“Most women know it IS possible to use their business as a retirement plan...they just aren't sure how to do it.”

There are 5 ways you can use your business as your retirement plan… but most business owners will FAIL at it because they don’t know one thing.

But before I get into that, let’s talk about what those five strategies are:

1. Sell the business to a partner, employee or family member

2. Sell the business to a private buyer (an up and coming entrepreneur in your industry)

3. Obtain a buyout or merger from a major player in your industry

4. Retain ownership by building a team to handle the day to day (best for those who love what they do and never want to retire fully)

5. Do one of the above and supplement with other investments and passive income streams

If you're a Boomer or GenX'er female entrepreneur, you've probably already thought of this and maybe even have one of those on your vision board.

But if you’re like most women who come to work with me and my team on retirement planning: you may not be totally sure how that all is supposed to work.

Take a look at the list of retirement strategies again.

Right away we can see there are three MAIN skills you need for your business to be a solid retirement plan:

• Leadership (to hire, train and manage a strong team)

• Investing (to diversify so not all your eggs are in one basket)

• Negotiation (to sell your business for max dollar)

You need at least 2 out of the 3 to succeed.

But here are some scary statistics for you:

Fact: You need a minimum of $2.5M in retirement savings to have around $100k/year in retirement.

Fact: A business will typically sell for between 1-10x EBITDA (earnings before taxes, depreciation and amortization) which basically means Net Profit

So how much did you take home after expenses last year in your business?

If it’s less than $250k…

Fact: You don’t have a business that can be your retirement plan

“Well that’s okay, Sarah. I love what I do and I want Retirement Option #4 anyway.”

Okay sure!

Keep the business and when you get too old to work (or hit your desired retirement age) just hire a team to replace you in the day-to-day.

Unfortuntely…

Fact: 80% of business owners have no prior HR experience.

That means their BIGGEST struggle in using their business as a retirement plan is often: people.

How to hire people.

Train people.

Manage people.

When to fire people.

… in other words: how NOT to get sucked back in every time something goes wrong.

So…

As a financial advisor who specializes in retirement for business women,

I thought about this and recognized that LeadHERship skills need to be nurtured long before retirement age… so my clients CAN use their business as part of a retirement plan!

What do I mean by leadHERship skills?

Things like:

• Active Listening

• Emotional Intelligence

• Calculating Your Financial Make/Break Point

• Strategic Planning

• Managing Employees (hiring, firing, training, correcting, discipline)

• Spotting Red Flags (bad-fit clients, employees, vendors, etc)

• Writing Company Policies & SOPs

• Getting Compliance to Orders

• Public Speaking

...and more!

Without these skills, a business owner struggles to attract the right type of people. Without the right personality types, an owner will struggle to build a high-performance team.

And without a high-performance team, a business will struggle to achieve high enough profit margins to EVER be used as a retirement plan.

Hence why investing outside your business (in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, commodities, etc) is a good idea...

BUT!

If outside investing doesn't appeal to you, a good way to start getting your retirement planning under control is by investing in you. Investing in your own leadHERship skills.

A lot of women tell me they feel like leadership is an inborn trait; you're either born an extroverted alpha type, or you aren't.

But that's not true at all.

I partnered with my good friend Brianna Johnson to create our brand new LeadHERship Academy program because we have seen that the things typical corporate thinking holds against you as a woman, are actually our greatest assets and strengths as leadHERs.

We developed LeadHERship Academy on the principle that this is a skill set that can be nurtured.

You just need some guidance from women who've been there.

Inside LeadHERship Academy, we'll talk about your financial mindset. Everything from salary negotiation and compensation packages for your team, to profit planning and business budgets.

We'll talk about your employees. How to hire the right people and set them up for success with your SOPs.

Take a peek inside and start building the business that will make you "work optional".