“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
– Saint-Exupery
According to the SBA, most businesses fail. In fact, half of all businesses never make it to their fifth birthday.
Half!
They fail for all kinds of reasons (inadequate management, bad marketing strategy, ineffective employees, lack of cash, no profit, no demand, wrong location, and on and on…).
However, the main reason they fail is because no one was guiding the business owner on how to have a more profitable and higher cash flowing business.
If they did, these businesses would not have failed. Period.
It’s not enough to be an expert at your business. It’s not enough to have an accountant. It’s not enough to get a ‘business coach’.
What you need is someone that can do three things for you every single month.
- Someone to track profit and cash flow.
- Someone to analyze the strengths and weaknesses.
- Someone to propose corrective actions
This is what a CFO does for big businesses. We believe that all businesses (large or small) need someone like this.
That’s why we exist.
We created a unique and affordable service just for businesses that are producing revenue between $500k and $5mm a year.
We’ll match you with a CFO who you’ll meet with each month.
Your CFO will guide you through what we call the One Clear Path every single month.
The result: You’ll know exactly what to do to have a growing, more profitable, and successful business.
How do we form a better plan for your business? By starting at the source. Ideally, we implement your strategies from the ground up. We don’t just examine your previous year’s taxes and/or your business deductions. Rather, we look at your company structure, your current accounting system, your HR implementation, etc. That’s where we can work together to build lasting changes that allow for forward progress and arriving at your desired goal.
In helping you with business planning our outsourced CFO services support you on multiple levels! Imagine having an experienced financial advisor on your team for monthly meetings. Someone who understands you and your business who can double check your numbers and prevent unwanted surprises. An accountant who’s more concerned about helping your company grow than billable hours.
With that in mind, here are just a few of the areas we target:
- Selecting the right structure/entity for your business
- Creating a business plan and budget projections
- Forecasting future cash flow
- Analyzing your overall profitability
- Reviewing your accounting operations
- Assisting with financing options
- Buying or selling a business
- Partnering with payroll and benefit solutions to save you money
Tax Planning and Preparation
As we mentioned, planning for a lower tax liability starts well before tax season—ideally a year or more. In addition to time, you also need an experienced accountant on your side who can keep up on all of the most recent changes in tax law. That way, when the reform swings in your favor, you can maximize on the benefits. Or when it doesn’t, you can lower your exposure as much as possible. We can even help you find opportunities to lower taxes that you didn’t know existed!
With a solid, long-term plan in place, we can help you by:
- Taking advantage of all available tax deductions (both as a business and as an individual)
- Deferring eligible income, so it’s taxed at the lowest rate possible
- Choosing the best (and easiest) accounting practices to implement with your business
- Preparing your Income Tax Return in a timely and efficient manner
If we’ve done our jobs properly, your quarterly estimates and annual returns will show the effectiveness of the practice(s) we put in place. This cuts down on unexpected surprises at the end of the year and gives you a better idea of how much you’re actually making. With our data management on your side, you’ll better understand the profitability of your company even as you continue to grow at the pace you prefer.
When you need financial planning that goes above and beyond basic tax preparation, come get the direction you need from Lodestar Advisors. See how our accounting services can help you reach all of your business goals.