Client ProfilesSmall Business Owner

Survival is usually the primary concern of most small businesses. So what happens when you pass that initial phase and growth is not only a goal but a necessity?

Scenario

The owners of a small business gave everything they had into building their company. Through hard work and steady growth they were able to annually achieve multi-million dollars in sales. While preoccupied with day-to-day business objectives they knew that they needed to put a plan in place to take their business to the next level. While not interested in selling, they wanted to establish a game plan to increase attractiveness to the market while retaining and motivating key employees. They needed to solidify their financial plan going forward, self-insure certain aspects of the organization, and create a succession plan in-case of catastrophic risk.

Strategy

In this type of situation, our goal would be to engage with a merger and acquisitions advisor to create a strategic road map that maximizes the company’s future value in the market. This could facilitate the creation of an executive compensation plan to align management incentives with long-term goals of the business. It could also create a potential internal track for eventual monetization and succession planning that would motivate employees to stay with the company long-term. We feel an appropriate strategy would be to put a 401k plan in place for employees which allows for maximum annual deductions for the company and owners.

The risk of losing a key employee in the business can be devastating, so it could be helpful to establish key man insurance on critical employees. In addition, a specialist in captive insurance companies could establish value for many of the risks the company was already self-insuring.

Finally, a structured financial plan for the owners could diversify assets away from the concentrated wealth within the company. This could open up the opportunity for the business to take care of the owners for a change - especially given all of the hard work they put into building it.

Goal

The idea is to create a detailed plan for business and personal assets that would focus on execution and ideally relieve organizational stress. A strategy like this could help this small business build infrastructure that will strive to automate the business and increase equity value, and at the same time allow the owners to begin diversifying their wealth away from the business. We would provide strategic thinking and execution to help prepare this business for its next stage of life.