As a small business owner, the decisions you make at work directly affect the success of your business, your family members and the employees who work for you. 

It’s imperative to be well informed about how to maximize your company’s growth potential and secure your future, both personally and professionally.

Partnering with a wealth adviser can be a proactive way to access resources and financial expertise, and to focus on the finer details of growing your profit margin, implementing tax efficiencies and creating an exit strategy to allow for proper passing of ownership to future stakeholders. There are several areas where a wealth adviser can take your small business from purely profitable to solidly successful and create more value in your business.

Put your excess capital to work

Retaining excess capital in your company’s bank accounts may not be the best method of holding cash reserves. Many small business owners carry more cash than they need and miss out on investment opportunities or higher interest rates. There are several cash management strategies that will put your capital to work for you. If cash flow is sufficiently covering ongoing expenses and large expenditures are planned for in advance, putting some cash to work can boost savings and provide return potential that may otherwise be foregone. A wealth adviser will help you develop a laddered approach for utilizing excess liquidity that fits within your business plan, and account for future deployment strategies that may be on the horizon.

Take advantage of tax breaks

Tax laws and regulations are constantly changing. Recent changes to the tax code make many small businesses eligible for certain pass-through deductions that your business may qualify for. As a business owner, staying on top of all the updates can be extremely time consuming, making it easy to miss out. A wealth adviser can help you create a tax plan that utilizes all deductions you are entitled to and will work closely with your CPA or accounting professional to ensure that savings strategies are implemented and captured.

Create a business succession plan

For most small business owners, their single most valuable asset is the company itself. Developing a plan for who will take over the business if an owner is no longer able to operate it or wants to sell the company is essential to a successful transition. Having a formal succession plan in place is the most effective way to protect yourself, your business, and your loved ones in the event of an illness or death, and to protect financial value during an ownership change. A wealth adviser can assist with developing a succession strategy that maximizes the passing of ownership in any type of business transition.

Protect your business and yourself

Many small business owners have a substantial amount of their net worth invested in their business. This may be risky at times, but it’s often necessary to get the business up and running, or to keep it growing. A wealth adviser will help you explore ways to protect your personal wealth from liability, estate taxes or other potential pitfalls.

Have an accountability partner

Collaborating with someone to create a plan for your business holds you accountable. A wealth adviser will monitor your plan and check in with you regularly to ensure you’re making progress towards your objectives. When you have a better understanding of what actions to take to ensure additional value is created, you can build a clear path to reach your goals. 

Jennifer Osgood is a partner and wealth adviser at Wagner Wealth Management, one of the Upstate’s leading wealth management companies with offices in Greenville, Anderson, and Oconee counties. Call them at 864-236-4706 or visit www.wagnerwealthmanagement.com to

learn more.