Talking Law

Today we take a look at the issues with the traditional transactional model of business broking with our guest John Fitzgerald of Your Enterprise Strategy and Link Business. In this episode, John and I talk about a better way of funding business sale transactions and we identify some platforms you can use to facilitate deals into the future. We also talk about how business brokers, accountants who are advising businesses on a sale or acquisition, and even business owners themselves can jump on this opportunity now. Then we wrap up this episode with a discussion on why acquisition is a more viable path for entrepreneurs compared to a startup. All these and more!

The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR is an EU legislation dealing with the collection, storage handling and transfer of personal information which came into effect on the 25th of May 2018. In this episode, we take a particular look at how this new legislation affects business sales and acquisitions in Australia.

Welcome to the final half of our series with Michael Hutchens on using numbers to drive growth and strategy. Today we talk a bit more about Modano's software which enables you to build and maintain a scalable investment banking quality financial model using Excel, and we give you tips on how to get started!

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Welcome to part 2 of our special 2-part series with Michael Hutchens of Modano. In part 1, we looked at the differentiation opportunity for business owners and advisors to business in using financial analysis to drive growth and strategy for the business.

Today we talk a bit more about Michael’s software which enables you to build and maintain a scalable investment banking quality financial model of using Microsoft Excel. We’ll go through a few examples of businesses who have used financial modelling to power their growth. All these and more!

* Speak to a lawyer about an issue you are facing now

* Leave us a message with a legal issue that you want us to cover on the podcast

Episode Highlights:

* A cheaper and effective way to build financial models

* Examples of SMEs who used financial modelling to power growth

* Opportunity for annuity-based revenue streams for accountants

* The problem with plug and play solutions

* It's a risk not doing it

* Investment banking services without the conflict of interest

* How to get started

A cheaper and effective way to build financial models

All the software is, and I say all it is because people get people get scared of it. All it is is a system that enables you to more efficiently use Microsoft Excel to build financial model.

We looked at Wordpress as an example 10 years ago. We built our website using Wordpress without actually hiring an engineer. We looked at modelling and thought why aren't financial models able to be like WordPress. The reality is WordPress is successful because the vast majority who were using it don't actually build the content that makes the website work. So on WordPress if you want to plug in a shopping cart, you can plug in a module that does that. Over the years a whole community of people has built the code that does that and that's why you can build a WordPress website and start such charging somebody from a widget you're selling from your home without really understanding how to write code.

We walk that fine line between giving people a whole lot of information that they can then use to do their modelling more efficiently and effectively, but also automating it. Therefore one of the discussions we always have with people is you still need to know what you're doing when using our system, which is where the training comes in.

To give you a really simple example, in the old days, to build a financial model you'd start with a static template. You got off a mate or your accountant and you type numbers in and work out what was going on. With our system, we've built 10,000 pieces of financial models. An example of a piece is a SaaS revenue projection. Another example might be some depreciation calculation for your fixed assets.

What our system allows you to do is to cherry pick, like Lego pieces, and slot them in. But then even after that, you still need to then know how to customise the model for your business.

Today we zoom in on how accounting practices are bought, sold and merged. Joining us to talk about this topic is Kev Ryan of United, who is an accountant turned entrepreneur who is now in the business of helping accounting practices grow through mergers and acquisitions.

This is the first episode of a special two-part series with Michael Hutchens of Modano. Today Michael talks to us about the power of using numbers to drive the growth and strategy of your business, and the opportunities available for advisors to business in relation to this. Michael is also introducing us to a new software they developed, which makes financial modelling more accessible to small businesses.

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This is the first episode of a special two-part series with Michael Hutchens of Modano. Michael is an ex-investment banker, professional financial modeller, software-developing CEO.

Today Michael talks to us about the power of using numbers to drive the growth and strategy of your business, and the opportunities available for advisors to business in relation to this. Michael is also introducing us to a new software they developed, which makes financial modelling more accessible to small businesses.

