Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your ideas [for the future] into reality.

The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you should concentrate your efforts.  You'll also quickly spot the distractions that would otherwise lure you away from your intended direction/goal.

Properly focused goals can be incredibly motivating, and as you get into the habit of setting and achieving them, you'll find that your self confidence improves and your vision grows.

Goal setting techniques are used widely in business, sport, academic achievement and also in everyday life. They give you long term vision and short term motivation. They focus your quest of knowledge and help you to organise your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

 

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. You can see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. By setting goals, you will also raise your self confidence, as you recognise your ability and competence in achieving the goals that you have set.

 

From the Book ‘On the Shoulders of Giants’ by Rhondalynn Korolak

"You control your future, your destiny. What you think about comes about. By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.  Put your future in good hands – your own." ~ Mark Victor Hansen ~

 

You have to know what it is you are seeking to achieve in life otherwise it’s too easy to drift aimlessly. Years pass like days and next thing you know 20 years have passed and you’ve still not finished that novel that you started to write, not gone back to school to get that degree, not sorted your financial affairs, never bothered to get around to learning a second language etc.

There is one thing that we need to touch on in the context of goal setting – it is the distinction between goals and dreams. And it is this distinction that makes all the difference. Too often, traditional goal setting can seem like a very clinical exercise. Pick up any self-help or business book and it will tell you how to set SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound. While I agree with the necessity of these basic factors, I also think it is absolutely crucial to incorporate the element of "dreams" and the "imagination".

By their very nature, dreams are illogical, irrational, non-sequential, without specific steps and difficult to measure. However, too many of us get limited in our goal setting by the constraints of our own imagination. We would all like to make an extra $100,000 a year but we have no powerful, compelling reason ‘WHY’. What exactly would you do with another $100,000? That is the critical question to ask yourself …

 

Connect with ‘what’ or ‘why’ and the ‘how’ will make itself known to you in the most miraculous ways.

 

Even so, $100,000 is not a huge stretch in today’s terms. But most never dare to aspire to double or triple their income. Why is that?

The missing element is the realm of dreams and imagination. By its very nature, a dream is something that is potentially unrealistic. However, dreams are incredibly powerful and compelling because they are about who you are becoming, not who you are now.

Dreams and imagination lie within the domain of the subconscious mind. By incorporating this additional element into the goal setting process, we connect to the infinite resourcefulness of the subconscious and ignite a passion that will inspire and drive us towards our goals.

Financial Foreplay® Highlights: Define your Goals:

1.When setting goals it is very important to remember that your goals must be consistent with your values.

2. A goal can not contradict any of your other goals.

For example, you can't buy a $750,000

Tania Katsanis ran a multi award winning online business for 12.5 years called Flowers by Fruit. Tania built her business from the ground up – she was focused on "delivering happiness" not only to her customers but also for her team. Flowers by Fruit was revolutionary in redefining edible gifts. Tania and her team created edible chocolate strawberry and fruit bouquets and arrangements for any occasion.  The brand and the business had a loyal following and had built a strong reputation for delivering high quality products and providing exceptional service.

Because of the success of Flowers by Fruit and the legal loopholes that allowed online breaches, Tania's competitors got away with using her registered business name and trademark to generate sales for their own inferior, unprotected products. This created massive confusion for customers seeking authentic Flowers by Fruit products – many , mistakenly ordered clearly inferior products, and were severely disappointed with their experience.

The end result negatively impacted Flowers by Fruit -- the platforms such as Google and Facebook unlawfully allowed it to happen, despite the fact only Tania had the legal right to use her registered trademark in the floral and retail industries.

After spending years trying to be heard to protect the Flowers by Fruit brand, Tania made the heartbreaking decision to close a very successful and profitable business in 2018. 

Financial Foreplay® Highlights

Watch your sales trends very carefully – trends can highlight and help you pinpoint potential infringements of your brand online via digital attacks and unlawful use.

Watch out for declines in online orders, product quality issues raised by “customers” who were fooled, and competitive products showing up for online searches of your business name and/or registered trademark.

