Accountants and Advisors at Risk of Accessorial Liability
If you’re an accountant or professional advisor, take heed of a recent decision by the Federal Circuit Court. You may be at risk of accessorial liability for your clients’ breaches of the Fair Work Act.
7 Common HR Mistakes Every Business Owner Can Avoid
Running a business is hard and it often feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done that you want (or should) do. By the time you pay your bills, invoice customers, return calls, put the final touches on that big proposal, and get the stock order out, the day is over and it’s time to pick up the kids.
4 Legal Minefields to Avoid When Terminating Employment
Firing employees is probably one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to do as a business owner. It’s also one of the most litigious.
What do Netflix, Kiwi innovators and a small town in Texas have in common?
The short answer is patent trolls. The long answer is that using cloud computing to do business may get you sued by patent trolls in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Maximum and minimum hours – striking a balance
Striking the right balance between maximum and minimum hours for your part-time or casual staff can often be a difficult process. But getting the balance wrong can have serious and long-lasting ramifications for your business.
8 Important Lessons Brick-and-Mortar Merchants Can Pick Up from Ecommerce
Some brick-and-mortar merchants see ecommerce as the force that’s grabbing market share and taking customers away from offline stores. We don’t think this is the case. The way we see it, physical and digital retail aren’t rivals — they’re allies.
When sales and service team up, profits go up
I’ve heard it said that it’s a sales rep’s job to promise the moon to customers, and it’s a service rep’s duty to bring customers back to earth.
Inventory Strategy: Where to Start
As a small to medium business owner, getting your inventory management right can sometimes seem like a daunting endeavor. Fortunately, most of the stress involved in developing good inventory practice can be resolved by identifying the right inventory management strategies for your business. That’s not to say that there’s an immediately obvious solution for every problem – there are some tricky issues in inventory management however there are well-documented strategies to help you get the basics right.
Everything You Need to Know About Influencer Marketing For Your Online Store
The field of marketing never stops evolving. Outdated strategies lose popularity and are soon overtaken by innovative approaches that pair tried-and-tested techniques with new technology. One of the latest strategies is influencer marketing, which takes word-of-mouth advertising and amplifies it through the huge social networks of high-profile individuals. Two-thirds of marketing professionals worldwide are pairing with influencers who can create original content to promote the brand to thousands or even millions of social media followers.
3 Key Marketing Challenges Your Online Store is Facing... and How to Fix Them
The web is loaded with articles that promise to help you market your ecommerce store, but there’s one really important fact they usually leave out: it takes time to see results from your marketing efforts, even when you’re doing everything right. How come?
Don’t get stung by insolvent companies
The construction industry is a boom or bust business sector and many innocent people are left financially stung when a company goes under.
At the moment, Auckland construction companies can’t keep up with demand and staff members are being poached every day, which is pushing pay scales up.
The cost of materials is also rising and some companies that provide fixed-priced quotes with little room for cost increases are going under or abandoning contracts that are running at a loss.
Happy Tax Freedom Day
It’s time to crack open the bubbly and pull the party poppers because according to some political beings – New Zealand celebrated Tax Freedom Day on May 8 this year.
Did you even know such a thing as Tax Freedom Day existed? And, what the heck does it even mean?
The BUSINESS buddies were quite intrigued by the concept of Tax Freedom Day and did some digging to find out more.
Review of TSheets – Employee Time Tracking Software
Struggling to keep on top of employee timesheets? Want to offer employees a simpler way to clock in and out? Keen to track remote workers’ location throughout the day? Eager to make payroll easier? TSheets, a mobile employee tracking software, is here to help.
Feedback: why your business needs it, and how to get it
Your digital presence as a business is absolutely crucial. If you want consistent work, to build trust in your brand, and the opportunity for growth, you have to know how to gather feedback, and how to embrace it.
Here, we’ve laid out the most important things you need to know about doing just that.
Everything you need to know about email marketing for your ecommerce store
Over the past decade, social media platforms have grown in popularity and digital marketing has become one of the dominant ways for brands to interact with their customers. But digital marketing is more than just social media and, after all these years, email marketing is still one of the best ways to keep your customers informed and interested in your brand.
