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March 13, 20177 Steps to a Successful Business
I’m gonna talk today about one of my favorite subjects. And it’s one for the entrepreneur.
7 Steps to a Successful Business
1. The first step you must do is determine where you are at right now. Where are your assets? How much money are you spending? What have you saved thus far? Do you have your business plan? Figure out exactly where you’re at.
2. Where do you want to be? Why are you starting your business? What aspirations do you have? Do you want to retire one day? Do you want to sell your business and travel the world? Do you just want to have a residual-based income that you can enjoy for the rest of your life?
3. Determine the gap. After you know where you are and where you want to be, determine the gap. How much is the difference from where you are currently and where you want to be?
4. Maximize your savings. A good financial planner or wealth manager will show you how to take the cash flow you have coming in and use that money and stretch it to where you’re paying down debt. You’re saving money appropriately for your long-term goals.
5. Review your insurance. Insurance is one of those things that we have to have. Many entrepreneurs are insurance poor. We have life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance. Who knows what that will be like? We have property and casualty insurance. We have workman’s comp. The list goes on and on. Make it habit to review all of your personal and business insurances once a year. This is a great opportunity to save some money on a yearly basis. Take that money and pay down debt, supply, or build assets.
6. Don’t forget to do your business planning. Business planning is a little different than personal planning. In the first 5 points we’ve spoken about, we’ve talked about is why are you starting a business and why do you have a business. Ultimately it’s to reach your goals. But business planning is looking at your business. You’ve heard the old adage. ‘Work ON your business rather than work IN your business’ In business planning, what you want to look at is maximizing cash flow. The way we talk about this in our world is you have goals, you review your goals and you adjust. You set your goal out and see how you’ve achieved your goals on a six-month or one-year basis and adjust. It’s a cyclical process you do on a yearly basis.
7. Cash flow planning. You know where you want to be and you know where you’re at. You know the gap in between. You’ve looked at insurance. You’ve gone through your business plan. Now you look at your cash flow. Remember, only YOU can build your wealth. No one else can. The IRS through taxes is going to be our biggest enemy. Interest is the second biggest enemy. So, manage your cash flow. Have an allocation for every dollar. Know where every dollar is going. Make sure you can track it. And that cash flow is probably the most important thing. If you know where you want to be, you know where you’re at, and you know how to get there; now it’s a matter of controlling your cash flow for you to reach your goals.
Guys, that’s 7 steps you should take to reach your financial independence as a business owner. Let’s continue to journey down this path together.
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