Small business owners work hard, day after day, year after year, to keep their business running and growing. Lakeland Insurance Services, LLC believes that every small business has the potential to become a wealth creating engine for business owners, their families, and those good people your business trusts to help you achieve your business success … your key employees. Lakeland helps small business owners find smart ways to protect more of their business assets, build more personal wealth through the business for themselves and their key employees, and preserve their business wealth for the future, for the day they will walk away from it all.
 

What is your business worth?

A very basic answer to this important question could be simply stated as a hard dollar estimate. Today, more easily than ever before, that “hard dollar” answer can be readily accessed through the process of conducting a business valuation. In fact, a business valuation properly conducted can give you that hard dollar estimate four ways: the business’s Equity Value, it’s Asset Sale Value, it’s Enterprise Value, and/or it’s Liquidation Value. Knowing each of these four business values and what each value means is critical if you are a serious about the health and viability of your business endeavor. 

Click here to visit Lakeland Investor Services, Inc. to learn more about business valuation and to get the “hard dollar” answer to what your business is worth.  
 

But isn’t your business worth something more? 

Lakeland Insurance Services, LLC believes your business is your personal lifetime achievement. You are working hard to make this business successful, and why so? Could it be your means toward financial freedom … not only for you and your family, but also for those good people you’ve hired to help you achieve your business goals?  Is the business your passion? For most, it very much is! Have you protected the business “asset” for you, your family, and those key employees for whom you’d like the business to continue to prosper for? Are you doing the “smart” work towards managing the business asset towards continued growth?    
 

Why Planning for Your Business is Important

Your business’s future needs to be thoughtfully addressed … and the planning decisions you make now will prove vitally important to the business’s future financial health and longevity. 

Lakeland Insurance Services, LLC helps small business owners through the process of creating customized financial solutions to address the serious financial risks associated with owning/operating a small family business -  solutions designed to manage risk, create attractive benefits for key employees, and prepare for your retirement and the succession of your business. 

Risk Management 

Protecting Your Business & Family Against Financial Risk 

As a small business owner, the success of your business supports your family, your employees and their families. But what if something happens to you? Can your business run without you? Would your best customers stay if you were no longer in charge? Is your family protected no matter what happens? If you died tomorrow suddenly and unexpectedly, would your business continue to operate? Or would those you leave behind need to scramble to liquidate the business asset precipitously? Regardless of how you answer these questions today, isn’t it obvious that having a plan in place to manage these risks can help ensure that your business will continue to provide for the people that rely on it? 

Click Here to take the next important step toward securing your business’s financial asset.
 

Key Employee Benefits 

Attracting, Retaining & Rewarding Key Employees 

Think about your business’s key employees for a moment. Your key employees are, in a sense, business assets that help keep your business running. Losing even one can be costly and stress the business for a time. What are those potential stresses? - Lost productivity and job knowledge. Unsettled customers and coworkers. The expense of replacing and training a new employee. Losing a key employee to a competitor can be even more damaging. Rewarding key employees with long-term incentives gives them both validation and increased financial security, for themselves and their families. Building attractive and “sticky” key employee benefits into your business would likely result in higher retention rates, more satisfied employee experiences, it shows your commitment to them, and it builds trust and respect between the business owner and his/her important employees. 

Click Here to explore adding a Key Employee Benefits package to your business.  
 

Succession Planning 

Ensuring Business Continuation 

A comfortable retirement depends on the successful transition of your business. Planning when or how you will step away from your business is a critical challenge. Some business owners will die suddenly before the business is safely transitioned to a successor, leaving an unsettling business problem for others to sort through. Others will pass ownership of the family business to the next generation and remain onboard in limited capacity as a part-time employee, advisor or mentor. Yet others will look to sell their business in the open marketplace for fair value. 

Different succession strategies may include pros and cons: Will the proceeds from the sale of your business fully fund your retirement? Do you have the proper agreements in place to pass the business to a family member, partner, or key employee? How will you find the right buyer and know you received a fair price? You can see now why it’s critical to know the market value of your business, including your current and projected revenue and your assets, when building your Business Continuation plan.  

Life Insurance as an Attractive Funding Alternative

Did you know you can fund a succession plan with life insurance? A permanent life insurance policy, properly structured and funded, can assure there will be funds or resources available when the time comes to complete the succession plan, and it also offers built-in protections for your family. Having permanent life insurance as part of your succession strategy can give you a significant advantage. 

Click Here to discover the opportunities of funding a business succession plan with life insurance.