Five ways to nurture leadership
When you’re the boss it can be challenging to let go of the reins and make someone else responsible for managing a role.
But, if you want your business to grow you have to share the load, and if you do it well, there will be business advantages that you may not have anticipated.
Don't be a stranger: keeping in contact with customers
With loyal customers being worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase, it pays to keep in touch even after you’ve made the sale. After all, they’re not easy to replace—new customers are in limited supply, significantly less likely to buy, and up to six times more expensive to sell to than your existing customer base. So it’s important for retailers to retain their customers by building authentic relationships that benefit both parties.
Craft Beer and the Race for Hops
The craft beer revolution has sparked a unique production for breweries both small and large. Beer drinkers everywhere are seeing an emergence of eccentric flavors and quirky names fill the taps at their local pub. Not only are beer drinkers seeing this emergence, they are demanding it and as a result craft beer has become increasingly popular over the past few years. This popularity has sculpted the way breweries are operating. Craft beer may be infused with peculiar hues, notes and suggestions of ingredients we never would have thought to be vaguely compatible with beer, yet a few staples remain intact in the beer brewing process.
5 Best Xero Apps for 2017
There are now over 500 time saving Xero apps that are designed to help your business work more efficiently. But which are the best Xero apps for your business?
From advanced reporting and time tracking tools, through to tools that make managing inventory and orders in real-time easy, there are a vast number to choose from.
“Let me tell you how it will be”: What the taxman can teach you about getting paid on time
I recently overlooked a GST bill.
The taxman is not okay with that. He wants his money. And fair enough; I want free healthcare and the other benefits of being a taxpayer.
The Elephant in the Warehouse – Inventory Carrying Costs
It’s time to address a subject that a lot of companies fail to notice or incorporate into their business planning – the costs of carrying inventory. Inventory costs money to purchase, this much is a given; however the cost of the inventory goes far beyond that. Typically, (if accurate values are not calculated on a case-by-case basis) the total carrying costs of a product are 25% of its value and composed of capital costs (15%), storage costs (2%), servicing and handling costs (2%) and the cost of risk (6%). Let us look at these different components of inventory carrying costs more closely.
How to write copy for your ecommerce store that converts
If you had just one minute to talk to a prospective customer in your store, what would you say? Would you help them find what they were looking for? Tell them about your current promotions? Encourage them to stay a little longer and take a look around? After all, the more time they spend in your store, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
Keep your worker bees buzzing
Keeping productivity levels buzzing is proving problematic for a lot of small to medium Kiwi businesses and the nation lags behind other countries for getting lots of stuff done, efficiently.
Several different factors improve productivity including keeping up-to-date with technology, investing in research and development and connecting with other businesses.
Q & A with Xero expert Heather Smith
We recently joined the thousands of businesses headed to the Xero Roadshow, an annual exploration of what’s happening in the world of cloud accounting. Much more than just a showcase of Xero’s features, the Roadshow is one of the best ways to learn about the ecosystem.
Four tips to help minimise disruption caused by employee leave
An efficient, hard-working and friendly team is often the making of a successful hospitality business. So it can be quite disruptive when employees need to take leave.
Cloud-based software – the way to go!
Cloud software is fast becoming the way to do business. The reason for this? Everything becomes easier, more accurate and more accessible – which, at the end of the day, is the direction a company should be going in. Cloud-based software is basically where everything to do with the program is online. We will look at a few ways that cloud software can help you achieve good inventory management and manufacturing control.
Understanding Perpetual Inventory
A perpetual inventory system is also known as a continuous inventory system. The premise of this type of inventory system is that is allows businesses to keep a real-time account of what inventory they have in stock.
Social media: are you using it for your business?
Social media is a great tool; it’s a route to new and different customers and a direct way of communicating with your existing customers. It’s also a free way to build brand recognition and create a name for yourself in your field.
So it’s surprising that many businesses still don’t have a social media presence. Sometimes this is a conscious decision, but quite often it’s due to people not always understanding the benefits.
The reality is that social networks can bring a whole new dimension to your business – and they’re definitely a marketing tool worth using to your benefit.
