There are unique opportunities and planning strategies to consider regarding your business. Steve Margulin has been working with small business owners for over two decades and can offer beneficial suggestions for your business from his background as a management accountant and controller.

The reality of our economy, however, is that it goes through cycles, and many businesses fail each year. If your business were to fail, how would you survive? Are all your eggs in one basket? If a business is a large part of your net worth, it may be a better strategy to implement a plan of taking a salary and distributions of money from the business in order to have money to diversify your net worth.

Most small business owners neglect their own personal financial planning. They often use surplus cash flow to buy more equipment or increase overhead. Would that extra cash be better used to pay off debt? Would there be less stress on the cash flow of the business, a lower break-even point (and less stress on you) with lower operating costs and less reliance on debt?

It is also important to consider what your exit strategy will be. Should children and family members take over the business one day, or should the business be sold to a non-family member? (See Succession Planning.)

Another business decision that can benefit from outside advice is whether or not to take a partner into your business. You may need an influx of capital to keep your business viable and move it to the next stage. In that case, should your partner be a professional investor who can provide both financial resources and experienced business savvy? Should you take in a family member as a partner? One thing that is important to remember is that partnerships can have a downside. One of those downsides is that partners may be liable not only for their own debts but also for those incurred on behalf of the partnership.

You need to have a lawyer help set up the partnership agreement, which should describe each partner’s contributions, whether of money, property, skill, or labor. The agreement also needs to specify what happens when the partnership ends and how income, gain, loss, deductions, or credits will be split between the partners.

And what about the question of adding another store location? How far in the green does the business need to be first? Have you added up all of the costs involved? Where are you going to get the capital to expand? Do you have a trusted employee or partner who can oversee one of the locations? How much more time will this take away from your family life? What are the possible beneficial tax consequences if the new location falters at first? If the new location fails, how are you going to make up, not just for the lack of expected profit, but for the attendant negative cash flow?

These are some of the considerations involved when you own your own business and, often, business owners are too busy and harried and have too much on their minds, to see the forest for the trees. Having an outside Financial Advisor, such as Steve Margulin, to point out possible pitfalls and possible opportunities can be very helpful.