Client Login

The Owner's Guide

The Owner's Money Map

For most profitable owners, wealth is trapped inside the business and tangled up with it, and nobody is coordinating the pieces. This guide gives you the order of operations. Cash, getting money out, retirement, assets outside the business, protection, and exit-readiness. Nine chapters, in sequence, with the reasoning behind the sequence.

Version 2.0, updated August 31, 2026. Reviewed by Addison Taylor for Build Wealth Partners.

Get The Owner's Money Map →
Scroll

What's Inside

Nine Chapters, In Order

  1. IntroThe Coordination Gap
  2. 01The Balance-Sheet Illusion
  3. 02Cash: Reserve, Then Purpose
  4. 03Getting Money Out
  5. 04Retirement Plans Built for Owners
  6. 05Wealth Outside the Business
  7. 06Protection Basics
  8. 07Exit-Ready
  9. CloseThe Map Is Not the Territory

Each chapter ends with an exercise, and no two of them ask for the same kind of work. One is a calculation you can do off a bank statement. Another asks you to write and sign a one-page policy. Another is a search for a single date buried in a document you already own. The companion checklist is all seven of them with the blanks left in.

Owners do not all get stuck at the same step. The introduction and the closing chapter map four common patterns to where each one should start reading. If you want to know which pattern fits you, take the 2-minute owner quiz or read the breakdowns in Insights.

Get The Owner's Money Map

Both files are free and neither one asks for an email. Most owners read the guide in one sitting and then work the seven exercises on the companion checklist.

Get The Owner's Money Map → Get the companion checklist →

Not sure which chapter is yours? Take the 2-minute owner quiz.

We revise the guide when something in it goes out of date. If you want to know when that happens, leave your email and we will write to you that one time, so you know the copy on your desk has been replaced. Nothing else is ever sent to this list, and both files above are yours without it.

The Owner's Money Map is a general framework. It provides information, not advice. It cannot see your numbers, your entity, your family, or your tax situation, so it cannot tell you what to do, and nothing in it should be the sole basis for a financial decision.

This content is for general educational purposes only and is not individualized investment, legal, or tax advice. Consult your own advisors about your specific situation.

Registration as an investment adviser does not imply a certain level of skill or training.