As financial advisors we plan our clients' long-tem financial futures every day. So why do we neglect to do it for ourselves and for our business I have asked several financial advisors what "long-term" means. They usually answer that they develop five-, ten-, or fifteen-year plans for clients. Then I ask, "How long is your business plan?" If it is not ten years, maybe you don't plan on being in the business that long. ...

If you're like most financial advisors, you wrote it a few years ago and never updated it. As advisors, we develop long-germ financial plans, yet the average business plan of financial advisors is one to three years. Develop your plans as one-year (must-do), three-year achievable), five-year (goal oriented), and ten year (long-term vision).

Strategy: Start today to develop one-year, three-year, five-year and ten year written business plans for success.

Grant's Tip: Review each section of your plan every month and set goals for certain dates in each category.

....The easiest way to build a business plan is to start by writing down your goals....Combine business goals , family goals, spiritual goals, lifetime goals, travel goals, etc. Write them down, then break them down into time segments--per year, per month, per week and per day.

More importantly, activity drives production. What activities do you need to do to arrive at those numbers? Some experts suggest you make your numbers based on three assumptions--best-case scenario, likely numbers, and worst-case scenario....

A final note: Work on your vision.