Steve is a friend and colleague of mine and I wanted to share this piece he shared with me.  None of us seeking a Life By Design want to be consumed by worry and/or endure sleepless nights.  Some food for thought I found helpful, hope you do too-thank you, Steve!
Derrick

How To End Those Sleepless Nights

By: Steven L. Braun, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network

Whether you are an entrepreneur in the startup phase or an established business owner looking to sell or transfer your business, today's business world provides plenty of worries. Take a few moments to think about the business issues that have you staring at the ceiling at 3 a.m. If you are like most business owners your stay-awake issues probably include:

• Rising cost of health insurance/benefits
• Recruiting and retaining employees
• Safety and security of the business
• Having enough money to retire

To address these and other issues, it's important that you take the time to develop an integrated approach to creating a strategic financial plan for both you and your business. The challenge is that each financial area is interdependent with the other, and the success of your business is dependent upon how you manage and plan for your own personal financial needs.

Developing An Integrated Approach: What You Need To Consider

There are four basic areas of your business to consider and frankly, to protect.

1. Risk Management

   Are you protecting your business assets (physical and people) from loss? Is your liability insurance up-to-date? Is your intellectual property protected? How will business expenses be paid if you become disabled? What if a key employee died or became disabled?

2. Employee Benefits

   Do you want and need to attract, retain, or reward key employees? Are you providing the right employee benefits (group health, life, long-term care and executive benefits); not only for your employees, but for you, too?

3. Estate and Business Succession

   In the best of situations, you plan to someday retire from your business; either by passing it on to a family member, a partner, an employee or maybe you plan on selling it or even liquidating it. When do you want to exit the business? Who will be your successor? What is the value of the business?

4. Personal Goals

(Photo by graceanne007 @ Flickr.com)

Don't Go At It AloneTo help address all of these areas successfully, it's important that you work with the right person or people that understand your personal and business goals to make sure all bases are covered. Many business owners turn to an individual or board to help in this area, which can consist of your accountant, financial representative, or lawyer. Of those using an advisor, 66% prefer one advisor for both personal and business needs.

Every business and industry has unique issues and challenges, which lead to unique financial needs and concerns, based on the particular size and type of business and the stage of development relative to business life cycles. It's important that you be cautious in working with anyone who uses a one size, one product approach for addressing your business and/or personal needs, because the reality is there is no one size fits all solution to running a successful business.

To find a financial professional you are comfortable with, tap into your network of friends, business associates or other professionals for recommendations. When interviewing a financial professional, consider if they have done their homework and truly understand your specific business needs. Do they ask specific questions or just make assumptions? Can they provide you with personal and business advice? Does the individual have access to other specialists outside of their area of expertise that can bring value to your business?

No one financial professional, on their own, can possibly do an appropriate job of attending to and properly addressing the variety of complex issues facing today's business owner. And because of this, it is increasingly important to select and work with professionals that have affiliations with other licensed professionals who specialize in the specific areas that you foresee becoming concerns in your business.

At the end of the day, the financial professional or team is one that listens to your needs and then steps back and acts as your guide to bring the appropriate resources and experts to fit your needs. He or she can help you end those sleepless nights.

Steven L. Braun, CLU) is a Financial Representative with Northwestern Mutual Financial Network the marketing name for the sales and distribution arm of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, Wisconsin, its affiliates and subsidiaries.  Financial Representative is an agent of NM based in Northbrook, IL. Employee benefits are provided through Strategic Employee Benefit Services, a nationwide marketing program of Northwestern Mutual. To contact Steve, please call 847-272-8686), e-mail him at steve.braun (at) nmfn (dot) com or visit his Web site at www.steve-braun.com