Dying with nothing

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“Protection is critical!”

A young work-at-home business Mum with an inoperable brain tumour has less than 12-months to live.  She has no partner to support her and is unable to continue working.  She has a personal loan, two maxed-out credit cards and little cash savings to fall back on.  She relies on charity and the financial generosity of friends.

Her greatest regret is that she can no longer provide for her young children.  She is distraught at the prospect of what might become of them after she passes away.  She knows she is leaving them in poverty.

A friend asks her if she has any insurance.  She discovers that she has a small amount of life insurance through her last employer’s superannuation fund.    That will help her children a little after she has gone but is of no use to her while she is alive.

She has no Total & Permanent Disability insurance (TPD), critical illness (trauma) insurance or income protection, all of which could have helped her while she is alive.

She doesn’t know it but had she held her life insurance policy outside superannuation, she may have qualified for a terminal illness lump sum benefit in advance of the death benefit.  Benefits like this are not always available in superannuation.

Whilst financial planning and insurance advice can’t cure her inoperable brain tumour, it will solve the problem of dying with nothing; or worse, dying with nothing but debt.

For business & personal financial advice tailored to your needs call Gary personally on 0408 756 531


Call me if you are in trouble …

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Business coaching Brisbane

Call me and I will help you

Is this you? You are very good at what you do but you are not making enough money to make ends meet.  You are passionate about what you do.  Customers love your work but still you are not profitable.

You are a motivated, hard-working person.  You live in the suburbs with your family.  You are independently minded and, like millions of other Aussies, you are giving business a red-hot go.

But what started out as a dream is starting to feel like a nightmare.  Your path to freedom is quickly becoming your financial prison.  As much as you try, you can’t pin-point the problem.

With children at school and a mortgage to pay, stress levels are rising. You are not sleeping.   More money is going out than coming in.  Business and personal debt is blowing out.

Your day of reckoning is coming fast.  You have to make a difficult decision – do you tip more money in, or do you cut and run?  If you stay, you risk bankruptcy.  If you shut up shop and get a job, it will take you a decade to recover.  It is a terrible feeling.

Your other option is to seek help.

From my experience, your problem is likely to be lack of financial management.  Your skill set is centred on the products and services you sell.  However there is more to know in business.  Financial management and control is a very common blind spot.

A common example …

“If your product and service costing is wrong, your profit margin could be less than you think.   So, no matter how good your products and services are you will never make money.”

My solution

I will personally come and help you.  I have no system to sell and I don’t have a magic wand.  Nor do I have any intention of writing a ‘door-stop’ size business plan.  I will just roll up my sleeves, stand beside you and help you.

What you are hiring is grey hair; the result of 30 years diversified business experience.  There are no guarantees, but if your business is not too far gone, it shouldn’t take long to point you in the right direction.  From there I will help you to prepare a very short, concise action plan.  From there, we can talk about ongoing business coaching.  The cost to you will be nowhere near as great as the cost of doing nothing.

Call me now for personal attention

Gary 0408 756 531

Why plan your business exit?

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#1 business consultancy Australia

Business exit planning specialist

Ten (10) great reasons to plan your business exit are:

  1. To protect the most valuable asset you own
  2. To leave on your own terms
  3. To second guess the unexpected
  4. To make your business sale-ready
  5. To attract the buyer you want at the price you want
  6. To secure the sale or succession arrangements you want
  7. To be eligible for the small business CGT concessions
  8. To secure your retirement
  9. To bequeath your wealth in a fair and protected manner
  10. To keep the family business in the family until you decide otherwise

If you value the business asset that you have spent half a lifetime building, then nurture, protect it and allow it to work harder for you.

For quality business planning

Call Gary on 0408 756 531 or email gary@garyweigh.com

It pays to insure

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#1 business consultancy Australia

When it comes time to sell a business, everyone wants a valuable and readily saleable asset to sell.  So you must care for it, nurture it and protect it if you want full value at sale time.

Your business is the sole source of your income and your family’s lifestyle.  It educates your children, and is the well-spring of all saving, spending and wealth building.

Ultimately, it becomes your superannuation nest-egg that you will finally cash out in the hope of financing a secure retirement.

A small to medium business is only as good as its owner.  You are its most important asset.  Without you it may lose its way or worse, it might not run at all.

Your business it your lifetime project and occasionally things can go wrong.  The possibilities are numerous but common causes include:

  • Ongoing health problems
  • Premature death
  • Relationship upheaval *

(*e.g. one partner divorces, business partners in dispute, one departs for a better offer)

It pays to insure and thereby minimise the financial impact of interruptions or threats that you don’t see coming.  This is just sensible risk management.

A new age in financial advice

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Business consultancy Australia

MyProsperityForum is a fast convenient way to access unbiased financial advice.  If you are busy and short of time, simply subscribe at www.myprosperityforum.com and log in at any time of the day or night.  Ask questions, see what others ask, check out the articles & FAQ.  The forum is ideal for anyone who can’t afford the time, or doesn’t want to make a business hours appointment for financial advice.

Your host is Gary Weigh, a friendly and very experienced financial planner.  He has grey hair and extensive knowledge, the result of 30 years of solving problems and giving good advice to Aussie individuals, families and businesses.

Gary will guide you through the twists and turns of superannuation, savings, investment, sensible building wealth, finance, retirement planning, estate matters and more.  If you are a business owner, he will give you advice on building your business so that you can ultimately exit on your own terms.

