Originally posted via mindmybusinessnyc.com – https://www.mindmybusinessnyc.com/why-you-need-a-financial-advisor/
According to research, only 40% of small business owners use the services of a financial advisor. Does this mean it is possible to be successful without availing the services of a financial advisor?
The success of any business depends on how it manages its finances. Financial planning involves having clear goals and developing a strategy on how to use available resources in the best possible way to achieve those goals. It ensures that you don’t just meet your short-term goals – those related to cash flow and profits, but also long-term goals of growth and expansion.
Many entrepreneurs think they alone can handle the financial issues of their organization, saving the costs of hiring a finance team. The truth is, finance is a tricky area and one that requires expert advice to succeed. That’s where the role of a financial advisor comes into play.
A financial advisor has the skills and experience to offer sound financial advice, manage your taxes, and generate maximum returns from your investment. This is why hiring a financial advisor is actually an investment guaranteed to pay off, rather than a cost.
A study shows that fewer than 25% of small business owners have a formal plan to transfer their business to another entrepreneur when reaching retirement. This shows that without a financial advisor, it can be difficult for small business owners to carry out long-term financial planning and make future decisions.
With the financial planning and advisory industry in the US growing at an annual rate of 4.8% in the last five years, reaching revenues of $60.4 billion, many business owners are now starting to realize the benefits of hiring a financial advisor.
Source: IBIS World
If you are also considering whether you should hire a financial advisor for your business, here are our top 7 reasons to convince you.
Financial Advisors Reduce Your Burden
If you are running your own business, you are probably performing many different roles at once. Particularly if you are an entrepreneur, you may find yourself being the head of many departments within your business — such as product development, marketing, quality assurance and customer support.
It is you who will be thinking about what new products to bring to the market, how to promote your brand, and how to ensure customers have a satisfactory experience dealing with the company. In such situations, you sometimes become so occupied with managing everything all at once that you fail to allocate sufficient time to planning your finances, even though it is an area that clearly requires attention.
This is where a financial expert comes in handy as they can take some load off you, helping you with the finances. You can have some peace of mind, knowing there’s an expert taking care of your financial situation.
Check the following ways how a Brisbane financial planner or anywhere in the world can help reduce your financial burden:
- Understands Every Aspect Of Financial World: Financial advisers help clients by providing expert financial advice and developing effective financial planning to tackle challenges and reach goals.
- Serves As Your Financial Partner: A financial planner understands the challenges you’re facing when it comes to managing your finances. Overcome debt and bankruptcy with the help of an expert team of financial experts.
- Ensures You Take A Practical Path To Reach Your Goals: A financial expert can help you make smarter decisions than before, making your financial dreams a reality.
- Makes Your Financial Dream Achievable: Make better financial decisions through constant follow-up and sound financial planning, prioritizing your best interests.
- Helps You Create A Flexible Financial Plan: A well-designed financial plan should adapt to your life changes. So, a financial planner will find ways to continually adjust your financial plan as your life situation changes. This way, you’re always in the best financial position to reach your goals.
Bring Their Experience to The Business
Anyone can gain knowledge of financial matters by educating themselves, but you still cannot match the expertise provided by a professional. This is because professional advisors have extensive training along with years of experience working with different clients.
Their experience is valuable — they can assess your business practices and methods and suggest improvements based on the best practices in the industry. They will ensure you don’t mismanage your resources and use them to generate maximum returns.
Depict Your Future Plans for The Company
Owners are often caught up in the day-to-day management of the business that they forget to look at the bigger picture and think of their long-term goals. A financial advisor will ensure you have a clear vision for the future and that the business is headed in the right direction in terms of stability and growth.
They can make forecasts for future performance based on various financial indicators like — considering market conditions, technological developments, changing competition and predict likelihood of the business achieving its objectives. This way, you will know whether your strategy is paying off or a change in action is needed.
They can also help you make investment decisions by projecting whether a new product or project is likely to be profitable. They also help you determine when your ventures will start generating returns so that you can plan expansion.
Financial Advisors Help Cut Costs
Since financial advisors are focused on making the best use of available resources, they are determined on cutting costs where possible and reducing wastage to a minimum. They can help you develop an accounting system to monitor costs.
Once you have such a system in place, you will be able to identify major variances in costs on a periodic basis, allowing you to take corrective action as soon as possible, to ensure that costs fluctuate within the budget.
Provide an Independent, Third-Party Opinion On Your Finances
Investment decisions that are influenced by feelings, especially those of fear and uncertainty, often come with a high chance of failure. Objectivity is very important when making investment decisions – you need to put your emotions aside and then decide what course of action to take.
Source: Pexels
A professional advisor provides this independence and objectivity. They ensure you have all the necessary information you need and give you valuable recommendations based on their experience, allowing you to make better decisions.
When you know you have an expert providing you with realistic information, you can make your decisions with a lot more confidence.
Do Research and Provide Solutions
Financial advisors are into research. The nature of their profession is such that have a complete insight of market and industry trends. They apply meticulous approach in legal and taxation matters. When working with you, they will use this research to provide solutions to your problems based on specific needs.
For instance, if your business is short of cash and requires financing, the financial advisor — after going through your financial reports and market trends — will decide whether you should opt for debt or equity based financing. It’s the financial advisor who’ll decide whether to go for traditional business loans or Fast Capital Business Loans, based on your needs, after comparing all possible options before make deciding on one.
Balance Your Personal and Business Finances
A lot of people start a business to improve their financial position but once the project is off the ground and running, they become so focused that they forget to actually analyze the personal gains they are generating from it. For instance, it may be tempting to reinvest your share of profit, instead of withdrawing it. A financial advisor ensures that both you and your business do well in financial terms.
Retirement is something many business owners worry about because you don’t get to have a pension if you are running your own business. A financial advisor will help you plan for your future, suggesting ways to manage your personal savings so that you can reap the benefits of your labor even after you retire.
They will ensure you don’t place all your eggs in one basket and you have alternate investments, in case the business doesn’t do as well as expected.
Take a look at the following financial tips to help balance your personal and business finances:
- Set Up Separate Bank Accounts: Draw on the right bank account at the right time, and review your bank statements come tax time to give you a clear picture of your finances. You can use your bank statements as a way to create accurate financial reports.
- Keep Separate Storage For Receipts: Make sure to prioritize storing your business receipts properly because a tax auditor cares more about your business expenses than your personal expenses.
- Don’t Exceed Your Salary: Write a check for your personal account for the same amount monthly to make it easier for you to stay on budget.
- Set A Business Budget: Don’t pull out more money from your business than what’s needed. Having a clear budget and analysis of your business earning can help you avoid pumping money from your personal accounts into your business account when there’s a shortfall.
Bottom Line
Managing business finances is nowhere near easy, whether it is short-term issues such as managing cash flow and loans or long-term objectives related to growth and investments. Making the right choices ensures financial wellbeing of the business while any mistakes can turn out to be very costly. This is why hiring a financial advisor is always a good idea. Consider it an investment, not a cost – it will be a decision you won’t regret.
