Who is Daryl LaFountain and some of his financial services research? Remember, although you are in growth mode, your primary role as a CEO remains the same. You must keep your company on track toward achieving its vision. This means you need to focus on ensuring you have: A reputable product or service that solves a real problem for real customers. Traction with a diverse or defensible mix of customers (i.e., a reliable client base you can nurture and grow). A strong and trustworthy management team to whom you can delegate. A plan for how you will increase the value of your company over the next five-plus years. As the CEO, your job is to get your company into a strong position so you can pursue whatever opportunities arise. Whether you believe you will eventually go public or decide to sell, it doesn’t matter. Protect yourself from distractions so you can effectively grow and improve the value of your business.

Daryl LaFountain‘s advices on improving your firm financial situation: Separate Your Business and Personal Finances: One of the best ways to organize your business finances is to separate them from the personal ones. By splitting these things up, it’s much easier and faster to keep track of business expenses for tax purposes and other related uses. Remember, when you mix your business and personal funds, you may lose track of all your finances. This will jeopardize your organization in the long run. Thus, in order to ensure the separation of your personal and business finances, consider opening a distinct bank account. If you have credit cards, it’s best to designate one of them for business expenses. By doing this, you can keep everything organized, especially in terms of the financial aspect of your company.

It’s important to understand how income taxes work even before you get your first paycheck. When a company offers you a starting salary, you need to know how to calculate whether that salary will give you enough money after taxes to meet your financial obligations and, you hope, your goals. Fortunately, there are plenty of online calculators that have taken the dirty work out of determining your own payroll taxes, such as PaycheckCity.com.3 These calculators will show you your gross pay, how much goes to taxes, and how much you’ll be left with, which is also known as “net” or “take-home” pay. An annual salary of $35,000 in New York City, for example, would leave you with around $27,490 after federal taxes without exemptions for the 2020-2021 filing season—about $2,291 a month.4 Then you need to consider state and (for New York City) city taxes in addition. By the same token, if you’re considering leaving one job for another in search of a salary increase, you’ll need to understand how your marginal tax rate will affect your raise. A salary increase from $35,000 a year to $41,000 a year, for instance, won’t give you an extra $6,000 per year ($500 per month)—it will only give you an extra $4,227 (around $352 per month).4 The amount will vary depending on your state of residence and its potential tax bite, so take that into consideration if you’re considering a move. Finally, take the time to learn to do your own taxes. Unless you have a complicated financial situation, it’s not that hard to do, and you won’t have the expense of paying a tax professional for the work. Tax software makes the job much easier than it was when your parents were starting out and ensures you can file online.

After working so hard to earn your money, the last thing you want is an unplanned occurrence to wipe you out. Insurance is essentially your backup plan that will protect your assets in the event a life circumstance happens that requires a large amount of money to resolve. Your insurance coverage should include health, auto, disability, life, home or rental, and business. Basically, you want to protect anything of major importance that has a high value to ensure that you (and your loved ones) are protected financially. Having the right insurance can turn what could otherwise be a major disaster into a mere inconvenience. In order to have the lifestyle you dream of in retirement, you need to plan adequately for it. You’ll need to determine how much you are going to need to retire, of course taking inflation into consideration, and how you plan to save and invest in advance for that period of your life. While retirement might seem like a lifetime away, it’s never too early to start!

About Daryl LaFountain: Daryl is an energetic professional CFO with a background in politics. Daryl has done fundraising, been a candidate, and worked in politically appointed positions in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. Daryl has worked for Democratic candidates and nominees in 18 additional states. Would like someone to do bundling and fundraising for you.