A financial coach who specializes in serving construction business owners and individual contractors can help you spend more time building your business with less money stress.
As a construction business owner, you must overcome unique financial planning obstacles in order to achieve near and long-term success. From supplier shortages and missed delivery timetables to weather events that can literally freeze business operations, there’s no shortage of factors that can severely strain your balance sheet.
A financial coach who understands these challenges intimately can become a valuable partner committed to helping you succeed.
You’ll likely find dozens of nearby financial professionals well-suited to help you reach your money goals with a personalized plan. But it may be more difficult to find a financial coach who specializes in working with construction business owners.
Fortunately, many financial professionals can work with you virtually, so you can meet online no matter where you (or they) live. This means you can choose to hire a specialist who lives hundreds of miles away if you decide their knowledge and experience working with construction business owners is a better fit to help with your unique financial planning needs.
Financial Planning for Construction Business Owners
💡 In the Q&A below, you’ll gain insights from financial professionals who work with construction business owners to help them make smart decisions to enjoy life more today while preparing for a comfortable retirement in the future.
🙋♀️ Do you have questions not answered below? Use the form on this page to submit your questions, and we’ll update this article with answers from the financial professionals and educators in the Wealthtender community. You can also contact the financial advisors featured in this article directly to set up an introductory call or ask your questions by email.
💸 Smart Money Insights for Construction Business Owners
This page is organized into sections to help you quickly find the information you need and get answers to your questions:
- Q&A with Financial Professionals Specializing in Serving Construction Business Owners
- Get Answers to Your Questions About Financial Planning for Construction Business Owners
- Browse Related Articles
Q&A: Financial Professionals Specializing in Serving Construction Business Owners
Answers to Construction Business Owner Questions with Jason Berube
We asked Beverly, Massachusetts-based financial coach and specialist Jason Berube to answer questions useful to construction business owners interested in improving their overall financial picture.
Q: What is a common financial planning challenge unique to construction business owners that you frequently encounter when working with your clients? How do you work with them to overcome this challenge?
Jason: One of the biggest challenges I find when working with construction business owners is in regard to the taxes they pay on net revenue. Additionally, their CPA is usually not bringing any new ideas to the table.
With that motivation in mind, I work every day to proactively communicate with clients and bring new ideas to their financial experience. Through Tax-Efficiency Planning, we use our proprietary process of looking at a person’s life, business, investments, and regulatory requirements to help legally reduce taxes.
Q: For construction business owners who are unsure whether or not they should hire a financial professional at the current stage of their business, what guidance can you provide to help them make a more informed and educated decision?
Jason: The reality is, that most small business owners don’t know their numbers… And if they don’t know their numbers, they don’t know what they mean… And if they do know their numbers, and they know what they mean, they don’t know what actions to change in reality to improve their financial situation.
As your Personal CFO, I’ll be in your corner as a Proactive Thinking Partner who will collaborate with the best person in each area of your financial life. We help you grow, protect and preserve the investments, income, human capital, and enterprise value of your business.
Q: How do the services you offer construction business owners distinguish your services from other financial professionals?
Jason: Our approach helps contractors reduce their tax liability, keep more of what they make, and further build and protect their wealth. Most advisors are like going to your local butcher shop. They are more focused on selling insurance and gathering assets under management than delivering objective advice. Hiring a Personal CFO is like hiring a dietitian. At Cornerstone, we look holistically at your life, business, and investments, to set goals, help you implement, and hold you accountable to hit your targets.
What you’re going to get…
✅Detailed summary of current assets, liabilities, income, and expenses
✅Insurance review to protect lifestyle, assets, and loved ones
✅Explore scenarios around current and future income goals
✅Examine your tax rate and create a plan to help reduce your overall tax liability
✅Legal Entity Optimization and Estate Document review
✅Retirement planning
✅Explore ways to grow generosity for causes you are passionate about
What Makes us Different…
✅Ongoing thinking partner who understands your goals and challenges
✅Accountability partner to help you follow through
✅Education to stimulate you intellectually and grow your human capital
✅Proactivity with ongoing meetings to create an anchor on your calendar
✅Collaboration with outside professionals and counselors
Get to Know Jason Berube, Financial Coach for Construction Business Owners:
View Jason’s profile page on Wealthtender or visit his website to learn more.
Q: When you first speak with a construction business owner, what questions do you like to ask to better understand their unique circumstances and determine how you can best help them achieve their goals?
Jason: The very first thing we do with someone is sit down and figure out their current situation & Goals. There are four steps in doing that…
- Are the numbers even right?
- What are the numbers telling us?
- What do we need to change to get results?
- Translate our Plans into Actions and Systems
The truth is, there are so many opportunities to add massive value to our clients’ or prospects’ life and business. Our goal is to help organize, inform and provide guidance for the financial opportunities and challenges a business owner may face in their life. We take a comprehensive planning approach to create a financial strategy and monitor 4 key areas:
- Revenue
- Gross Profit
- Net Profit
- Net worth
Because if revenue is up, gross profit is up, net profit is up, and net worth is up! There will still be many problems in business, but you can face those interactions with more financial certainty.
Q: Is there a particularly memorable experience or a moment you recall with a construction business owner client when you first realized they have unique opportunities and circumstances when it comes to their financial planning needs?
Jason: One of our clients left his job in corporate America with a commercial construction firm and started his own masonry business. In his first year, he did about $40k in revenue. Then he got the hang of his business by year 2 and increased his revenue to $500k, which was going to be a huge hit on taxes owed. So we helped…
✅Properly structure the business to minimize taxes
✅Took into consideration various forms of asset protection
✅Review the options for legal entity incorporation
✅Identify creative ways to utilize his home
✅ Make a plan for saving, investing, and growing the business and his wealth
And before he had to shell out thousands of dollars, we completed the plan and realized that we were going to save him a bunch of money. Had we not taken a proactive approach to his planning, it would have resulted in an overpayment of taxes in his first year and even more in the future.
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About the Author
Brian Thorp
Founder and CEO, Wealthtender
Brian and his wife live in Texas, enjoying the diversity of Houston and the vibrancy of Austin.
With over 25 years in the financial services industry, Brian is applying his experience and passion at Wealthtender to help more people enjoy life with less money stress.