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Succession Planning: Preparing Your Business for the Future

Succession Planing

All business owners/managers strive for a stable, growing, profitable company. They plan, innovate, create, and organize in pursuit of their goals. But, what about the future of the company? Who will take over when the business owner/management retires, sells, or passes? How can owners/managers ensure that the business will survive and thrive? How can they be sure the outcome meets their needs and desires? Succession planning is a large part of the answer.

What is succession planning?

When people hear the term succession planning, they often think of personal wills and handing down money and/or property to family members. But what is a succession plan in business? Business succession planning refers to an exit strategy for business owners/managers, the steps taken to shape the future of the company in ways that meet the owner’s desires and/or needs. If a company owner plans on selling, succession planning enables a successful transition of ownership. If retirement is what an owner chooses, succession planning is aimed at finding the person(s) best suited to take over and identifying and developing a future leader(s). Business succession planning typically involves: 

  • Assessing current/future business needs according to the company’s strategic plan and their priority goals, projects, and/ or programs
  • Identifying individuals whose potential, skills, and talents best help the company meet its needs/goals
  • Developing plans to manage gaps in skills and/or capabilities that may occur if a key leader/leaders leave the company
  • Cross-training employees/managers to assist in the development of skills, knowledge, and an understanding of the business
  • Preparing for future changes and/or emergencies (when the unexpected arises)
  • Ensuring smooth business operation should owners/managers/employees retire or leave the company

Business succession planning focuses on more than the senior manager/executive, encompassing all key positions and all functions that require experience, skill, and/or seniority. 

What is the importance of succession planning?

The following items illuminate the importance of business succession planning. 

  • Ensures survival of unforeseen events: Abrupt resignation, illness, death, personal problems, and/or arrest may result in an unexpected vacancy in an important company position. Though you can not foresee these events, your company can plan, prepare, and strategize possible responses to ensure the smooth operation of the business. 
  • Forces long-term thinking: It’s easy to focus on weekly meetings, quarterly earnings, and yearly reports. Business succession planning forces a company to consider the future, helping plan and create a wise course for the company. 
  • Promotes communication: Succession planning requires the cooperation and participation of all department heads and senior management members. This promotes communication, improving day-to-day work. 
  • Saves money: Being unprepared for vacant positions risks your business incurring considerable costs as you search for suitable replacements. Attracting qualified people from their current positions can be an expensive undertaking. Succession planning can save you the cost of hiring outside employees for key roles as you have access to employees prepared for promotion from within. 
  • Motivates employees: A succession plan informs employees that you are planning for the future, committed to business growth/survival, dedicated to stability, and interested in internal promotion (developing staff for leadership positions). This creates confidence and motivates employees to give their best.  

What are the benefits of succession planning?

There are many advantages for employers and employees to having a well-developed succession plan in place.

  • Awareness that there is a chance for advancement/ownership empowers employees and results in higher job satisfaction
  • Succession planning reinforces employees’ career development
  • Commitment to succession planning results in supervisors mentoring employees to develop knowledge and expertise
  • Planning promotes tracking of employee value/skill/knowledge/loyalty with the intention of internally filling positions that arise
  • Promotes sharing of company values/vision with leaders/employees
  • A new generation of leaders is prepared for eventual need(s)
  • Reassures investors/shareholders during times of change

The steps of business succession planning:

There are a series of logical, beneficial steps that assist with successful business succession planning.

  • Identify possible serious business challenges for the next one to five years.
  • Identify employment positions that are critical for supporting business continuity.
  • Identify skills, competencies, and knowledge that are critical factors for success.
  • Consider high-potential employees, assessing possible future positions.
  • Select the skills/knowledge/competencies employees need to be successful in their positions and to meet the business challenges identified.
  • Capture the knowledge possessed by individuals before they depart the organization (mentorship programs, personal productivity tools, knowledge maps, manuals, storytelling, interviews, etc.).
  • Use targeted career development strategies to create a talent pool of individuals/employees to step into critical positions.

Transferring the ownership and/or management of a business is a professionally and personally delicate process. Without careful planning, a number of issues and/or mistakes may arise. Updating and revising your company’s succession plan regularly is critical. Constantly amend your plan, making changes as your needs/desires change and to meet the current business environment. Smooth transitions are achievable when you’re well-prepared. Talk to your Chartered Professional Accountant. They have the expertise, experience, and knowledge to help create and maintain a successful business succession plan. 

