The Advisor Group, LLC

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The Advisor Group, LLC

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The Advisor Group, LLC provides bookkeeping, tax, nonprofit formation, and fractional CFO services for small businesses and growing organizations across GA, FL, and TX.

10/15/2026

Earlier this week, I asked: How much should you actually be paying yourself from your business?

I believe every business owner deserves to be paid for their work. But deciding how much isn't as simple as looking at the bank account and taking whatever is available.

Here are the five things I consider, in order.

1. Start with two budgets.

Your business needs a budget, but so do you personally. You need to know what the business can afford and what you actually need to support your personal life. Without both numbers, you're guessing.

2. Make sure the business is profitable.

Just because there's money in the bank doesn't mean the business is making money. Revenue isn't profit, and cash in the account isn't necessarily available for the owner to take.

3. Look at your savings.

How much money does the business have set aside? How much do you have personally? If either side is financially vulnerable, that needs to be part of the decision.

4. Start paying yourself, then increase gradually.

Is the business paying you anything right now? If not, that's where I'd start. Once you're receiving regular compensation, work toward increasing it gradually rather than making a sudden jump that your cash flow can't support.

5. Don't forget about taxes.

How you pay yourself matters. Depending on how your business is structured, owner draws, distributions, and wages can have very different tax consequences. Make sure you understand those consequences before making changes.

Here's what I want business owners to understand:

Your business should eventually provide you with a living, not just another set of bills to pay.

But your compensation needs to make sense for both you and the business. The goal isn't to take as much as possible today. It's to build a business that can afford to keep paying you tomorrow.

The Advisor Group
We make business AND finances bearable.

10/13/2026

Question of the Week

You're running a business, paying the bills, and bringing in money.

But here's a question that many business owners struggle with:

How much should you actually be paying yourself?

Should it be a fixed amount? A percentage of profits? Whatever happens to be left in the bank?

I believe there are five things every business owner should consider when deciding how much to pay themselves.

What do you think they are?

Share your thoughts in the comments. I'll share my five on Thursday!

10/09/2026

Your business made $100,000 in profit. So why is there only $8,000 in the bank?

I hear versions of this question from business owners, and the answer usually starts with understanding one thing:

Not all business purchases are a write-off.

You might spend $30,000 on equipment, make payments toward loan principal, or pay personal income taxes from your business account.

All of those things reduce the cash you have available.

But they don't necessarily reduce the profit shown on your profit and loss statement.

And the reverse is also true!

A business can have $100,000 in the bank and still be losing money. Maybe the owner contributed cash. Maybe the business borrowed money. Maybe the cash was already there before the year began.

That's why I don't judge business health based on the bank balance alone.

I look at the budget, profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and how the business is performing quarter over quarter and year over year.

I also don't believe businesses should spend all their available cash simply because they can afford a purchase.

Cash reserves create flexibility. Properly structured debt can help preserve that flexibility. And investments should have a reasonable expectation of producing more financial benefit than they cost.

Profit tells you whether your business is making money. Cash flow determines whether it can survive long enough to keep making it.

I wrote about this in today's article, including how I approach budgeting, debt, reinvestment, and financial health.

Read it here:
https://theadvisorgroupllc.substack.com/p/cash-flow-vs-profit-what-every-business-3b3

The Advisor Group
We make business AND finances bearable.

10/08/2026

Earlier this week, I asked what you should do when your business has money left over.

First, when I say money left over, I mean truly left over. Your bills are paid and taxes have already been accounted for.

Here are my five, in order:

1. Take care of business needs.
If something necessary to operate the business needs repair or replacement, handle that first. If you don't have enough yet, start saving for it.
2. Look at business wants.
Once the needs are handled, consider improvements. Maybe what you have works perfectly fine, but better equipment would improve the quality of what you do.
3. Make extra payments on business debt.
I'm not talking about minimum payments—they should already be in your budget. Use some of the surplus to get rid of debt faster.
4. Build your business emergency savings.
I like about three months of essential operating expenses: rent, utilities, necessary subscriptions, salaries, and the other expenses required to keep the business running.
5. Pay the owner.
Once the business has taken care of itself, the owner should benefit from what they've built. That additional draw can go toward personal savings, retirement, or investing.

