The Business Owner's Guide to Financial Freedom

What Wall Street Isn't Telling You

Mark J. Kohler

• Publisher: Entrepreneur Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781613083758
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Finance

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCIAL FUTURE

Tailored for small business owners and entrepreneur like yourself who are looking for long-term financial planning and wealth management, The Business Owner's Guide to Financial Freedom reveals the secrets behind successfully investing in your business while bypassing Wall Street-influenced financial planners.
Attorney and CPA Mark J. Kohler and expert financial planner Randall A. Luebke deliver a guide catered to your entrepreneurial journey as they teach you how to create assets that provide income so work is no longer a requirement, identify money and tax-saving strategies, and address business succession plans to help you transition into the investment phase of business ownership.
Learn how to:

• Pinpoint the dollar value of your business with a step-by-step formula
• Eliminate and avoid bad debt while leveraging your good debt
• Uncover investment strategies Wall Street won't tell you
• Achieve long-term goals with the 4x4 Financial Independence Plan
• Find an advisor willing to look out for your best interests
• Super-charge your 401(k) and leverage your insurance to get rich
• Create the best exit strategy for you, your business, and your family
• Avoid the most common mistakes in real estate investment
• Protect your hard-earned assets from security threats ready to strike

You can't predict the future, but you can plan for it. So if you're ready to stop treating your business like your only asset and want to start making it your most valuable legacy, this book is for you!

PART

I

PERSPECTIVE

I want to put things in “perspective.” There are a lot of misconceptions about how an entrepreneur should approach wealth building and “who” they should work with and rely on.

Throughout the next four chapters, I will share critical concepts, belief systems, and facts about our current financial systems in the United States. I want to encourage you to look at your business and your approach to wealth building with a new set of eyes as we build the foundation for financial flexibility and freedom.

In Chapter 3, I will introduce the co-author of this book, Randy Luebke, a truly “independent” investment advisor. Randy’s insightful comments in almost every chapter will shock and enlighten you as to the realities of trying to build wealth with a Wall Street “mindset.” It’s critical that in this conversation we have an “insider” that can explain the truth about Wall Street financial products, as they will be necessary tools on our path to financial freedom. However, Randy will help me explain which ones to steer clear of and which ones can actually help us as business owners.

As an entrepreneur, you have to look at financial freedom with a different perspective from what Wall Street tries to force upon you. Not every financial product peddled on Wall Street is in your best interest as a business owner, so we need to “Create a New Perspective.” See page 2.

Figure I—Creating a New Perspective

CHAPTER

1

THE ENTREPRENEUR MINDSET

If you call yourself an “entrepreneur, there’s a good chance you had a lemonade stand or a newspaper route as a kid. Perhaps you tried to sell something door-to-door, invented something, or at least tinkered with a product or service that you dreamed of selling all over America, or even the world. At a bare minimum, you still have a burning desire to work for yourself and to create something from nothing.

This describes me. I love entrepreneurship, but I also know we’re different from most other people. Not richer or poorer. Not smarter or more talented—and certainly not better people than the average wage-earning Americans. We’re just different. We have a passion and a drive—we want to take the initiative to do something on our own, but this also makes how we approach savings, wealth, and retirement different, too.

I have been fortunate to meet with more than a thousand entrepreneurs every year in one-on-one consultations discussing wealth. In fact, I have interacted with tens of thousands of small-business owners from all over the country as I teach workshops and meet with business clubs and associations. During these countless exchanges, I’ve learned that there are a number of common personality traits amongst entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial mindsets. Some are good traits, and others are not.

Good and Bad Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs

First, it’s worth noting that successful entrepreneurs are not necessarily born with all the good personality traits to succeed, but they develop them as their passion grows. Conversely, the bad traits, also noted below, tend to dissipate as entrepreneurs become consumed, or even obsessed, with their future business endeavors.