Need help with business succession planning? Looking for business guidance and/or advice? Cook and Company Chartered Professional Accountants are based out of Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta, serving clients across the United States and Canada. We provide high-quality assurance, succession, and tax planning services for a variety of privately owned and managed companies. Our detailed and tactful understanding of succession planning and its many parts is available to assist your company. Contact us today for a complimentary consultation. 

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How to Establish a Budget for your Business

Establish a Budget for your Business

A budget is a financial plan for a company’s future. It projects revenue and expenses, enabling a business to make confident financial decisions. Creating a budget for your business promotes accurate goal setting, assists in writing a business plan, informs spending decisions, unifies stakeholders, attracts investors and aids in determining staffing needs. It makes operating your company easier, more efficient, gives you the best chance of achieving your long-term goals and helps you reap rewards for your hard work. So, how do you go about preparing a business budget? 

  • Tally income sources: Determine how much money your business brings in each month and where that money comes from. Tally sources for a 12-month period. Look for seasonal patterns. 
  • Determine fixed costs: Fixed costs are expenses that don’t change. They may occur daily, weekly, monthly or yearly and include payments such as insurance, rent, website hosting, payroll, bank fees, accounting and legal services, supplies, debt repayment, taxes and equipment leasing.
  • Include variable expenses: Variable expenses are costs that change each month based on your business performance and activity such as usage-based utilities, shipping, packaging, sales commissions, travel costs, inventory, production costs, professional development and marketing.
  • Predict one-off costs: These costs fall outside the usual work of your company. They may be start-up costs (equipment, furniture, software) or infrequent expenses (business course, cost of moving to a new location, purchase of real estate, purchase of new equipment, large-scale facility upgrades, severance pay, etc).
  • Create a contingency fund: Prevent the problems associated with unexpected costs by keeping extra cash on hand for difficulties such as equipment breakage, inventory damage, a security breach, etc. 
  • Put it all together: Tally the total income and expenses. Then compare the cash flow in to the cash flow out in order to determine profitability. Adjust the figures throughout the year. As projections change, alter how money is spent and allocated.
  • Create a budget spreadsheet: A simple spreadsheet provides you with all the information you need at a glance making summarizing and reviewing your finances easy. Make budget evaluation a regular habit. Monitor and adjust numbers as needed.
  • Consider using accounting software: If you wish to learn how to make a budget and stick to it, try using accounting/bookkeeping software alongside your newly created budget to help you stay accountable.

Creating a budget takes time and effort but it’s worth the toil. Budgeting gives you the insights you need to make good decisions regarding your company’s finances. It’s an essential process for all businesses and will help you grow your company, compete and ensure a solid emergency fund. It’s especially important for small businesses where being off on cost projections or estimated earnings can have a devastating effect on the company. Consider hiring a chartered professional accountant with expertise in business finance. They’ll help your business create a detailed and viable budget. 

Need help preparing a budget? Contact Cook and Company Chartered Professional Accountants. Whether you operate a sole proprietorship or a sizable corporation with multiple subsidiaries, Cook and Company uses their experience and expertise to help your business. Contact us for a complimentary consultation.

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Mutual Funds vs. Exchange Traded Funds

Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds

You may have heard about mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). How do you decide which best fits your investment needs? Both offer many benefits for your portfolio and they have a lot in common, but mutual funds and ETFs have some key differences. The following are the similarities and differences and how to determine which of the two instruments is best for you.

What is a Mutual Fund? 

A mutual fund is an investment vehicle that pools money from investors to buy a basket of stocks, bonds, and other securities. This allows you to invest in different companies or bonds at the same time so as to diversify your investments and reduce your risk. Investors buy shares of a mutual fund directly from the company issuing shares or through a broker who purchases shares for investors. Since you buy and hold shares of a mutual fund with the fund company, you cannot move the assets to another financial institution without selling. Mutual funds typically have minimum initial purchase requirements and can be purchased only after the market is closed when their net asset value (NAV) is calculated and set. These funds are generally actively managed by professional money managers so they try to beat their benchmark and may charge high expenses and/or sales commissions. 

Advantages of Investing in Mutual Funds:

  • able to react quickly to changing market conditions (flexibility)
  • a single mutual fund may contain dozens or even hundreds of separate stocks or issuers (diversification)
  • mutual funds can be bought and sold once every trading day (liquidity)
  • a manager is involved in the funds’ investment selection and management, offering investment advice and providing a simpler, more hands-off experience
  • can easily set up automatic investments in fixed amounts

Disadvantages of Investing in Mutual Funds:

  • are expensive and often perform only as well as passive automated investments
  • management fees tend to be high, eating into your returns.
  • may have built-in “loads,” which are essentially sales commissions
  • advice is often an additional cost
  • the vast majority of actively managed mutual funds fail to outperform benchmarks
  • many active mutual funds fail to outperform the market yet you still pay for “active” management
  • traded only once per day at the closing NAV price
  • most mutual funds are not guaranteed
  • the level of risk in a mutual fund depends on what it invests in

 

What is an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF)?

