Most business came to a halt throughout the Midwest two weeks ago when a massive blizzard forced workers to take a snow day, but financial advisers said they were good to go.
Credit a technology-friendly culture that makes use of online tools ranging from cloud computing to Twitter to maintain access to clients and business records from secondary or home offices. A day away from the main office can even improve business, some advisers said, though distractions and the doldrums also lurk behind the home office door.
When a snowstorm hit the Washington metro area late last month, Omega Wealth Management LLC took it in stride. The Arlington, Va., firm uses cloud computing technology to store client and business documents online, where they can be accessed from any location, said president Lisa A.K. Kirchenbauer. She said it was a seamless transition for her entire five-person staff to work from home offices, where they used the Internet to access files and conduct business.
Still, Ms. Kirchenbauer, a working mother, readily admitted that home distractions make it difficult to get as much done as when she goes to the office.
“There is not a financial impact; it is more of an indirect productivity loss,” she said.
“You have to shovel; you have family around. Can I do it? Yes, I have materials, but it is just not quite the same,” Ms. Kirchenbauer said.
Susan Elser of Elser Financial Planning Inc. in Indianapolis also relies on remote business access. While the blizzard two weeks ago dumped nearly two feet of snow in the Midwest, she was in Florida meeting with her snowbird clients.
Ms. Elser said that she can access client custodian accounts “anywhere I have Internet access,” which means that she and her staff are never cut off.
Adviser Kevin F. Jacobs easily moved his firm's operations to his home office after the snowstorm left nearly two feet of snow in Broken Arrow, Okla., the Tulsa suburb where he runs Step By Step Tax and Financial Planning LLC.
He made the storm work for him by using the bad weather as a theme on his blog, Twitter account and LinkedIn page, where he posted updates on the storm and messages for current and potential clients.
“What to do during a snowstorm?” Mr. Jacobs tweeted Jan. 31 as the blizzard bore down. “Get your tax and financial documents organized.”
Mr. Jacobs was forced to cancel one meeting with a prospective client due to the weather. But he was able to reschedule, and the delay won't affect company revenue over the long run, he said.
“No one is going anywhere,” Mr. Jacobs said.
Canceled meetings took more of a toll on Ms. Kirchenbauer, who usually meets each of her 65 clients three times a year. Rescheduling after bad weather has resulted in up to 10 client meetings in one week.
Some advisers have found a workable alternative in software that facilitates online “meetings” by allowing participants to share documents on-screen during a speakerphone conversation. Adviser Jim Holtzman of Legend Financial Advisors Inc. in Pittsburgh, for example, ramped up his use of a PC-screen-sharing service called gotomeeting.com (from Citrix Systems Inc.) after getting slammed by several big storms last year.
Advisers who work with local clients probably are more adversely affected by harsh weather than a specialist firm such as Scarsdale Investment Group Ltd. of Blue Bell, Pa., which manages bond investments, said its president, Stan Richelson. His nationwide clientele rarely see the inside of his office, and the company's single employee works on a flexible schedule.
Consequently, the continuing bad weather along the East Coast “is not affecting us at all,” Mr. Richelson said.
Although business processes may run smoothly, bad weather can weigh heavy on morale for employees whose lives are disrupted.
Jon L. Ten Haagen, founder of Ten Haagen Financial Group in Huntington, N.Y., sees a general decrease in productivity after major weather events. He said he finds it difficult to get staff members to concentrate on business and that they would rather “sit around the water cooler and discuss the difficulty of getting to work,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Prospective-client seminars scheduled during bad weather typically are poorly attended or even canceled, putting a damper on marketing, Mr. Ten Haagen wrote.
Dave Diesslin, founding principal of Diesslin & Associates Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, called employee morale a “backstage issue” that can require more attention than routine business, which tends to run smoothly.
Company policies on taking time off and working remotely during a weather emergency can influence how employees feel about their company. Employees need to get the message that their company is interested in their well-being, Mr. Diesslin said.
“If it's not safe, we want you to stay home,” he said.
E-mail Lavonne Kuykendall at [email protected]