You can trust that MyProsperityForum provides unbiased advice and education only.  There are no products for sale in the forum, and no product push.  However, Gary will explain to you how various product types work.  He will also make complex government rules and difficult financial concepts easy for you.

If in the future you decide to purchase a financial product or need a referral to a specialist professional, then simply ask and Gary will make arrangements for you outside the forum.

In MyProsperityForum you have access to expert, unbiased advice 24/7.  Use it short term to gain financial know-how and do your own thing; or use it long term as your trustworthy financial planning companion.  So before you take the next step on your journey to prosperity, run it by Gary in the forum.

If you value good advice, subscribe now to MyProsperityForum only $49.97 per month

Tweet to @MyProsperityFor

Top 10 priorities when starting a business

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When you are managing start up business there are 10 key things that I suggest you think about before you take the leap.

  1. Understand your reasons for wanting to go into business
  2. Be truthful with yourself and know your limitations
  3. Don’t leap until you have scouted out a safe landing
  4. Business is a response to customer demand so make sure it exists
  5. Realise that you are entering a life of service to customers.
  6. Be certain you are comfortable with constant change
  7. Money is useful but experience, competence and teamwork are critical
  8. Your job is to perform the high payoff activities not put out fires.
  9. Focus on income and traction, not on expenses
  10. Beware of obsolescence.  Adopt technology and adapt to demand

Business risks & outcomes you never think about!

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Business planning consultancy Brisbane

Gary Weigh, principal

Answer the following and then ask yourself if you are prepared for these outcomes.  Are you taking unnecessary risks with the future of the most valuable asset you own.  Business planning could save you a fortune if misfortune strikes.

  1. “If you died tomorrow, would your business die with you?”
  2. “Would you be happy to allow your family to inherit your business debts?”
  3. “Would your spouse be interested or capable of replacing you, after inheriting your share of a business in which he or she had no previous involvement?
  4. “How well do you think your spouse and your business partner would fare together in business if you died?  Is it something that either would want?”
  5. “If you were the surviving business partner, how would you feel about being locked in business with your deceased business partner’s spouse?”

The fact is that most owners don’t have a ‘plan B’.  There is no protection or fall-back strategy in place because mostly, the owner’s focus is in the ‘now’ and not in the future.  There is also a general lack of education and risk awareness.  So business planning tends to be replaced by eternal optimism that nothing will go wrong.

However, Murphy’s Law states that whatever can go wrong will go wrong.  It is only a matter of when and how severe.  When a business starts to suffer, there remains a continuing obligation on the owner to repay business debt, personal debt, leases, contractual payments and other expenses.

Finding a buyer at short notice can be difficult and receiving fair value for your equity is going to be impossible if the business is steadily losing money.

To find out more about Business Succession and Owner Exit planning:

Contact Gary on 0408 756 531 or email gary@garyweigh.com

Will you receive fair value for your business?

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Business planning Australia

The reality is that your business, like every other business, has its ‘ups’ and ‘downs’.  Good people come and go, owners become jaded, stressed, and sick.  Accidents happen and with increasing age, an owner chances of dying prematurely or suffering a critical and debilitating health event, significantly increase.

Larger businesses can cope in the owner’s absence because there are enough people and systems to carry on.  However, this is not the case in smaller businesses.  If the owner is absent, the business usually suffers.

Why?  Because, when misfortune strikes and there is no ‘plan B’, it doesn’t take long for the sudden silence and inactivity to cause customers to go elsewhere.  Revenue falls, and market value falls with it.

Planning a prosperous exit, under any conditions, expected or unexpected, is critical because it represents the culmination of your lifetime of work.  It is your one and only opportunity to cash-out an asset which may even exceed the value of your home.

Furthermore, the after-tax and after-debt proceeds from a sale may have to last you and your family for the rest of your lives.  So it is no small undertaking and certainly not the time to be forced into discounting years of sweat equity.

Plan your business exit

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Business planning and management Brisbane

When you think about ‘business planning’ do you think about it only in terms of planning a business start-up or an add-on venture?

Have you ever seriously thought about how you will exit your business on your own terms?  You are not alone.  It is common to be optimistic and trust that at sometime in the future, a buyer will emerge and offer fair market price.  It is not the reality for many.

It may be that you want your business legacy to live on through family succession.  That too can be a path scattered with unexpected challenges.

Like every other aspect of your business, it takes some smart thinking and hard work to achieve the outcomes you want.  To the best of your ability, you want to leave your business on your own terms, even if that exit is sudden and unexpected.

For more information check out my Exit Plan page at http://garyweigh.com/exit-plan

Risk – the fear of loss

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Risk is fear of loss but that fear is not the same for everyone.  This makes risk a subjective concept.  What is perceived as high risk and uncomfortable by one person may be perceived as low risk and feel very comfortable to another.

When financial advisers offer advice or recommend a financial product, they must do so in written statement of advice, but not before they take into account the client’s risk profile.

Product and service providers in other industries could well take a leaf out of this book.  All vendors should show a deeper interest in what a customer is likely to be comfortable with and what is likely to keep them awake at night.

Risk analysis is one very useful tool I have taken from my financial planning tool kit and applied to my business coaching services, and with great results.

It takes a little more time and effort but it basically involves understanding a customer’s perception of risk, identify the most serious risks and introducing information or strategies that helps overcome the risks, and enables the customer to confidently move forward.

Until next time

Gary