Business Made Easy Podcast

Today on the show talk about cashflow and why it can make or break your business.

• Why cashflow is like petrol in your car
• The problems that can be caused by not having a cashflow budget
• Why you can show a profit but have no cashflow in your business
• The importance of understanding your working cashflow cycle
• Ways to improve your cashflow and working captial cycles
• Why all types of business need to understand cashflow
• The difference between a normal budget and a cashflow budget
• Why the banks will ask for a cashflow budget when lending money

In today's episode, I answer Vanessa’s question of how often she should review the financial statements of her new small business.  

• A case study of a two examples of contrasting customer service from a local type shops and the impact it can
• The importance of word of mouth  
• The danger of only reviewing your financial figures at tax time
• A case study how the financial statements idenfity theft within the business from a new employee
• Why it is important to prepare your financial statements at least monthly
• How regular financial statements can help you be more strategic in your business
• Key Performance indicators for your business
• Why accounting software Xero is a great solution for your small business accounting needs
• When to outsource your financial reporting
• Why to avoid desktop accounting software and the benefits of cloud accounting programs

In this episode I am interviewing Jo Muirhead who is the Director and Principle Consultant of Purple Co, the Purpose for People Company, helping people return to work following injury, illness or trauma.

• The role of Rehabilitation Counsellor's as allied health professionals
• Jo's journey building her business from practically nothing to the success it is today
• The story behind Purple Co
• Finding purpose
• The importance of purpose in our overall health (physical & mental)
• The rise of chronic diseases
• Why the Purple Co's business model is set up using sub-contractors
• The importance of creating a community within the team
• The advantages of outsourcing
• Learning from mistakes throughout her career and her business journey
• The importance of having someone to help keep perspective
• Giving yourself permission to make mistakes and learn along the way
• The lessons learnt from the journey
• Having your marketing and sales strategy in place
• Things that are working really well in her business

On today’s solo episode I talk about a common issue I see amongst business owners especially around this time of year is overwhelm.

• What overwhelm can look like in your business and life
• Ways to deal with overwhelm in your business
• Why all business owners will be affected by overwhelm at some point in their business
• A real life business case study of a tradie and how overwhelm affected his business, relationships and overall well being.
• Why you need to make time to reduce overwhelm
• The importance of keeping a clear head through exercise
• How diet can affect overwhelm
• The impact of sleeping cycles on your health
• Getting rid of toxins by drinking the right amount of water throughout the day
• How to use a mind mapping tool to get your to-dos out of your head
• Planning out a day of your week to work on your business, not in it.   
• Creating capacity by stealing time
• The importance of removing distractions and excess noise in your day
• Outsourcing to help tasks that you as the business owner shouldn’t be working on
• Systemising repetitive tasks
• The need to try and not be so hard on yourself and why you need to celebrate the little wins
• Why you need to surround yourself with supportive and positive people

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Today on the show I am joined by Dr Shannon Irvine, productivity business achievement mentor and founder of not-for-profit Mosaic Vision.

She is the founder of Mosaic Vision, a non profit that serves AIDS orphans in rural Uganda Africa. The mission of Mosaic Vision is to restore the lives of AIDS orphans. Dr Irvine is also a Phd in Psychology with an emphasis in neuro-psychology and neuro-plasticity. She uses her credentials to help the orphans in Uganda thrive.

Dr Irvine is also a business mentor who loves helping others master their thoughts, habits, emotions, and schedules to live the life and business that honors God and their priorities.

In this episode:

• The business journey for Dr Irvine and the lessons learnt
• How she juggles being a successful business owner, charity founder and a mother
• Why cookie cutter systems may not always be the best fit for you
• Why getting an outside view of your business is important
• How to create the work and life balance that you want by understanding how your brain works
• Importance of seeking out the right mentors for your personal development
• Why you need to know how you are ‘wired’ and what are you superpowers
• How to measure your time spent in checking our emails and social media account
• Planning the night before for the three things to do the next day towards your big goal
• The steps to take to reducing the amount of time you spend checking your email
• Identifying that email is other people’s priorities, and not yours
• The physical impact on our brains of having notifications constantly interrupting our thinking
• Putting systems in place to protect yourself from yourself
• The impact her charity work in Mosaic Vision is making to AIDS orphans in Uganda
• Breaking down your to do list
• The impact of completing 3 x 15 min tasks can have on your brain and your feeling of success

Today I talk about a common problem that many customers face - exactly how can they increase their revenue to reach their lifestyle goals.  

