Daryl La Fountain and the upsurge of a financial services professional

Who is Daryl La Fountain and some of his financial and political operations thoughts? There often comes a time when companies need to raise some form of capital, and it will probably happen sooner than you think — especially if you’re focused on growth. While you’re likely to bring someone on board to help with this process, there are things you can do now to prepare. Setting up your financial infrastructure, as discussed earlier, is a great start. But it would also be a good idea to: Familiarize yourself with the various sources of capital. When the time comes, you will need to make decisions about the type of capital that’s right for you, but the options can be dizzying. Will you be looking for a simple debt arrangement? A strategic partner? A hands-off investor? And what would you be willing to give up in return? Exploring your options ahead of time can help you get comfortable with the lingo and trade-offs so the choices won’t be so overwhelming. Formalize your business and marketing plans. Any reputable lender or investor will expect to see your plans for running and monetizing your business. If none of your plans are in writing, or if they only exist on the back of cocktail napkins, consider drafting something more formal well before you start down the capital-raising path.

Daryl La Fountain‘s guides on improving your business financial situation: As a business owner, managing and organizing finances can be a great challenge. With all the things that need to be done, including your business’ day-to-day operations, it may be easier for you to slip into bad financial habits that can harm your company one day. For instance, when you have disorganized financials, your entire organization may be unable to create financial stability. So, if you want your business to thrive and become financially successful, below are five tips to help you organize your finances.

Just as your parents probably sent you off to kindergarten with high hopes of preparing you for success in a world that seemed eons away, you need to plan for your retirement well in advance. Because of the way compound interest works, the sooner you start saving, the less principal you’ll have to invest to end up with the amount you need to retire. Why start saving for your retirement in your 20s? Here’s an Investopedia example: You start investing in the market at $100 a month, averaging a positive return of 1% a month or 12% a year, compounded monthly over 40 years. Your friend, who is the same age, doesn’t begin investing until 30 years later and invests $1,000 a month for 10 years, also averaging 1% a month or 12% a year, compounded monthly. After 10 years, your friend will have saved up around $230,000. Your retirement account will be a bit over $1.17 million. Company-sponsored retirement plans are a particularly great choice, because you get to put in pretax dollars and companies will often match part of your contribution, which is like getting free money.

Having financial goals is the foundation for your financial success. After all, you have to know what you want to accomplish in order to actually accomplish it. However, when it comes to setting goals, you want to make sure your goals are well defined and prioritized accordingly. It’s great to have big, lofty goals! But be sure to break them down into smaller chunks. That way, you’re not overwhelmed trying to accomplish them and you can easily measure your progress. It’s also really important that one of your goals includes a plan to deal with emergencies. You want to make sure you are prepared to weather a storm. Otherwise, you’ll just end up in debt again.

About Daryl LaFountain: Daryl is an energetic professional CFO with a background in politics. Daryl has done fundraising, been a candidate, and worked in politically appointed positions in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. Daryl has worked for Democratic candidates and nominees in 18 additional states. Reach out to Daryl about Political work if you: Are running for local office and are having trouble with ballot access.