Don't Forget About Your Personal Finances

As a small business owner, your business is front-and-center in your thoughts.  You take great care to make sure that your company’s finances are in order.  So, are your personal finances taking a back seat?  Don’t forget about these aspects of your personal finances:

Retirement
Because you are self-employed, you may not think about a plan for retirement, or you might have the hope that the success of your business will be your retirement.  It’s just as important for you to plan for retirement as anyone else in the workforce.

As a small business owner, you have some unique opportunities that you can take advantage of when it comes to retirement planning like a Single Participant 401(k) Plan.  This plan has higher limits, and even higher limits for owners over age 50.  This plan may be higher than others, but the potential tax savings due to the higher limits may be well worth it.  There are other plans like Simple IRAs and SEP IRAs that would allow you to offer retirement savings to your employees, if you have them, as well as yourself.

Insurance
You probably have all of your business insurance needs in-line, making sure that you and your business are covered in the event of property damage or injury.  If you are a single-employee and own your own business, you need to make sure you have personal health and life insurance.  If you have employees, you may look into the benefits of offering insurance to them and participating in those plans as well, which could save you money personally.

Make sure to review your insurance needs on a regular basis (experts suggest annually) and make changes as the needs of your family change.  If you haven’t updated your insurance since before you began your business or since it has grown substantially, it’s time for an update.

Estate Planning
It’s important as a business owner to have a business succession plan in place to make sure that your business survives without affecting your family’s financial security.  You’ll also want to create an estate plan for your personal finances.  If nothing else, have a basic will created.  Be sure to update your will and/or estate plan in the event you marry, divorce, have a new child, move to another state, start a new business, take on partners, or acquire substantial new assets.