How to keep your customers coming back to your ecommerce store
Attracting new customers to your ecommerce store is a must if you’re going to make a profit, especially in the early years of running your business. It’s one of the best ways to boost your sales in the short term, and grow your store. But there’s a lot of effort involved in acquiring new customers—it can cost six times as much as retaining your existing customers—so it seems like a shame to let them disappear off the face of the earth after just one purchase.
Future forecasting made easy with goRoster –The Old Vicarage and Bootleg BBQ
Campbell Parker is one of the brains behind two of Christchurch’s must-eat restaurants.
Opening in March 2015, Bootleg BBQ is an inner-city destination providing the city’s meat and craft beer lovers with a real taste of American cuisine. The Old Vicarage, which Campbell has owned for the past 10 years, is an iconic restaurant on the outskirts of Christchurch.
Managing your workplace health and safety
Safety doesn’t happen by accident. As a business owner or director, you need to be deliberate to make sure everyone who comes to work goes home healthy and safe.
Field Service Management – Out from the Shadows
Colour-coded job sheets on clipboards. Customer details stuffed in manila folders. Rooms full of grey filing cabinets overflowing with clip-lock files. Cardboard boxes bursting with service manuals arranged in rough alphabetical order. Handwritten notes, 8am sales meetings in sweaty city offices and well-thumbed street directories in company-car gloveboxes.
7 SEO strategies for your ecommerce site
Your online store is set up and ready to go. You’ve got an attractive site design and helpful product pages, and you’ve promoted your launch through social media and email marketing. Now all you have to do is sit back and enjoy…but you’re still not seeing the traffic you hoped for. What’s going on?
Welcome Amy
Being young and aspirational has established a great career pathway for BUSINESS buddy’s youngest accountant, Amy Posthuma.
Following her internship at BUSINESS buddy’s East Tamaki office, Amy was offered a fulltime position as their junior accountant.
Panic not – tax changes made easy
The 2016 budget had a few changes to tax laws that come in effect April 1, 2017. Yes, it is April Fool’s Day.
The BUSINESS buddy team has looked at the nuts and bolts and come up with a few pointers.
Manufacturers – can better inventory management improve business performance?
Manufacturers and inventory obviously go hand in hand, it’s not like you can manufacture anything without the necessary parts. However, even with simpler manufacturing jobs, there are a lot of moving parts, and managing the supply chain can become a complex business. It’s one big juggling act, and if you drop one of the balls it can send it all spiraling out of control. However, with inventory management and modern software a lot of the worries of old can be controlled.
Here’s how inventory management can help a manufacturers business performance.
12 Digital marketing strategies to grow your online store (+ 3 bonus tips)
Whether you’ve just opened up shop or you’re expanding your ecommerce empire, one of the biggest ongoing challenges you’ll face is finding a way to increase traffic to your online store. Your high-quality products and stellar customer experiences are a good start, but if you want customers to find you, you’ll need to find a way to stand out in the crowd of competing businesses vying for their attention. In this post, we’ll take you through a collection of digital marketing strategies that will help you attract and retain a customer base that’s both engaged and loyal, so you can get ahead of the competition.
Excel Spreadsheets are Passé
Launched in 1985 for Mac and two years later for Windows, the first version of Excel was an advancement in spreadsheet technology. A great new tool to help sort, manipulate and present data; one that supported the automation of repetitive tasks.
Thirty years is a long time in technology. Using spreadsheets to manage inventory, financials and business reporting is costing your company time and money. Here’s five reasons why:
6 Tips for streamlining your international supply chain
Most business owners face a constant struggle to get everything done in the course of their working week, while looking for ways to keep costs low and sales high. Optimising your supply chain is a must for achieving this goal, and it requires careful management of your suppliers or manufacturers. But that’s no easy task when they’re also busy and can’t always respond to your requests as quickly as you’d like.
Highlights of Just-In-Time Inventory
Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory is a strategy used to increase efficiency and minimize waste in the manufacturing process. The overarching concept of JIT is relatively simple, with a JIT approach, when an inventory item is in demand, it is delivered and as a result this system does not have high inventory levels. By receiving goods only as they are needed in the production process, it minimizes inventory costs. There are many factors that must work in harmony for such a system to be successful. Below are some of the key highlights of a JIT inventory system.
