Personal Financial Statement – Creating a Business Plan

In the previous installment of this series, we went over your management and organization. Now we’ll take a look at your personal financial statement.

According to SCORE, in the simplest of terms, a personal financial statement is a snapshot of your personal financial situation at a specific point in time.

New businesses may use this statement to get the loans/financing they need to get things up and running. For existing businesses, it can be used to lease additional workspaces or access capital for new equipment or if you’re purchasing another business for further expansion.

Your comprehensive financial statement should include the following:

Personal Assets

• Your home and other properties you own, such as rentals and commercial property
• Checking and savings accounts
• Stocks and bonds
• Vehicles
• Retirement accounts
• Life insurance accounts
• Collectibles, jewelry, art, etc.

Personal Liabilities

• Personal loans (mortgage, student, auto, etc.)
• Credit card balances
• Taxes due
• Bills
• Money owed due to judgments or liens

This section should focus on the business owner and not business assets/liabilities. That information will be included in another section. The assets of your spouse, if you have one, should be here

It’s important that you’re as transparent as possible here. Providing false information is a violation of federal law and could result in fines and criminal prosecution.

In the next installment of this series, we’ll look at the financial history and analysis portion of your business plan.