Manage, Grow, and Sell Your Business

Posted: 6-17-21 | Innovia Wealth

At Strategies Wealth Advisors, our team of professional advisors has the knowledge and experience to help guide business owners through each stage of ownership and development, from startup, to growth, to sale, and beyond.

Guiding a business to success is challenging. We are passionate about serving business owners because they are the backbone of our economy. Their families, their employees, their companies, and our communities depend on their success. We are here to support them in meeting their goals, building their companies, and expanding their own wealth and future opportunities.

Business Owner Advisory Services

Every business owner has a top line and a bottom line they have to plan for. Beyond these top and bottom lines, there is the triple bottom line. This represents the excess cash flow from the business that goes to support the owner’s lifestyle, his future, and the future of his family. Unfortunately, most owners do not plan for the triple bottom line. Helping them grow that triple bottom line is our specialty.

We help business owners interested in succeeding in both the short and long term in the following ways:

Business Succession Planning

Business success is more than profits.

Ultimately, success is about building a legacy and enough financial success for your future goals. Too many business owners exit their companies with far less reward than their hard work over the years deserves. This is heartbreaking.

Whether your goals include the eventual sale of your business to a competitor or a talented team member or transferring leadership to the next generation, you need to plan for all those options to be open to you when that day comes. It often arrives before you expect it to. Do not spend your entire life building something of value only to see it dwindle precisely at the moment you should be reaping the rewards of your life’s efforts.

Our professional advisors are ready to talk to you about your ultimate goals for your business and your life afterwards. Succession planning can have a profound and lasting impact on you and the value of your business.

Buy/Sell Agreement Consulting and Funding

Are you protecting the future of your business?

The success of your business depends on more than its current performance or tangible assets. Leadership is the key to shepherding it into a bright future. If you or your co-owners were to retire or experience an untimely life event like death or disability, could your business still function effectively? Would your family be provided for?

A buy/sell agreement is a contract between company owners that formally decides what will happen to each owner’s share of the business if a triggering event were to happen. Frequently funded by life insurance, buy/sell agreements eliminate uncertainty, set a fair selling price for the company, create liquidity, and maintain harmony.

Additionally, the smooth functioning of many companies relies on the skill or knowledge of pivotal employees. Key person insurance protects a business from the effects of the loss of any vital employees. If your company has staff members who are truly invaluable to your business, this is a way to ensure your company is protected should they leave.

We will help you identify any areas of risk involving changes in ownership or key personnel and create legal or insurance solutions.

Corporate Retirement Plans

What is the best plan for your company?

To save on current income taxes, retirement plans have become the most well-known retirement savings vehicle for employees. With many different ways to design these plans, we start with understanding the goals you would like to accomplish and then work backwards.

There are countless ways to look at and utilize 401k plans and other tax-saving structures. Allow us to show you how you can use 401k plans to your advantage in ways you didn’t know were possible.

Entity Structuring for Ownership

Your business has grown and matured, but has the structure of your business kept up?

Often the best corporate structure for one phase of your business does not translate well into another phase. Understanding that yesterday’s plan is not going to work tomorrow, we highly recommend you consider having your company’s legal structure evaluated for your current and future estate needs.

We have found significant tax savings from dusting off and rechecking the assumptions used in the past. It’s not all about tax savings, it’s also about protecting yourself and your family from lawsuits and other financial vulnerabilities.

Pre/post Transaction Planning for the Sale of Your Business

There’s more to retirement than golfing.

Your business has been the center of your financial life. You have stuck with it through good times and bad. This is a common story, but selling your business will be a large lifestyle change.

Turning your illiquid, closely-held business into a big check can be life altering in the best way possible. Unfortunately, it is too often the case that someone will spend a lifetime building a business and sell it for pennies on the dollar. Additionally, many CEOs do not always plan well for what they will do after they step down from their companies. Let our professionals help you plan for the most rewarding experience, both financially and personally.