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment vehicle that pools money from investors and uses the funds to buy a basket of stocks, bonds, and other securities. You can buy and sell shares of an ETF just like you would buy shares of a stock from a stock exchange. There are various types of ETFs available to investors that can be used for income generation, speculation, price increases and to hedge or offset risk in an investor’s portfolio.

  • Bond ETFs include government bonds, corporate bonds and local or municipal bonds
  • Industry ETFs track a particular industry, such as technology, banking or the oil and gas sector
  • Commodity ETFs invest in commodities, including crude oil or gold
  • Currency ETFs invest in foreign currencies, such as the Euro or the Canadian dollar
  • Inverse ETFs attempt to earn gains from stock declines by shorting stocks (selling a stock, expecting a decline in value and repurchasing it at a lower price)

Advantages of ETFs:

  • access to many stocks across various industries
  • low expense ratios and fewer broker commissions
  • risk management through diversification
  • ETFs exist that focus on targeted industries
  • no investment minimums
  • no fees or sales charges
  • can trade on an exchange throughout the trading day
  • you control the managing of your investments
  • usually generate fewer capital gain distributions overall which makes them somewhat more tax-efficient than mutual funds.

Disadvantages of ETFs:

  • actively-managed ETFs have higher fees
  • single industry focus ETFs limit diversification
  • may contribute to market instability
  • many ETFs are based on unproven models

 

Which is right for you?

Understanding the differences between ETFs and mutual funds can help you decide which is best for you and your business.

Use ETFs if:

  • Tax efficiency is important: If you’re investing in a taxable brokerage account, having more control over capital gains distributions may be important.
  • You’re an active trader: ETFs allow you to set limit orders, stop-limit orders or use margin in your investing strategies as they trade just like stocks. 
  • You want to gain low-cost exposure to a specific market without researching individual companies: A lot of ETF options benchmark niche market indexes.
  • You may change brokers in the future. ETFs are easily transferred between brokers. 

Use Mutual Funds if:

  • You value the potential to outperform the market through active management.
  • You’re investing in less-efficient parts of the market. Actively managed funds have the best potential to outperform in these areas.
  • Comparable ETFs are thinly traded.

 

If you’re not sure whether a mutual fund or ETF is best for you, consider consulting your Chartered Professional Accountant. They understand these products and can offer advice that meets your specific needs. 

 

Need help deciding whether ETFs or mutual funds are right for you? Looking for business advice? Contact Cook and Company Chartered Professional Accountants. We are based out of Calgary, Alberta, serving clients across Canada and the United States. We provide high-quality tax, assurance and succession planning services for a wide variety of privately-owned and managed companies. Contact us for a complimentary consultation.

 

 

References:

 

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The Advantages of Hiring a Chartered Professional Accountant

The most common type of audit undertaken by the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency) for small and medium sized businesses is the GST/HST audit. Failure to file, late filing and failure to accurately report GST/HST information can result in a penalty. Interest of 6% (compounded daily and levied quarterly) is charged for late payment, insufficient payment and any outstanding balance of GST/HST. It’s important that you, as a business owner, know your responsibilities regarding remittance of these taxes.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a federal tax added to commercial sales. It’s levied on supplies of goods and services purchased in Canada. The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is a combination of Provincial Sales Tax and GST. All businesses engaged in commercial activity in Canada are required to collect GST or HST on their taxable sales and remit this to the CRA. The only exemption is for small businesses that have taxable sales of less than $30,000 in the last four quarters (https://www.futurpreneur.ca/en/2019/how-to-ensure-your-business-compliance-with-the-canadian-revenue-agency/).

Input Tax Credits (ITCs) can be claimed by a business to recover the GST/HST paid for property or services acquired in the course of their commercial activities. You can claim ITC credits for rent, advertising expenses, equipment rentals, office expenses, accounting fees, motor vehicle expenses, travel, and some capital expenses such as property, machinery, vehicles, furniture and appliances (https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-are-input-tax-credits-2948163). Goods and services purchased for personal use or enjoyment do not qualify as Input Tax Credits.