Negative links may be invisible to you but make no mistake they are having a severe, detrimental impact on your organic search ranking on Google

Top tips:

It is still extremely important to protect your business name with a registered trademark

Consider selecting a unique name that has never been used before as it may be easier to trademark, protect, and defend

Take your concerns to politicians, media, and other business owners as potential viable options to legal action – together we can raise awareness and prevent use and abuse going unreported and undetected

Get in Touch:

Linkedin profile - Tania Katsanis | LinkedIn

Whether you are an investor, start-up, branded business, selling branded products or promoting your own brand, it is imperative that you take the necessary steps to safeguard your intellectual property.Intellectual property covers and protects more than just an idea or a concept – it shields genuine business assets that may be integral to your business and its long-term success.

Intellectual property can consist of many different things – patents, trademarks, copyright, or registered designs. These things tend to differentiate your business from competitors which is why you stand to suffer significant losses if those things are used without your permission.

Any company (not matter the size) is at risk of having their ideas, products or services, processes, or brands infringed upon. This can happen by someone down the street or by a party on the other side of the world, making protection more important than ever to the survival of your business.

Bio:

Brian Goldberg is a qualified Trade Mark Attorney who protects brands, logos and slogans in Australia and all international markets.

 

Financial Foreplay® Highlights:

Intellectual property encompassed copyright, trademark, patents, and designs- where copyright is created automatically, the other three rights must be registered in order to gain protection

Exposure to theft is now a global issue – it is imperative to set up the right foundation from the start

How to guide:

Is your brand available and trademarkable?

Online tools make it much easier now to check locally and overseas

When dealing with third parties (i.e. contractors) the default is that ownership will attribute to the person who made it so you need to have proper contracts in place if you intend to assert ownership

With products and processes – is it patentable (i.e novel and inventive)?

Digital components and selling abroad – trademark is imperative

Cost of getting it wrong include cost of rebranding, loss of intangible value or goodwill that you have built in something you can no longer use + costs of legal defence to action by the registered owner

It is imperative to nip infringements in the bud early – get out a notification and cease and desist letter, 70% of these matters are settled well before going to court

Inexperienced and naive parties are much more likely to refuse settlement (especially if they have gotten bad legal advice or they are just beligerant)

Get In Touch:

Email – [email protected]

Brian Goldberg | LinkedIn

Running a business is challenging on many fronts not the least of which is that you have put your finances at risk to fund it. That is why it makes sense to proactively manage risk, reduce uncertainty and protect your livelihood wherever possible.

Business insurance is one of those areas that is not often talked about. There are plenty of courses on social media marketing, leadership, even financial literacy... but surprisingly very few on how to protect the key assets you need to stay in business, deal with disasters (manmade or natural) and the human beings you interact with every day in your business.

Think about how you would manage if your stock, employees, equipment, or even your place of business was badly damaged or destroyed?

Would you be able to continue? Could you recover financially based on savings you have on hand right now?

Insurance is about peace of mind. However, you have to know what to insure and how much to insure it for... that is where it makes sense to speak to someone that you can trust.

 

Bio:

Lisa Carter is an award-winning adviser with over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry. Following an 11-year career with an international insurance broking firm Lisa identified a market gap stepping away to start Clear Insurance in 2010.

Lisa is a master at building long-term client relationships - she specialises in custom insurance and risk programs for complicated and hard to place accounts. She has delivered some very unique solutions for the construction, hospitality, medical and tech-startup industries.

