How a Financial Advisor Can Accelerate Business Growth

Nearly every business owner that I’ve met with over my entire career has a number in mind, a number that would allow them to wake up every day and not worry about what comes next. As a business owner myself and serial entrepreneur, with all the scars to boot, I take tremendous joy in being a partner with all clients we work with to help them thrive in today’s competitive market and reaching their numbers.

With every relationship, there is a common but seemingly inevitable question that arises: “How can an advisor, such as yourself, help me to accelerate business growth?”

Just as the President of the United States surrounds himself or herself with a cabinet to provide advice regarding matters on which they may not have the knowledge or experience, you owe it to your business to act in the same manner. Every business is like a snowflake as there are no two that are the same. Some businesses need more sales growth, some need more marketing, some need more legal advice, some need more tax expertise, and some need more financial planning. We can help you determine what you need and ensure the team surrounding you has the traits, credentials, and licenses to assist. Some shy away from using advisors due to the cost, but these costs are worthwhile investments into your business and yourself. Between our CPA practice, wealth management practice, and recruiting agency, we work with everyone to create a unique roadmap for their personal life as well as their business.

Planning

Bringing in outside experts gives you an objective third-party lens on your business and its goals. As advisors, we tend to look at the 10-to-20-year view of the world in order to help you plan for changes that may occur. Whereas most advisors handle things based on what has happened, we are planners for the future. By having a strategic plan that is developed with our team, we will help you scale from good to great.

Guidance

Business is a jungle. How do you hack through it all to find a path? At the end of the day, there’s a desire for results. Having a group of experts surrounding you can act as guides to assess, evaluate, and recommend options across the spectrum of challenges that may arise. We can take care of complex tasks quickly and efficiently to help you make the best decisions as well as help to avoid costly mistakes. We can help predict the cyclicality of operations to make sure that you have accurate forecasts in place.

Implementation

If you’ve gotten this far with an advisor, that means that you have accepted both planning and guidance and are ready to put your plan into action. Your business has been able to get all the right people in the right places, get all of the infrastructure in place, the data and feedback loops established, and it’s T-minus zero now. This is where a financial advisor can help the rubber to meet the metaphorical road. As water starts to flow through the pipes, having someone on hand who can analyze results in near real-time can help make sure that you aren’t sailing blindly and that the actions are being realized as planned. If not, advisors can help to recalibrate the systems to make sure that your business continues to level up. While you are taking control of the business’ path, having a financial expert in the background can help you save time, money, and reduce stress.

Review & Reassess

After the dust settles, an advisor can provide a cool and objective view of what has happened to prepare for your next challenge that will lie ahead. Have things been going well? Where has the pain been? Where do you see the next phase of both your life and the business? These are a few of the aspects that we work through as we unpack what has been and move to the next step. When you get to the top of the mountain, you don’t simply keep running as you would obviously start going back downhill. You step back, you look at the scenery, you take a breath, and you enjoy it for a split second before taking on the next challenge. While you’ve been busy with this now-closed phase, there could have been a myriad of changes that have occurred either internally or externally. Can we implement the same plan that we created before or does it need to be retooled before moving forward to the next step? Are there blind spots that have developed while this new growth has been going on? It’s valuable time to understand the performance and risks associated with the past to prepare for what is next.

Succession

An owner’s exit from a business is one of the three guarantees in life, other than death and taxes. But while the business has been growing as you’ve planned, have you created value while being profitable? Profitability simply means that your business is making money, but it does not mean your business is valuable. Value is built only when a business can be sold or passed from generation to generation. The first question I ask a business owner who we’re starting a relationship with is: “What is the value of your business?” From there we help to explore the complex process of valuation from a financial and emotional perspective. Some are disheartened to hear that, to date, their business would go to zero if they passed away. An advisor can put mechanisms in place to be able to protect the business for future generations.

Businesses fail too often because of mismanagement. By surrounding yourself with a team of advisors who are experts and have the experience to help you plan, guide, implement, review, and reassess your precious business as it evolves, it will be able to survive, grow, and prosper. As the quarterback for your business, you oversee it all. Let us be one of your coaches on the sideline who can help you see the whole field.