[The sheer fact of choosing to be a business owner is a brave and even noble act to be recognized and celebrated. Unfortunately, while business owners can be seen as being entrepreneurial in spirit, in today’s new operating environment of accelerating change, there is a major distinction that needs to be recognized between a “business owner” and an “entrepreneur.” There is a very different mindset and set of behaviors between the two that leads to completely different ways to manage and steer their firms and work with their clients. The difference goes right to the heart of the challenges facing the financial services industry.

To better understand these differences and how they apply to financial professionals, we talked with Institute member Jon Robinson, co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Investment Partners. In addition to asset management services, the Greensboro, N.C.-based firm provides its advisor clients with practice management solutions, including tools and coaching to help advisors implement an optimal business model/strategy to compete in our industry’s new operating environment. We were interested in exploring their thinking and experience behind developing The Elite Advisor Playbook and promoting the Entrepreneurial Operating System (R) as a tool for creating focus in an advisory practice.]

Bill Hortz: Can you walk us through the key pillars of your The Elite Advisor Playbook? How did you determine these specific components?

Jon Robinson: The four pillars of the Playbook are: client service, practice management, wealth management and business development. We believe this framework is the optimal picture of an elite advisor, an assertion based on extensive research and 10+ years of seeing what success looks like.

We observed that best-in-class and average advisors often look quite similar at first glance. Both clock long hours, are active in their communities, and have strong personal and professional networks. But, when you take a closer look, elite advisors are operationally strong in each of these four pillars. Within each, they focus their time on the activities that add the most value to their businesses. As a result, this leads to better performing businesses that generate higher margins and lower attribution.

The point of The Elite Advisor Playbook was to highlight these business pillars and help advisors consider how to strengthen their own practices in each of the four areas.

Hortz: Are there any specific tools that you have developed as a result of creating the Elite Advisor Playbook that might assist advisors in strengthening their business decisions?

Robinson: Absolutely. Your question reminds me of the Buckminster Fuller quote, “If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don't bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.”

We developed several tools and resources as supplements to the Playbook. First is the, “Are You An Elite Advisor?” quiz, which helps advisors compare their practice to a standard in operational performance in just a few minutes. Another concrete tool is the Entrepreneurial Operating System for Elite Advisors, a practice management solution. We also have several, “how to” articles on our website that correspond to each pillar of the Playbook.

Hortz: How does the Entrepreneurial Operating System provide a road map or process to follow?

Robinson: The Entrepreneurial Operating System (R) (EOS)  is a set of simple concepts and practical tools that readily apply to a financial advisor practice. We partnered with Ray Reuter at Kaizen to help advisors implement this framework in their practices. The model builds and strengthens each area of the business by:

● Ensuring everyone on the team is 100% on the same page about where you are going and how you plan to get there
● Instilling focus, discipline, and accountability throughout the company so that everyone executes on the vision every day
● Confirming your business has the right people in the right seats
● Defining key metrics for consistently monitoring the health of your practice
● Encouraging the documentation and consistent following of high-impact processes

We think the model is comprehensive and assists advisors in taking their practices from good to great. In fact, we have skin in this game. We have been working with Ray to implement EOS in our own business. The model Ray introduced us to has helped us achieve better focus on the high-leverage, mission-critical activities of our business. We are working on spending our time only on those things, while looking to outsource, partner, or leverage technology solutions for anything that falls out of those bounds.

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