We follow along the journey that my clients Bill and Sharon went through when using the formula developed by Jay Abraham to grow their business.

• The Upside Down Business Budget
• How making small changes in key areas of your business can make all the difference
• How to work out the key metrics to track
• Why you need to measure and track the number of initial inquiries your business receives
• Ideas to start upselling to your customers
• The 5 key areas to grow your business
  • Increasing the number of leads/inquiries into your business
  • Converting more inquiries into sales
  • Increasing the average spend per customer
  • Increasing the number of times a customer purchases from you
  • Increasing your gross profit margin

Today I am joined by Ben Amos from Innovate Media and the Engage with Story podcast where we talk about importance of formulating a story when using video in your business marketing strategy.

• How to craft an engaging story to connect with your customers through video
• The importance of being strategic with video online and knowing how that affects your production budgets
• Knowing the end goal when crafting and creating your videos
• Common pitfalls business owners fall into when creating video messaging
• Why placing your video on YouTube alone is not enough to get a return on investment
• Cutting through the noise and clutter online by crafting a compelling video strategy
• How overwhelm leads to lack of action by business owners when it comes to creating video content
• Why content needs to be mapped out and aligned with your overall business strategy
• Tips for starting out when using video in your business
• Why focusing on the tactic or tool such as Facebook Live in the first instance instead of strategy can be wrong approach
• Understanding who your audience is before starting to use video to promote your business
• Why you need to know what you want your audience to do, feel or act before you start producing your content
• The power of storytelling to move people to take action
• The four pillars of a story structure a business can use: people, place, purpose and plot
• Why the hero is not the business.  Understand who you want to help.
• How Ben is using video in his own business to create wins by producing video for specific social media platforms
• The new video vertical format Facebook is recommending for their ads platform
• Why video is a must for any marketing strategy

Today is a solo teaching episode where I introduce you to my Upside Down Business Budget.

What is covered in this episode:

• The surprising question that not many business owners know how to answer
• What is the Upside Down Business Budget and why it is so important to your business
• Why every business owner needs to know their sales and turnover targets
• Two business case studies that demonstrate the importance of doing the budget and  examples of pitfalls and risks they faced without knowing their sales revenue targets
• The framework in completing the free Upside Down Business Budget worksheet:
• • How to work out to work out exactly what you need for the lifestyle you want - time to get detailed!
  • Working out your Return on Investment (ROI)
  • Operating costs
  • Tax considerations
  • What to do once you have you have completed the worksheet.

Today’s guest is a successful lifestyle business owner Gordon Kerr from Duffy Down Under who hires self drive electric boats on the Gold Coast.

What is covered in this episode:

• How Gordon and his wife identified a gap in the boating market on the Gold Coast
• The impact of having eco-friendly business
• Starting a tourism business in one of the worst national flooding disasters in Queensland’s history
• The unpredictability of business when starting out
• Getting yourself known when entering a new industry
• The marketing and website evolution Duffy Down Under has come through over the past 7 years
• The importance of referral and word of mouth for business growth
• How fast business is changing and why you need to be constantly keeping up with digital marketing trends
• How buyer behaviours on mobile technology is changing
• Making it easy for people to do business with you
• The importance of a web presence for a physical businesses
• Evolving your business offerings over time
• Creating a family and lifestyle business
• The importance of planning and knowing your numbers prior to starting your business.
• How to avoid your business becoming a ‘money pit’
• The two rules of business Gordon lives by
• Gordon’s priority Lead Time Management system
• Two technology shortcuts to make you more productive
• The importance of making changes quickly

Today is another solo episode where I discuss the importance of making it as easy as possible for you customers to do business with you.

I’m a strong believer you can never make it too easy for people to deal with you.

What is covered in this episode:

• Why it is important to make it easy as possible for customers to interact with you
• The one thing McDonalds does to make it easy for customers to order
• The trap of selling instead of focusing on how the customer feels when entering your store or purchasing from you
• Areas to identify when examining your customer experience
• Examples of poor customer service and how lasting impressions can make all the difference
• Why you should never penalise your customers for doing business with you
• Creating advocates instead of just customers