As you focus on growing your business, don't forget to create a financial strategy to set you and your family up for long-term success.

Along the entrepreneurial journey, business owners spend countless days, hours and years giving everything to the pursuit of business success. After all, creating a product or service, finding customers, hiring a team, growing, iterating and thriving doesn't happen overnight.

While striving for success at work makes sense, the smartest entrepreneurs not only realize that there is life beyond their business, but they also plan for personal success and the long-term security of the people who matter most—their families.

"Entrepreneurs know their business and the market very well, but they may not know all of the various strategies, financial tools and considerable resources that are out there for creating, preserving, and passing on their family wealth," says John Campbell, East Region Head of Wealth Planning at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. "Many entrepreneurs feel a strong level of discomfort and uncertainty when it comes to managing the intricacies of their personal wealth. Rather than going down a path like that, they may default to things they believe they know and can control – their business."

While many entrepreneurs tend to delay planning for their financial future, Campbell recommends starting early. "If something happens to you or the business, you'll need income for your spouse and children," he says. "For example, you should consider how to replace the potential loss of income if you are disabled or if you die prematurely, such as by using disability income insurance or life insurance. Entrepreneurs need to plan along a continuum of business and personal wealth."

Diversify wealth with an eye on retirement

If all your money is tied up in a single place (the business), you are exposed to what's called concentration risk. "The business typically represents the single largest and concentrated investment in an entrepreneur's portfolio," Campbell says. He recommends having financial assets that are separate from your business.

Those assets should grow over the years to support you during retirement. "What is the business owner doing now to ensure that there are enough assets to generate the income he or she will need throughout retirement?" Campbell asks. "Given that men retiring at age 65 spend approximately 18 years in retirement and women spend 20 years, business owners should be thinking about how to mitigate the potential impact inflation, loss of purchasing power, and taxes will have on their financial well-being during their retirement years."

Get insights from a team of financial experts

In your business, you have surrounded yourself with a team of subject-matter experts to run the business, such as a chief financial officer (CFO), a chief operating officer (COO), and so on. Similarly, consider surrounding yourself with a team of subject-matter experts for your family wealth. This is where U.S. Bank can help.

"Create a cross-disciplined 'wealth advisory board' consisting of subject-matter experts who can speak to personal financial matters, investments, lifestyle income goals, retirement readiness, and the integration of estate planning and business succession planning," Campbell says. "Many successful entrepreneurs are also interested in leaving a family legacy that embodies the values and priorities that are important to them, and some are interested in incorporating philanthropy to positively impact society and possibly leaving a social legacy. Who can you identify and align with who can work on your behalf to achieve your goals and objectives in concert with other members of the team?"

Interview prospective members of your team, meet with them, and start engaging in the discovery process of your goals and concerns. Once you have team of advisors, get specific about your goals and objectives. "Just like your business, consider a 3- to 5-year plan, which will need to be reviewed regularly and updated as needed in light of changing needs and circumstances to ensure success," Campbell says.

Mitigate risk along the way

In addition to building and protecting personal wealth, entrepreneurs should have plans for things like monetization risk if they plan on selling your business, business succession, and more. "It's not just about the possibility of wealth enhancement and wealth preservation – it's really about the different risks business owners may not be considering but may need to mitigate," Campbell says.

What happens in the event of your untimely death, disability, or retirement? As the owner, you'll need to identify the right person (or team) with the right skills to manage the day-to-day operations of the business, preserving the value of your business until it can be sold at an optimum time and price.

Plan your legacy

When you're ready to step away from the day-to-day operations, it's helpful to know ahead of time whether you plan on selling the business or passing it along to family.

Selling the business can result in a windfall of money all at once but doing so depends on whether you have a ready and willing buyer who wants to buy at the right price and at the right time to support your ongoing lifestyle needs. "All the more reason that it's vital to build up your personal wealth while you're running the business, so when you are ready to retire and sell the business, you can hold out for the best deal because you have amassed personal wealth," Campbell says.

Instead of selling your business to a third party, you may also consider transferring the business to family via a sale and/or as a gift. If you opt for gifting your business to a family member, then you're typically giving up the source of income associated with the business. In other words, you'll need to lean on your personal wealth to see you through retirement. If you sell the business to a family member, you may be concerned that you could harm the business by putting undue financial pressure on the business or on the family member purchasing the business if the business were sold at its true fair market value. This concern could result in the sale of the business to family members at a steep discount and/or in a financing arrangement that may be advantageous to the family member but less advantageous to you financially. When transferring the business to a family is your stated objective, even greater consideration should be given to building up your personal wealth well in advance of the business transfer.

From building personal wealth to mitigating risk to strategizing your exit plan, U.S. Bank can help. "We put ourselves in your shoes and serve as a broader-based chief financial officer of your advisory team with your wealth view in mind," Campbell says. "It allows us to bring ideas that can be implemented under due consideration."

Learn more about how U.S. Bank can help you prepare financially for what matters most to you.