Let's say you want to sell your business. To prepare, you must show not only increasing revenues in the past several years, but also a strong pipeline that portends increasing revenues in the foreseeable future. What better way than to plant the equivalent of seedlings in the orchard you're currently managing? These seedlings represent future revenues that can grow in an incubator under your watchful eye. When the time comes for them to blossom, you'll automatically benefit from the fruit they bear.

Every small business in America embraces this metaphor. Those servicing small businesses, like many retirement plan advisers, live this metaphor every day. The small businesses they currently serve, while providing modest revenues today, offer the promises of great multiples of revenues as they grow in the future. In a sense then, these small-business clients represent the saplings, an investment the service provider is making today for greater rewards tomorrow.

But did you know even saplings can produce seeds? That is, if you're a retirement adviser, your small-business clients can provide a future even greater than the small business itself. This is virtually a self-perpetuating future. We all know how the ideal growth strategy, because it is so cost effective, comes through word-of-mouth advertising. The seeds small businesses contain are from the mouths of babes. Better yet, the retirement adviser who plants these seeds not only helps himself, but provides an incredibly attractive service to his clients.