Tag: value

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What do you value?

Struggling to write this today as I hide in a café in the village while a house clearance company dispose of 14 years of my life.

But I’m a natural optimist (and the future is looking very good once I’ve waved goodbye to the memories here) so it’s easy to see the silver linings.

I’ve always believed that people are more important than things and so it was a no-brainer that I would choose to run my first business on just 25 hours per week so that I could spend time around my kids as they were growing up. I also worked from home until the team grew beyond 5 people and we had to take on external offices in the next town.

Working on limited hours meant that I soon became an acknowledged expert on how to run my business as efficiently as possible and it’s something that I love to share with accounts and business clients through coaching and courses. Which is how my second business was born.

Seeing my possessions go out of the door (some to new homes via a charity, and some to the dump) is hard but they are just objects compared to the family, friends, staff, and clients who ate around my dining table or shared their dreams in my offices.

What are your most precious memories? Does your business allow you to do what you want to do?

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Caffeine pill or freshly brewed coffee?

Plenty of people are dependent on caffeine so why don’t they take caffeine pills? They are legal after all. They don’t even drink instant coffee that can be made in … an instant. 

Instead they prefer to pay exorbitant amounts and wait ages for a barista to perform their dark art. And, even to me, a tea drinker, it is an art. Some of the best baristas even manage a performance up to the standards of Tom Cruise behind the bar in Cocktail (if you’re too young to remember then the trailer is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUwj3OE2LM4 *heads-up to turn the sound down if you have little ones around*).

So then it’s not just the caffeine what are they paying for? It’s the added value of the taste and even the experience of the performance.

If you want to earn higher prices then what can you add over and above the purely functional? 

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Retirement planning

No matter what age you are it is still worth thinking about how you will save for your retirement. And I don’t just mean saving your teeth.

There are 3 main ways that your business can fund your retirement:

1. Increase value of business for sale

If you have a valuable business this can be sold at the point of retirement to fund your new lifestyle. Your business value will increase if it is highly systemised and not dependent on you.

2. Systemise your business for residual income

If your business is highly systemised you can step out of it or just reduce your hours and still have a generous income. Whilst we often coach accountants and business owners who want to sell up, two of them have been so pleased with the process that they have actually decided not to sell yet as the revamped business operates so smoothly and takes less of their time. It’s a bit like doing up your house for sale and then deciding that you like it so much that you won’t move after all.

3. Increase profits to invest elsewhere

Some businesses have limited sale value as they will always be dependent on the expertise of the owner. In this case it makes more sense to increase your profits to invest elsewhere. Your company can pay into a third party pension scheme or SIPP very tax efficiently or you may prefer to take your profits out now, pay the tax and invest in property.

Whichever way you choose to fund or retirement, and whether you use us to help you to improve your business or not, please remember to take care of your teeth.

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