A Balanced Business

Small Business Week starts in early September and I have been asked to speak to a group of business owners at breakfast. Luckily, mornings are my best time so the 7:00am start is okay.

At this meeting I am going to explore what it takes to run a balanced business. What do I mean by that?

The simplest way to think about it is to picture a diamond like above. In each corner we have Customers, Finance, Employees and Operations. Now imagine that the line joining the corners is elastic. If you spend a lot of your time concentrating on the financials of your business you could see that the "elastic" is stretched further in that direction. That puts pressure on the other parts of your business.

Practically speaking, you could have the best Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet by cutting back on staff levels, training for staff, capital expenditure on business systems and process design. But, is it possible that maybe your customers could suffer with Service and your staff may look for other opportunities and in the long run you are less efficient because your processes and systems let you down?

Conversely, you could focus a lot of energy on staff. They could be the best rewarded people and be really well trained. But, they may not be customer focused and may be less effective because your systems and processes dont allow them to succeed.

I think you get the idea. Obviously we have limited time and money and as such focus on a particular aspect of the business moves things along. But, long term focus should be in a balanced way.

Facebook Fan Pages - another way to advertise

There is a lot written about Twitter and I have to admit I still cannot really see how it brings real results. Another new media medium is Facebook Fan Pages. This is more akin to the classic web page but is on a "directory" that has a huge audience. To understand more have a look at the information on the Facebook website.

To get started follow the instructions to setup the page. Then you have a number of options to advertise your business. Firstly you become a fan of the Fan Page. This advertises the page to your connections on Facebook.

Another method is to purchase advertising on Facebook itself. These are the ads you see on the right hand side of a Facebook page. The targeting here is very good. You have the ability to specifiy age, sex, location as well as many other snippets of information. This information is gathered at time of registration by Facebook users.

Tax time 2009!

Here is a list of what is around the web for our favourite time of the year:

Advanced Guide to capital gains tax concessions for small business 2008-09
This guide explains the capital gains tax (CGT) concessions available for small business

Changes to super for individuals
Provides an overview of changes made to super co-contributions, concessional contributions caps and income tests as a result of the 2009 Federal Budget

Individual PAYG payment summary schedule 2008-09
Information on the PAYG schedules for filling in tax returns

Reporting requirements - changes for the 2009/10 income year
These changes are for the reporting of payments made in the 2009-10 income year. They include:

• the reporting of reportable employer superannuation contributions
• the inclusion of the pension or annuity indicator box
• the inclusion of the lump sum payment A ‘type’ box
• the reporting of exempt foreign employment income
• the removal of the ‘other income’ label.

What is new in e-tax 2009?
Changes to pre-filling in 2009 include:

• an enhanced Alerts service. This year, in addition to notifying you when additional information is available, if you register to receive your alert by email, you will also be advised of the type of data
• private health insurance rebate details
• rental property address details from 2007-08 rental property schedules
• pay as you go (PAYG) income tax instalment amounts
• reminders of letters that we have sent to you throughout the year in relation to:
• your work related expenses, and
• the need to lodge a schedule of work related expenses (SWE).
• family tax benefit (FTB) claim status information has been removed because FTB claims are no longer administrated by the Tax Office.

SaaS - invoicing and Financial Systems

Here is a list of some of the Software as a Service Financial Systems available on the web today. Like all applications, these have their strengths, focus and weaknesses. Also, there are quite a view Invoicing systems available today. The main issue is how do you get that data easily into your financial system. Some do all aspects, like Saasu:

Saasu - This is probably the closest you will get to an online system of the same calibre as MYOB and Quickbooks. It does all of the regular accounting modules you would expect. It allows private branding of your systems as well as invoices,statement and the like. Can be free if you do less than 15 transactions per month.

Invoiceplace - As the name suggest it does invoicing. The twist on this one is that there is an inventory management module. It is pretty limited in that aspect. Payments can be received by PayPal and other payment gateways are coming. The invoicing module allows resending of invoices and statements.

