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New research by the Money Advice Trust, has found that 3 in 10 business owners have delayed growing their business due to either a lack of skills or confidence managing their finances. What’s more, a third of those surveyed regularly lose sleep worrying about money.
Only just over half of business owners knew where to go for financial support.
Unfortunately, without financial advice, your clients may not only struggle to grow their businesses, but they could also be more vulnerable to common challenges, such as cash flow problems and tax errors.
In contrast, our financial planners can help your clients make informed decisions and feel more confident about their business finances. This could reduce stress and allow them to progress towards their goals.
Keep reading to discover three situations in which your business-owning clients are likely to benefit from financial advice.
1. When starting a business
Setting up a new business is exciting, but it also comes with financial complexity and risk. A financial planner can help your clients in the following ways:
2. If they are experiencing cashflow challenges
Your business-owning clients might face cashflow challenges for many reasons, from late payments and rising operational costs to increasing inflation.
What’s more, research published by Forbes reveals that 82% of businesses fail due to poor cashflow management.
A financial planner can play a crucial role in helping business owners stabilise cash flow and overcome periods of volatility by:
- Identifying the causes – Through detailed analysis, a financial planner can help your clients understand the key causes of the cash flow problem. This is an essential first step towards fixing the problem.
- Reducing costs – A financial planner can look at your clients’ businesses objectively and suggest opportunities for cutting expenditure and clawing back some cash.
- Separating business and personal finances – Cash flow problems sometimes arise if an individual takes too much out of their business for personal use. A financial planner can help your clients avoid this mistake.
- Ensuring tax efficiency – From optimising how your clients pay themselves to planning for tax bills such as Corporation Tax and VAT.
- Creating a cashflow forecast – To show your clients when they might have a shortage of cash in the future so they can plan for this, for example, by cutting costs early or timing payments with care.
3. Exiting or selling their business
Achieving a smooth and successful exit from a business takes time and careful planning. It’s generally recommended that your business-owning clients start preparing to sell at least two to three years before they want to exit.
Whether your clients are leaving to retire or pursue a new business venture, a financial planner can play an integral role in helping them manage this complex transition by:
- Setting meaningful and achievable goals – A financial planner can use cashflow modelling to help your clients explore different exit scenarios and understand what they need from the sale to live the life they want.
- Creating a comprehensive exit strategy – Your financial planner can produce a strategy that outlines who will take over the business, how its ongoing success will be supported, and how your clients’ personal financial futures will be secured.
- Structuring the sale for maximum tax efficiency – A financial planner can help your clients access available tax reliefs and allowances, such as Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR).
- Preparing for life after the sale – Exiting a business is a major life transition that can trigger issues such as a loss of identity and purpose. A financial planner can provide valuable emotional and practical support to help business owners set goals for the next stage of life.
Our financial planners can provide the ongoing financial support your business-owning clients need
At Sovereign, we’re business owners too, so we understand the challenges your business-owning clients may face.
By building long-term relationships, our financial planners can guide your clients every step of the way, from starting up a business to winding it down – and every stage in between.
We’ll be there to help them capitalise on their successes and overcome challenges with confidence.
Get in touch
If you’d like to find out more about how we can work together to help your business-owning clients stay on top of their business and personal finances, we’d love to hear from you.
Please email hello@sovereign-ifa.co.uk or call us on 01454 416653.
Please note
This article is aimed at professional advisers only and does not constitute advice.
All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.
Please do not act based on anything you might read in this article. All contents are based on our understanding of HMRC legislation, which is subject to change.
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate cashflow planning or tax planning.
Approved by Best Practice IFA Group Ltd on 9/12/25.