Having cash left in the bank doesn't automatically mean you have money to spend.
Give every extra dollar a job.

The Advisor Group
We make business AND finances bearable.

10/07/2026

Does your accountant actually need to understand your industry?

Yes—but that doesn't necessarily mean they need years of experience in it before you hire them.

Industry experience has real value. An accountant who has worked with 100 businesses like yours has seen patterns, knows common problems, understands benchmarks, and probably knows some questions to ask before you even realize they need asking.

Given two equally competent accountants, I'd probably choose the one with industry experience.

But I'd choose a curious generalist over an industry expert who assumes every business in the industry should operate the same way.

That's because industry benchmarks aren't instructions.

If the average gross margin is 40% and yours is 30%, your accountant shouldn't automatically decide you need to reach 40%.

The first question should be:

Why are you at 30%?

Maybe there's a problem. Or maybe your business model compensates for the lower margin somewhere else.

A deviation is a question, not a diagnosis.

Ultimately, every business has to manage cash flow, debt structure, and revenue trends. A competent and curious accountant can learn how those things work within an unfamiliar industry.

Industry experience should shorten the time it takes your accountant to understand your business.

It should never replace understanding your business.

The Advisor Group
We make business AND finances bearable.

10/06/2026

Tuesday — Question of the Week

Your business has paid all of its bills, set aside money for taxes, and there is still money left over.

What should you do with the surplus?

I believe there are five things a business owner should consider, in a specific order, before deciding what to do with that extra money.

What do you think they are?

I’ll share my five on Thursday. (5 dollars off a service if you get more than two correctly)

09/30/2026

Stop automatically saving 25% for taxes.

Not because saving for taxes is bad advice—but because 25% isn't the right answer for every business owner.

Think about it.

Should someone netting $30,000 from their business automatically reserve the same percentage as someone netting $150,000?

I don't think so.

I prefer a tax reserve that grows with the business:
15% → 17% → 19% → 21% → 23% → 25%
Then increase it 1% at a time until reaching a 30% ceiling.

This isn't meant to calculate your tax return. It's a cash-management rule designed to answer a much more practical question:
How much of this money should I move out of my operating account so taxes don't become an emergency later?

And eventually, your business should become sophisticated enough that you don't need the rule at all.

That's what I break down in this week's article:

Stop Saving 25% for Taxes
Your tax reserve should grow with your business.

https://theadvisorgroupllc.substack.com/p/stop-saving-25-for-taxes

09/10/2026

A customer asks for a discount.

They may offer to pay cash, promise future business, or mention that another company quoted less. The owner does not want to lose the sale, so the price comes down.

It feels like the business saved the deal. But did the business receive anything valuable in return?

Every discount should earn something for the business.

Suppose you charge $1,000 for a service that costs $600 to complete. At the original price, the sale produces $400 in gross profit.

If you give a 10% discount, the customer pays $900. Your direct costs remain $600, so gross profit falls to $300.

The customer received 10% off, but your business surrendered 25% of its gross profit.

That does not mean every discount is a mistake. A discount can make sense when it secures a firm volume commitment, faster payment, a longer agreement, lower fulfillment costs, a reduced scope, or flexible scheduling that fills unused capacity.

The important question is not simply, “Will this discount close the sale?”

The better question is, “What will this discount purchase for the business?”

A promise of future referrals is not measurable. A customer saying they may order more later is not a volume commitment. Paying cash does not justify a discount larger than the processing costs the business actually avoids.

