Imagine your future. You've set up smart business goals and achieved them. Your career is thriving. You're making money. You're living the life you set out to lead. What's next?
It's easy to dream about achieving goals and making it to the peak of success, but circumstances can change. Taking the time to consider what will happen after you achieve your goals can go a long way in helping you prepare for the next stage of your life. Whether you are hoping to use your current goals as a launching point to a larger project, are working toward retirement, want to sell your business, or are striving for the sake of your family, careful financial planning can go a long way in making life easier after you've achieved your initial business mission.
Taking a long view
In many cases, achieving one's business goals will lead to life-changing income. Whether that's because you've sold a startup, your business has achieved enough stability that your financial situation changes or a similar occurrence had taken place, it's time to think about how to protect your financial assets and safeguard the people around you. This means taking a serious look at the risk in your personal and professional life and assessing what can be done to prepare for it.
We recently brought together powerful women of business at our Women's Business Symposium: Detroit, and Dr. Julie Okotie-Eboh, author and long-time executive, spoke to how many can be afraid of the way risk will impact them, particularly as they work to achieve great things in business.
"In terms of business risks, women may be a little bit more prudent to not put everything on the line because they have a great idea," said Okotie-Eboh. "I think women are a little bit more cautious when they think of their kids' future, their own future, their spouse or partner's future."
Being risk-averse can be problematic when striving to reach your business goals in the first place, but this mindset can also prove troublesome once you've succeeded. It can be difficult to identify the best next step, whether it is to start another business, pursue a sale, establish trusts or take on another strategy if you're worried about all the things that could go wrong along the way.
