If you have a large amount of money just sitting in your business, it could spell hard times ahead for your business. I have a solution that would allow you to use your money more wisely.
Now that the economy is beginning to expand, a lot of businesses out there are starting to make money but are sitting on cash—or storing it inside their companies— that could be a bad idea.
We’ve noticed a couple things that don’t make any sense:
1. The cash they have sitting in the business is either in a checkbook or in a very low interest-bearing account. With just some simple changes, you could move that money into secure investments that won’t be subject to stock market ups and downs and that will enable you to earn much higher interest rates on what you’re investing in.
It doesn’t make any sense to have your money sitting in a corporation, earning nothing. By simply putting together a bond ladder of municipal bonds, you can go from earning nothing to earning possibly 2% to 3%, depending on how you put the bond ladder together. And guess what? The interest earned is tax-free! Not to mention that they’re individual bonds, so you can sell them at any time.
2.If you’re in a business where there could be a liability claim against your company, such as trucking, construction, or some other business in which accidents are possible, and people see that you’ve got all this money sitting in your company, the lawyers are going to have a field day suing you and your business to try to get money out of you.
Depending on the type of company you have, your accountants might be able to help you distribute that money and put it on your personal financial statements. You might think you could just invest it as you would now, and if the company ever needs the money, you can always loan it back, leaving large amounts of cash inside the business—but this could turn you into a sucker for an attorney suing you because someone was hurt in your business.
These are just a couple of things to think about when you’re discussing how to manage your company finances. My firm is skilled at getting into the weeds of how you’re managing the finances of your business and how you’re investing the money inside your company. If you’d like more information about the services we can provide you, reach out to us. We can help you come up with a number of strategies to make better use of the money you have sitting on your financial statement.