Step 5: Know The Numbers In Your Business - Pt 6

Financial

The financial side of your business needs good oversight and in choosing an accountant to help you in your business, be clear from the start, what you want from them and communicate this to them. If they are unable or unwilling to provide you with the service you need, at a price that offers value for the money you will spend, then keep looking until you find one who is.

Trying to penny-pinch on an accountant who can offer you good business advice and guidance as well as complete your compliance requirements is a false economy. Find out up-front what it is going to cost, if you can spread your payments to ease your budgeting and ensure you know just what you are getting for your money. Make notes and make sure you get what you are promised.

Remember too, that your financial strategy needs to not only cover what you have – it needs to protect it from being lost too. Sickness, and accidents can rip away your plans and dreams if you don’t have your income and financial assets protected. Proper risk management lets you protect your current assets and your future assets. Many business owners are exposed to great financial risk, and never know it.

Shining some light on this so you can do something to protect yourself should happen while you can still get this covered. It is worth remembering that insurance is not a ‘right’ and can be hard or even impossible to get, when you realise you need it now. Similarly, growing your assets is admirable, and safeguarding them from loss is just as important. Loss can happen though many ways. Sometimes it can be personal injury or illness, but it can also be because of claims against a business. Many business owners have lost their assets because of poor structuring of their business, and no thought or action into setting up the business to quarantine personal assets.

To ensure that you have all possible scenarios covered, there may be a choice you need to make. Work through with both a legal practitioner specialising in commercial and business law, and your accountant to balance those wishes that you have regarding your tax planning and what you want regarding safeguarding your assets. This is a choice that every business owner should be consciously aware that they are making.

Every action has a consequence, and that bit of tax you save, may or may not be worth having compared to the downside risk. Use the expertise of your advisors to guide you through these issues, and bring it up with them, if they haven’t asked you about these matters. We often assume that our advisors will tell us anything we need to know. Very often that isn’t what happens.

Be proactive about knowing what you need to know and take responsibility to be conscious of the needs of your business, and your family.