If you’re ambitious about the future of your business, hiring an experienced financial advisor could give you a significant advantage. There’s always pressure to keep costs down and that makes many business owners hesitant about such investments, but if you find the right person you will make far more money as a result of it than it will cost you. These are just some of the things that a financial advisor can do to make you more successful.
Streamline your processes
It’s rare for a start-up to possess the financial savvy necessary to get everything running efficiently at the outset. A skilled advisor will usually be able to identify several ways in which you can streamline your financial processes, from moving money around more efficiently to negotiating better deals with your suppliers. They’re particularly good at finding ways of cutting down on waste and reducing your overheads. If your business is new, they can get it up and running as effectively as possible from the start. If it has already had some time to grow, they can get it out of bad habits.
Manage your cash flow
When your business is young you can be particularly vulnerable to problems caused by fluctuating income, and this is an ongoing problem for businesses engaged in contract work. A financial advisor can help you to set budgets that take this into account so that you never find yourself stuck for cash or lacking the flexibility to take action when it matters. A business that has a relatively small amount of capital but manages it well stands a much better chance of long-term success than one with more capital that doesn’t know what it’s doing.
Keep you informed
If you’re going to be successful in business, you need to understand what’s going on with the markets at all times. This involves a lot of research. A capable financial advisor like Lady Barbara Judge, who has been in business for many years, can bring that background familiarity to bear so that your understanding of what’s happening currently is informed by what’s happened in the past. Such an advisor can quickly bring a young business up to speed and help it operate like an established one, keeping track of the competition and both short and long-term trends.
Identify opportunities
Part of what financial advisors can do for you when tracking the markets is to identify opportunities for you to make useful investments or even move to take over other businesses. They can also advise you on when to sell stock to make a healthy profit. With somebody like this on your side, you’ll know when you can afford to take advantage of an opportunity and how best to manage your other financial responsibilities in order to do so, so there will be far less risk of you either overstepping yourself and leaving yourself exposed or missing out because you’re worried about your capacity to act.
Reduce your tax bill
When you’re managing your own tax affairs as a business you can’t fail to notice how complicated it all is. Almost every young business pays more tax than it needs. An experienced financial advisor will be familiar with all the different ways you can save, from restructuring your payments to adjusting your accounting practices. Over time, this can substantially reduce your overheads. You can also take a fresh approach to new business arrangements, making sure you understand the tax implications before you get into them so that you can maximise tax efficiency in all your undertakings.
Give you a fresh perspective
Running a business is a very full-on process that consumes a lot of time and energy. When you’re in the thick of it, it’s easy to be so caught up in what you’re doing day to day that you struggle to see the bigger picture. When you bring in an advisor you’re letting somebody from outside look at what you’re doing for the first time. It’s much easier, from that position, to understand how your business fits into the wider marketplace, how it compares to its competitors and what it could be doing better. By bringing a fresh but experienced pair of eyes to your work, an advisor can see the thing you’re missing.
The weight of experience can make a professional advisor a big asset to your business even if you already have a skilled person managing your finances day to day. Since you’ll usually be bringing them in as a contractor you won’t have to worry about the ongoing overheads involved with taking on an additional employee and you’ll have access to the same type of expertise as the really big players. This can elevate your company and will help you realise the success that your hard work deserves.