 

Financial Foreplay® Highlights:

Before COVID hit we were already in a hard market cycle for insurance – meaning companies had started to restrict cover and premiums were up

In terms of under-insurance, business interruption and public liability are the two areas where businesses are most exposed right now

Insurers are now demanding a much higher level of preparedness in terms of risk planning and cyber risk management strategies

Almost every business (whether you are selling online or not) now has a serious risk of exposure to cyber crime as many of these are driven by social engineering and can infiltrate your business via your email and/or accounts department

The new legislation in place to force timely reporting to government of all breaches is quite strict and most businesses will fall under these provisions because the definition of sensitive data captures more than it ever has in the past

Management liability isn’t just for big businesses that have a formal Board of directors – as a director, you are already on the hook for decisions made or losses that affect third parties and you should be carrying insurance to protect against the risks

 

Get in Contact:

Linked in - Lisa Carter | LinkedIn

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.clearinsurance.com.au/contact-us

It may surprise you to hear that 2/3 of people accessing emergency relief are under extreme housing stress. In countries such as Australia, many adults are reporting that more than ½ of their disposable income goes to keep a roof over their head... leaving them little hope to save for a deposit. Plus according to Demographica, Australia is the only country in the world where 77% of the population is living in housing that is classified as severely unaffordable (defined as 6+ times your annual income).

Since the financial crisis in 2008, many people in America have been forced to rent. It has been reported that 8m mortgages were foreclosed on and $7T in home equity was erased. What this means in practice is that the home ownership rate in America has not increased much at all in the 31 years since 1990.  It took a very long time for the market in the US to recover from 2008 and what we are seeing now with COVID is additional pressure on home ownership as both home owners and renters were hit hard by the lockdowns/restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

 

Bio:

Daisy Ashworth started off in Local Government in the United Kingdom, specialising in Welfare and Housing law at Great Yarmouth Borough Council. She provided legal advice in benefit appeals and creating the free legal advice website 'Freegal'.

For the past nine years Daisy has been committed to ending homelessness in Western Australia, working for a Not-for-Profit agency in the areas of housing, older adults, family services and mental health.In 2015, Daisy started developing the social enterprise Mortgage Mates, a revolutionary website that matches two or more users to own a home together, with the aim of increasing affordable housing in the home ownership space. Daisy has been a finalist at the Pitch @ Palace awards and participated in the SBE E3 cohort for female founders.

 

Financial Foreplay® Highlights:

It takes about 10 years on average to save up for a deposit and the average age of a first home owner is 36 years.

Since 2011 there has been a 50% reduction in home ownership in the age bracket 18-29 years and a 20% reduction for people 30-39 years old

55+ women are the fastest growing demographic facing homeless right now

Home ownership is so deeply ingrained as an aspirational milestone that the inability to get on the ladder is causing significant financial and mental health issues

New co-ownership options can allow you to enter the property market 50-70% than if you continued to try to do it on your own

92% of renters aspire to own but 49% believe it is completely unrealistic/unachievable given the current environment and conditions

Co-ownership is actually a lot less risky as both parties are much more likely to enter the arrangement with solid plans in place to deal with loss of income, shared expense, upgrades, death, estate issues, plan to exit and realize capital gains, etc.

 

Get in touch:

Email – [email protected]

Linkedin - Daisy Ashworth-Brown | LinkedIn

Cyber security poses a very real and significant threat to both individuals and businesses yet very few are actually prepared for the gravity of this threat. Today’s episode is an expose of the scary facts that most victims wish they had known and appreciated before their worst nightmare came to fruition. I want to start by first painting a clear picture of what you are facing and then introduce our guest expert today who is going to tell you what exactly what you need to know and do to protect yourself.

The magnitude of the problem:

There is a cyber attack every 39 seconds – affects about 1 in 3 of us every year

Total cost for cybercrime is about $6 trillion globally

about $29 billion per year in Australia (1.9% of gross domestic product (GDP))

43% of cyber attacks target small business

64% of companies have faced web-based attacks, phishing, &/or social engineering attacks

The global average cost of a data breach is $3.9 million across SMBs

For most businesses this is crippling– not only monetarily but in reputation

54% of businesses say they have experienced one or more attacks in the last 12 months

Yet 77% do not have a Cyber Security Incident Response plan

19% of small businesses invested $0 into cyber security in the last year, and less than 40% had spent between $1-$999.

Most companies take nearly 6 months to detect a data breach (even the big ones)

Since COVID-19, the FBI reported a 300% increase in reported cybercrimes – hackers are taking advantage of more people working from home

95% of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error - hackers will infiltrate your company through your weakest link

Bio: 

Susie Jones is as an experienced cybersecurity, risk, insurance and innovation leader. She has has delivered commercial outcomes as a cybersecurity business services manager, corporate insurance broker, risk manager, innovator, and now a startup CEO.

