Bulletproof Business Property by Daryl La’Brooy

One of the main motivators for starting a business is that we want to be our own boss because we believe that we can be more financially successful that way. What happens, in fact, is that most small business owners do little more than generate a salary for themselves.

While they are very good at doing the business work, they lack the skills, knowledge, and experience to build the business for it to be financially successful. They don’t know how to work in the business, only how to work in it.

They want to build a secure future for themselves and their families with their business, but instead what happens is that they put that future at great risk because they don’t understand how to protect their business from the many challenges to its success. They don’t know how to shield it.

This is why every small business owner needs this book by Daryl La’Brooy. How I wish I had this book in my hands when I started my business more than 25 years ago. Wealthy small business owners have the resources to pay for this type of advice, but those who have not yet reached that level don’t know the steps they need to take to protect this important asset.

This book is an awareness book for small business owners where Daryl opens up the unforeseen challenges and problems that can arise for people starting small businesses. He presents a proactive approach to how small business owners can meet those challenges, discussing everything from starting a business and growing it to getting out of it. In fact, the first key in Daryl’s bulletproof plan is that you plan the way you want to go out when setting up your business. Most small businesses do not do this, but wait until shortly before they are ready to retire and find that they cannot get out when they want to because they are not financially secure enough to finance their retirement.

Your second key deals with the challenges and risks associated with ownership, both for the sole trader and when other partners join the business. It highlights the fact that if the business owner is not aware of what can happen here and therefore does not protect the business against unforeseen and unexpected events, the consequences can be dire for the business.

Ensuring that the wealth created in his small business ultimately ends up in the hands of the people for whom it is intended is Daryl’s third key. It shows how many times money is seen by lack of conscience, naivety or lack of planning, business owners have spent their lives earning, ending up in the hands of people for whom it was not intended.

Establishing a personal wealth management plan independent of the company, including an estate plan, that demonstrates the protection this provides to family finances, is the fourth key to the book.

The last chapter of Daryl’s book is about how you can create your own DIY financial plan to protect your business. No one wants to face the trauma of bankruptcy or the collapse of the business in which they have put so much of themselves. That can have a devastating impact, both emotionally and financially.

Many of those who read Daryl’s book and have their eyes wide open to the vulnerable position their own business is in may not have the confidence to take the steps they need to protect their business. What the book does is highlight the enormous value that good financial planners can be to small business owners and their families in helping them get it right, covering all the bases and possibilities. They can provide the experience that ensures that your small business will provide a financially successful future for you and the important people in your life.

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