Wish I Knew When I Was Younger, by Simon Sinek
- How to Make Stress Your Friend, Kelly McGonigal
- The Art of Energy Management, by Craig Groeschel
Books:
- Getting Things Done, by David Allen
- Be Our Guest, a Disney Institute Book
- Atomic Habits, by James Clear
- The Case Against Sugar, by Gary Taubes
- The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy
If you’d like more suggestions for Character Development, feel free to reach out to us! We have more than a few years’ worth of content we’d be happy to share.
Tips for Staying Productive (and Sane) While Working from Home
In our last blog, we gave some tech-savvy tips for staying connected with clients while working remotely. While you need some decent technology to efficiently work from home (WFH), the most important piece of equipment you need to succeed is you. All the technology in the world won’t help you adjust to working from home if you don’t know how to handle it mentally.
As an advisor, you’re probably the type of person who enjoys meeting new people and talking to clients, so sitting at home alone with a laptop can be a struggle. If you want to succeed (and maintain your sanity) while you work from home, you have to set the right schedule, priorities, and mindset for your workday. WFH is a fine art that about half of our team practices daily, so we’ve asked them to share some of their best tips for working from home.
Create the Environment
Whether you have a home office or you’re operating from a corner of your dining room, you’ll want a designated space that you call your “office.” This helps you transition to a professional and productive mindset each time you sit down to work, and it also helps you separate your job from the rest of your home. (This is especially important, since one of the common woes of WFH is that it can feel like you’re always at work.)
If you need more help getting in and out of “work mode,” try taking it to the next level—when Julia was working from home in March, she lit a certain candle only during her work hours to set the tone for her workday. Adding sensory cues—like specific music or smells—can train your brain to focus on a task or process when you’re exposed to that trigger.
That said, sometimes it helps to mix it up. Sadye likes to move her workstation to a new room when she needs a change of pace or to think more creatively. And since research has shown that a new environment can offer new perspective, she’s probably on to something!
And of course, when it comes to distractions you can control—like the TV or your phone—take control. Keep your devices off or move to another room if you need to. Do your best to re-create your work environment—if you wouldn’t watch TV at the office, why try it when you’re working from home?
Set Concrete Start and Stop Times
One thing that nearly all of our WFH-ers suggested was to set a specific time to start and stop working. Otherwise, you can find yourself in a weird limbo-mode of answering emails while watching Sports Center and never feeling truly engaged at work or at home. When you start your day, head to your designated workspace and stay there until you plan to take an actual break. Our team also suggests that when you’re done for the day, make sure you have a way to “put work away,” whether by shutting the door to your office or storing your laptop out of sight.
Jenn also suggests that until you’re really comfortable with WFH, you shouldn’t allow yourself to do things you wouldn’t normally do at work. For example, you wouldn’t be able to wash the dishes, start laundry, or play with your dog (unless you bring your furry friend to work)—so you should avoid those distractions during your “work hours.” Then, once you’ve developed a solid routine where you feel productive, you can start leveraging the “household benefits” of working from home—taking a ten-minute break to catch up on laundry, walk the dog, or whatever you want. After all, one of the reasons you became an advisor was probably for the flexibility the job provides—why deprive yourself of that at home? But if you’re new to WFH and you’re struggling finding a balance, this rule can help you establish boundaries and prevent you from wasting time, costing your business, and missing out on focused work and personal fulfillment.
Managing Tiny Coworkers
Ignoring distractions can be tough at home, but hopefully using the above start-and-stop rule will help. That said, if you have kids who are schooling from home (or too young for school), you may have a few unavoidable distractions in your workspace. When COVID started, our entire office worked from home for a couple months, including those who have young kids and prefer to work in the office. To give herself some quiet time, Rachel developed the habit of getting up early to work while her kids slept in, which helped her knock out several hours of focused work before they woke up.
If you have a virtual meeting with a client, it’s also a good idea to warn them about any possible distractions beforehand. Tell them, “I just wanted to let you know, I’m working from home and I have my kids (or dogs) with me, so I apologize in advance for any extra noise during our call.” It’s easier (and less awkward) to address an interruption before it happens than to explain it in the middle of an important discussion.
Of course, you also want to do your best to minimize disruptions during important meetings. If you can, consider hiring a sitter for a few hours or even plan meetings around nap time. If that’s not an option, most people will understand, especially now—after all, lots of your clients might be (or have been) in the same boat.
When my kids were toddlers, one of the most important lessons I learned was that by working from home, I was giving my kids insight into what it was like to work. And because of this, I had to be careful about the impression I gave them. A good friend taught me to avoid this phrase around my kids: “I have to work now.” By making the excuse that I “had” to work, and therefore couldn’t focus on my kids at that moment, I gave them the impression that work was a burden, rather than an opportunity and a blessing. It might sound inconsequential, but your words are powerful, and the attitude you have toward your work will reflect on your kids—especially if they’re with you “at work.”
After my friend pointed this out, I changed the way I talked to my kids—“I get to focus on work now, so I get to focus on you later.” Spending time with your family and working are both good things—make sure your kids understand that.
Another thing to remember is that your three-year-old doesn’t understand why you can be physically present and yet unable to give him attention. If you can, it helps to find someone who can give extra attention to your kiddos while you work, even if just for a few days or hours during the week.
Put on Some Pants
The great thing about working from home is that you don’t have to spend time getting dressed (until you have a Zoom meeting). But the downside to working from home is that you don’t have to get dressed.
Yep, you heard me. Staying in your pjs all day can do some serious damage to your productivity (and your psyche). The way we dress affects the way we think about ourselves, and consequently, the way we act. Dressing well can boost your confidence and remind you that you’re an A-player—not some slob on the couch. So, if this is a habit you’ve forsaken while working from home… it’s time to put on some real pants.
You don’t have to be fancy—for Chandler, making the switch from pajamas to jeans and a company t-shirt, or even nice workout clothes—makes a mental difference. The key is to wear something you would leave the house in and makes you feel “on.” And of course, if you plan to see a client on camera, look the part in a logo polo or even a dress shirt for the day.
Respect Yourself and Your Health
Between corona quarantines and a WFH lifestyle, you might feel like you never leave the house. This is something all of our WFH team agreed on—it’s important for your mental health to get out every now and then, even if it’s just to walk around the block. If you’re working from home full time, you also have to be more intentional about scheduling time to be with people. Every now and then, make time to reach out to your coworkers or clients for lighthearted or personal conversations—not just when you need to talk shop.
Make the Most of It
At the end of the day, everyone is different. What works for you might not work for another advisor, and vice-versa. (I’ll be honest, I hate working from home—and you might feel the same way.) But since you might not have the option to head to the office right now, make the most of your time at home by trying some of our team’s suggestions.
And if you’re dying to get back to the office, don’t forget that there are benefits to working from home! You don’t have to pack a lunch or eat out; you can spend more quiet, focused time on projects; and, as Sadye pointed out, you can save yourself from 200 hours a year in your car—which is apparently how much the average commuter spends in their vehicle.
Whether you love or hate WFH, we hope our team’s tips have been helpful. If you’d like tips for staying digitally connected with clients while you WFH, read How to Maximize Your Communication Skills During a Pandemic.
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