Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 10 July 2018

It’s like a chicken before the egg scenario. Do you app research or do you just dive head-long into the technology that claims to make your life easier… without really knowing how it works. Do you trust the reviews, the testimonials and the company to do what it says it will or do you really try it out before investing  too much time.

Selecting the app is the LAST thing you should do whereas The app is the not the asset, it’s your data which is crucial. SO a good start is, like everything, asking yourself what the journey is for both yourself and the client to assist. the Crap in, crap out.

Welcome to the show Matt.

 

Topics we’ll be covering:

How is small business affected by the "mobile first, cloud first" revolution

Brief history of business and productivity applications - system of record, system of process, system of decision, system of engagement (and very early stage: system of intelligence)

Where applications were very complex before, they are easy now. Having applications in the cloud is like having power from the grid - no need for an expensive and difficult to maintain power generator for the factory - same as the applications, just subscribe and plug in. This enables also mobile - which is allowing to do work no matter the location, no matter the device

 

Take the customer journey as the starting point for the selection of applications

There is an app for everything - especially in the marketing space we have seen an explosion of new applications on the market - one company identified over 4000 applications (and probably stopped counting). Customer Relationship management applications, accounting applications, there is no shortage. The typical buying process of small businesses start with the accounting - got to keep the ATO happy. Same as "all roads lead to Rome" -unless you are in Rome - all data flows to accounting, which makes it a less than ideal starting point of the selection process - and typically, additional applications get "bolted on" the business without thought of integration of process.

Example: you use a direct mail campaign application, Mail Chimp is good and used quite often. What happens when your customer unsubscribes. How is that reflected in your CRM system? When you next take an export of all customers for another campaign - how do you ensure that previously unsubscribed customers are excluded? And how do you see within your CRM the open, click and bounce rates?

Example 2: we all know the frustration when calling a support line from a large company - you explain the issue to the front-line agent, the agent cannot help you and transfers you - and you have to explain everything again...

 

The customer journey takes into account the desired road the customer travels to become and remain a customer at your business. How do you get your leads, how do the leads convert into customers, what are the touch points.

Example: let's take a gardener. Leads come in from: referrals, advertisement, as well as a flyer distribution in the area. it is important to measure the return of customers from these channels. Once a potential customer asks for a quote, the gardener visits the garden, takes stock of the work (maybe some photos), as well as capture additional details of the potential customer. Sending the quote of the work on email gives the most options - for instance, adding the photos to illustrate (the gardener now has the name, address, phone and email address of the potential customer).

When executing the work, all time and expenses are recorded in a mobile application, and again, photo's of progress are made. Once done, the gardener can send via the mobile phone, the invoice to the customer, which includes the labour, materials used, and potentially the photos. Because the invoice is immediately booked in the system (instead of a written invoice that needs to be processed separately), the gardener does not need to do any additional administration.

During the quiet periods, the gardener sends out an email campaign, with tips for maintaining the soil, and propose work that can be done.

As mentioned before, there is a vast number of applications available - when selecting applications, people tend to look at features and cost. The sales person tries to steer the conversation away from cost to "value"- value is important, but be careful if the vendor specifies the value for you. The actual value in applications is not in the features (we expect a minimum bar to be met) - it is how the application enables the data flow supporting the customer journey. Cost is also important - adding all these applications together adds up to cost - some applications are free to use - be careful - read the license model - what are you trading away for the free use? There are examples where you automatically share ownership of any intellectual property generated with the free use application. On the flipside, the more expensive an application is, the more difficult it is to get return on investment.

If allowed: plug - Aurelian Group works with small businesses to assess and map their customer journey, and provides access to an "all you can eat buffet" of 40 applications for as little as $45 per employee per month - discounted to $35 per month if paid annually. Just like a buffet and you don't like the shrimp, you pass it - if you do not need an application yet, you don't have to use it. However, the applications you do use are designed to work together.

 

Matt’s Bio:

Born in The Netherlands, arrived in Australia in 2006 (detour - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, New Zealand)

25 years experience with Business applications (first application project: 16 week forecasting tool for a liquor distillery in The Netherlands - June 1993) - implemented small to (very) large application projects

From 2006 to 2017 worked at Microsoft, ended up managing the Dynamics 365 ERP implementation team at Microsoft, dealing with the largest customers across Asia

Now - with Aurelian Group, Matt is 100% focused on small business, enabling their customer journeys with simple to use integrated applications.

