Why the new financial year is the perfect time to reflect on your business

For James O’Reilly, director and financial planner at Northeast Wealth, this time of reflection should not only encompass business practices as a financial adviser, but the personal as well.

Speaking to The ifa Show, O’Reilly explained what some of this might look like: “It’s definitely worth doing a review and understanding how the team performed more broadly because end of financial year tends to be a team-based project.”

This is necessary, the financial adviser believes, as no matter how hard an organisation might try to get to a point of “zero surprises” by EOFY, they are inevitably going to arise, with “lull”, the financial year affords an opportune moment to address what happened and plan for the future.

O’Reilly recalled a particular reflection from a number of years ago that allowed for improved interactions and outcomes for their members, based around the quality of questions they were asking clients at the start of the year.

“We quickly realised the quality of the questions that you asked at the very beginning was going to go a long way to helping us have more clarity on what the right strategies were for people,” he said.

“The way that it works in our business now is that each adviser goes through each one of their members, member by member, and looks at their financial situation and then overlays that with of all of the end of financial year strategies that are available.”

This method, O’Reilly finds, has enabled a streamlined start to the year, allowing him to understand the needs of each client and member, and form their strategy for the next 12 months: “We typically have everything that we need without having to go back and ask more questions again.”

“We’re empowered to then say, ‘Well, we thought this strategy was going to stack up. We’re now very confident that it does. Let’s get on with it and execute’,” he added.

Beyond reflecting on business practices such as marketing, how many new members were gained each quarter as well as how well targets were met, O’Reilly also highlighted the importance of reflecting on the human side of operation, both on a team and individual level.

“The concept here [is focusing on questions like] how we’re performing together, where is the team feeling friction? Can the current organisational structure facilitate the goals that we’re setting,” O’Reilly said, before highlighting how he also reflects on his own place in the team as an individual.

“I made a decision about seven years ago to slow down and that decision was based on having at the time a young son and knowing that in not too distant future, hopefully, another one would be on the way and just having the awareness to understand that this time is really, really special and it’s also fleeting.”

On a personal level, this has allowed him to become more involved in family life, impacting not only his personal levels of happiness, but his professional life as well.

“There’s real alignment between your work and your personal life and your energy levels and you produce more. Because you’re happier and you’re feeling good, you make better decisions, you think more clearly, and the net outcome is a better business. It’s a healthier business.”