Advisors who continually expand their client base eventually hit a point of diminishing returns. Once you exceed your service capacity, you can no longer effectively competitor-proof clients, gain their complete financial empowerment or maintain a high degree of refer-ability. As a result, you are likely to become stressed, frustrated and miss important opportunities. Furthermore, unless you hire and manage more staff, which takes time and money, you cannot effectively deploy your service matrix. In time, you will be perceived as a transactional generalist, and you will end up with a business that is a mile wide and an inch deep.

We come back full circle to the question you should ask yourself continually: If 20 percent of your clients generate 80 percent of your business, do you invest 80 percent of your time on that 20 percent? To generate the qualified referrals that will allow you to build a quality practice, you need to do exactly that. Right sizing your clientele will allow you to do it.