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Can You Find Five Minutes To Expand Your Business?

Often our MYOB and QuickBooks bookkeeping clients are so busy involved working in their business that they tell us, their bookkeepers, that they’ve no time to work on their business.

Here’s a simple habit that you can form and stick to everyday. Then watch the results. All you need is five minutes.

Can you find 5 minutes to at least one of these things to expand your business?

• Send a quick note / email to a prospect, colleague, friend or acquaintance.
• Invite a friend or business associate to lunch for next week–even if they cannot go, spend a few minutes “just catching up.”
• Scan the local paper and jot a little note of “Congrats” to someone you recognize.
• Have a look at your diary. Think of another opportunity to develop with a client you saw yesterday, then follow up with your client.
• Call someone whose project you’ll be starting in the next two weeks and tell them you’re looking forward to seeing or working with them again. Ask how they’ve been.

If you’re looking for some more ideas Contact us

Keeping good records is critical for small business for survival. Glen Turner, of Glen Turner Furniture, discusses how doing a small business mentoring course helped him understand the importance of keeping records for tax purposes.
Taken from website http://www.business.vic.gov.au/BUSVIC/STANDARD//PC_62648.html

*Interviewees: Glen Turner (G), Male (M)
*Interviewer: Amanda Gome (A)
*Date: 24/03/08

A: Today on Going to the Next level, we’re going to meet Glen Turner. At the age of 26, this cabinet-maker decided to start his own business.

But he learned a lot of lessons along the way about book-keeping and we’re going to talk to him about what he learnt and how he’s forging ahead with the new skills that he’s got. So Glen, you were 26 when you started your own business. Had you done any book-keeping skills before?

G: No book-keeping, no real business skills, just … really just wanted to start making furniture and started the business without really knowing anything about what to do, how to run a business. Like no experience at all.

A: You started the business with about 15,000 … took that to set it up. How … what did you do then? How did you set-up your invoicing and your … your books?

G: My wife helped me with doing the invoices and quotes and things initially and we had an accountant but again we weren’t registered for GST. We didn’t have to do the books quarterly or anything like that and so we were doing it annually in the beginning. And that was obviously not ideal (laughs).

A: So you didn’t look forward to that time of year?

G: No, and especially my wife, as she was typing in at the computer as I was reading all the invoices and … and stuff out. And no, it used to take days and days.

A: Right. And then what was the next step? How did you know that you needed help?

G: Well, after a couple of years of working hard and being busy all time and not really making any money, we decided to do something about it and did a small business mentoring course.

A: Did you have any disagreements with the mentor about different directions?

G: No, absolutely not. The whole idea of the mentoring set-up is that you choose someone that has a similar business background to you from the … from their website. And you sit down and work out where you want the business to go together from the very beginning, so you’re always working together on a common goal.

A: Would it have been good to have started with the mentor at the beginning?

G: I think it’s an excellent idea if you’re looking to start a business and you’re not quite sure like I was I the beginning but I went ahead and did it anyway, that you get some terrific advice to start with. And using the Small Business Mentoring Service is an excellent place to start.

A: What are the key things you can take from doing your books on a very regular basis and in a professional manner that then help you grow your business?

G: Once we started doing the books monthly, it became quite apparent that during the month, you can really keep track of the difference of how much income’s coming in and how much you’re spending. And towards the end of the month, you just really focus getting more income in and reducing your expenses so you can start turning a profit each month. Obviously that turns into a profit each quarter and so forth.

A: So you have been setting targets?

G: We set targets, we set goals. Obviously one quarter against the next we try to improve the second quarter against the first quarter and just keep going.

A: What advice have you got for other small businesses about their finances when their starting their own business.

G: From the beginning, get some good advice. Do your books monthly. It’s absolutely vital to keep on top of your books and record-keeping. Do good quality professional quotes, good quality invoices, yeah just keep on top of your book work. Do it all the time.

A: How do you think it’s going to help you in the future?

A: Clearly we have an understanding of where the business is travelling now where we didn’t before. We’re looking at buying some new machines and we can clearly see well, we need to wait a couple more quarters before we can afford to either borrow some money or … or do a leasing arrangement. Whereas before we wouldn’t have had any idea if we were able to afford it or not.

End of recording

Struggling with your Business Activity Statement (BAS) lodgment?

You can email your MYOB / Quickbooks data file and we can do any adjustments and even lodge the BAS on your behalf

It’s time for the Business Activity Statements to be lodged! They are due in 28 days, and things get pretty hectic for bookkeepers in the weeks before the BAS are due for lodgment with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)

We get enquiries from small - to medium sized businesses (SME’s) as they suddenly realise that the paperwork is all too much, and they need help in getting the bookkeeping upto date on time.

Many bookkeepers will be fully booked in the weeks leading up to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) deadline, and so last minute requests from clients can take some juggling of the calendar.

So when new clients contact us wanting urgent help, they need to get back to us with the same urgency to secure our services.

We rarely have to turn new clients away - as we have an excellent network of bookkeepers who we can call on to help out in times of need.

