Effective financial planning is essential for all businesses, whether they are a one-man operation or a large corporation. Larger companies have the resources to employ in-house experts, but if you are a smaller business or a start-up then this is not normally feasible. The alternative is to employ the services of an independent financial planner who can assist you as and when required for a fee and/or a commission.
The reason financial planning is so important to your business is it allows you to know what its objectives are, the direction it is heading and what goals it has. In addition, financial planning ensures that the pursuit of these objectives and goals are not compromised due to issues arising from a lack of funds, affordability of resources nor insufficient money to implement marketing and advertising.
A financial planner can assist you as a business owner to set plans for the next few month, the year ahead and further into the future. Bear in mind they will have worked with, and created financial plans for many other businesses of a similar size to yours. The benefit to you is they will have data on how successful those businesses have been and can use these previous plans to create the most effective plan for your business.
Being able to plan for your business is one of the most effective ways to not only build your business successfully, but it also gives you a huge advantage over your competitors. Most business owners are so busy immersing themselves in the day to day or here and now aspects of their business that they have neither the time nor the energy to plan anything, let alone their finances.
The advice a financial planner can offer you is limited only by how narrow or wide you wish their field of expertise to impact your business. Apart from their own knowledge and experience, they will undoubtedly be able to use experts from other related financial sectors. Tax, foreign trade, business grants, investments, in-house accounting systems, pensions and business credit are just some of the fields of expertise your financial planner will have access to.
As well as longer-term planning, your financial planner will be able to advise you on some short-term actions you can implement to immediately boost the finances of your business. These will certainly include those which relate to your business’s cash flow and ensuring that this is maximised. Simple steps such as reducing your utility bills, supplier costs, and employee costs, will not only free up some much-needed cash, but also boost your profits over the longer term.
Having a financial planner advising you isn’t a ‘nice to have’ if you want your business to continue moving forward, it is a ‘must-have’. Assuming you choose one who has a checkable track record and references from happy clients, whatever their fee may be, it will be covered and then some, by the additional profits and the long-term plans that you and your business can follow to success.