She is on a mission to reduce the number of small businesses who fall victim to cyber attacks each year, and is passionate about finding a way to help business leaders take back control of their risks and avoid a cyber disaster.

 

Financial Foreplay® Highlights:

Small businesses are easy targets – they are often also an easy way into larger corporates (i.e. supplier logins etc.)

Cyber crime is bigger and more costly than drug trafficking globally

Costs of cyber crime include:

What is needed to fix the problem and restore access

Lost sales during the time the resources are unavailable

Experts required to fix or consult (including lawyers, PR etc.)

Lost opportunity cost

The average downtime is 23 days!

Key elements of a good security plan:

Understanding which technology your company relies upon

Specific step you can take to improve security

Identify the ways you might detect a breach

Ways you will respond if one happens

Detailed assessment of the liabilities you might be on the hook for

Placing appropriate insurance in place to cover the costs of a breach and recovery

Get in touch:

Linkedin - Susie Jones | LinkedIn

Email – [email protected]

 

Research links:

https://www.cybintsolutions.com/cyber-security-facts-stats/

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/cyber-security/strategy

https://cynch.com.au/small-business-cyber-fitness-2021

www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/hacked-sydney-hedge-fund-part-of-170m-cyber-crime-spree-20201123-p56h24

https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/notifiable-data-breaches/notifiable-data-breaches-statistics/notifiable-data-breaches-report-july-december-2020/

https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2020-releases/20-191mr-asic-commences-proceedings-against-ri-advice-group-pty-ltd-for-alleged-failure-to-have-adequate-cyber-security-systems/

We’ve been talking a lot in the last few episodes about cash flow and working capital, and the important (and often misunderstood) distinction between the two. And cash should be top of mind for everyone right now as we know from experience that going into the pandemic last year 50% of business owners only had 16 days of cash reserves (and 96% of all business owners had

Working capital is one of the most difficult financial concepts to grasp for most small-business owners. The fact that it can be calculated in a few different ways only adds to the confusion.

By definition, working capital is the amount by which current assets exceed current liabilities -- and it can be calculated several ways:

current assets - current liabilities

current assets/current liabilities

However, if you simply run one of these calculations each month, you won't accomplish much in the way of highlighting what your working capital needs are or, more importantly, HOW to meet them.

Which Method is Most Helpful?

A more useful measurement tool for determining your working capital needs is something called the operating cycle (also known as your cash conversion cycle or cash gap).  It's more practical in two ways - (1) once you know the number, it is easier to set targets to improve it and (2) you can use the number to help identify whether you have enough working capital to sustain your business next month, quarter etc. Your operating cycle measures your accounts receivable, inventory, work in progress and accounts payable cycles in terms of days. Here is the formula:

debtor days + inventory days (or work in progress days) - days to pay creditors

Here is a visual example:

Clear as mud, right?

Let's break it down a bit more so that you can get insights you can use to make it a little easier to operate comfortably (with enough working capital) next month.

What Does All Of This Mean in Plain Language?

When your accountant, coach or advisor wants to have a look at your operating or cash conversion cycle, essentially what they are doing is looking at:

the overall number of days it takes from when you use cash to purchase stock (or pay for labour and materials to create work in progress) to when you actually secure a sale and collect the cash

This essentially tells you how long you are out of pocket (money has gone out of your business but none has come back in yet).  Knowing this metric is crucial to putting a value on how much working capital you need to sustain you during the period while you are waiting to make and collect the sale.  The longer the period is in days, the more working capital you will require.

And to calculate your operating (or cash conversion) cycle, you must first assess and calculate how many days (on average) it takes you to:

collect an account

turn inventory or WIP into a sale and

pay a supplier invoice.