If you are needing a bookkeeper for the Business Activity Statement (BAS) lodgment that is due 28 October, then contact us right now so that we can schedule some time for you.

Remember, it’s never too late - and we may even be able to get an extension to the deadline on your behalf

We were approached by a client who’s been using her accountant to do her bookkeeping!

The accountant had set up everything for her, but things had got out of hand. We organised for one of our bookkeepers to go and see her, and let us sort out the mess.

In her wisdom, she decided that she’d speak to her accountant before we started. Then she came back to us explaining that the accountant would look after everything.

Maybe she doesn’t realise that accountants too outsource bookkeepers, and then add a nice little (big) markup to add to their profits - so the client actually ends up paying more fees for less work.

Anything that you can do that will save them time, such as keeping your books in good shape, will save you money.

You can dramatically reduce your accountant’s bills by taking care of your own day-to-day finances.

Ever wondered why your accountants’ eyes light up when you present them with a shoebox full of dockets at the end of the financial year?

The accountants will charge their time to you and pay bookkeepers rates to get the work done. So the accountant has just made a very nice profit from a business owner who desperately needs to tighten up business operating costs.

If you’ve been told that hiring a bookkeeper is expensive, then contact us for a free appraisal of your bookeeping needs

You’ve bought MYOB because your mate in Fitzroy said that was the accounting software he was using. Now what?

It’s like buying a car, but not being able to drive. When you learn to drive, do you really need to know how the car works, or how many revs, or where to put the oil in the car?

Most people just want to get in the car and drive - with a goal of getting from Richmond to Toorak (or wherever).

Most business owners do not have the time or the inclination to attend a MYOB course

Accounting software is much the same: you don’t need to know how it all works, you simply want to be able to enter invoices, receipts and spit out a few reports whenever required. That’s why many people contact us, and we teach them how to do the basics to learn MYOB for their business

Yes, you can go to TAFE and attend a MYOB training course if you so desire. Most business owners do not have the time or the inclination to attend a MYOB course. All they want is to know how to do the basics of bookkeeping to ensure they have a handle on their finances.

Smart business operators appreciate the benefits of outsourcing their bookkeeping requirements, so they’ll just do the minimum to keep on top of the bookwork, and have the bookkeeper can come in and do the rest. Contact us for details.

One advantage of the introduction of the GST was initially to force you to review your finances on a quarterly basis resulting in a greater awareness of your ongoing financial position.

This has led to many small businesses around Ormeau and Yatala utilising a computerised accounting software package such as MYOB or Quickbooks to do the hackwork and present you with the necessary reports and if required even the BAS itself.
However, owning the software does not make you a bookkeeper, and whilst the software companies have done their best to make the packages easy to use, the operator still needs a basic understanding of bookkeeping.

Outsource your bookkeeping to free your time to do what you do best

We’ve helped many small business owners with book-keeping, and we can help you. By outsourcing your bookkeeping needs you can free up your time to do what you do best in working your business, while we do what we do best, working on the bookkeeping side of your business

The work of a bookkeeper is not the same as that of an accountant. Indeed, many accountancy firms employ or subcontract bookkeepers to prepare the figures for their financial reports.

Bookkeepers enter all the data, invoices, receipts, dockets, and match up the money that comes into a business with the money that goes out of the business.

The bookkeeper will reconcile the bank accounts, make sure that all the figures entered into the general ledger match the figures on the bank statement.

Accountants will look after the taxation matters of a business – they are professionally qualified and keep upto date with all the updates and changes in tax laws and rulings from the Australian Taxation Office

The finer points of accounting and taxation are best left to the professionals whose job among other functions is to keep you updated with changes in taxation as well as maximise your deductions. Your book keeper should be able to prepare a reconciled trial balance.

You can do the bookkeeping yourself if you have some knowledge of simple bookkeeping and know your way around a computer, but many small business owners do not have the time or the inclination to do the necessary bookwork each week

Contact us for more details.

He regarded the bookkeeping to be an unnecessary expense

Many small business owners struggle with keeping their bookwork up to date. Yet good record keeping is an essential part of any successful small business. Contact Us HERE for details.

How can you make an informed decision about your business if you don’t know where you are at financially with your business?

You may have an excellent understanding of your business, and can say that you have all the information in your head.

We recently had a client who knew his business so well, that he boasted one client accounted for more than two – thirds of his business turnover.

When we presented the figures, he was shocked to learn that the client actually accounted for less than a third in terms of income, and was actually taking up about 80% of his time.

The business owner had no idea of where his business was, he hadn’t looked at sales figures, had a vague idea about his pending orders, and was heading for collapse.

Yet he took no notice of our warnings, because he regarded the bookkeeping to be an unnecessary expense, and only wanted the minimum of bookkeeping services.

Six months later he closed the doors on his business, before the creditors declared him a bankrupt. So he lost his whole business for the sake of a few hundred dollars in bookkeeping fees that he regarded as an expense.

Good record keeping should be the life-blood of your business, so ensure that you have a good bookkeeping system in place. Contact Us HERE for details