The ascent of a CFO professional : Daryl LaFountain? 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 La Fountain‘s guides on improving your business financial situation: As a business owner, managing and organizing finances can be a great challenge. With all the things that need to be done, including your business’ day-to-day operations, it may be easier for you to slip into bad financial habits that can harm your company one day. For instance, when you have disorganized financials, your entire organization may be unable to create financial stability. So, if you want your business to thrive and become financially successful, below are five tips to help you organize your finances.
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.
Having financial goals is the foundation for your financial success. After all, you have to know what you want to accomplish in order to actually accomplish it. However, when it comes to setting goals, you want to make sure your goals are well defined and prioritized accordingly. It’s great to have big, lofty goals! But be sure to break them down into smaller chunks. That way, you’re not overwhelmed trying to accomplish them and you can easily measure your progress. It’s also really important that one of your goals includes a plan to deal with emergencies. You want to make sure you are prepared to weather a storm. Otherwise, you’ll just end up in debt again.
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. Reach out to Daryl about Political work if you: Are running for local office and are having trouble with ballot access.