None of us would fly on a plane that didn’t have any emergency procedures or oxygen masks in place. Yet when you are the owner of a small business it is easy to put-off installing ‘in-case-of-emergency’ measures.
Many Australian small businesses are unknowingly handicapped due to a lack of planning for future possibilities. Small businesses cannot afford to function effectively without such planning, especially in times of constant change.
Consider for a moment your business. If your business is like most small businesses, the most vital element of your organisation is you – the owner. With this in mind, you need to make sure your business can go on without you.
Why?
- In the event of unexpected injury or illness where you need to take extended time off work to recover, you need to live off more than just your savings.
- In the event of dispute, divorce, retirement or simply wanting to move on from the business, you need to be able to sell your business rather than be forced to close it down and miss out on any profit.
In addition to a succession plan and exit strategy, the most important security precaution for every small business owner is income protection.
Tragically, many small business owners who cannot work due to unexpected injury or illness can’t afford the cost of living and find themselves having to the sell their business.
Income protection can replace up to 75% of your salary if you are unable to work due to unexpected illness or injury.
Think about it like an umbrella. An umbrella can’t stop the rain from falling, but it will protect you in a storm. In the same way, income insurance cannot prevent life’s storms, but it does make sure you and your family will survive if you can no longer work.
It also means you don’t need to rely on your business to pay the bills. Instead of facing the possibility of losing your business to cover the costs, you can calmly follow your succussion plan and exit strategy and depend on your income protection insurance to help pay the bills instead.
There are many different kinds of income insurance and not all will suit you. You can save yourself a lot of money by talking to a specialist personal insurance broker who can assess your situation and shop around for the most affordable and tailored solution.
This is particularly important for small business owners, as their income tends to fluctuate and is often more complicated than employees of medium-to-large sized businesses. For example, your income may be determined by the profitability of your business at any given time, and it may come from multiple sources or even act as savings for your business.
Planning ahead for your business is just as important as the initial planning stages of a start-up business, but it need not be as daunting. An exit strategy, succession plan and income protection, are vital measures for small business owners.
Author Bio: Rick Mapperson has almost twenty years experience in the insurance industry and is the founder and managing director of Rick Mapperson and Associates, a personal insurance brokerage. The focus of his business is specialised to insure people, and to do it well. Rick combines his skills as a licensed Financial Planner and his understanding as the co-founder of an Australian charity focused on families, to understand the best interests of his clients.
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