Your Business Had a Good Year. Did You?
As we get closer to the end of another year, a lot of business owners and farm families are starting to get a clearer picture of how the year went.
Maybe revenue was up.
Maybe it was a good growing season.
Maybe you added customers, bought equipment, paid down debt or finally made an investment in the business that had been on the list for a while.
Those are all things worth feeling good about.
But there’s another question I think is worth asking:
Your business had a good year. Did you?
It’s a simple question, but the answer isn’t always as straightforward as you might expect.
A Successful Business Doesn’t Automatically Mean Personal Financial Progress
When you own a business or operate a farm, putting money back into it often feels like the obvious thing to do.
There’s always somewhere the money can go.
Equipment needs replacing. There’s an opportunity to expand. You can pay down debt. Hire someone. Improve the shop. Buy more land. Build up operating cash.
And many of those can be very good business decisions.
The challenge comes when every available dollar continues going back into the business year after year.
You can end up with a successful operation while your personal financial position hasn’t changed nearly as much.
That’s worth paying attention to.
How Much of Your Financial Future Is Tied to the Business?
This is one of the questions I think more business owners should ask themselves.
If you looked at everything you’ve built financially, how much of it exists inside your business or farm?
For some owners, the answer is almost everything.
Their income comes from the business.
Most of their assets are in the business.
Their retirement plan depends on the business.
And a significant amount of their family’s financial security may depend on the business continuing to perform.
When you’ve spent years building something you believe in, that makes sense.
But it also means your business and your personal financial future can become very closely connected.
That’s where having a financial plan outside the business becomes important.
Building Wealth Outside the Business Isn’t Giving Up on It
I think this distinction matters, especially for farmers and entrepreneurs.
Investing outside your business doesn’t mean you don’t believe in what you’re building. It can simply mean you’re creating another layer of financial security for yourself and your family.
That could include building personal savings, contributing to registered accounts, investing outside the company or creating a retirement strategy that doesn’t depend entirely on eventually selling the business.
The right approach will be different for everyone.
The point isn’t that you should stop investing in your business.
It’s that your business shouldn’t necessarily have to carry your entire financial future on its own.
What Did the Business Do for You This Year?
Most owners know whether their business grew.
But before the year ends, I’d encourage you to ask yourself a few different questions.
Did my personal savings increase?
Did I make progress toward retirement?
Did I reduce personal debt?
Did I build investments outside the business?
Could my family manage financially if the business had a difficult year?
Did the business give me more flexibility—or did it require more from me?
And maybe the most important one:
Am I getting closer to the life I’m working so hard to build?
You don’t need a perfect answer to every question. Sometimes just asking them reveals where the next conversation needs to start.
Success Isn’t Just a Bigger Business
Growth can be exciting.
More revenue. More acres. More employees. More customers. More equipment.
But bigger isn’t automatically the same as better.
Success might mean having enough personal savings that a slow season doesn’t create stress at home.
It might mean knowing retirement isn’t entirely dependent on selling the company.
It might mean being able to take some time away without worrying about what’s happening every minute you’re gone.
Or it might simply mean knowing that the work you’re putting in today is creating something for your life outside the business too.
There’s no single definition of success. That’s why financial planning has to start with understanding what success looks like to you.
Before Another Year Begins
Year-end naturally creates a lot of conversations about the business.
Your accountant may be looking at the numbers. You’re thinking about taxes. You’re planning purchases. You’re setting goals for next year.
I’d add one more conversation to that list.
What do I want the business to do for me and my family?
Not just next year. Over the next five, ten or twenty years.
You don’t need to know exactly what the future looks like. But once you start thinking about the question, you can begin making financial decisions that give you more choices later.
Let’s Start a Conversation
If you’ve spent most of this year focused on your business or farm and haven’t had much time to think about your own financial plan, I’d love to sit down with you.
You don’t need to have everything organized before we meet. And I’m not expecting you to walk in knowing exactly what you need. That’s part of the conversation.
Tell me about your business. Tell me what you’re working toward. Tell me what’s been on your mind.
Then we can look at where you are today and whether there are opportunities to make sure the work you’re putting into your business is also helping build the future you want outside of it.
If that sounds like a conversation you’d find helpful, let’s connect.
– Nico