Financial Foreplay® : How To Apply This Knowledge To Your Business

Just for a moment, rather than focus on the math behind all of these calculations, I want to share with you the thought process behind why we are doing this and what it means to you and your business.  Remember, you don't need to know how to manually calculate these metrics because you can use an app like Businest® to automatically calculate your operating cycle each month.  So it is more important that you understand why this number is valuable and how you can use it to make good decisions about operating your business this month and in the future.

Now unfortunately, most businesses cannot finance their working capital requirements (goods, time and invoice collections) each month with accounts payable financing alone.  The shortfall in cash for a number of days (your operating or cash conversion cycle), gives rise to the need for working capital financing and it is typically covered by the net profit of the business, borrowed funds, or by a combination of the two.

Almost every business needs short-term working capital at some point.  However, most don't calculate or understand that they need it -- which means that they are continually on the back foot, reacting to the pressure of inadequate working capital.   If you are able to measure and quantify your specific need for working capital, you will be at a distinct advantage this year -- (1) you can be proactive and address the need to find additional working capital and (2)

According to a recent Cost of living survey reported on news.com.au, most Australians have no savings at all. Over 10,000 people responded and only 38% reported having more than $5000 in savings, which is pretty poor. 23% admitted they could not find/raise $2000 in a week for something that was urgent and important.

That’s put these numbers into perspective – the rule of thumb for emergency savings is that you should have a minimum of 3 months living expenses. Right now the average household in Australia for example spends about $74,301 on general household living costs (or about $63,168 in America and £45,636 in the UK), which means the average person listening right now should have at least $18,575 (or £11,409)  in your 3 month emergency fund.

This lack of emergency savings and inability to quickly raise funds for unexpected necessities such as a replacement fridge, tires for your car, or dental surgery... really sets the stage for what I want to talk about today which is the disturbing surge in Buy Now Pay Later funding schemes such as Zip, Afterpay, Klarna etc.

The market for BNPL is expected to grow 10 to 15 times by 2025, according to Bank of America. The UK market alone is set to double in 2021 after 1 in 4 British citizens spent £2.3 billion in BNPL debt added over Christmas period. That’s nearly 40% of all Christmas shopping. In Australia, 21% of BNPL consumers are missing payments – this has boosted the revenue for these payment providers by +38% -- and there is no clear regulation to protect consumers who may be vulnerable and susceptible to default due to their age or inexperience with managing debt. One in 10 people using these services already have debt arrears elsewhere, according to a a wide-ranging FCA review into credit services. There can be little doubt that the BNPL model encourages consumerism and there is quite a bit of data that suggests a large majority of the items being purchased are either luxury, discretionary or both (90% of the purchases involve fashions and footwear)....leading to some bad financial outcomes for a large number of consumers.Our guest today came on to my radar recently when I read a post on Linkedin where he pitched a new concept called #SaveNowBuyLater– a new product that he is building in his company Bambu, based in Singapore. You essentially save now to a 3rd party escrow account, and the item is shipped only when you've saved up the total amount and can pay it in full. SNPL also allows consumers to cancel at any time for a full refund if you decide to change your mind and not make the purchase (or direct the money to be placed/spent elsewhere).

Bio:

Aki Ranin isn't a finance guy. He started his career at an early age, first building computers and then coding. For two decades his job was to design and build websites and apps for other companies. Eventually, that path led him to Singapore, where he faced a problem. He sold his house in his native Finland and thought he should probably invest that money somehow. Amazed at the lack of options, tremendous costs, and atrocious digital experiences offered by banks, he decided to build something better. Today, his company Bambu actually helps the banks offer simple savings and investing solutions to consumers through an automated online platform.

Financial Foreplay® Highlights:

The only party losing due to lack of regulations is the consumer – both the retailer and BNPL companies benefit from not having to report credit to third party bureaus the way that credit cards and other providers do

There needs to be a shift in behavioural psychology towards incentivizing the art of saving as consumer spending is leading towards consumer debt levels that are unsustainable

If you haven’t checked out Smarty Pig in the USA, it’s definitely worth a look

Instagram and other social media sites glorify the shots of consumers wearing their luxury watches, shoes or handbags but no one ever posts a shot of the debt collector banging down the