Advisory firms looking for growth should know that it actually takes less effort to grow 10 times as large than it does to simply double in size, said a strategic coach well-versed in helping firms become bigger and better.

That’s because when a firm doubles, everyone already in place shoulders the extra work as much as possible. But when the plan is to grow 10 times as large, it’s clear from the beginning that the first strategy on that path has to be making sure the right team is in place to be successful, said Dan Sullivan, co-founder and president of Toronto-headquartered Strategic Coach.

“Ten times doesn’t mean working 10 times as hard,” he said, speaking today at the virtual 2023 Advisor Growth Summit, sponsored by Financial Advisor magazine and CEG Worldwide. “I work incredibly less at the $40 million mark than I did at the $400,000 mark. You can achieve any larger goal in life, as long as you’re not the one to do it.”

And simply delegating is not going to cut it, Sullivan said. Delegation, he defined, is training someone to do something, but that person still has to be managed and motivated.

“Instead, you have to create a self-managing company,” he continued. “You have to be freed up with terrific teamwork inside your company.”

Sullivan said over the years he’s coached about 7,000 entrepreneurs in building businesses, and at the beginning his clients were almost entirely financial advisors. A favorite exercise of his is to ask the advisor to think back to when they were one-tenth of their current size.

“Everyone can do that,” he said. “Now, tell me the five major changes you made to go from one-tenth to where you are today. Now look at those factors. Getting from there to here was 10 times, and it was hard. But every time you grow 10 times, it actually gets easier. That’s a hard concept for people to understand, but it works at every level.”

To make the process easier, the real changes that have to be made require a move from quantity to quality, especially with time, relationship and purpose, he said.

From his own experience, Sullivan’s focus on quality time was a game changer, he said.

“I work in partnership with my wife, and we established right from the beginning that we would take 22 weeks of free time a year. If you look at your year, you have 365 days. Our number is actually 155 free days. That could be weekends, that could be a day here or there, or could be longer-term vacations,” he said. “And that goes at the top, so we have essentially 210 days to work, and all the growth has to be in those 210 days.”

By dividing their days into free days, focus days and what they call buffer days, growth was possible to the point where their company is 260 times bigger than the day they made that decision, he said.

Improving the quality of relationships is easier than it sounds, he said, as all firms already have necessary ingredients.

“Right now every firm has  clients who represent that 10 times growth. They’re your top five clients. The ones who have their own goals and ambitions, and who see you as a collaborator in a much bigger future,” Sullivan said. “Now imagine multiplying those five by 10, to have 50 of those clients. That’s where your focus needs to be. Clients six and beyond aren’t doing anything for you.”

Those clients can be reassigned to another advisor at the firm, freeing up more time for networking with those top five, who know more people like themselves.

“Those are people you want to meet, except that you don’t have time to meet them,” he said. “All your growth is in the future ambitions of your top clients.”

And finally, quality needs to be brought to the idea of purpose.

“Purpose has to be something bigger than your career, lifestyle and status, because you’re already getting rewarded for that,” Sullivan said. “Don’t go for growth that won’t make you any happier, because you’ll just stop.”