Dodge the scammer bullet
While most of us have alarm bells ringing when we receive phone calls from people claiming to be from Microsoft, there are also scammers who target businesses.
There are thousands of people sitting at the other end of a computer screen, actively trying to trick the unwary into sharing their bank account details or send sums of money offshore.
Get Out of Groundhog Day: 4 Easy Changes to Re-Energise Your Business
Don’t get stuck in your own Groundhog Day: 4 easy changes to re-energise your business
Four great ways to absolutely, definitely get your overdue invoices paid
It’s often how you say something that determines whether you get the result you want. This applies in financial services, marketing and even tax collecting.
In one experiment by the Nudge Unit they improved the payment of vehicle taxes by using simple plain language, “pay your tax or lose your car”. In fact HM Revenue & Customs attributes the recovery of an extra £210 million a year from taxpayers by using behavioural insights in its letters i.e. changing the words to influence behaviour.
Do you want to attract more customers?
Grow your business through marketing and advertising!
Whether you’re a personal trainer or a large computer repair shop, if you want to grow and build your business, you’ll need to attract new customers and keep them coming back for more.
Effectively marketing your business is one way to grow your brand and your business.
Failing to plan is planning to fail
Hospitality is a complex – and often fickle – business. There are so many factors that can affect the need for staff, and therefore the overall turnover of the business. There are far too many to mention, but can include: changes in weather; local events; public holidays; what your competition is doing; what deals are running; and how you’ve marketed the business.
3 Ways Forecasting Will Help You Navigate Business Loan Rates
When considering a business loan, most people will evaluate affordability based on the advertised interest rates. But the truth is that if you compare only the interest rates, you could waste money, or end up with a deal that isn’t the best fit.
Want an extra $18k or $200k in the bank? Your accountant can help.
This is the second article in a series of posts about RADAR, a new debtor analysis and cash flow advisory tool for accountants from Debtor Daddy. This article focuses on two pieces of information available in RADAR, Debtor Days and Cash per Day.
Making metrics honest with the internet
Almost every product or service imaginable these days has a website where anyone with an opinion can rate or comment on the product they purchased or service they received.
And thanks to the smartphone, this can be done instantaneously.
5 Practical Ways to Curb Employee Turnover in Your Café or Restaurant
Staff turnover always seems to be a struggle for businesses in the hospitality industry.
By its nature, working in cafés, restaurants, and even take-away food outlets is a high-stress occupation. Add to this, relatively lower pay rates, long shifts, or erratic schedules, and it’s not surprising that many employees suffer burnout.
How to turn the problem of being overstocked into a business opportunity
Overstocked? Don’t worry, this negative can be turned positive.
Being overstocked by nature isn’t normally a great problem to have. You basically have too much stock that you haven’t been able to shift – somewhere along the line something has gone wrong, be it a large order falling over, incorrect forecasting or stock mismanagement. However, let’s not look at this as a negative, but focus on turning this opportunity into something beneficial for your business. So, why is too much inventory a positive thing for you?
Attention to detail to dodge balls-up
And the winner is…. Oh sorry, no it’s not.
What a clanger the big announcement was at the 2017 Academy Awards, when the wrong envelope was handed to Warren Beatty and he incorrectly announced La La Land as the supreme winner.
7 steps to brilliant job and staff scheduling
Effective job scheduling is one of the most important but least understood disciplines of business management. Assigning the correct employee to the right job at the right time is crucial for business success, especially for companies with a mobile workforce. So why don’t some managers give it more of their attention?
5 Important Lessons SMBs Can Learn from Retail Giants
As an SMB, you’ll never have a shortage of sources for tips and insights. From retail websites (such as this one) to mentors and fellow retailers, there’s always somewhere to turn to for business advice and best practices.
A New Year, New Outlook For Your Business
I was catching up with a friend over the holidays who was telling me about one of his friends getting made redundant from a small family business just before Christmas. The basic premise of the story was that the bank had told them they needed to make cutbacks, and as part of this they had to reduce staff numbers. They didn’t want to do this, but they had no choice…
Time to take that holiday
‘There are just not enough hours in the day!’ you cry with a desperation rivalling Tom Hanks’ Wilson-I’m-Sorry and fall to your knees in despair.
Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic. But if you’re a business owner, I’m sure that sentiment or something like it has at least crossed your mind before. Maybe more than once.
And when you’re working crazy hours six or seven days a week just to get everything done, sometimes a deserted island with only a volleyball for company doesn’t actually sound so bad...
Inventory Management Software – Creating a Platform for Making Better Business Decisions
For a number of years, advancements in technology have been the driving force behind most of the recent innovations in business and business management. Our systems are continually being optimized, our processes streamlined and our use of automation made more precise and more intuitive.
Getting out of the cashflow trap for good: The first step is to admit your clients have a problem (with debtors)
This is the first article in a series of posts about Debtor Radar, a new debtor analysis and cash flow advisory tool for accountants from Debtor Daddy. If you’re an accountant you’ll be able to learn more here.
Our goal with Debtor Radar is simple: Help more small businesses solve the cash flow troubles caused by debtors.
Shake it off
You’ve put yourself out of your comfort zone and tried something new with your business, with less than spectacular results.
Now’s the time to brush yourself off and try again.
7 Signs Your Business Systems Suck
Let’s face it, concepts like paperless office and cloud computing are not ‘new’ concepts anymore. It still surprises me when I encounter businesses that are not paperless and in the cloud. It just makes sense. I’ve been running businesses as ‘paperless offices’ since I co-founded Business Fitness back in 2001. My current business, PARADOX, has been ‘paperless’ and had 100% cloud-based IT and business systems from day one, almost 8 years ago now.
The Fight for the High Street: An Interview with SaveTheHighStreet.org’s Lyndsay King
It’s no secret that smaller retailers face the challenge of their lives against ecommerce giants such as Amazon — and in Britain, this fight has recently been compounded by Brexit and its potential effects on the retail and trade industries.
But there’s hope yet. A recently launched organization called SaveTheHighStreet.org aims to give the power back to high street retailers and local shopkeepers by endowing them with the tools, skills, and digital capabilities they need to compete in the modern age.
Xero announces 2017 entrepreneur scholarship for UK students
We know what it’s like to be a startup; we were one. That’s why we’re excited to launch the 2017 Xero Entrepreneur Scholarship, designed to help UK students afford the rising cost of education and help them along the road to success on their entrepreneurial journey.
Support available for young Australian entrepreneurs
Learn more about the Encouraging Entrepreneurship and self-employment initiative!
Are you a young Australian with a great business idea? If so, our friends at the Department of Employment have launched the Encouraging Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment initiative to help young Australians start and run their own business!
Reminder on Zero Hour Contracts
In April 2016 the Government passed the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2016 which saw a number of changes in employment law, including legislating against the use of “Zero-hour” contracts in employment agreements.
Protect your business from scams
As a business owner, it’s important to learn how to protect yourself and your business from scams. Many scammers will imitate government departments to try and lure you into giving them valuable information and paying false payments.
Get big wins by customising your financial literacy program
If you’ve just appointed your first fresh-faced Gen Zeds to your staff (anyone who’s just out of school and are aged 15-19), you could have up to five different generations to manage at work. In fact, these days, it’s not at all uncommon to have a wide range of generational diversity.
How to write a Kick-Ass overdue invoice letter
We’ve all been there before. You’ve called about those overdue invoices once, maybe twice, maybe three times, and payment still hasn’t been made.
What to do next? Throw up your hands in despair? Give up on it as a lost cause? No way, Jack. Not in this economy.
How to Personalize the Customer Experience: 5 Quick Tips for Retailers
Personalization is one of the most important aspects of retail and one of the biggest industry trends for 2017. The key to building lasting relationships with customers, personalized shopping experiences generate satisfaction and loyalty on the part of the consumer — and increased revenue for the retailer.
How to go from self-employed to successful business owner
Seven vehicles on the road. Ten electricians in the field. One business owner working overtime, all the time...
Such was the norm for L&L Electrical, a versatile electrical services company in Campbelltown, Victoria, and proud owner John Libroaperto.
Proud and successful owner he was, yes – but at a hefty cost in a most valuable currency: time.