 

Key takeaways

The key take-aways for small business owners I would like to get across are:

- applications are not an asset, your process - how the data flows within your business to provide your customers a great experience is your asset - applications enable (or disrupt) this flow

- when selecting business applications, one should start with the customer journey you want to provide to your customers in your business - then select applications on how they facilitate that journey

- an integrated flow is more valuable than having the most feature rich applications - when data does not flow between applications, your customer experience during the journey is far from optimal (usually a poor experience).

To find out more go to their website: www.aurelian-group.com or www.unboxedbusiness.com

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 3 July 2018

The Small Biz Journey can be broken down in logical life cycles and it can often be useful to identify where you are in that journey. Why? So you can identify to pitfalls which other businesses in that same position often face. It helps to avoid making the same mistakes as other!

Our guest today is Salmin Khan, an expert in business advice in particular around the area of insolvency. He understands through his work with a great range of businesses; big and small what are the common problems, mistakes and solutions that business owners face at each stage.

Welcome to the show Salmin.

Topics we’ll be covering:

Ideally, the mindset should be that running a business is just a process of solving problems for yourself and your customers.

StartUp Stage

At the startup stage, business owners will have a lot of enthusiasm but little direction and even less experience. The problem that they need to solve will be how to bring the first sales in, how to establish a presence in the market and how to build a product offering.

The common mistakes at this stage are to over invest in things such as company cars, stock and premises. Startups often suffer from a lack of planning on how to reach their first customers. What this will often lead to is a dwindling in enthusiasm and the venture fizzles out.

Common things we’ll hear at this point are “we just need to get the first few customers” or “we do it all”.

The solution to this is to start with a plan. It doesn’t have to be a fifty page document but you do need to sit down and figure out your product, demographic and unique selling point. You also want to minimise your cash drain.

A company will remain in the startup phase until they can commit to a set offering and systemise it.

Growth Phase

At the growth phase, the company now starts to bring in customers and the enthusiasm again returns but suddenly the workload will increase very quickly. The owners will have to deal with marketing, bookkeeping, operations, compliance and now the new customers.

If this isn’t managed properly, the owners become fatigued and growth stops.

The problems at this stage can best be described as “growing pains”. You’re getting a lot more work but the cashflow isn’t well managed. You need to employ staff but they don’t seem to be working well together. The work comes in bursts because most of the sales are through word of mouth.

Common things you hear at this point are “I’m just so tired with work”, “we can’t pay this quarters BAS bill”, “It’s impossible to find good staff” and “We don’t advertise, it’s just word of mouth”.

The growth phase will end too quickly unless the owners set in place systems and procedures to manage HR, Marketing, Operations and Accounting.

Some of the mistakes made at this point are: not managing cashflow, trying to do all the work themselves (cleaning, admin, operations, bookkeeping) and not having a system to manage staff efficiently.

Maturity Phase

The final stage is maturity. Here, the owners have hopefully offloaded a few of their responsibilities. If this is done well, the business will begin to transition into more of a passive investment where they can work or inject capital as they see fit.

However, complacency starts to become an issue here and issues such as employee misconduct and stagnation start to occur. When the owner doesn’t properly manage staff you can start to see things like theft occurring or larger errors causing customer complaints.

Additionally, if the owners don’t pay attention to new trends in the market, new competitors will outstrip them.

Lastly, now that there’s money in the business, where there is more than one owner you can start to get director disputes which can kill the business completely.

This may also be the point where owners will look to sell the business, which leads to another whole set of issues that need to be addressed.

The solutions to these problems are to have a routine of having management reports done every month to check the financials. To avoid disputes with other owners I recommend a sit down meeting once a month or fortnight to set out responsibilities and iron out any disagreements.

Overall

Overall, the best advice I can give any business owner at any stage is to have a trusted advisor who has experience in these issues. It’s often that my clients call me to have a quick chat about employee issues or whether google adwords is better than facebook ads.

To find out more go to their website: http://tactnsw.com/

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 26 June 2018

Ah, the end of Financial Year (otherwise known as EOFY by retailers trying to be original each and every year) can seem daunting and a little bit scary for businesses. There are accounts to reconcile, payroll and super to check and pay and of course the June BAS ever present in our bookkeeping part of our lives. But it DOESN’T have to be that difficult….

