Businesses We Work With

Businesses we work with

Small Business — is ultimately about the family

Ask any small business owner why they’re in business, and they'll tell you, for the majority of them it ultimately comes down to providing more resources for their family and making a positive difference in the world around them. Small business owners take greater risks to earn their rewards – and don't normally focus on issues outside of their current experience or product and services. Whether because of time or niched expertise, this tunneled vision can leave small business owners feeling isolated and unaware of the growing risks they face in life and business.

We work with Sole Traders, Partnerships, and Company business structures and the people who support them.

The biggest mistake small business owners make is this: ‘We overestimate our ability to function well during times of immense emotional and professional stress, and we underestimate the amount of resources we’ll need to survive, recover and rebuild.” –Drew Browne, Founder Sapience Financial

Surprise! Small businesses are not small corporations

Many business management services presented to small businesses today have their genesis in the broken or oversized (often bloated) and usually irrelevant processes of the corporate world. More like distant cousins than siblings, the systems of these lumbering bureaucracies are often at best, overengineered for small businesses, or at worst, commercially inappropriate and damaging.

This is made worse by a horde of corporate escapees, many holding themselves out as ‘small business advisors’, whose only claim to fame is, ‘I come from the corporate world and I'm here to unconsciously 'corporatise' your small business’. Strangely enough, some business coaches often don't like such frank assessments.

The questionable legacy of a hammer-and-nail approach to small business

This, ‘everything-is-a-mini-corporate approach’, leaves many small business owners focusing on trying to turn their business into a mini-corporate; rather than perfecting a nimble, relevant and responsive modern small business. The old adage rings true; if all you have is a hammer, you see everything around you as a nail.

• This is why many small business owners feel isolated, with many left to simply ‘work it out themselves and hope for the best’. This can be an exhausting, expensive (and high-risk) process of trial and error.
• Clearly, the core risks to a small business and the family that supports it, need to be managed. Some risks cannot be left to a DIY trial-and-error approach as they can put you out of business, overnight.

Hoping someone will come and rescue you if you run into a significant problem – is not a business plan.

Three Priority Problems for all small business owners to address

The mindset of small business owners and the role their business plays in their day-to-day lives, ultimately affect the ways in which they plan for their future. It pays for small business owners to be very clear: 'many people depend on your business – your family, your employees and your customers'.

1.  The problem of unmanaged statistical risks in life and business

There are statistical risks in life and business we all face. And because they are statistical, they cannot be avoided – just managed. Regardless of size and reach, all small business owners face these same statistical realities – and they all need to protect themselves and their families, from their businesses.

2.  The problem of continually working 'in' and not 'on' the business

For many small business owners and their families, their business has become such a big part of their lives and identity, that it's hard to imagine a life without it and their ability to eventually retire is usually dependent on it.

Despite their hopes for business continuation – their owners often find themselves only working ‘in the business’ and risk putting off working ‘on the business’. So when it comes to planning and ensuring its long-term viability as an income generator (or desirability as a salable asset), this critical task often gets deprioritised and lost in the day-to-day paperwork of a busy business owner.

3.  The problem of unmanaged change in life and business

The one constant we all must adapt to is change. Adversity can never be avoided entirely and in an unusual way, business success itself generates change.

Where to start: Protecting your family — from your business

Here are the initial steps to learn what every Modern Small Business and the family who supports them, are facing.

1. Learn about The Numbers of Life and The Numbers of Business, and how statistical risks cannot be avoided - only better managed.
2. Learn about The Cost to Care - and how not planning for the cost of unexpected serious health events can unexpectedly strain, or extinguish business cash flow.
3. Calculate your fixed business overhead expenses (use our downloadable checklist to calculate those cost-to-stay-open-for-business regular expenses).
4. Decide whether you have the time and resources to address these risks yourself, or if you need to call on the expertise of Sapience Financial.

Then, call us for a confidential chat about your needs.

Whatever type of small business structure you use to create your change in the world around you, Sapience Financial is here to support people and their businesses making a difference, working with purpose, and taking the risks to earn their reward.

Have a look below and see if you find yourself.