The GST/HST requirements are complex. The rules governing what is taxable, what is not, what is exempt and for which benefits you can claim an ITC are involved and intricate. It is easy to make a mistake in calculation and filing of your GST/HST. Use the services of a CPA to ensure that you meet your GST/HST obligations and remain in good standing with the CRA. Chartered Professional Accountants have the knowledge, skill and expertise to help you file your claim correctly and in a timely manner.

For all your tax needs contact Cook and Company Accountants. Whether you operate a sole proprietorship or a sizable corporation with multiple subsidiaries, Cook and Company use their experience and expertise to make tax filing a breeze. Contact us for a complimentary consultation.

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How to Minimize the Tax Burden on Your Business Estate

The most common type of audit undertaken by the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency) for small and medium sized businesses is the GST/HST audit. Failure to file, late filing and failure to accurately report GST/HST information can result in a penalty. Interest of 6% (compounded daily and levied quarterly) is charged for late payment, insufficient payment and any outstanding balance of GST/HST. It’s important that you, as a business owner, know your responsibilities regarding remittance of these taxes.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a federal tax added to commercial sales. It’s levied on supplies of goods and services purchased in Canada. The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is a combination of Provincial Sales Tax and GST. All businesses engaged in commercial activity in Canada are required to collect GST or HST on their taxable sales and remit this to the CRA. The only exemption is for small businesses that have taxable sales of less than $30,000 in the last four quarters (https://www.futurpreneur.ca/en/2019/how-to-ensure-your-business-compliance-with-the-canadian-revenue-agency/).

Input Tax Credits (ITCs) can be claimed by a business to recover the GST/HST paid for property or services acquired in the course of their commercial activities. You can claim ITC credits for rent, advertising expenses, equipment rentals, office expenses, accounting fees, motor vehicle expenses, travel, and some capital expenses such as property, machinery, vehicles, furniture and appliances (https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-are-input-tax-credits-2948163). Goods and services purchased for personal use or enjoyment do not qualify as Input Tax Credits.

The GST/HST requirements are complex. The rules governing what is taxable, what is not, what is exempt and for which benefits you can claim an ITC are involved and intricate. It is easy to make a mistake in calculation and filing of your GST/HST. Use the services of a CPA to ensure that you meet your GST/HST obligations and remain in good standing with the CRA. Chartered Professional Accountants have the knowledge, skill and expertise to help you file your claim correctly and in a timely manner.

For all your tax needs contact Cook and Company Accountants. Whether you operate a sole proprietorship or a sizable corporation with multiple subsidiaries, Cook and Company use their experience and expertise to make tax filing a breeze. Contact us for a complimentary consultation.

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It’s Never Too Early to Start Preparing for Tax Season

The most common type of audit undertaken by the CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency) for small and medium sized businesses is the GST/HST audit. Failure to file, late filing and failure to accurately report GST/HST information can result in a penalty. Interest of 6% (compounded daily and levied quarterly) is charged for late payment, insufficient payment and any outstanding balance of GST/HST. It’s important that you, as a business owner, know your responsibilities regarding remittance of these taxes.

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is a federal tax added to commercial sales. It’s levied on supplies of goods and services purchased in Canada. The Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is a combination of Provincial Sales Tax and GST. All businesses engaged in commercial activity in Canada are required to collect GST or HST on their taxable sales and remit this to the CRA. The only exemption is for small businesses that have taxable sales of less than $30,000 in the last four quarters (https://www.futurpreneur.ca/en/2019/how-to-ensure-your-business-compliance-with-the-canadian-revenue-agency/).

Input Tax Credits (ITCs) can be claimed by a business to recover the GST/HST paid for property or services acquired in the course of their commercial activities. You can claim ITC credits for rent, advertising expenses, equipment rentals, office expenses, accounting fees, motor vehicle expenses, travel, and some capital expenses such as property, machinery, vehicles, furniture and appliances (https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-are-input-tax-credits-2948163). Goods and services purchased for personal use or enjoyment do not qualify as Input Tax Credits.

The GST/HST requirements are complex. The rules governing what is taxable, what is not, what is exempt and for which benefits you can claim an ITC are involved and intricate. It is easy to make a mistake in calculation and filing of your GST/HST. Use the services of a CPA to ensure that you meet your GST/HST obligations and remain in good standing with the CRA. Chartered Professional Accountants have the knowledge, skill and expertise to help you file your claim correctly and in a timely manner.

For all your tax needs contact Cook and Company Accountants. Whether you operate a sole proprietorship or a sizable corporation with multiple subsidiaries, Cook and Company use their experience and expertise to make tax filing a breeze. Contact us for a complimentary consultation.