Joining us today is Michele Grisdale, a BAS Agent and Bookkeeper from Rainforest Bookkeeping; whose philosophy is “We Give You Time Back to Enjoy Life”. The is a real ambassador for the profession; believing in the importance of compliance and accuracy but balancing it with making the software we implement in our businesses actually doing the heavy lifting.

Welcome to the show Michele.

Topics we’ll be covering:

Sole Traders and Small Businesses are critical to the growth and development of this country

The problem they do their TAFE or education require for their skills but no one tells them how to run a business.  TAFE has finally started to realise this an is now offering fully-subsidised Skills for Business Training. https://www.tafensw.edu.au/skillsforbusiness

This is a step in the right direction and you need to be educated about how to run your business BUT it is still keeping all of the business stress reliant on you and your partner.  

Why it is much more expensive to try to do everything yourselves?  If you are trying to do everything yourself or relying on a partner, how much unnecessary stress is it adding to your life

how much are you losing trying to do everything yourself?  3 hours per week doing paperwork - how much could you be earning during that?

how much are your relationships suffering - is it worth it? Time for data entry, filing, storage - then finding the paperwork for the accountant at tax time.

Why using cloud systems and less paper saves us all time, money and real estate

End of year success means starting the year off right

Choose a Cloud-based solution and remember its not always about which one is initially cheaper

Find a way to reduce data entry

Do you want to grow or just find better processes to free up your time?

Look at whether you need an employee or if its better to use subcontractors

Do you have a pro-active accountant?

To find out more go to their website: www.rainforestbookkeeping.com.au

Rainforest Bookkeeping was founded because we found so many small businesses and sole traders had no time to themselves. When cloud technology came along, we had time to offer more services and better advice because we had real time data. No longer were we spending 3-4 hours a day on data entry for each client - YAY!

We can show you how to eliminate data entry and paper in your business. We can show you how to get your time back and stop discussing business all the time. We can show you how to automate many processes and eliminate double handling of every

piece of paper. We can show you how to have everything ready for your accountant all of the time and eliminate the end of quarter/year stress.

And if you want a little about me:

Originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia USA, Michele Grisdale arrived in Sydney in 1995 (22 years ago) and loved it so much she never left.

Her original background was in Marketing for an international television broadcast equipment manufacturer designing brochures, logos and trade show exhibitions.  She was transferred to Sydney to get ready for the 2000 Olympics as the company had a large contract with NBC US.

In Australia she has worked in with manufacturing, import/export, logistics, food safety, e-commerce and the building industry.

She and her husband also own a hair salon on Sydney Northern Beaches so her experience with service businesses and apprentices is extensive.  

Rainforest Bookkeeping's clients are small business and sole traders with Trades as a speciality. Their clients include plumbers, electricians, carpenters, shop fitters, builders, glaziers, window tinting, handyman services, Architects/Drafting, Financial Planners, Announcers, Hairdressers, Beauty Salons, Personal Trainers, Psychology Services, IT Services, Butchers, Liquor Shops, Property Maintenance & Cleaning, Property Investment; Wholesalers; Sports Professionals

Rainforest Bookkeeping is 100% Xero and 100% ReceiptBank.  

App Partnerships:

Xero

Receipt Bank

ServiceM8

Timely

ExpenseCheck

and many more

Michele has four adult children all living in Sydney and two 1-year old kelpies.  Oh, and she still only works 4-5 days per week. Work and life balance is crucial.

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 19 June 2018

We can learn a lot from the experts in small business. Those more experienced; business advisors who are leaders in their fields and in fact community groups who act as a real Hub for everyone; tapping into the resources and local businesses to support those around them from all walks of life.

A real bastion of community groups in Australia is the PCYC. Around for decades, they are the experts when it comes to collaboration and creating a hub around you as a business within their community.  

How do they connect so well?

Take for example Small business: Did you know PCYC Hornsby KuringGai has meeting & boardroom facilities available to small business at a great, reduced rate? And they can cater for functions? Breakfast meetings are a great option too. Thinking of hosting an unusual, collaborative event for the local community? Chances are the PCYC has the facilities you need.

Joining us today is David Grant, the Senior Club Manager & Peter Kirkwood from PCYC & Rotary.

Topics we’ll be covering:

Here are some other great ways in which your local PCYC engages with and supports the community.

