AS WE CHANGED our business plan to an RIA model, I realized I didn’t want to build a huge practice. I didn’t want to have to staff this and deal with all these processes and everything.

I have a partner, and we had one assistant. But we’ve made some changes, and now we no longer have any assistants who work for us full-time. We’ve outsourced our staff and use virtual assistants to help with our individual clients.

The virtual assistant firm, which is out of Florida, helps schedule with our clients, set up paperwork and fill out applications. I can just email them and say, “Here’s what I need you to do.” They have email addresses that look like they’re coming from us. They have access to our CRM system to see our reporting and other information they might need.

So I’m actually trying to get leaner in terms of staff because, to me, the technology is there to where I don’t have to hire someone full-time. Managing staffing issues takes time away from what I want to do, which is bring on new and bigger clients.

I don’t want to have so many clients that I can’t spend time with my family and go on vacation and do everything I want to do. If I’m spending time hiring and training and worrying about what my staff is doing, and having to figure out how to pay them and pay their health insurance and everything else, then I don’t get to do all the things I want to do. I’ve learned that in some regards I’m a little bit selfish like that.

Because I don’t want as many clients, I don’t need as much service. I don’t need a full-time person. So I’m going to outsource as much as I can, and I’m going to pay for the time that I use.

Adam Blumberg is an eight-year MDRT member from Houston, Texas. Contact him at ablumberg@chartyourwealth.com. Hear more about staffing in the July episode of the MDRT Podcast: mdrt.org/podcast/happy_staff.