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Why so busy?
Since I started the business several years ago, there have just been 2 short periods of time when I wasn’t busy. Period 1 when I started the business having resigned from my full time job and Period 2 was when I moved cities and was like starting the business from almost scratch again. Except those periods and as far I can remember, I have always been busy at work (crazy busy to be honest at all times, at any time). I am not the only small business owner who is crazy busy always, there are so many of us out there. The reason? Businesses are busy because of two reasons:…
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No one likes it but here we are…
Being mindful is the need of the times we are living in. Tension between stakeholders of businesses is at an all time high but we need to understand that none of us wanted to be in the position of having to put our businesses, lives and plans on a hold but we all may have to make a few tough decisions. Anger and frustration is the natural emotion when you are being let go but both employers and employees need to be understanding of the other’s situation and act in a civilised manner in these stressing times. No doubt there would be some from both sides who would try to…
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ATO doing their bit to help businesses affected by COVID-19
The ATO have made options available to assist businesses impacted by COVID-19. These include: Deferring by up to four months the payment date of amounts due through the business activity statement (including PAYG instalments), income tax assessments, fringe benefits tax assessments and excise Allow businesses on a quarterly reporting cycle to opt into monthly GST reporting in order to get quicker access to GST refunds they may be entitled to Allowing businesses to vary Pay As You Go (PAYG) instalment amounts to zero for the March 2020 quarter. Businesses that vary their PAYG instalment to zero can also claim a refund for any instalments made for the September 2019 and…
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6 things to do when you don’t have cash reserves and find business not to be as usual
Would be nice if we all had built cash reserves to deal with the kind of uncertain economic time we are living in at the moment. Truth is most of us haven’t built up the necessary cash reserves. Here are a few things small businesses can do today to help themselves: Ask debtors to pay quicker than they normally do Ask the creditors if it is possible to push the payment explaining your situation Have an honest chat with your team and be 100% transparent if their hours need to be cut and explain why and keep them in the loop as things change. Look for new sources of revenue…
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What is your “Z”?
It is very easy for us at end of a day, week, month, year or even our life to wonder – What did I do? Did I make the most of it? Was I suppose to be here at the end of it? An honest answer to the questions can be very unpleasant. So what can we do? We can start by asking what our end game would be at the end of the day, week, month, work life, etc I call this “Z – The End Game”. Remember you won’t always be where you want to be at the end, but at least if you have a Z, you…
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You cant keep the markets down
It’s very easy to get into panic mode with your finances when you hear what is going on around you and the world generally but remember your long term goals and try not to get caught up in the daily headlines. The markets have always overcome whatever challenges that have been thrown at it.
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How open is your business?
Everything about a job interview is hush hush in most small businesses. When candidates come in they are rushed away to a room and after the chat (Aka interview) they are rushed out of the door so no one knows anything more than they should. The only thing the candidate knows about the work and business environment is what they have been told by the person they had a chat with and their website. Why not let the candidate hang around your office after the chat and let them chat with rest of your team so they can get a feel for how it works at the place. We did…
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Misinformation in plenty
Was reading a finance article and came across a piece of article that claimed that a certain company is suffering X millions of dollar loss per month because of a certain virus. Massive number I thought, let me look around and see if this is true. Checked around and came across articles that said: X million dollar of losses incurred X million dollar of profits lost X million dollar of sales lost Anyone who knows anything about finance and accounting would tell you that the 3 are not one and the same and yet an article was claiming that the company had made losses when the actual company had just…
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Putting your money where your home is
There is always need to support your local businesses but if a disaster strikes or the economy is not going well the need to buy local and support local small businesses multiplies. Outsourcing services to overseas providers, sourcing cheaper ingredients or importing products might save you a few dollars but at times as business leaders we have look at the bigger picture. Let’s give the local businesses a chance and source locally if the products or labour is available locally.
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Same Difference
Looking for flights for future travel I was comparing flights on a couple of sites. To my surprise the same flights were 3.7 times higher on one of the sites compared to the others. Flights have become a commodity and surely there was no difference as both were exactly the same classes and same times on both the sites and no there was no specials or anything. Businesses have invested heavily in technology over the years but if you don’t get a simple thing right, it can cost your business heavily. This is not a rant hence no naming of the respective brands involved.