Engagement with twelve local primary & high schools

St Edmunds disability programs

In-house sports programs for schools in area

Great working relationship with Magpies, Northern Districts Cricket Club for cross referrals

Provide sporting, recreational, fitness and cafe facilities for over 7,500 people of which 60% are locals (2077, 2076 and 2074 post codes)

Gymnastics NSW

Disability Sports programs

New programs PCYC Youth & connecting with Rotary Youth club

Support local trades people and suppliers by utilising local businesses

PCYC employs locally!

Through working with Police Community Liaison officers PCYC listens to local businesses relating to issues they may be facing with disaffected youth by tapping into the resources PCYC can provide to these young groups.

To find out more go to their website: https://www.pcycnsw.org.au/hornsby-ku-ring-gai/ or call (02) 8998 5400

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 12 June 2018

The fundraiser taps into big business to assist small businesses and community groups.

The fundraiser offers community groups and small businesses the opportunity to generate additional revenue with minimal expenditure.

Small Holes Media has utilised a known movie franchise, “Mamma Mia!” to successfully engage community groups and small businesses to reap rewards for everyone.

Small Holes Media has utilised entrepreneurial techniques, rarely used in the TV industry to generate jobs, income and community benefits.

Small Holes Media Pty Ltd Founder/CEO, Scott Everingham, wondered whether he could bring joy to the world coinciding with the release of "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again".  

Scott's solution is to recruit local charities, schools, sports/bowling clubs and social organisations  in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand to sell tickets to charity "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" film screenings, with a part of the proceeds going to local charities and breast cancer charities.  

The aim?  To create the world's biggest pink party, raise millions of dollars for breast cancer charities in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand and generate funds for organizations on a local level.

According to Inc. Magazine, small businesses that support charitable causes can benefit from a variety of factors, such as increasing brand exposure, boosting employee moral, tax deductions and the satisfying feeling of helping those in need.

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 5 June 2018

The Cloud. We get it, we use it. We count on it.

Every day when operating as a small businesses we rely heavily on the cloud and internet storage. We assume it's safe, secure and backed up SOMEWHERE. We assume it's available anytime and reliable and we assume the content we produce is ours to do with what we wish. But we’re not careful enough.

But like all things (except death and taxes as they say) you can’t be sure of it. You need to be in control with this extremely important tool of your trade. What if you can’t find an important document? What if the storage you relied on suddenly wasn’t there? What if you never backed up?

Well today we have on the show another great expert; Gunnar Habitz to help us navigate through the complexities of Cloud storage but like always on Small Biz we’ll make sure you have practical strategies to ensure you take control.

Welcome to the show Gunnar.

Topics covered in part two:

Cloud in general

Cloud storage vs. cloud backup comparing different tools

How does a typical IT setup of Small Biz Owners looks like and who helps with IT tasks

What does RPO and RTO mean and why is it important

Business Continuity and Risk Management instead of just backup

Cyber insurance

Ransomware attacks

Cyber security issues

What about the new “Notifiable Data Breach” law in Australia

Impact of the new “Notifiable Data Breach” law in Australia

How to get attention for the topic

 

Cloud in general

Benefits for customers: agility, flexibility, choice, PAYG

Cloud is a journey instead of destination

Public, Private, Hybrid cloud

On-premise, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS - see the Pizza-as-a-Service example below

What’s in the cloud, stays in the cloud - but getting it back is another topic

 

Cloud storage vs. cloud backup comparing different tools

Cloud synchronisation services: Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive

Many of them don’t have versioning (Dropbox EVH has at least 120 days)

What’s deleted on one device gets deleted on another as well upon connection

Hard to get anything back from the cloud sync providers

Proper cloud backup provides versioning in all possible local retention possibilities and clients can get back their data as part of the service by themselves of their partner

Example Office 365 can be added by a backup solution (e.g. SkyKick) which is designed for one-click restoring data straight into the mailbox without an PST file export by maintaining the initial structure

 

How does a typical IT setup of Small Biz Owners looks like and who helps with IT tasks

On-premises: notebook(s), printing, potentially a server for files or databases

Cloud services like Office 365, Google G Suite, AWS, Xero/MYOB, CRM, specific apps

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) deliver IT as a service based on SMB demands including backup, but also on-premise infrastructure from capex to opex

Small Businesses should focus on the business outcome for their clients, not on technology

 

What does RPO and RTO mean and why is it important

Two most important numbers in backup and DR before and after a disaster point

Recovery Point Objective: maximum targeted period in which data might be lost

Recovery Time Objective: targeted duration of time after a disaster to be fully restored back on track

The requirements are included in a Business Continuity Plan and have significant effect on the IT design

Every company - small or large - need to specify its risk appetite

 

Business Continuity and Risk Management instead of just backup

Provides principles and generic guidelines on risk management

Worldwide standard ISO 31000 has been created by Australia/NZ initially (2004)

Example: 6% of data restored * cost of getting it back (but how to estimate?)

