The new year is just around the corner, which means it’s time to think about resolutions—those promises you make to yourself (and often quickly break) to change a behavior, reach a personal goal, or give back to your community. Making realistic New Year’s resolutions and sticking to them can improve your quality of life. But what about resolutions for your financial advisory business?

As an advisor, creating achievable goals for your firm can help you start the year off right. And by sticking to a plan, you’ll be pleased with the results when you look back at all you’ve accomplished.

Here, we outline four common New Year’s resolutions and offer ways you can adapt them to your practice.

1. Improve Your Firm's Health

One of the most popular resolutions people make is to eat better and exercise more. In business, this would mean improving the health of your firm. Just as you won’t improve your own health by remaining idle, you need to consistently work on your business to keep it moving forward. Depending on where you are and where you want to go, you can accomplish this by:

• Growing your client base. If you want to grow your book, these five strategies for creating lifelong clients can help you build, rebuild, and strengthen relationships with clients.

• Transitioning your business. Many advisors continue moving to the fee-only model. Is it time for you to pivot? Consider the truth about being a fee-only advisor to see if it’s a move you’re ready to make.

• Evolving your business structure. Are you a solo advisor or a multi-advisor firm where everyone follows the “eat what you kill” model? Building a sustainable practice with an equity ownership structure can ensure your firm’s long-term success.

2. Spend More Time with Clients and Staff

Another common resolution is to spend more time with family and friends. In business, your relationships with clients and staff are vital to the success of your practice. Resolving to spend more time with them, rather than doing busy work, can pay dividends in the long run. Here are two ideas to help with that:

• Consider outsourcing many of the tasks that fill up your day. By letting someone else take on the responsibilities of operations, marketing, and human resources, you’ll free up time to focus on clients, staff, and other aspects of growing your business.

• Create a path to partnership for your younger advisors. This will not only provide you with a succession plan to ensure your firm’s legacy, but it can also free up time as you delegate more responsibilities.

3. Invest in the Future of Your Financial Advisory Practice

Saving more and spending less are great ways for individuals to prepare for the future. With your practice, it’s a little bit different. As a financial advisor, you want to prepare yourself for the growth and evolution of your firm, and you need to invest in it today.

Consider what the future of your practice looks like and how you can get there. Then, seek out financing options that can help with several aspects of building your business, including:

• Growth projects

• Expanding your operations

• A merger or acquisition

• Consolidating debt

• Financing a major life event

• Succession planning

4. Create a Firm Strategy for Giving Back

Many people want to make a bigger effort to help those in need. Donating money, volunteering, or becoming more involved in the community are common resolutions people make in the new year. If you want to adapt this to your practice, you can create a formal giving-back strategy.

Here are five reasons it’s a good idea:

• It can help improve client relationships.

• It can engage your employees.

• It’s an investment in your community.

• You can market your philanthropic efforts.

• There are potential tax benefits.

Start the Year Off Right

According to The Economic Times, about 84 percent of people break their New Year’s resolutions within the first one to six weeks. Why? Common reasons include setting unrealistic expectations and not committing to a plan. In your financial advisory business, you can avoid these pitfalls by starting early, setting achievable goals, and tracking your progress.

Then, when you look back on all you’ve accomplished a year from now, you’ll see how much you and your practice have benefited from creating—and sticking to—your business resolutions.