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Key Takeaways
- Elements of a business financial plan include sales budget, sales forecast, expenses budget, income budget statement, financial position budget statement, profit and loss statement and break-even analysis.
- William Huston, Ekenna Anya, Cathy Curtis, Lisa Ozaki and Mark Gardener are leading financial planners who can help you develop a robust business financial plan.
- Benefits of comprehensive financial planning include clearly defined goals, well allocated budget, cost reduction, risk mitigation, crisis management, easier fundraising etc.
Disclaimer
The contents of this article are for educational purposes only. They are not intended to be a source of professional financial advice. You will find experts on financial planning and financial management here.
What is business financial planning?
The business financial planning process is intended to predict future financial outcomes and decide on the best use of the company's financial resources, in order to accomplish both short-term and long-term goals.
Financial planning enables a business to strategize on how it will realize its goals. Typically, after a business lays out its vision and objectives, it should promptly formulate a financial plan, as a distinct part of its overall business plan, to underpin those aspirations.
Expertise is needed for best results
As planning entails looking farther into the future, it encompasses both imaginative and analytical thinking and approaches. Without a doubt, this is best handled by experts who have experience in the world of business and economics.
Ekenna Anya-Gafu is a certified financial planner and President Wealth Management at Bay Street Capital Holdings. He provides a variety of financial planning services for businesses, ranging from making financial projections and providing retirement planning solutions for employees to reducing tax burdens and optimizing business insurance expenses.
Importance of financial planning
When it comes to running a business, there are lots of moving parts to monitor, from supply chain and inventory to team capability and employee morale. However, finances is one of the most important aspects of a business, and a sound business practice is to develop a robust financial plan from the get-go.
A business plan often tells a beautiful economic story. However, the business planning process only gets practical when you start plugging in numbers.
A financial plan helps you determine how business decisions will impact finances, from assets and capital to revenue and return on investments. It's an important tool for growing your business and expanding operations. It is very useful and crucial, for example, when asking investors to consider your business for funding.
What to include in a business financial plan
Comprehensive financial planning involves several key components, and each serves a vital function in the drive towards financial success. The plan should encompass:
Sales Forecast: This is a well-defined projection of expected sales over a specified period which helps businesses to anticipate revenue streams accurately and plan resources accordingly.
Sales Budget: The sales budget details the estimated sales revenue and guides decision-making by aligning sales targets with operational requirements.
Expenses Budget: This part of the plan outlines anticipated expenditures and helps in managing costs, promoting efficiency, and ensuring financial stability.
Income Budget Statement: This is one of many financial statements which illustrates projected revenues and expenses, offering insights into the anticipated profitability of the business.
Financial Position Budget Statement: This statement highlights the expected value of assets and liabilities, and provides a clear overview of the business's financial standing.
Profit and Loss Statement: The P&L statement summarizes a business's financial performance over a period, indicating if it gained profit or incurred loss. Including it in your financial plan helps assess your business's health and make strategic decisions for goals.
Break-Even Analysis: This analysis aims to identify the point at which total revenue equals total costs, in order to ascertain the minimum sales volume needed to cover expenses.
These elements are crucial for any business plan, either a small business financial plan or financial plans for large businesses. Incorporating them into your plan empowers your business with a structured framework to effectively manage finances, optimize operations, and drive sustainable growth.
Financial planners for your businesses
The financial health of a business turns out poor when the business micro-manages its financial planning process. As a result, having an expert handle the financial planning process is non-negotiable.
For a solid financial plan that can lead to a positive financial health for your business, consider working with any of the following financial advisors and planners.
William Huston, AIF®, AIFA®
William (AIF®, AIFA®), is both Founder and CIO of Bay Street Capital Holdings, a wealth management and investment firm that serves as a fiduciary for public and private equity portfolios.
Through an extensive and excellent career, William has provided exceptional financial advisory services to affluent and high net worth individuals, families and businesses. As a fiduciary financial advisor, he provides his clients with financial guidance, financial education, and up-to-date information to enable them make well-informed decisions.
Bay Street was ranked 2nd among 900 asset management firms Wealthmanagement.com, and William has featured on Investopedia's top 100 financial advisors from 2021 to date.
Ekenna Anya Gafu, CFP®, AAMS®
Ekenna is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and an Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS). He is your go-to guru for businesses and institutions who need to develop a comprehensive financial plan for their economic goals. For many of his clients, his services have been the difference between their wishes and actual results.
