As a business owner it\u2019s easy to think you\u2019ll work forever and who knows maybe you will. But what if you don\u2019t? If you decide you don\u2019t want to work anymore, or worse, you physically can\u2019t work any more how will you financially pay for your retirement? Because I need you to understand something \u2013 your retirement won\u2019t fund itself and neither will your business without a clear strategy. I speak to so many business owners who have no financial plan for their retirement and it breaks my soul, which is why I\u2019ve written this blog post. Because when you have a clear strategy your business can fund your retirement and ensure you live as nice a life in retirement (or even better) than you did whilst working. So keep on reading to find out how your business, with a clear strategy, can fund your retirement.<\/p>\n
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This page may include affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. The content of CharelleGriffith.com is for informational and educational purposes and should not be construed as financial advice.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Before discussing the different strategies you can use so your business is essentially supporting you financially for retirement, I want to make one thing clear \u2013 you\u2019ve got options. There is no one universally right way to financially prepare for retirement. There are many retired people who are VERY happy with the life they are living in retirement that have financed it in many different ways. Below isn\u2019t an exhaustive list of the only ways you can prepare. Instead, I\u2019m sharing some of the ways you can use your business to financially support your retirement.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You might decide to choose one strategy, you might go for a combination, you might take a completely different route. Honestly, I don\u2019t care as long as reading this blog post makes you think about what you can do and help you to make a decision about what you will do and start taking action.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n That being said here are some of the strategies to financing your retirement if you have a business.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One way to use your business to support your retirement is to build your business with the intention of selling your business (or exiting). Depending on the type of business and how successful your business is, it is very achievable to sell your business for a sum that will mean you have a comfortable retirement.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n However, if you are building your business to sell you have to have that in mind sooner rather than later, as it impacts how you build your business. It will mean ensuring your business has a good level of profitability, and ideally you\u2019d want to look at ways for your business to generate recurring or predictable income. You\u2019ll want to reduce founder dependency. This can often mean not having the founder as the face of the business and having a strong team that would mean the business could continue to successfully run without the founder. Good documentation of systems and processes are key. Building intellectual property that the business owns can help with valuation too.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n There are some people who start a business with the plan to exit all along. However, even if you have been building your business and now you think that\u2019s the route to go, it doesn\u2019t mean it is too late. For example, in recent years I\u2019ve seen multiple business owners with a business that is built upon their personal brand decide to split their company in two. The purpose behind splitting the business is so that one of the companies can be sold and the necessary changes are made to ensure that business is a good proposition for buyers, whilst the business owner is still able to use the other business to continue with some parts of the original business. For example, someone who speaks, offers a one-to-one service, and has a successful membership, course or programme will split their business so that they can sell off the membership, course or programme, whilst still being able to speak and offer one-to-one services.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Another strategy when considering how to use your business to support your retirement is to build a business that can operate with minimal involvement from you. The less you can be involved in the business, the longer the business can run without you having to go into proper retirement mode and shut the company down. By designing your business in the right way and having the right team around you, it could be that you can virtually step away from the day-to-day running of the business, but the business can still continue to run successfully and therefore provide you with an ongoing income stream in your retirement.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As a service-based business owner, it might be that building a business to sell or building a business you can step back from isn\u2019t realistic or what you want. Luckily, you still have options. If you know that ultimately there will come a point where you retire and so you no longer have a regular income or get a big pay out then you can decide to focus on building the business so that it is personally paying you enough to invest for retirement.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You might decide to invest in a pension, property or something else. But with this strategy the focus is on the business being able to pay you more than \u201cenough\u201d right now. You want to be in a position where the business is paying you an amount that enables you to live your desired lifestyle now, and you have additional income that you can be using to invest for your retirement.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\nYOUR RETIREMENT WON\u2019T FUND ITSELF AND NEITHER WILL YOUR BUSINESS WITHOUT A CLEAR STRATEGY<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
Strategy 1: Build a business you can eventually sell<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Strategy 2: Build a business that can operate with minimal involvement from you<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Strategy 3: Build a business that pays you enough now to personally invest for your retirement<\/strong><\/h2>\n