VBP launches adviser business coaching solution

Vital Business Partners (VBP) has announced the launch of The Growth Alliance, a new business coaching solution designed to help financial advice practices achieve growth.

The service includes a combination of one-on-one coaching, group sessions, and on-demand learning modules to provide advisers with a wide range of resources and support.

Speaking with ifa, the general manager of consulting for VBP, Sue Viskovic, described The Growth Alliance as a hive mind in that it’s a knowledge-sharing space where advisers can tap into the collective knowledge to solve problems.

“It’s a hybrid business coaching program that combines the best of one-to-one coaching with group sessions and peer group work and the ‘how-to’ that will help business owners and their practice managers to implement the changes and the growth strategies in their business,” Viskovic said.

“It’s an alliance of like-minded people that are keen to grow, whether that be professionally, personally or their wealth. Everybody is working together, everybody is going to have their own individualised growth targets and their goals that they want to achieve, it’s very personalised to each individual, but they can tap into that collective wisdom.”

Viskovic said the service is designed to act as a “safe space” for advisers to seek peer feedback and assistance when they are having difficulties solving an issue themselves, benefiting both emerging and long-term advisers.

“It’s a learning thing for the smaller newer businesses, but it’s also a brains trust and a safe place for even the experienced firms to be able to socialise their ideas, work through their challenges, and get to solutions faster,” she said.

“The ability to be able to actually have peers and professional consultants that you can bounce ideas around with, is proving to be really attractive. And also those guides and templates.

“Because even in a larger business, and even with a practice manager that’s been doing it for 10 years, the dynamic nature of an advisory business means that there are new challenges that come up from time to time that they may not have experienced before.”

Viskovic said many advisers already have ideas for what they want for their business, but struggle when it comes to implementing the necessary changes to meet their goals. As such, The Growth Alliance is designed to give them access to the tools to take the next steps.

“Our sessions have been really carefully designed with a very firm instructional design framework that allows people to actually get from the point of idea to decision to project plan to execution and achievement, rather than just having sessions where they get ideas,” she said.

“The implementation aspect of it is really quite unique in that it goes from sharing ideas, helping people make decisions, then gives them the tools they need to actually execute and implement and then track what they’re doing and improve it so that over time, they’re going to achieve the goals that they’re setting for themselves.”

The on-demand features of the service, Viskovic said, provide users with unique access to information whenever and wherever the need arises.

“People can tap into that very deep knowledge base and have all of the resources so they don’t necessarily need to wait until they can talk to somebody to get something. There’s a giant toolkit sitting there ready for them to tap into as and when they need it,” she said.

Viskovic said she had been dreaming up The Growth Alliance for years, and VBP’s acquisition of Elixir Consulting late last year provided the resources to bring it to fruition.

The service is currently available across Australia and, Viskovic said, there are plans to take it international in the future.