With an extensive experience from half-a-decade in the brokerage industry, he sets himself apart as an excellent financial planner, and his expertise enables him to function as a unique financial advisor for both HNWI and middle class clients.
Cathy Curtis, CFP®
Cathy is an exceptional Certified Financial Planner, who founded an independent and Registered Investment Advisor, Curtis Financial Planning, located in Oakland. She’s made an immense impact in her efforts to educate the public of personal and corporate financing through platforms such as the CNBC Financial Advisor Council.
Cathy's expertise and contribution to the finance sector have been well acknowledged. From 2017 to 2022, Investopedia has named her among the Top 100 Financial Advisors, and she is one of the recognized women in Finance with national reach on platforms such as X (Twitter). In 2022, Investment News showcased her in their Women to Watch lineup.
Lisa Ozaki CFP®
Lisa currently serves as a Financial Planner, providing support to three advisors at Silicon Valley Wealth Advisors. With a strong dedication to helping individuals gain clarity about their financial circumstances, she excels in guiding them towards effective strategies to realize their financial ambitions.
She excels at simplifying complex financial concepts to her clients, such as diverse contribution options for retirement accounts like Roth, pre-tax, and after-tax, is noteworthy.
Her interest lies in expanding her proficiency in tax planning. She previously engaged in volunteer work for VITA during her senior year at San Diego State University.
Mark Gardener
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Mark is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) who holds several other certifications including the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC®), Chartered Retirement Plans Specialist (CRPS® ) and Certified Wealth Strategist (CWS®) designations.
His professional work as a Financial Literacy advocate and published author emphasizes financial literacy and financial wellness, and he is the Founder of FinLit Tech. As a first generation member of their Advisory Council, he provides support for the newly formed University of South Florida - Personal Financial Planning degree program.
Working with any of these financial planners makes available the best approach to your business financial planning.
Benefits of financial planning for businesses
The primary use and benefits of financial planning for businesses include:
Defining Clear Goals: Financial planning helps a business to outline and prioritize the business's objectives, and, alongside the general business plan, to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working toward common goals.
Mastering Cash Flow Management: financial plans include a cash flow statement and they help in mastering cash flow projection. By carefully monitoring incoming and outgoing funds, financial planning helps maintain a healthy cash flow, enabling the business to meet its obligations and seize opportunities.
Strategically Allocating Budget: Financial planning enables wise allocation of resources across different areas of the business, in order to ensure optimal use and to maximize returns on investment.
Reducing Costs: Identifying unnecessary expenses and streamlining operations are key aspects of financial planning, and this contributes to increased efficiency and profitability.
Mitigating Risks: Financial planning involves evaluating potential risks and implementing strategies to minimize their impact, in order to protect a business from unexpected setbacks.
Managing Crisis: Having a financial plan in place equips businesses to navigate unforeseen and unavoidable crises, as it leads to well-informed decisions that mitigate damages and facilitate a smoother recovery.
Easier Fundraising: Financial planning provides a clear financial picture of the business, making it easier to attract investors and secure funding for growth and expansion.
Guided Growth Roadmap: A well-structured financial plan acts as a roadmap for business growth, outlining steps to take, milestones to achieve, and strategies to adopt for sustained success.
Integrating these aspects of financial planning into a business's operations promotes stability, resilience, and strategic advancement, leading to a stronger and more prosperous enterprise.
If you need help with developing a business financial plan, you can reach out to Ekenna Anya-Gafu.
Bay Street Capital Holdings
Headquartered in Palo Alto, Bay Street Capital Holdings is a renowned wealth management firm that specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning, investment advisory, and risk management services. What sets them apart is their expertise on navigating overall risk and market fluctuations, as opposed to overemphasizing profit maximization.
Established by William Huston, a three-time consecutive honoree on Investopedia's list of Top 100 Financial Advisors, Bay Street emerges as one of the two Black-owned enterprises among the nineteen distinguished firms recognized in California. Their collaboration with Resthaven Properties in the real estate world positioned them as finalists in the esteemed category of Asset Managers: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the 2023 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards.
Bay Street demonstrates its unwavering commitment to diversity, along with its endorsement of emerging fund managers and entrepreneurs. Their acknowledgment as a finalist in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) category for Asset Manager in 2021 after a selection process among over 900 firms, points to their resolute dedication to effecting positive social change.
Sources
https://www.spendesk.com/en-eu/blog/business-financial-planning/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-financial-planning-business-rtn-mukesh-jagwani-/
