Business Owners Planning

Financial Planning for Business Owners

When you are full of ideas for starting a new business, all you can see is what’s going to happen tomorrow. The thought of having their vision turned to reality often blinds new entrepreneurs to that all-important question: Does it all makes sense financially? While passion is key to turning vision into a functional business, prudent financial planning is critical to ensure that reality comes to fruition, and continues to survive and thrive!  

WHY FINANCIAL PLANNING IS IMPORTANT FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

Just as even the savviest of pilots can’t always fly blind all the time, so too is the case with business owners. Meticulous financial planning, for the short-term, in the intermediate period, and for the long-term horizon, is vital if a business is to succeed. 

Without sound financial planning, even the best of business ideas will soon falter and perish. Business financial planning is the lifeblood for any venture to succeed, expand and flourish in the long run.

WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU

Here’s how our Business Financial Planning solutions can help you:

• Start-up financial planning: As you start up your new venture, you’ll need to finance its ongoing operations. Our experts can help uncover creative capital financing opportunities for you

• Business plans: To ensure the ongoing viability of your business, you’ll need help putting together a sound business plan – for the short, intermediate and long-term. We can help create that pan for you

• Contingency planning: Emergencies and unforeseen situations can arise anytime during the life of the business. It takes savvy financial advice to ensure you have the financial safety net to successfully weather the business through such events

• Taxation: Most jurisdictions offer a number of tax incentives to business owners, so that they might create, expand and continue operating in those jurisdictions. Unfortunately, many business owners are either unfamiliar of the tax-friendly nature of such incentives; or they underutilize them to the detriment of their business. Leave it to our experts to help you understand such incentives so you can apply them to minimize your business taxes 

• Asset acquisition: Whether you choose to own an asset outright for your business, or ensure its use through other means, will depend on the financing options available to you. We can help you make buy versus rent, versus lease decisions that are right for you

• Debt management: Is it best to borrow against business assets? Or should consider refinancing? Or would it make sense to dispose-off some assets to finance debt? These are every-day decisions that we help business owners make

• Business expansion and diversification: When it comes to expanding and diversifying your business, you’ll find us right beside you when evaluating financial proposals and financing options to fund those initiatives  

• Employee retention: No business is ever successful without satisfied employees. We’ll work with you to help offer attractive remuneration, compensation and benefits packages to your employees, that will motivate them to consider making a long-term career with you and your company

• Succession planning: What happens if something untoward happens to you? What if you wanted to step down, or take a less active role in the business? Is there someone groomed and primed to assume the mantle of leadership and succession?   

• Retirement, Estate and Legacy planning: And when it’s time for you to call it quits, we’ll be right there to ensure you are able to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. Through careful planning, we’ll not only make sure you enjoy a comfortable retirement, but that your legacy passes seamlessly to your next generation of successors

Tax Planning for Business Owners

Business transactions are becoming more complex each year. And with that, the world of taxation grows in complexity as well. As the rules of doing business, within a single jurisdiction or across multiple jurisdictions, change, so does the need for assessing their tax impacts on specific transactions. As a business owner, you have other critical things to worry about – like running your business. Why not trust experts with the tax planning aspects of your business, while you focus on the rest?

WHY TAX PLANNING IS IMPORTANT FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

As a business owner, it’s hard for you to be an expert in all matters - Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Accounting, Sales, Shipping, Procurement – and that’s why you hire the best talent to staff those roles. But many of those disparate functions have one thing in common: They have some form of tax element to them. 

Business taxes can sometimes be a barrier to growth and profitability of your business. However, if planned correctly, the tax codes offer a number of valid opportunities that business owners can leverage to their advantage. Without savvy tax planning, you could literally be losing thousands of dollars a year in unclaimed rebates, benefits, charge-backs and deductions,

Whether it’s Income Tax, Employment Taxes, Estimated Taxes, Self-Employment Tax, Excise Tax, Provincial Sales Taxes or Goods and Services Taxes – the legislative environment for each of them is too complex for any single individual to master and navigate. So, when it comes to assessing and planning your business taxes, you need an experienced team of Tax Planning professionals to guide you.

WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU

The objective of our Tax Planning service isn’t about avoiding taxes, but focused on the most effective interpretation and application of tax laws and statutes to defer, eliminate or reduce business taxes for our clients.

Our Tax Planning specialists provide invaluable advice and services to a range of business entities, including Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, Limited Liability Companies (LLPs), Business Corporations/Incorporated Companies, Co-operative structures and Not-for-profit entities. 

