See your firm from a different perspective

Most financial planning firms evolve in isolation.

Processes, culture and strategy develop over time based on what’s worked before.

The problem? Without outside perspective, you assume the way you work is the best way, because it’s the best way you’ve ever done it.

It’s a bit like growing up on a small island. You adapt as well as you can to your environment, but you’ve never seen the better tools, processes and ideas people on other islands are using to thrive.

At Melo, we’re island hoppers. We’ve worked with hundreds of financial planning firms of all shapes and sizes. We know what works and what doesn’t.

Our Business Effectiveness Review (BER) gives you a truly independent view of your business. We’ll uncover the strengths to protect, the weaknesses to work on and the opportunities you’re missing and let you know, across 9 areas, how you compare to the best in the profession.

Before We Arrive

We start with an anonymous staff survey sent to every member of the team.

Why? Because your people often see a very different version of the business to the one you see. They’re closer to the processes, the bottlenecks, the client interactions and the daily reality.

This uncensored view is invaluable. It shows us not just the obvious challenges, but how aligned your staff are with your vision and values, if they know your strategy, how they rate your operations and what frustrates them the most. The survey is anonymous, so the answers tend to be very real.

We also ask you to upload your existing processes and documentation so we can get a good understanding of how you operate. It also provides a good idea of what is documented versus in people’s heads.

Lastly, we’ll work with you on some communications to go to your team, so they feel involved and know what’s happening.

The Site Visit

Over either two or three days (depending on the size of your business), we immerse ourselves in how your business really runs. We’ll be with you on-site from 9am to 5pm soaking it all in.

We start by chatting to the business owners/leaders about their strategy and share the results of the staff survey. This gives us the “view from the top”.

Next, we’ll speak to a selection of staff members across different departments. We’ll cover their role within the business, detail on the processes they follow and any challenges they face. This stage is to find out how things actually happen on the factory floor.

Once we understand how things actually run, we speak to the process owners to find out how they should be running. It’s here that inconsistencies and inefficiencies become apparent.

We round off our site visit with a leadership debrief on our initial findings.

This is a journey of discovery, not an audit. We’re not here to catch anyone out, but to shine a light on where things are aligned, where they’ve drifted and where the real opportunities lie.

The report and action plan

Within 5 business days, you get your personalised Business Effectiveness Review report, covering:

1. Leadership.
2. People & Reward.
3. Governance.
4. Compliance.
5. Advice Proposition.
6. Client Journey.
7. Sales & Marketing.
8. Finance
9. Data & Technology.

Each area is scored, with commentary on what’s working and where improvements are needed.

You’ll also receive a personalised action plan. This lays out:

• The actions we would recommend you take.
• The priority to tackle them (urgent first, then biggest wins for smallest effort).
• Who should complete the actions (you, us or a specialist third party).

Once you have your report, if you have the resources and skills, you can choose to work though the list of actions yourself. However, most firms need a helping hand and choose to work with us to make change happen effectively.

Why is this so valuable?

• You get a clear, independent view. No internal politics, no bias, no agenda.
• You’ll see gaps you didn’t know existed. The “unknown unknowns” that could be holding you back.
• You benefit from our cross-market view. We’ve seen what works in other firms and what doesn’t.
• You get a plan you can actually execute. Not just theory. Step-by-step actions in priority order.
• You know where to focus first. The biggest gains for the least effort.

You can’t scale a business on weak foundations.

The Business Effectiveness Review is how you find and fix the cracks before they turn into structural problems.

Whether your goal is to double your client base, improve efficiency, or prepare for a future sale, this is where it starts.

Don’t guess or assume things will be fine. Take the time to create strong foundations to build from.

Speak to the team

Get a Business Effectiveness Review and see your firm the way it really is.

Meet the Author

Ben Wright