Early in this decade, I was asked by "Sound Money," the public radio show, to contribute some essays on money, family and values. It was a high point in my writing career, but the most blissful part was that I got to record some of my essays at a studio in New York's Carnegie Hall. Excitedly, I called my mother from the street. When she picked up, I blurted out the old joke, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" Turns out that, after all her years of pleading (and nagging), I didn't have to practice piano. But I did have to practice.

The idea that a business is also a practice has a certain beauty. It implies constant evolution and improvement, embodying growth and embracing change. You don't ever finish learning.

These days, as the markets continue to flounder and ever more frauds come to light (as I write this, the SEC just filed a new multibillion-dollar complaint, this one against Robert Allen Stanford and his Houston-based Stanford Investment Group), it's comforting to know that there are always new techniques to learn. Because right now, many practices are teetering on the edge of viability and every little bit helps. It's time to work smarter—even while you're working harder. This is a year when astute practice management could make the difference between your business' surviving and, well, not.

So for our second annual Special Report on practice management, we focused on survival skills. The tools you need are here. In our cover story, "What Works Now," Marie Swift surveyed advisors who are actually thriving and got them to share their strategies, from developing multiple income streams to ramping up communications with clients. Joel Bruckenstein's article, "Tech Tools for a Tough Economy," serves up details on software, available at low to no cost from your custodian or broker-dealer, that will make your practice more efficient, so you really can do more with less. Paired with that story is Greg Friedman's "Time for an Upgrade," which outlines a process for periodically evaluating and improving your office technology. And these are only a few of the great ideas you'll find in this issue.

As you read, bear in mind that right now, you're probably looking at the world from the investment equivalent of the bottom of a well. As you'll see in this month's infographic, we're looking at long-term investment returns that are two to three standard deviations below the mean—and that's with dividends reinvested. So keep enough cash around for your clients' short-term needs and hang on for the comeback. It should be fantastic. Let's hope it happens soon.

Marion Asnes became the editor of Financial Planning magazine in 2005. Financial Planning is the leading professional magazine for independent financial planners and has a circulation of 115,000. The topics covered on its pages range from industry news and trends to sophisticated discussions of portfolio management, estate planning and philanthropy. Asnes is the first female editor in chief of Financial Planning in the magazine's 38-year history.

Before joining Financial Planning, Asnes was a senior editor at Money, participating in the magazine’s coverage of personal finance, retirement, investment and health care issues. Her areas of expertise included retirement and 401(k) planning, asset allocation, estate planning and the particular financial challenges faced by women. In addition to her regular editorial duties at Money, Asnes co-edited Money for Women, an annual special issue that was featured exclusively on “The Today Show” on NBC.

A 27-year service journalism veteran, Asnes has contributed to a long list of national publications including Vogue, Elle, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, More, Mirabella, Working Woman and Lear's. She has spoken at conferences and symposia ranging from the National Endowment for Financial Education’s Retirement Summit to the National Football League’s Rookie Symposium. In addition, Asnes has appeared on national television programs as an expert on financial and economic topics including CNN, CNN Headline News, NBC's Today, ABC's 20/20, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor.

Asnes graduated with a B.A. from Cornell University.