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery include more than IT, in the first place care about people

 

Cyber Insurance

Some see backup like an insurance, but the reality is different

The cyber insurance covers for lost revenue in a data loss, but doesn’t get the data back

The backup provider gets the data back, but doesn’t cover lost revenue

It is a complementing solution usually not offered together

No cyber insurance without proper backup and DR solution in place

 

Ransomware attacks

Talking about a concrete example

Can arrive per email or even inside an internet connected printer or scanner

Attacks not only local infrastructure, but also the cloud if not well protected

60% of SMEs went out of businesses in the next six month after a significant breach (Australian SME numbers), 80% don’t survive the second year

A victim shared his story at the Australian Information Security Association (AISA): the company had a plan to be listed on the ASX within three years, instead they got a severe hack with data breach and it took the owner more than a year to consider working again due to the psychological damage

 

Cyber Security

46% of the world population is already connected

IoT sensors and devices are expected to overtake smartphones still in 2018

Australian numbers

The Government estimated the average cost of a cybercrime attack to a business is A$276,323

43% of cybercrimes attack small businesses as they can’t simply prevent it easily

Largest cost factor of cybercrime are information loss (39%) and business disruption (36%)

Australian Computer Society (ACS) published worldwide data from the Verizon 2016 Data Breach report

63% of breaches are caused by weak, default of stolen passwords

In 93% of cases hackers took minutes to break and companies weeks or months to discover

95% of attacks are financially motivated

Nearly 30% open phishing emails, 12% clink on the links or open the files (attention on smartphones)

Every minute half a million attacks happening in cyberspace

Cyber industry estimated US$639B spending in 2023

So what can we do?

The security strategies with biggest return are adding security intelligence systems (67%) and advanced identity and access governance (63%)

Top tips the Optus “Small Business Guide to effective Cyber Security”: regular backup, secure passwords and multi-factor authentication, security updates, administrative accounts control

Leadership must provide a cyber-aware culture educating staff and clients

ACS considers 5 pillars of cybersecurity readiness: education & awareness, planning & preparation, detection & recovery, sharing & collaboration, ethics & certification

Managed Service Providers and specialists like Witz Cybersecurity (www.witzcybersecurity.com) consult Small Businesses

 

impact of the new “Notifiable Data Breach” law in Australia

In place since 22 February 2018 to report data breaches within 30 days

Most often data breaches haven’t been made public not to destroy brand reputation

Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) reported that 51% of Australian SMEs found out about a data breach when alerted by customers

Fines: $360K for individual and $1.8M for companies above $3M turnover if not reported in 30 days

View of the Ransomware programmers: “if you don’t pay me in Bitcoin, then I will breach your data and force you to pay the fines”

First quarterly report shows 63 published data breaches within six weeks, mostly health service providers, legal, finance, education and charities

Half of the breaches occurred due to human errors

The reality might be higher as many companies don’t report or don’t even know

 

Impact of the new “Notifiable Data Breach” law in Australia

Most companies recently sent newsletters with updated privacy policies or partially new opt-in requests

Background is the European General Data Protection Regulation binding those who are physically in the EU, not just official residents or citizens

Barrister Talitha Fishburn of Wardell Chambers shows the Australian impact (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/big-data-so-what-australian-businesses-impacted-new-eu-fishburn/)

GDPR covers data processing to raise more awareness

Backup providers don’t see into the encrypted data about any European personal data insight, so better to be compliant

Consent: continue marketing to B2C with an active opt-in for newsletters and to B2B if business customers didn’t provide a subsequent opt-out

Many software vendors updated their processes, Marketo as a leader in marketing automation sees GDPR as a worldwide activity

Portability: users have the right to obtain the transactional history of personal data

Right to be forgotten: consumers have the right to have their information deleted (how do you know where exactly you stored their data?)

