Regardless of national events, or where things are with PPP and EIDL loans — as a business owner, it’s important that you take a REGULAR, clear-eyed look at the underlying legal and financial foundations of your business.
I started with these last week, and I’m wrapping them up today.
From last week…
#1: Is the value of your business firmly established?
(Buy/Sell Agreements)
#2: Is there an emergency plan?
(Will & Asset Protection Strategy)
#3: What happens next?
(Business Succession Plan, and more)
Now to the next questions…
#4: What are your retirement plans?
Questions to consider:
- Do I know how much income I will actually need at retirement?
- How much control in the business must I maintain to secure my retirement income?
- Have I looked into financing options for key employees to buy me out?
- Do I want to be running my business, full-time, five years from now?
Too many business owners view their business as their “retirement cash cow” … but have not made serious plans for how it can BE that cash cow.
#5: Are all of your eggs in one basket?
Questions to consider:
- Do I have reliable investments, other than my business?
- Will my business assets account for less than 25% of my retirement plans?
- In the past year, have I spent more than one hour planning my retirement?
If you haven’t diversified your retirement income outside of your business, you could be in trouble.
#6: Is there a REAL tax strategy?
Consider these questions …
- Am I proactively planning to deal with tax law changes?
- Have I determined my financial goals — and how taxes will affect them?
- Will I maximize my tax-free earnings in retirement (and before retirement)?
- Do I have an exit plan for my business — and is it written down?
Again, all of these issues always seem “procrastinate-able” on the front end … but if you don’t have a good answer to more than a couple of the above questions, you might be subject to a rude awakening in the future.
We will either help you fix these issues ourselves or put you in touch with someone competent who can help fix them.
