Book Value

The Canadian Small Business Owner’s Guide to Financial Independence
By Barry and Mark McNulty
Insomniac Press, $21.95

This book sets out dos and don’ts for the small business owner who wants to retire. Since most business owners will sell their business, the time for them to read this book is well before retirement.

The book, written by two financial planners with more than 20 years of experience in advising business owners, provides readers with a road map through the three phases of a properly constructed plan:

1. The pre-transition plan: the organization and preparation phase where you determine how to effectively exit from your business.
2. The transition phase: deciding whether to sell the business or just “close up shop” and make the necessary arrangements for doing so.
3. The post-transition phase: the necessary planning to ensure your financial independence to see you through your retirement years.

The message of the book is that when planning to retire, business owners need a lot of planning to succeed with the biggest lifestyle change and most significant financial transaction of their career. This planning requires cross-jurisdictional expertise and a lot of forethought. Cases illustrate some successes and failures. Most business owners would be well advised to read this book. Their accountants should also know about the content, as retirement involves a lot more than executing a sale transaction.

-- Ian Davidson