Many advisers have little to no trouble getting motivated and excited about building their business. Although most advisers are capable of finding good ideas to build their business, it's the implementation and follow-up of business building solutions that suck the life right out of their good intentions and prevent them from achieving the success they'd hoped for.

In most cases. advisers don't follow through with intended long-term strategies due to a decrease in motivation over time. This decrease in motivation can be caused by a number of different variables. These variables, however, can be approached differently to help advisers increase their chances of implementing and following through with their business building plans.

The following outlines these variables and how better to approach them to increase your chance for success.

• Complexity — A more complex plan or idea is not necessarily a more effective one.
• Simplicity — Try efficient and effective — ideas and plans that are easy to create, easy to implement, easy to sustain, and easy to evaluate.
• Expectations — It may be difficult to meet your expectations if your expectations are too high.
• Realistic Optimism — Try to think long-term, especially in this business.
• Results — Not knowing what your success criteria are might lead to losing your focus. Not knowing what success is makes achieving it that much harder. Clearly define your success criteria. Define each in point form. Differentiate between your short- and long-term goals.
• A Written Plan — When you don't have a written plan, it's hard to remember details of what you're trying to achieve and how to best achieve it. You will waste your time and effort in re-evaluating each step as you go. Organize and outline 'what you are trying to achieve', 'how you will achieve it' and 'when you would like to achieve it'. This will also help you understand how each component of your plan integrates with others.

• Commitment & Resources Required — Not completely understanding the required commitment and necessary resources may leave you overwhelmed, overworked, and unable to fulfill the initial plan. Consider and estimate the required commitment and resources. Implement your marketing strategy over time, don't rush or over commit to anything until you are ready to implement and follow through with your campaigns. Outsource where possible to help you with implementation and follow up.
• Cost — If the cost outweighs the perceived value by you, you're not likely to follow through. Where possible, keep the cost low, especially in the beginning. Once you have had some success then you can commit more resources to your plan.
• Change — Changes in your plan are always frustrating and stressful. Remember that changes in your plan are inevitable, they certainly don't mean failure, and in fact most plans should be modified as you go, to some extent.
• Focus — It's easy to lose sight of the long-term goals over the short-term. Refer back to your plan from time to time to remember what you are trying to achieve. The long-term goals are the main focus although reaching the short-term goals will ultimately help you get there.