* Speak to a lawyer about an issue you are facing now

* Leave us a message with a legal issue that you want us to cover on the podcast

Episode Highlights:

* Recognising the opportunity to differentiate with financial analysis

* It's not the size, but the mentality that counts

* Start understanding some basic accounting

* Biggest hump for business owners and accountants

* Look at the drivers of your business

* Numbers can get hidden amongst other numbers

* Financial modelling for service businesses

* Don’t throw away understanding

Recognising the opportunity to differentiate your business and practice

I think the opportunity is recognising that the financial analysis that you're doing isn't just a necessary part of your compliance. It's recognising that it's a huge part of getting things done and growing.

We've been building financial models for companies since we started in investment banking back in 1999. But we started building strategic planning models for companies back from 2002. What we've seen over the last 15 approaching 20 years is a direct correlation between the companies that grow and succeed and the ones that actually proactively take their financial analysis seriously and really treat it as a skill that they take pride in rather than one that they actually get frustrated by.

You look at so many companies to this day and they have these disjointed messy processes where you've got effectively like a poindexter nerd, almost perceived to be a poindexter nerd in the background that's doing their accounting and their bookkeeping.

They almost align their actual financial reporting with their bookkeeping when in actual fact what you really want to be doing is saying let's look at historical data, process it, do some projections and look at different scenarios and use that information to empower us when we make decisions.

As a lot of younger people that are more tech savvy than the people were 20 years ago are coming through into CFO and COO roles, I think more and more of this is happening. But there are still a lot of companies out there that when we go to them and ask them for some type of clarity on their numbers, they won't have it. It's quite extraordinary because they generally only feel like they need it when they need something from a third party.

We deal with companies, huge companies that are looking at selling to home offices or Chinese investors an...

This quick tips episode is all about giving you simple steps to get your business sale-ready from a legal perspective.

We’re issuing this important warning due to the number of issues that we’ve seen coming up regularly. In this episode, we’re talking about the risks for accountants and advisors in business name and company registrations.

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We’re issuing this important warning due to the number of issues that we’ve seen coming up regularly. In this episode, we’re talking about the risks for accountants and advisors in business name and company registrations.

* Speak to a lawyer about an issue you are facing now

* Leave us a message with a legal issue that you want us to cover on the podcast

Episode Highlights:

* Why are we talking about this?

* The art of trade mark searches

* Infringement risks and the risk of rebranding

* Action steps moving forward

Joanna: Hi, it's Joanna Oakey here and welcome back to talking law brought to you by the commercial legal practice aspect legal. Today we are changing gears a little bit and issuing a really important warning due to a number of issues that we've seen quite a bit in the past but also that we're seeing quite a bit regularly and so today we are talking about risks for accountants and advisors in business name and company registrations.

In order to talk about this topic, I've brought back our resident expert in Intellectual Property, Grace Yi. Grace, thank you for coming back today.

Grace: Thanks for having me Jo.

Why are we talking about this?

Joanna: Fabulous okay. Why are we talking about this topic, Grace? Let's talk about the issues.

Grace: We are talking about this because of the heartache that clients feel when they are faced with having to rebrand.

Joanna: And particularly so when they've had someone or even they themselves but particularly if they've had someone set up a business name for them so register a business name for them or set up a company for them where the name that has been chosen hasn't undergone the proper searches both from a trade marks and general use perspective and they then end up in the situation where either A) they try to register a trade mark or B) they receive a Cease and Desist notice. They suddenly realise that business name registration and company name registration is not the same thing as trade mark registration and that just because you can register a business name or company name doesn't mean you won't be at risk of an infringement action if you do.

Grace: That's right and I guess the really simple takeaway which we may as well just say right here is when you go to register a business name or a company name you must check the trade marks register first.

The art of trade mark searches

Joanna: And that's an interesting point because we we've actually had a number of instances as well of people contacting us after they say they've done their own searches. And I think the thing with trade marks is sometimes it can look really easy, deceptively easy to do searches and we've certainly had quite a few instances of us doing searches afterwards and saying you know what you just didn't search properly. You didn't pick up these other elements that are likely to cause a massive issue potentially even infringement action against you.

So I guess it's about being aware that when you're registering business and company names tha...