Data breaches: must be reported within 48h, otherwise fines in two steps up to €20M or 4% of global annual turnover whatever is greater

 

How to get attention for the topic

Don’t think just backup as nice to have (like regular dentist visit fixing one tooth), rather think comprehensive availability (like the winning smile when all teeth are in order)

Business consultants and MSPs convince owners better than box moving IT resellers

 

KeepItSafe helps Small Businesses in Australia and New Zealand to protect from data loss because downtime is not an option. We consult and discover the right solution for the requirements of SMEs in a tailored approach

To find out more, go to the website www.keepitsafe.com/au, contact [email protected] or call 1300 722 344

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 29 May 2018

Today’s expert is Lia Zalums from Success InSight, expert in Business Psychology & Psychometric Profiling who will be sharing her knowledge on the importance of life-long learning in the pursuit of small business success. It’s an aspect of small business development we don’t think about; beyond the compulsory CPD credits we might have to attain to maintain professional affiliations when we the last time you really searched online for good quality education around Leadership psychology?

Welcome to the show Lia.

Topics we’ll be covering:

Life long learning in psychological  skills is so important NOT just the technical side but also to psychological skills of running a business

Focus - what is the right focus - WHERE are you focusing on making the right choices

The last thing we invest in is their psychology development and without this you’ve just created yourself a job.

Vital that the help you ask for and in turn receive in carefully considered.

How do you choose a mindset coach for your business? What questions should you be asking

Even as a solo-preneurs sole business owner we need to consider ourselves business owners. We need to arm ourselves with psychological skills.

The Thinking Model - the frame to start working with.

To find out more go to their website: https://www.successinsight.com.au/

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 22 May 2018

17 April 2018

The Cloud. We get it, we use it. We count on it.

Every day when operating as a small businesses we rely heavily on the cloud and internet storage. We assume it's safe, secure and backed up SOMEWHERE. We assume it's available anytime and reliable and we assume the content we produce is ours to do with what we wish. But we’re not careful enough.

But like all things (except death and taxes as they say) you can’t be sure of it. You need to be in control with this extremely important tool of your trade. What if you can’t find an important document? What if the storage you relied on suddenly wasn’t there? What if you never backed up?

1 May 2018

Video Marketing. No longer the dark art of the past, a mystery relegated to the back-lot AV rooms of last century; it’s now accessible to all as a marketing tool and one you really should have a good understanding of when developing your marketing strategy for your business.

8 May 2018

Debt financing is an important aspect to managing and understanding your finances as a small business. Quite often small businesses will have long standing loans for which they’re not getting the best rate or they set up their finances in a hurry and haven’t looked at the bigger picture. We’ve been talking a lot in the past few weeks on Small Biz about running a business with the end in mind and what better way to end this series with an expert who can assist us as a Debt Advisor?

15 May 2018

Over the last few weeks on Small Biz Matters we’ve been talking a lot about beginning with the end in mind. Today we’re going to focus back in on ourselves as business owners as HUMAN beings and think about our stress points and ways to alleviate them.

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 15 May 2018

Over the last few weeks on Small Biz Matters we’ve been talking a lot about beginning with the end in mind. Today we’re going to focus back in on ourselves as business owners as HUMAN beings and think about our stress points and ways to alleviate them.

Joining us today is Tim Hoopmann; experienced small business owner, qualified bookkeeper and expert in mental health education for everyone from corporate execs through to small business owners..

He’s going to help our listeners reconnect with valuing ourselves and valuing our staff to encourage a more productive healthier business environment. I think everyone from sole traders through to those with a J.O.B will benefit immensely from his expertise.

Welcome to the show Tim.

Topics we’ll be covering:

So where did your passion for helping small businesses with their mental health come from?

Understanding of what a small business goes through from the experience of running my own.

Joining Beyond Blue to give back – volunteering to raise awareness & raising funds. It was my high. Not about the bottom line, no expected return, give and take. Volunteering is giving only with nothing in return. It is joyous

Then they were looking for speakers – required training. I wanted to tell my story; the pressure of small business & mental health pressures.

So when you’re speaking to an audience what do you like to speak about?

For example - Men’s Mental Health Week – corporate (teaching about Beyond Blue and your journey)

Start with yourself, the business owner - Valuing your worth, time and yourself

You sound more confident in emails, onboarding becomes more professional

Taking care of yourself and your business

Once you believe in the value in what you do it’s much easier to

Improving Processes – create a better environment for your team

Question number 1 when sitting down with your employees as a one-on-one How was your last month (NOT tasks, deliverables, targets)

Valuing time then leads you away from Stargazing (bright shiny things) apps. Trying things out because you’re not confident in yourself so you shop around for apps. This takes time and therefore money.