More specifically, we provide advice and services that include, but is not limited to:

• Reviewing and advising clients on long-term impact to their business, of tax legislation and proposed amendments

• Strategic tax planning advice to help you manage your effective tax rate  

• Planning and advice on Alternate Minimum Tax, including supporting you on all paperwork and other formalities to determine amounts owing – if any

• Consultations on the tax impact on specific transactions (Sale of assets, M&A activity, Import/Export transactions)

• Providing advise on the most effective tax structures for a specific type of business

• Considerations on the most effective ways to minimize your tax burden  

• Preparation of Individual, Corporate, Trust, Partnership and Sole-Owner tax returns

• Multi-state/inter-provincial tax planning advice, including compliance reviews

• Electronic tax filing so you receive your rebates, refunds and deductions quickly  

• Providing tax advice to clients when dealing with Federal, State/Provincial tax authorities

• Tax planning strategies and advice around Succession and Estate planning, to ensure that your exit from the company doesn’t trigger massive tax liabilities, or that your beneficiaries aren’t saddled with undue tax burdens from their inheritance from the disposal of business assets

Succession Planning for Business Owners

When entrepreneurs start a business, the last thing on their minds is succession planning. Most business owners spend a lot of time – as they should – on Operations Plans, Marketing Plans, Capital-spending Plans, Maintenance Planning, Staffing Plans…and more. But what about Succession Planning? Wouldn’t you like an orderly “exit” from the business, once it’s time for you to take a back seat?

WHY BUSINESS SUCCESSION PLANNING IS IMPORTANT

You’ve built your business through sweat, toil and tireless effort. For most entrepreneurs, their business operations represent a legacy that they’d like to leave to the next generation. And what would happen to the business in the event that you are suddenly incapacitated – is there someone reliable that can step into your shoes? Have you thought about the customers/clients that depend on the goods/services your company provides – who would service their needs if you are not around?

More importantly, given that many loyal employees count on working for the business long after the owner has passed, it makes sense to ensure someone with the proper vision for the business succeeds you.

Without a proper succession plan in place, family strife and internal (company) politics would threaten the future of the firm as a going concern. In some cases, companies without sound succession plans find themselves being pushed into bankruptcy or receivership. 

There are far reaching repercussions for not having a well-thought-out succession plan. Unfortunately, all of them are not too pleasant for the business, the business owner, his/her beneficiaries and the employees working for the company!  

WHAT WE CAN DO FOR YOU

Simply put, our Business Succession Planning service provides business owners peace of mind – the kind that comes from knowing you are well-prepared to relinquish control of the business on your own terms. And we do that by ensuring that the stewardship of the business passes into hands that are designated and approved by you - the business owner.

But succession planning is not just about designating a particular individual or group to step in after you’re gone. Our Business Succession Planning team lays out a comprehensive process for identifying, screening, grooming, and ultimately transitioning ownership to your designated successor/s when the time comes.    

Here’s a preview of what our Business Succession Planning service covers:

• Strategizing succession: Helping you identify the ideal succession strategy based upon any number of “end game” objectives that you have in mind: Maximize sales proceeds. Minimize tax implications. Create a lasting legacy. Assure a comfortable retirement.

• Building succession plans: We’ll consult with you about possible succession strategies: Pass the business on to your next generation? Hand it over to designated/trusted employees? Have professional management teams from outside step in and take over? Sell the business to a competitor and pass the proceeds to your heirs? Go public, leaving it up to the Board of Directors to deal with the company’s future?

• Understanding the impacts: Together, our Succession Planning experts will walk you through all of the legal, financial and tax implications for each of the various succession scenarios proposed. This impact analysis will help you determine which of the succession approaches makes best sense for you and the business   

• Identifying successors: Depending upon which strategy you choose, we’ll work with you to identify a list of skills and qualities needed in your successor. This phase of our Succession Planning often results in recommendations for training or mentorship well in advance of your exiting the company

• Multi-disciplined advice: In the event that the plan involves selling all or part of the business, our experts will work with a team of advisors, including Financial experts, Accountants, Insurance Agents, Realtors and Estate Planners to determine a fair and equitable valuation for the business

• Relationship-building: Finally, we’ll work with you to establish a comprehensive timeline for key milestones within the plan. And because our service is based on a long-term relationship, we’ll continually monitor and consult with you as your succession objectives evolve or change