Small Business Planning

Business & Life Combined

If you’re like most small business owners, your personal life and business life are practically inseparable. That’s why it’s important for your personal financial planning to take into account the unique considerations—and opportunities—of owning and operating a small business.

The key to success with a financial plan is achieving an integration of life, work, and money goals. No one cares about the money itself. As a small business owner myself what get’s me excited and I’m sure you too, are the things we can do in our business and our lives by building wealth.

Expansive View

To me, financial planning means caring about you and wisely managing finances to achieve your goals and dreams. Through our well-managed discovery process, we have meaningful conversations about you and money. It's about building relationships in order to provide individualized advice and planning for your unique situation. 

• Tell me about yourself?
• What was your family like growing up?
• How has money affected your life?
• Imagine you are financially secure, how would you live your life?

From here I follow a well-managed financial planning process that includes:

• Setting realistic financial and personal goals
• Evaluating where you are now financially
• Developing a plan to reach your goals
• Putting your plan into action
• Monitoring your plan to stay on track with changing goals and circumstances

Below is summary information about financial planning for small businesses. For detailed information click on the subject heading of each paragraph.

Investment Plan: Small business owners frequently focus all of their investment money, including for their retirement, on their own business. After all, it’s the business they know best. The problem with investing solely in your own business is concentrating risk in one area. That’s why I counsel business owners to diversify at least some of their investments and wealth in different areas.

Debt: Determine how much you need and add an extra amount (maybe 10%) to your estimate. This will help cover unexpected needs. Make sure your credit sources are set up in advance. You don’t want to wait until you absolutely need it.

Tax Planning: A year-round approach is advised to help strengthen your other important financial goals. Deciding the type of business structure, timing of income and expenses, the type of retirement plan and contributions, and charitable giving can all affect how much you pay in taxes.

Insurance: Making sure you are properly covered against risks protects your business, family, and wealth. Liability, Property, Business Interruption, Life and Disability, Worker’s Comp, and Health should be reviewed and shopped around annually or when a major change occurs.

Retirement: There are many retirement plan options today for small business owners that are not complicated and not expensive. Most business owners cannot afford not to establish a retirement plan. Even if you assume that you’ll easily sell your business when you retire and live on the proceeds, it’s risky to assume that it will work out that way. There are also many tax reducing benefits to having a retirement plan. Depending on the type and or size of your business there are many options available to meet your circumstances. Some plans offer more liability protection for the owner while others are less costly to establish and maintain. I can help you analyze the options to determine which plan is best for your situation.

Succession Planning: This is essential for anyone who owns a small business because it is typically the largest asset in the owner’s estate. A proper succession plan will consider taxes, life insurance, passing it to the next generation, buy/sell agreement, and maximizing the sale price to a third party.