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Hi there, my name is Pieter Brits. I'm a financial planner and have been in the industry for close to 22 years.

15 years ago. I came to the realisation that business owners have a very specific and unique set of challenges. When you look at a business owner or when a business owner thinks to themselves, “What do I need? What am I missing? What does my business need? What does my family need?” I break it down into two parts.

It's like your body. You have two arms. Your one arm is your business and your other arm is your personal life. So as an individual and as a business owner, if something goes wrong with one hand or one arm - your business - it will impact your personal life. And on the same note, if things aren't right in your personal life – like trouble at home with the family or finances or you’re your health - it will impact the other arm of your business.

I will be taking you on a journey of business protection over the next few months, and I hope this highlights areas that we can assist in protecting your business asset and your family! The area where I specialise is that gap in between your business and your personal because one arm will affect the other. When we sit with business owners, we always have to look at three things: • Asset Protection • Continuity • Exit Strategy.

When I work with the business owners and we complete a full needs analysis of personal and business structure, we usually look at a few components:

1. What is your relationship with your business and what is your businesses relationship with you? For example, Do you have business partners, Do you have loan accounts? Have you signed sureties for the business to operate? All three of these things have direct consequences to your business and to your family.

2. Are you your business, or is your business you? Do you have a business, or are you self-employed? Very important question… because if you are no longer in that business, will that business have a loss of revenue, will your estate, your family, your personal obligations suffer as a result? Or do you have continuation backup plans for people to come in and work; or will you have to go and find someone to replace you accordingly?

3. How can you go into business on a handshake? As they say: Everyone's friends until the cheque has to be signed. So, avoid chaos in your life. It’s like a marriage: you go in with the best intentions, but things do go wrong. One of the things that can go wrong is that one of the partners may suffer ill health and be unable to work in the business or even pass away. A shareholder’s agreement will help you with that. More about this in the next part of the series. Chat to your advisor for more information on how we can safeguard your business.

Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/n-XQqhj5JjY