Here are some of our top financial decisions which will help your business to thrive while also looking after your own personal finances.
The Value Of Goods Advice
One of the best financial decisions you can make as a small business owner is to invest in sound advice. For example, having a great accountant, a solicitor and a top-class business advisor. As a small business starting off this can be a significant outlay. However, we must stress that good advice is simply worth its weight in gold. In the long run, this good advice will pay off handsomely.
How can a financial advisor help you?
- Provide objective insights into your finances
- Put comprehensive financial plans in place to help to meet your goals
- Build up your wealth through better saving techniques and behaviours
- Monitor and update your long-term savings strategy to build for a comfortable retirement
- Ensure all of your investments are diversified, lowering financial risks
- Select tax-efficient investments to help you keep more of your money
- Prepare you for the unexpected
- Help to prevent emotional investing decisions (especially during periods of market volatility)
- Keep you on track
Invest in help
Another great financial decision is to truly value your own time and resources. A lot of people running their own businesses tend to take on the role of IT, marketing, sales, finance, operations… the list goes on. So unless you have magical powers it’s unlikely to are going to be an expert in all areas of business.
A piece of advice we often give out here at Rockwell is to sit down every year and write out 20 tasks. Look at the bottom 10, and delegate them out. Then this allows you to focus on the top 10 tasks for the year. It’s important to know when to prioritise tasks for yourself and when it’s time to pass on the responsibility and delegate the work. Unfortunately, and this may come as a shock to many business owners, you cannot do everything yourself. We know you would like to, but there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. That’s why it’s so important to delegate to make sure no tasks get left behind.
It’s important to hire people within your business who will be able to complete tasks on your behalf. Ultimately, it is all about giving back time to the business owner so that they can focus on growing their business.
Remember the business ≠ your pension
Diversification is essential, it is important not to have all of your eggs in one basket. The same applies when investing in a portfolio. If all of your ‘retirement eggs’, all of your ‘financial independence eggs’ are tied up in your business it can be risky. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will be. However, it is important to know this is a more high risk than other options. That is why we recommend funding your own pot, separate from your business. Pensions are important for business owners. Funding this pot will prepare you for all possibilities. For example, if the business turns out to be a brilliant money maker, well amazing, you’re quids in. On the flip side, If it doesn’t and something unforeseen happens, well you have a backup. The pandemic really showed a lot of business owners the importance of diversification. Unfortunately some businesses simply just will not survive post-pandemic and the people banking on their businesses to fund their pensions were left with nothing. Don’t take the risk, imagine yourself left with that double loss, a loss of your business and a loss of your future financial independence. Ultimately, your business is a vehicle to fund your eventual exit strategy- and your pension is a huge part of that.
The three key messages for you to remember from this blog are to invest in financial advice, take the initial blow and it will pay off. Make the best use of your own time and delegate where possible. Finally, diversify, don’t rely solely on your business to fund your financial future.
Are you looking for financial advice? Get the ball rolling with an initial consultation to finally get your finances in order. Get in touch with us today to make smarter, better-informed decisions. Book a consultation with a member of the Rockwell team to get started today.
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