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Financial planning for small business owners

Financial planning for small business owners through True North Accounting, a partner of Virtual Gurus.

Guest Author: True North Accounting

August 9, 2021

This is a guest post from True North Accounting, a trusted partner of Virtual Gurus

When it comes to finance for business owners, having a thoughtful and intentional approach — including setting goals and priorities — as well as the tools to make business finance easier to manage, will set you on the path to financial well-being.

Let’s explore some tips to give you greater control of your finances (personal and business) and much-needed peace of mind so you can focus on growing your business.

1) What’s your vision?

Long-term snapshot

What’s your long-term vision for your life? This is a great place to start. Go full pie-in-the-sky on this one: what does a day in the life look like for you, 10 years from now? How are you spending your time? Is this what financial freedom feels like?

3-year snapshot

Next, describe what your life needs to look like in three years to be on track to achieving your 10-year dream life. How much is your business doing in revenue? What about profit?

1-year goals

Now with the long-term vision for your life (and your business), it’s time to actually set some goals for the next year. What do you need to accomplish in the next year to move you one-third closer to your three-year snapshot?

2) Now, focus on your 90-day priorities

It’s proven that splitting big goals into quarterly priorities helps people focus and improves their chances of achieving the longer-term vision. If you were only going to accomplish a few things in the next three months to move you closer towards your dream life, what would they be?

At True North, we want you to reach your financial goals and realize that dream life.  A good starting point is to have a realistic picture of your current financial situation.

3) What’s your budget?

It’s often difficult to separate business goals from personal financial goals. When it comes to compensation and earnings from your business, it makes sense to figure out your personal and family financial requirements first.

Step 1: Start with determining the monthly burn rate of your household

Start by building a household budget by exporting the last six months of your personal banking and credit card statements into an Excel (.csv) sheet. Then calculate your fixed costs and discretionary costs to determine how much you need each month to live.

Step 2: Add additional costs that aren’t necessarily monthly: 

  • House downpayment
  • New car fund
  • Kitchen renovation
  • Post-COVID vacation
  • Kids college fund or RESP
  • And how much you need to be investing for your retirement

You’ve now built your household budget, which will help you on your road to financial stability.

Step 3: Pay yourself from your business

Using this household budget number (which is an after-tax amount), you need to figure out if this will be a dividend or a salary. This will help you calculate the gross amount to pay yourself from the business. Don’t forget to add your savings and investing amount to your household budget to figure out your pre-tax, target compensation.

To see this in practice, let’s say your household budget is $7,500.

As a salary, this would be about $10,000 gross salary or $120,000 a year.

If you paid yourself in dividends, this would be about $100,000. Keep in mind that the corporation would also pay about $11,000 in corporate taxes on the dividend. 

Step 4: Can your business afford to pay you that amount?

Next, calculate a budget for your business by taking your monthly financials from last year and using them as a starting point for the upcoming year’s budget. Apply the appropriate growth rates to revenue, and any variable costs associated with earning that revenue. Don’t forget to consider the fixed costs you will incur over the next year, including your own compensation as calculated in step three. Will you have a positive net income or are you forecasted to be in the negative?

To make your plan work, you may need to adjust a few things:

  • Revisit your household budget
  • Reevaluate your business profitability projections
  • Review your future savings and retirement goals

You will likely need to explore a combination of all three. And if you’re just starting out, you may need to extend your business budget (target forecast) by two or three years to build up the business.

Step 5: Figure out your business budget 

Now you’re ready to copy your business budget into a new sheet called “Target Forecast.” You can play with the revenue and costs to figure out how much your business needs to make to hit your target compensation level, while still hitting your target profit margin.

If you’re using Xero, you can add your budget into your account so you can track Budget vs Actual each month and know whether you’re trending in the right direction.

4) Finalize your goals

Congratulations! You’ve just created a realistic plan that will help you achieve your financial goals. You now know what needs to be done and you can start living and running your business in a more intentional way.

This is when we’d recommend finalizing your one-year goals, and then the 90-day priorities mentioned earlier.

5) Make a detailed, step-by-step plan

Now that you’ve established goals and know where to focus your energy, it’s time to get granular. Break down your goals into small, achievable steps. When executed on, this action plan will move you closer towards your goals. Be intentional by dedicating time each day or week to work on your focus items. Every little step will help you accomplish those priorities and adds up to reaching the one- and three-year goals you set.

6) Make things easier with these tools

As you know, there’s a lot to manage as a small business owner. Entrepreneurs can leverage smart tools that streamline day-to-day tasks and take the stress out of financial security. Tools like Wealthsimple can help you create an investor profile and can recommend investments to match your risk profile and retirement goals, even if you don’t have a deep understanding of investing. Here are some other useful tools:

  • Helm connects with Xero and helps forecast your future cash balance.
  • Xero offers accounting software that simplifies everyday business tasks like invoicing, collections and bookkeeping.
  • Youneedabudget (YNAB) helps you gain control of your budget and teaches you how to manage your money to get ahead.

7) Achieve your goals

This one should be easy since you’re your own boss (which means you probably enjoy your job a lot more than the average person). Wake up and design each day with a relentless commitment to accomplishing your priorities.

And get help if you need it. If you need financial support to get you through a tough period (say, a pandemic), lean into the loans and relief programs.

8) Reflect on your success and repeat

Review your past quarter and assess your priorities. Don’t forget to celebrate the wins and consider the losses. How can you apply your learnings to the next quarter with a focus on those one-year goals?

Recreate your 90-day priorities each quarter with a focus on those one-year goals. Spend time each year revisiting your three- and 10-year snapshots and setting your one-year goals. Before you know it, you’ll be sailing into your 10-year dream goals.

Guest Author: True North Accounting

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