7 Ways to Get the Most out of Amazon Sponsored Products
With more than 350 million products on Amazon.com it becomes more and more difficult for sellers to get their products in front of the customer. Thus, Amazon’s “Sponsored Products” ads (“Amazon PPC”) are becoming extremely popular among sellers as they offer an (allegedly) easy way to bring their products on the first page. The following tips will help Amazon sellers avoid some common mistakes and get the most out of Amazon Sponsored Products.
What is Peer-2-Peer Lending and How Can It Help Your Business?
Peer-2-peer lending is a form of debt financing that allows businesses to borrow money without going through traditional lending routes such as a bank. P2P lending platforms connect individuals looking to lend their money with businesses looking to borrow.
Why You Need To Embed Culture into Your Onboarding Process
These days, cultural fit is an important part of the recruiting process. The prevailing wisdom is that you train for skills, and hire for attitude and fit.
A business winning formula: Business fit. Business value. Long-term relationships.
Having worked with several trade contracting businesses, I’ve observed a very common, but inefficient, behaviour: going after big contracts before thinking about the fit.
Often, companies will spend months preparing a proposal only to see it rejected.
10 Tips For Marketing Your Business On A Shoestring Budget
Marketing. *Cringe*. You can think of a million things you’d rather be doing. The ice bucket challenge in the middle of winter. A half marathon with your ridiculously fit niece, a Toastmasters table topics competition in front of 100 unknown people.
The Difference Between a Budget and a Forecast
While any time of year is a great time to pause and reflect, many people find January is a great opportunity to understand how well their business has performed for the past year and what their targets are for the year ahead. To do that, you need to understand the difference between a budget and a forecast.
Overstocked? Don’t despair! Tips for dealing with excessive stock
Time and again you hear that being overstocked is bad and a situation to avoid, however sometimes this is just not possible. And when it is not possible, you need to be in a position to handle it properly and turn the situation into something the company can benefit from. There are a number of ways to do this in fact, let’s look at them more closely.
How to stop debtors from eating your time and cash in 2017
We’ve worked with thousands of small businesses over the past few years and managed over $1B in receivables, so we’ve learned a few things when it comes to getting invoices paid earlier with less effort and stress.
“There’s more reasons for an invoice to be paid late than there are for it to be paid on time…” – Debtor Daddy Survey
The problem is that when it comes to getting paid on time there’s more reasons for an invoice to be paid late than there are for it to be paid on time. This means that you’re going to need great systems and great people to keep your receivables under control.
How to Implement a Killer Omnichannel Strategy
Efficient omnichannel strategies used to be the ultimate goal for retailers — a milestone to work toward on a continuous basis. But times have changed, and both shoppers and retail itself have evolved. Omnichannel is now the standard.
Can Inventory Management improve your Business Performance?
There are several things that go into managing a business and optimizing its performance. These are often reflected in the balance sheet, customer satisfaction and low staff turnover amongst other factors. One component of managing the business effectively and which has a big impact is inventory control. To better achieve inventory control, there are specialized software packages such as Unleashed. However, before purchasing a package, you need to be sure of the benefits to your company’s performance.
6 Steps to Success for Your Online Fashion Store
If you’re a fashion store owner looking to set your sales soaring in 2017, opening an online store might just be the best way to do it. Online sales of clothing, shoes and accessories are booming, with 43% of Australians aged sixteen and over now shopping online for these products, a 14% increase from the previous year.
Wake Up to the Huge Cost of Financial Stress on Your Business
You’re back at work ready to make your mark in 2017, and your employees are all rested, recharged and raring to go, right?
Wrong. The spectre of financial stress is wreaking more havoc than ever among the Australian workforce and crippling productivity levels in its wake.
Australia's Top Fund Manager Picks for 2017
Thanks to everyone who participated in our 2017 stock picking competition. We’re busy tallying the top stock picks from Sharesight members, Livewire subscribers and some of Australia’s top fund managers. As promised, we’ll create portfolios of the five most popular stocks from each group and share them with those of you who completed the survey (and opted-in to having the portfolios shared alongside your personal portfolios).
5 Ways to Create In-Store Experiences That Drive Traffic and Sales
Happy 2017, everyone!
In light of the new year, here’s one question you should think about: are you planning to bring anything new to the in-store experience? If your answer is “no” then 2017 could be a rough one for your physical stores.
