Financial planning
Investment planning for business owners
Most business owners already hold one enormous, illiquid, undiversified position: their own company. Everything else should be planned with that fact in view.
What is investment planning?
Investment planning is reviewing what you currently hold, clarifying what each holding is meant to achieve and by when, considering diversification across appropriate asset classes, and aligning the overall portfolio with your objectives and your capacity to take risk. For a business owner it also means accounting for the concentration risk already carried by the business itself.
The concentration problem
For a typical owner, the business is the largest asset, the main source of income, and often the security behind personal borrowing. If the business has a difficult year, income falls, asset value falls and borrowing capacity falls at the same moment. That is a concentrated position by any standard.
It follows that personal investments should be assessed against the whole picture rather than in isolation. A portfolio that looks conservative on its own may be very aggressive when the business is included; and liquidity outside the business is usually worth more than an extra point of return inside it.
A practical order of work
Take inventory
List everything, in whose name it is held, what it is worth and how quickly it could be converted to cash. Most owners have not seen this on one page.
Name the purpose of each holding
A goal and a time horizon. Holdings that exist because someone once sold them are the ones worth revisiting first.
Establish an emergency reserve outside the business
Accessible, boring, and separate from business accounts. This is the single most useful position most owners are missing.
Assess the whole picture for concentration
Including the business, property, and any personal guarantees given for business debt.
Diversify with intent
Across asset classes appropriate to the objectives and the horizon, rather than by adding more of what is already familiar.
Review periodically
Objectives change, the business changes, and portfolios drift. An annual review is usually enough if it is genuinely done.
How Cavaris Capital helps
- Putting the complete picture — business, property and personal holdings — on one page.
- Clarifying objectives and time horizons before discussing any product.
- Reviewing existing holdings for suitability, concentration and liquidity.
- Considering diversification across appropriate asset classes in line with stated risk considerations.
- Coordinating investment decisions with cash flow needs and existing borrowing.
Questions people ask
Frequently asked questions
What is investment planning?
Investment planning is reviewing existing holdings, clarifying the objective and time horizon for each, considering diversification across appropriate asset classes, and aligning the portfolio to your goals and risk considerations. For business owners it also means allowing for the concentration already represented by the business.
Why is concentration risk a particular issue for business owners?
Because the business is usually the largest asset, the main income source and often the security behind personal borrowing at the same time. A difficult year reduces income, asset value and borrowing capacity simultaneously, which is why liquidity held outside the business matters so much.
Should I invest surplus cash or put it back into the business?
It depends on the return the business can genuinely generate on additional capital, how much liquidity you already hold outside it, and your objectives. Many owners reinvest by default; the question is worth asking deliberately at least once a year.
Does Cavaris Capital manage investments?
We provide planning and review support. [CUSTOMER TO PROVIDE: whether the firm distributes or advises on investment products, under which registrations, and how it is remunerated.]
Talk through your funding requirement
Tell us what the money is for, how much you need and by when. We will tell you which route fits, what the file needs to contain, and what is realistic — before you apply anywhere.