By cold-calling thousands of potential clients each year, advisor Scott Stewart and his team at ScotiaMcLeod Inc. in Winnipeg have taken the hard route to building their business. He suggests the following tips to make your business-building process a little easier:

> Try not to take clients that don’t fit with your business model.

“Stick to what you’re looking for,” Stewart says. ”If the focus of your business is trading stocks, don’t take bond clients.

“If you get a client who doesn’t suit your style, you won’t want to work for him or her,” he adds. “It will drag you down and it will end up being cancerous. It makes your whole day bad when that client calls. It’s not worth getting into that situation.”

> Try to run your business narrow and deep.

“My business is 87% managed money,” Stewart says. “That’s clearly a narrow and deep focus.

“I always have been very focused on the kind of business I want to run — high net-worth clients and managed money,” he adds. “That’s what I’ve always wanted and I’ve stuck with that.”

> Never do anything that might compromise your reputation.

“It’s hugely important in our business,” Stewart says. “Your reputation takes a lifetime to build up and seconds to lose. Run a clean business and don’t do anything that compromises your ethics.”

— GEOFF KIRBYSON