Planning for Your Business

Don’t have a Harvard MBA? You're not alone. Most successful entrepreneurs started out with what seemed like a good idea and ended up running a business of their own. How can you learn to manage the business side of business? Read, study, ask lots of questions, and seek out sound advice from your tax, legal and financial advisors. You can also turn to me to discuss how the insurance and financial services that SRS Financial & Insurance Solutions offers can help you support your business growth plan.

As a business owner, you are the lifeblood of your organization, the driving force behind its success. Have you considered what will happen to your business when you are ready to retire? Do you have children or other family members ready to continue the family business? Or is there another successor in line who will be able to pick up the reins? Most of all, if you died prematurely or became disabled, will the business you worked so hard to build be able to continue...and will your family be financially provided for? Tough questions, yes, but ones you need to ask.

One of the nice perks of being self-employed or a business owner is that you don't HAVE to retire. You're a doer. You like to make decisions and see results. But maybe someday -- perhaps when you're 65, 75 or older - you just might WANT the option to trade the fun and frustration of work for golf, gardening, vacationing with the grandkids or sitting back and relaxing with family and friends. Just as important, you also want to have all your ducks in a row, so to speak, when it comes to making sure your loved ones are well provided for in the future. Neither of these goals just happens. They are the result of decisions you make today. That means retirement planning and estate planning – mapping out a strategy to create options for you and for your family. Fortunately, there are more retirement and estate planning choices available today than ever before for business owners and those self-employed. As your financial advisor, I am here to help you begin the process of planning. As the old saying goes: Those who fail to plan...fail.

As a business owner, you live with risk. That's the nature of business. You take on risk when you borrow money to expand, launch a new product or service, hire a new employee, extend credit to a customer. There are dozens of risks in business...and few guarantees. Successful business owners, therefore, work to minimize risk, so they can focus on meeting their objectives. Life insurance is a risk management tool. For instance, if your company invested in new facilities or new vehicles, you would insure their value against the danger of theft, fire and accident. In the same way, life insurance can help protect the value of key employees to your business, reduce the risk that a loan might default if something happened to you, and, most of all, reduce the risk that your business and your family would suffer financially if you did not live to see your long-term plans completed.

Finding quality employees is half the challenge. Keeping them – and keeping them well motivated – is the other half, especially in today's tight labor market. One way to do that is to provide competitive benefits. I know, when many small business owners hear the words "employee benefits," they immediately think, "one more expense I can't afford!" If this sounds like you, you might want to think again. Two reasons: (1) Carefully selected benefits can help reduce costly employee turnover, boost morale and, in turn, help assure your company's stability and productivity. (2) Benefits need not cost you an arm and a leg. For example, a voluntary payroll deduction program lets workers – including you as an owner-employee – acquire valuable benefits at virtually no cost to you.