Brian and Leslie are born-and-raised New Yorkers. They moved to Austin, TX after falling in love with its vibrant scene eight years ago. When they found no great New York-style boutique clothiers in their new neighborhood, the ever-entrepreneurial Leslie had the idea to open up a shop.

The first two years were brutal. Eighty-hour weeks, staffing issues, problems sourcing stock, trouble with the landlord. But the couple persevered through it all. Lucky for them, people loved their unique store! After a few years of occasionally borrowing money from family to make payroll, Brian and Leslie were finally doing well.

Brian, who was in charge of admin and taxes, reached out to SurePath Wealth after the couple was surprised by a high tax bill.

Could there be a mistake on their business tax filings?

We brought in our in-house CPA to take a look at the past years’ tax filings and figure out what went wrong. During the free hour-long consultation, we realized taxes were definitely an issue.

But there was some good news, too. Leslie and Brian could make some changes right away to avoid a significant tax bill. We recommended that they adjust their salaries to reduce payroll tax. They could expedite some planned equipment purchases and take a higher deduction this year. Finally, they could set up Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) – a great tax savings tool, and something they couldn’t have dreamed about in the early years.

But there was a lot more going on than just taxes…

Brian and Leslie weren’t sure how much they should pay themselves. Was it better to pour all the “extra” money back into the business? If so, were they making a good-enough return on that investment? The business wasn’t struggling any more, but were they looking at the right performance metrics?

Our team listened to their questions and pulled together a 16-page report to answer them all. Curious what that a customized key performance indicator (KPI) report  might look like? You can see it here.

Brian and Leslie were also thinking about franchising. We ran some cash flow projections, then scheduled a meeting with our General Counsel. He walked the couple through the pros and cons of franchising and licensing. On closer inspection, franchising didn’t look as attractive as it had at a distance. Brian and Leslie wanted to grow organically. In the future, they might consider licensing their intellectual property, but franchising was off the table.

During the last five minutes of the meeting, Leslie mentioned that a little boy almost pulled a mannequin onto himself the last week. Thankfully, his mom grabbed him out of the way–but the incident had left Leslie wondering.

We asked if they had enough business liability insurance.

Leslie didn’t know the answer. Brian thought that an accident like that would be covered by their leasing agreement. We set up a 20-minute phone call with Tim Power, our in-house property and casualty insurance advisor. After reviewing the lease and the current insurance policy, Tim reported that the business was seriously underinsured. A lawsuit could put them in a bind to the tune of $500K, or even more!

Brian and Leslie also had several investment accounts spread across a handful of brokerage firms. They weren’t sure about the total amount because neither one of them had the patience to go through the stack of unopened account statements. We asked our senior wealth advisor Zak Leedom to pull these accounts into a single portal. Now, Brian and Leslie could see everything in one place. No more hunting for account statements and resetting passwords! If you are curious about it, you can check out the portal here.

We're ready to help you understand that financial complexities of running your business.

We live to help entrepreneurs, like you, succeed.