Bookkeeping & Accounting:
Every business owner needs to know how their books look. Know your current sales, current profits margins, current net income, profit margins, debt, all of it. Stay on top of these at least monthly, if not weekly. Set aside the time regularly to look these things over and see how your business is doing. Look at your month-to-month, your year-to-date, your business forecasts, and budgeting. You need that current, accurate information to make great business decisions. A series of great business decisions equals a great company. So always keep that in mind when operating your business.
Tax:
Another big piece is tax planning. It’s not just “What deductions can we take before year-end?”, it is being proactive with a tax strategy 5 years in advance, knowing what your trajectory is for the next few years, and planning not just for next year but the next few years. It’s really a long-term strategy where we can save you thousands and thousands of dollars with that long-term strategy.
Have a tax professional on your team that knows how to give you real tax planning strategy advice for the long-term, not just someone who can plug your numbers into a software and spit out a return for you.
Wealth Accumulation:
The wealth accumulation pillar seems to get the short stick, but it is very important.
What this boils down to is being cognizant of how much you are reinvesting into the business. For our clients we like them to be conscious of how much they are taking to reinvest back into their business and how much they are using to diversify their portfolio. I am a big believer in taking a certain percentage of money off the table to put into different pools; maybe that’s real estate for you, or a mutual fund, but the concept is being very conscious of how much you are reinvesting in your business.