Celebrate Financial Awareness Day With These 6 Tips
Written by Kim Quinn, EA
Celebrated on August 14, National Financial Awareness Day was created by the US Financial Literacy and Education Commission to promote financial literacy among Americans. At VSH, we invite you to take a moment to celebrate your achievements and reflect on maintaining and growing a successful financial future.
1. Consider Personal & Business Health: As a business owner, it is important to maintain your own health as well as that of your business. Consider how you treat yourself to maintain physical and mental well-being. Use planning tools to manage the need to retain and organize information, consider what you consume, allow yourself periods of rest, and keep learning. Rest is productive. Connect to local resources to stay sharp, focused, and inspired in your business. In Whatcom and Skagit counties, you can connect to your local Chamber of Commerce or the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) and Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County (EDASC) for support.
2. Know Your Cash Flow: Cash is your primary asset. Knowing your cash flows – incoming and outgoing – can make all the difference. Effective cash flow management frees up your time to focus on what matters most: your customers, developing your team, and growing your business.
3. Budget for business spending. If you have not already, it is time to plan. Planning for your business’s financial health allows you to create financial goals, assess the cost of running your business and how it compares to the industry average, and make contingency plans. When your planned budget is in place you can regularly review your costs against your projections. These regular reviews allow you to address items that may need adjustment.
4. Tax Planning: Using the resources of your VSH tax advisor allows you to analyze your financial plan from a tax perspective and act on items in the most efficient tax manner before the year ends. Refer to the VSH Tax Planning Guide as a tool to help you.
5. Business Valuation: Securing independent business valuations provides an expert assessment of your business. Without knowing the true value of your business, you could be leaving money on the table. Here are six reasons business owners should consider a business valuation.
6. Start transition planning early. With a constantly changing workforce, planning for the continued success of your business is important. Transition planning allows a business owner to account for the retirement of leaders, passing the business to the next generation and selling. By doing this you have a backup plan if there is an unanticipated change.
Our team of advisors and professionals are dynamic, client-focused, and diverse. We focus on you and your business to help you succeed. Contact us to set up an appointment.