Good traits of entrepreneurs include:

dreaming big

loving what they do

an extraordinary drive compared to others

having determination and a “never give up” attitude

believing that their business is going to make them rich

Do these qualities sound familiar? These are all factors in creating success as an entrepreneur. As fellow entrepreneurs agree, this is what motivates us, gives us purpose, and drives us to not give up.

Common “Bad” Belief Systems or Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

Here are a few characteristics that we as entrepreneurs don’t like to talk about. They can be the “Achilles’ heel” or “kryptonite” for an entrepreneur. Fortunately, most can be mitigated or at least minimized.

Kryptonite traits of entrepreneurs might include thinking that:

Cash flow, while rarely steady, will work itself out, even with the ups and downs.

The demand for my product, service, or industry will always be there.

I should reinvest every dime I can back into my business because it’s my best investment.

I’ll be able to retire on my business.

I am convinced that these “bad” characteristics and overall mindset are what holds so many entrepreneurs back from financial independence and freedom. The result is stress, inconsistent cash flow, no constructive retirement plan, and oftentimes, finding themselves in serious debt. But, we don’t give up, do we? Determination is generally a good thing, but it can also be blinding us and stopping us from stepping back and looking at the whole forest. We are simply stuck in the trees oftentimes making short-sighted decisions.

Freedom Versus Flexibility

Part of having an entrepreneurial mindset is being able to understand the difference between freedom and flexibility. The definition of “freedom” is generally misunderstood by those who are not entrepreneurs. The two questions commonly asked of entrepreneurs are: “Didn’t you start a small business to be free?” or “Isn’t it liberating to be an entrepreneur?”

I’ve asked thousands of students in my classes if they feel “free” as entrepreneurs, and they laugh as they glance around the room nervously. Then, I often hear these entrepreneurs state that they have “flexibility,” not freedom. “We have the choice to work any 12 hours a day we want!” That is flexibility. It can be our greatest strength if we can embrace it, use our agility and ability to make quick decisions, and cultivate better financial habits.

I LOVE the entrepreneurial mindset, but many small-business owners need a little “tuning up” or “tweaking” that will give them much-needed power, strength, and wisdom to better succeed as entrepreneurs. The bottom line: You have the flexibility and power to make changes in how you approach and run your business!

A Better Entrepreneurial Mindset

As we consider the good and bad personality traits of entrepreneurs, we can change our mindset if we just tap into the control we have over our business and the flexibility to make decisions. We can eliminate the incorrect belief systems that haunt us and create more financial freedom in our business and personal lives. Below are three beliefs, or habits, that I encourage small-business owners to cultivate that will actually set them free financially.

1. Don’t depend 100 percent on your business for your retirement income. It’s important to step back and look at the big picture and the future on a regular basis. We need to realize that our industry, product, or service could disappear or dramatically decrease in sales overnight, or face increases in cost or competition through no fault of our own. Plan for such a possibility by diversifying your sources of income or opportunities.

2. Remember the significance of cash flow. They say, “Cash is King” and “Cash Flow is Queen,” yet cash flow will almost always be sporadic or inconsistent in small business. That’s OK. Don’t bemoan this reality, complain, or be depressed. Instead, you should embrace it and plan accordingly. When you do have positive cash flow, you have to deploy it into other revenue-generating strategies, whether in the actual business or outside it. This is where real estate, retirement accounts (properly invested), building buckets of cash-flow-producing assets, and other small-business development options come into play.

3. Know the true value of your business. Your business has value, so you should never give up on making it more and more valuable. However, you need to understand that your business may not be as valuable as you think. Don’t forget, your passion may blur your judgment. You should know the value of your business (from an outside source) and st...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Difference Between Wall Street and Main Street
• Part I: Perspective
• Part II: Forge a Better, Smarter, and Safer Way
• Part III: Deploying Your Assets Strategically
• Part IV: Exit Strategies for Your Business
• Part V: Protecting Your Hard-Earned Assets
• Our Financial Freedom Challenge to You!
• About the Authors
• Index