Winkbill - good customisation allowed for templates. Reminders, Invoices, Statements with a Dashboard to give you an overview. Payment gateways are a bit limited.

FreshBooks - the usual plus a Contractor module aimed at making it easier to work with contractors. They can do timesheets and these can be turned into expenses. If you have a lot of contractors, it is worth a look.

Cashboard - Invoicing, time tracking, projects and estimates are the focus for this site.

As you can see there are plenty of companies doing this today. The main features to look for are:

• GST and understanding of ATO rules
• different currencies (most sites are US based)
• ability to download transactions or an API into you main financial system

What would I choose? For my money Saasu covers the bases and has the best upto date modules for ATO compliance.

theBizWiz

http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/

How to write a business plan

It is that time of the year again. We are all madly working to close the FY books, bring in outstanding creditors and pay debts in advance for next year. These things are all good and keep our financial team happy as well as help business health.

But what are you going to do next? We all know things are not going to stop, so operations is going to be top of mind. Apart from that, what about your Business Plan?

Hopefully your Business Plan is not sitting in a draw somewhere, is it? Even if it is get it out and dust it off. Look through the plan and have a look at what is relevant today. Most likely things have changed somewhat. Priorities, Goals and Objectives change over time. Maybe things have changed so much that a complete review of the Business Plan is needed.

Here is a quick and easy way to overcome the Business Plan problem. Even if you do not have a business plan doing this is a great start. Have a think about the next year for your business and write down the following headings:

• Business Focus/Scope

• Revenue/Income

• Costs/Expenses

• Resources

• Facilities

• Goals

Business Focus/Scope: This is the business activities you are going to focus on for the next year. It may be establishing a new line of products or another outlet. It may be focusing on an aspect of your business that you want to improve. Put down at least three bullet points but no more than five.

Revenue/Income: This is your expected Revenue for the year. You should also put this down as a monthly or quarterly guide. Also think about the “mix” of the revenue if you have multiple income streams.

Costs/Expenses: Same as you did with revenue. Highlight costs associated to Mix so you can check those.

Resources: Bullet point your staff numbers and functions. You may have 30 staff made up of 2 Shift Leaders, 3 Apprentices and 25 Tradesman. What other resources will you need? Salespeople, administration, bookkeeping. Bullet point these.

Facilities: list the facilities you will need for the year ahead

Goals: These should be your Goals for the year. Be careful to make sure they are SMART. They should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Driven

Now do yourself a favour and think of the year PAST this one. In other words, what would these headings and bullet points look like in another years time?

This Business Plan should fit on one page. So on doublesided printing you have this years and next years plan. If you laminate this and keep it in your work folder, diary and even post it on your wall, you have a handy reminder of what you are trying to do that year.

You might even refer back to your Business Plan or create a new one. If you need help in creating a plan please contact us at InFormGroup.

theBizWiz

http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/

Please abolish Payroll Tax in NSW

I just read a good article in NETT magazine. It was written Peter Quinn of Quinn Consultants. Essentially he is saying that if payroll tax was abolished then a business could employ more people. A side benefit is that the Government would not have to fund unemployment for those folks.

If payroll Tax was abolished would you employ more staff?

theBizWiz

http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/

Scammer on the Rampage

Have you been caught by this? I almost was, once. A company sent an invoice to me for around $200. But it was not an invoice, in very small print and grey letters it was spelled out that this was an offer to be put in some directory. The "invoice" referred to a publication I had advertised through recently.

Obviously, these guys get on the lists for publications etc and then send invoices as if they represent the advertising you have commissioned.

My instant reaction: " Oh bugger, I must have forgotten to pay that". But, I checked the records and sure enough I had. I then reread the "invoice".

I took the matter to Consumer Affairs and gave them copies of the invoice. they contacted the company who issued it and I have heard nothing since.

As the article says, with more pressure on SMEs at present, these scammers are very active.

Beware!

theBizWiz

http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/
http://www.informgroup.com.au/