Before lowering the price, calculate four numbers:

The original selling price
The direct cost of fulfilling the sale
The gross profit before the discount
The gross profit after the discount

Then identify the benefit the business receives and put the condition in writing. If the discount requires advance payment, a minimum order, a twelve-month commitment, or a simpler scope, the agreement should say so.

You can also reduce the scope instead of reducing the value of your work. A smaller quantity, fewer features, phased service, or different delivery schedule may help the customer afford the purchase without forcing the business to absorb the difference.

The goal is not to win every sale. The goal is to complete profitable work at a price that supports the company, pays the people involved, and leaves enough money for the business to continue.

If the customer receives a lower price and your business receives nothing measurable, you did not negotiate. You paid for the customer’s decision with your profit.

If your business offers discounts but you are unsure what they are costing, I can help you measure the lost gross profit and create pricing rules that protect your cash flow.

Apply for a Financial Strategy Review:
https://form.jotform.com/261313439522048

We make business AND finances bearable.

Read the Article Here: https://theadvisorgroupllc.substack.com/p/a-discount-should-buy-something-for

09/03/2026

Before hiring your first employee, calculate the complete cost & test if your business can support it. 💼📊 My 4 requirements: 1) existing ops cover 50% of the cost, 2) gross profit + unmet work = 120% of the cost, 3) 3 months of employment cost in reserve, and 4) owner can cover personal expenses. Don't hire & hope for revenue. Identify the work, measure gross profit, fund the obligation, then hire. Apply for a Financial Strategy Review (link in bio) 📈

08/26/2026

I have been asked a few times how a home based business can tell when it is ready to open its first store.

The conversation usually begins with two ideas.

The owner believes a storefront will create more sales, and they have found an attractive space that makes the expansion feel possible.

Both can be true. Neither proves the business is financially ready.

Before I would recommend signing a lease, the home based business should already be profitable and consistently paying the owner throughout one complete seasonal cycle. Since overhead is already relatively low, a business that cannot support the owner from home probably should not add commercial rent, utilities, insurance, payroll, and other permanent expenses yet.

I would also want proof that the current space is causing the business to decline profitable work.

That may include orders the business could not accept because it lacked production space, storage, equipment, scheduling capacity, pickup access, or delivery capacity. It may also include bids the business could not pursue because operating from a home prevented it from qualifying.

Those opportunities should be tracked throughout a complete seasonal cycle and measured using gross profit, not revenue.

If an order would produce $1,000 in sales but require $700 in direct costs, the opportunity is worth $300 toward the cost of the store. The decision should be based on the amount the business keeps after fulfilling the work.

I would use two financial tests.

The current business should be capable of carrying at least 50 percent of the store’s projected monthly costs.

Current gross profit plus gross profit from documented declined work should equal at least 120 percent of projected monthly store costs.

The business should also calculate its current maximum monthly order capacity and compare it with the proposed store’s capacity. The increase must be sufficient to complete the work being declined. More square footage only matters if it creates usable and profitable capacity.

I would not depend on walk in sales unless reliable local data supports the estimate. An attractive storefront does not guarantee that enough people will enter, purchase, and produce the gross profit required to carry the location.

Before opening, the owner should separately fund startup costs, three months of store operating expenses, three months of necessary personal expenses, and twelve months of projected operating shortfalls beginning when advertising starts.

The break even calculation must include financing payments, paid labor, and necessary owner compensation. Friends and family may help, but the store should not appear profitable because people worked for free.

A first store can be the right next step. It should remove a documented limitation and convert proven unmet demand into profitable capacity.

If your home based business is declining profitable work and you are considering your first store, I can help you calculate the true monthly cost, measure the gross profit behind the unmet demand, and determine how much cash the business needs before signing a lease.

Apply for a Financial Strategy Review:

https://form.jotform.com/261313439522048

We make business AND finances bearable.

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Address

Savannah, GA

Telephone

+19122248030

Website

http://theadvisorgroupllc.com/

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