The 8 Services Your Business Needs to Generate Wealth
While we hope you genuinely love what you do, we also know that you have financial goals and an ideal lifestyle in mind. Your business should be used as a tool to help you achieve what you want in life.
Too often in our line of work we see business owners who struggle to get the results they want. They work seven days a week but neglect strategic activities and planning that lead to increased profits and long-term stability. They work harder, not smarter. That’s an issue.
There are a few things preventing you from developing strategic plans. First and foremost, you may not know what you should be focusing on to improve your business, generate more wealth, and keep more wealth. Secondly, it’s hard to focus on strategic activities when there are so many day-to-day tasks to complete at your business. Thirdly, even if you do have the time, you may lack an awareness of how to develop and execute those strategic plans.
Enter the ‘GEPC 8 to Great’ framework: it’s the eight services your business needs to generate wealth. It takes the guesswork out of creating and protecting a successful business and gives you confidence in the future. All of these aspects directly relate to your ability to generate and retain wealth for both your business and your family.
It’s time to direct your energy and effort towards activities that have the most impact - not just now, but in the future.
1. Growth
Your business needs to grow. Whether you are focused on sales growth, profit growth, or the growth of a particular type of client, the bottom line is you need to grow. As the old saying goes, if you aren’t growing you are dying.
With so much to focus on, you need to engage the right professionals to help you. That could be a marketing professional with a plan for things like SEO and digital marketing, or a coach who can help your team convert more leads into sales. Our team can provide you with a clear picture of your finances so you can make educated decisions about how to grow.
Most businesses want growth but fall short of it because they aren’t willing to invest in the future and think ahead. Learn from their mistakes and position yourself for growth.
2. Profit
You don’t just want to break even year after year. You want to make a profit. Profit gives you the ability to invest in the future or take that family vacation you’ve been dreaming of. Unfortunately, it does not happen randomly. It is something that you need to be focused on all the time, particularly since it’s a lot harder to make money than it is to spend it. There are a couple things to be concerned with here: cashflow, business operations, taxes, etc. They all play a role in the profitability of your business.
At GEPC we can determine if there are areas of your business that aren’t getting adequate returns on your investment. Similarly, we can find out which areas of your business are the most lucrative and help you find a way to focus on them. We can also lower your tax liability as much as possible so you can keep more of your profits. The government can take a significant bite out of your earnings if you don’t plan adequately, so it’s important to think ahead.
3. Cash Flow
Cash is king in your business. You need it to survive and stay in business.
With that being said, it can be difficult to track the ins and outs of every transaction at your business. Most businesses don’t have great cashflow practices; they don’t know how to track it, and they don’t know how to manage it in a way that benefits their business.
At GEPC we can help. We can coach you on how to adequately manage your cash flow, forecast your future cash flow so you know how much you’re working with, and point you in the right direction if your cash flow is dwindling fast.
Don’t underestimate this crucial component; you need cash flow in order to fund growth. We highly recommend getting started on this one fast.
4. Asset Protection
The fourth service category is asset protection. Building wealth takes a lot of hard work and effort. You don’t want to lose any of it.
Our team can help implement asset protection strategies like corporate structuring and identify risks that may require outside protection. We can help with, or suggest a corporate insurance provider to make sure your business assets are fully protected from unexpected risks.
5. Tax Minimization
Ah, taxes. They’re a necessary but unpleasant part of doing business.
At GEPC we want you to pay as little in taxes as possible over your lifetime. We believe you should spend your hard-won earnings on your business and your family – not on government programs.
When people think of tax minimization they often think of short-term strategies, like the amount you pay yourself through your business on a yearly basis. While we think that’s something you should address (and something we do at GEPC), we encourage you to consider implementing a long-term strategy as well.
A long-term strategy involves looking at your sources of income and wealth, figuring out how they relate to each other, and determining how they could be taxed. From there we develop a plan that allows you to keep more of your wealth. The savings can be substantial over your lifetime, so it’s worth planning ahead.
6. Financial Retirement
Though retirement may be a long way off, you need to start thinking about it now so you can prepare for the future. It takes a lot of money to retire, and as a business owner you don't have a typical pension plan like most people. We want to make sure you are generating enough wealth to cover your expenses and living costs during retirement.
This service goes beyond just buying investments. You may need wealth and investment advisors, but you want to make sure they are working with the big picture in mind to ensure you have sufficient wealth to retire and it fits with your long term tax planning.
7. Succession Planning
One way or another, you will exit your business. You don’t have a choice when it comes to that. You do, however, have options when it comes to how you exit. You can sell it, pass it along to family members, or shut it down entirely. At GEPC we can take you through all the options and explain the financial impact of each.
8. Legacy & Estate Planning
It’s your legacy. Make the most of it with an estate plan.
A clearly defined estate plan will ensure that your assets are distributed in the way you intended in the event of your death. It will minimize your taxes, so your inheritors will receive more of your hard-earned wealth. It will streamline the transfer of assets, so the people you care about won’t be burdened by the complicated needs of the legal system in Canada.
When you hire a Trust & Estate practitioner you will discuss trust agreements, tax minimization strategies, etc. There’s a lot to take into account, which is why it’s important to have a professional helping you through the process.
The ‘GEPC 8 to Great’ services will help you succeed not just now, but in the future.
Want to get started? Greg Evans is a CPA CA TEP in Lindsay Ontario. His team at Greg Evans Professional Corporation works with ambitious business owners who want to generate wealth for their families. You can book your free consultation by sending Greg a DM or visiting gregevans.ca