3 Reasons to Prioritise HR Compliance in 2017
There’s nothing quite like starting the new Year with a clean bill of health on all your HR documents, systems and processes.
And in 2017, as if you needed further impetus, there are some new, and pretty compelling reasons to put HR compliance on the top of your to-do list!
Re-invent or retire your business
Well that’s the holidays done and now there is an arbitrary line drawn on the calendar that demands we contemplate, plan and decide the future of many things – including work.
This quandary is most pressing for many baby boomers contemplating retirement as well as businesses in industry sectors that are rapidly changing with a rush of innovations.
Create a great team environment
We spend most of our lives working rather than with the ones we love, so it seems only sensible to ensure the relationships we have at work with our colleagues or employees are healthy and happy, as well as professional.
5 Retail Store Design Upgrades That Won’t Break the Bank
Take a moment to put yourself in your target customer’s shoes. Now, pretend you’re someone who’s walking into your store for the first time.
Timely tax reminders
A wee reminder while you are in holiday mode. These dates apply to those clients for whom we prepare tax returns. Different dates will apply for those clients for whom we don't prepare returns.
Do you pay yourself from your business?
Do you take regular cash drawings from your business profits to meet personal living costs? You need to be aware of how your personal drawings sit with your tax position.
Tax changes for LTCs: watch this space
Proposals to change the rules governing look-through companies (LTCs) and closely held companies are currently going through parliamentary hearings and consultations.
Keeping business fraud-free
We have long known we’re a nation powered by small business. And that lends itself to highly personalised ways of doing business, strong relationships going back a long way, teams that feel like family.
That’s why it’s so devastating when a business finds out someone they’ve trusted has cheated them, sometimes over a long time: a so-called ‘person in a special relationship’.
Hark the BUSINESS Buddies Sing
Hark the BUSINESS Buddies sing
"Glory to our accounting!”
Peace with Xero and don’t get wild
Debits and credits reconciled."
Tax implications of buying property off the plan
Changes to tax law around buying and selling property might affect you.
Now that the changes are in operation and the bright line test is being applied to determine tax liability, an issue highlighted only recently might leave you exposed.
Filling employment gaps during summer
With the holidays about to kick off, companies that don’t close for the break may need to employ extra people over the holidays.
Business owners and managers need to consider the kind of help required and broadly, what kind of employment contract is best suited to the situation.
2 minute tutorial: The difference between cash and profit
If there’s one phrase found on the lips of finance-conscious small business owners more often than any other, it’s surely this old chestnut: “Cash flow is king”.
But how often does the average small business owner actually walk the talk of ‘cash is king’? Could it be that the simple distinction between ‘cash’ and ‘profit’ is actually unclear for many SMBs? And just what is the difference?
7 Highly Effective (And Unusual) Ways To Re-charge Over The Break
That spa retreat you really really wanted to go to over the holidays is booked out, you can’t get a reservation at any of your favourite restaurants and even the bach you normally go to at this time of the year is fully occupied...how on earth are you supposed to relax?!
Luckily we can help!
Here are 10 different things you can try to re-charge over the break.
10 Holiday Tips to Attract and Convert Last-Minute Shoppers
The holiday shopping season is definitely in full swing, with just weeks to go before Christmas day. And while some early bird shoppers are probably taking it easy by now, a big chunk of consumers will still flock to retail stores. In fact, you can expect your foot traffic (and hopefully) sales to pick up in the coming weeks and continue til the days leading up to 25th.
Xero Roadshow: South Africa 2017
The Xero Roadshow is coming to South Africa in February 2017, visiting Johannesburg on 1 February and Cape Town on 2 February to give local advisors an insider’s insight into cloud accounting. We can’t wait to meet partners from across the country at what are sure to be two sellout events.
What would you do with one more day in 2016?
Trees are up. Decorations are hung. And jingles fill the air. Yup, it’s that time of year again. A time to reflect on the year that was and wonder what more we could have squeezed into those past 12 months. Instead of wondering if you feel the same, we thought we’d just ask.
Summer Camp has never looked so good
The summer period can be an interesting time for accountants, bookkeepers and BAS agents. Clients are often away, business can be slower than usual, and the temptation to take a break pulls steadily closer as December unwinds.