But make sure the apps and software you use are specific to the tasks you want them to do. It takes the pressure off.

Share with your team your goals and make them part of the journey – give them a collaborative environment

Working in teams

Rethink your email systems – “silo” emails removes the team environment and can isolate employees

Think of this in terms of supporting your team rather than implementing something new

Example of staff member being bullied by client or fearful employees when they’ve stuffed up

Helps when the office closes to work out what is really urgent

When transitioning COMMUNICATE why you’re doing this and why its better for them. Actually go out and chat to them.

Rather than increasing the pressures of more clients, more work – look at streamlining your processes through automation (in your finance processes as example) and then the burden of work on your staff is reduced.

Understanding cashflow

Who can help?

The solution is really much simpler than you think – Dashboards with key measures, intuitive and easy to use, automate with programs like RB

Good communication is the key be clear what you expect your clients  

What can small businesses owners learn from the failures of culture in corporate?

Split system – high achieving pressure split to those without the pressures and they become more insular

To find out more go to their website: http://learn.beyondblue-elearning.org.au/businessinmind/

 

Tim Hoopmann – Founder and CEO of Spinn Business Solutions

Tim Hoopmann has owned and operated a bookkeeping practice specialising in cloud services for over 10 years. He transformed his business from a desktop and paper based practice to a cloud bookkeeping practice, 100% online and paperless with streamlined and automated processes.

Tim utilised technology to change the way he serviced his customers by moving them online and streamlining their bookkeeping and finance. Showing them how to take back control and sit in the drivers seat of their business thus allowing them the freedom to focus on key revenue generating areas of their business instead of being buried in day to day processes.

Prior to running his own business Tim worked for Shell and Lion Nathan Brewing, gaining experience in sales, marketing, finance and operations. Tim has a big business mindset and transfers this to small business by focusing on his key pillars of success; strategy, people, process and systems.

Tim is passionate about helping businesses make the transition to being fully automated and cloud based though enabling the power of todays technology. This will allow for

greater freedom and the ability to enjoy a powerful work/life balance.   Twitter: @timhoopmann

LinkedIn: TimHoopmann Website: timhoopmann.com

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management ServicesDate: 8 May 2018

Debt financing is an important aspect to managing and understanding your finances as a small business. Quite often small businesses will have long standing loans for which they’re not getting the best rate or they set up their finances in a hurry and haven’t looked at the bigger picture. We’ve been talking a lot in the past few weeks on Small Biz about running a business with the end in mind and what better way to end this series with an expert who can assist us as a Debt Advisor?

Welcome to the show John.

Topics we’ll be covering:

Why is it so important to approach an independent broker and how can you tell if someone is or is not?

Ask to see their credentials – Are they an authorised credit representative

What’s their experience and background; do they understand the needs of small businesses?

Ask about their ownership structure

Financial planners?

Accounting firms ownership?

Ask your colleagues in the small business world

Background of the person you are dealing with is important too. - Ask!

Lure of one stop shop is very appealing to small businesses who are so time poor.

Debt advisory is one of your specialisms – what does that mean?

Cashflow for debt management – do you need a number of different loans or should you restructure.

Big questions to ask

What is your debt?

What is it for?

Is it for the right purpose?

Classic example is those who use the equity in their home but you should review this. After all, it is a long term loan rather than a higher interest rate over a shorter term.

Preparing yourself for loan application as a small business

Be open and honest. Half way through the application if there is information which is incomplete or missing that can really change the loan prospects. In particular around tax debts. As of 1Jul17 the ATO can now, for any unpaid debt over $10k, they can list that as a default on your credit file ! But don’t panic there are options for dealing with the debt    

Brainstorm where all of your debt is

Top tips on preparing for the application process

Keep your books up to date – always lodge with the ATO ontime especially for BAS

Be prepared to be open and that will make you well prepared for the application process

Know how to structure yourself and your businesses in the family but with VIEW to how you’re going to access funds / lending. Let your accountant know what your plans are and think ahead.

Low income = reduce tax OR high income = increased lending capacity

Think in ten years time – where do you see your own personal funds NOT just where your business will be in ten years time

To find out more go to their website: www.commandhomeloans.com.au