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Does this sound familiar? You have started your business and have a number of staff. Everyday is busy but there is that nagging fear of "what will happen if I am not around today?" You are not alone. At InFormGroup we talk to businesses in the same situation regularly. Two things come up in discussions. It is difficult to get staff that you can rely on and secondly a lot of what is done each day is learned process and there is a lack of documentation to help staff through situations that may arise in the day. The first topic is for another day, but lest look at the latter. "I just do not have time to document what we do". As a business owner myself, I would agree. But somewhere along the way a time comes when it is important to document things. If that time comes and you dont have the capacity to do the documenting, what would happen? The usual example is" What would you do if you were hit by a Bus?" Well most likely I would be dead and so I dont really care ! But lets assume you survive but you are in intensive care in Hospital. How will your business run? Usually a family member steps in and helps. But how does that person know what has to be done? If the staff have been with you for a long time, you may get by. What if the staff are relatively new? A simple answer is an Operating Manual and it does not have to be Biblical in size to be of value. Here are some things to start you off: * List your suppliers, contact names and what you normally order and when * List your most valuable customers. They can be contacted by the family member and usually will be very helpful to that member in making sure the products and services outstanding is understood so they can be delivered. * make sure all of you staff details and contact numbers are available so your stand in can find the person they need quickly. * Make sure another family member can access and authorise Bank Transactions. You need to pay staff and your bills. * Write down common tasks that are done each day: before business starts and after close of business Apart from the above an Operating Manual for your business would outline different business activities that are done each day. Things like: Quoting, scheduling of jobs, invoicing, collections, newsletters you produce, handling incoming stock, delivering orders..... the list goes on and is specific to your business. The main thing is to do something and do it today. Who knows when the Bus could hit!
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Small Business Week starts in early September and I have been asked to speak to a group of business owners at breakfast. Luckily, mornings are my best time so the 7:00am start is okay.
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There is a lot written about Twitter and I have to admit I still cannot really see how it brings real results. Another new media medium is Facebook Fan Pages. This is more akin to the classic web page but is on a "directory" that has a huge audience. To understand more have a look at the information on the Facebook website. To get started follow the instructions to setup the page. Then you have a number of options to advertise your business. Firstly you become a fan of the Fan Page. This advertises the page to your connections on Facebook. Another method is to purchase advertising on Facebook itself. These are the ads you see on the right hand side of a Facebook page. The targeting here is very good. You have the ability to specifiy age, sex, location as well as many other snippets of information. This information is gathered at time of registration by Facebook users.
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Here is a list of what is around the web for our favourite time of the year:
What is new in e-tax 2009? Changes to pre-filling in 2009 include:
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Here is a list of some of the Software as a Service Financial Systems available on the web today. Like all applications, these have their strengths, focus and weaknesses. Also, there are quite a view Invoicing systems available today. The main issue is how do you get that data easily into your financial system. Some do all aspects, like Saasu: Saasu - This is probably the closest you will get to an online system of the same calibre as MYOB and Quickbooks. It does all of the regular accounting modules you would expect. It allows private branding of your systems as well as invoices,statement and the like. Can be free if you do less than 15 transactions per month. Invoiceplace - As the name suggest it does invoicing. The twist on this one is that there is an inventory management module. It is pretty limited in that aspect. Payments can be received by PayPal and other payment gateways are coming. The invoicing module allows resending of invoices and statements. Winkbill - good customisation allowed for templates. Reminders, Invoices, Statements with a Dashboard to give you an overview. Payment gateways are a bit limited. FreshBooks - the usual plus a Contractor module aimed at making it easier to work with contractors. They can do timesheets and these can be turned into expenses. If you have a lot of contractors, it is worth a look. Cashboard - Invoicing, time tracking, projects and estimates are the focus for this site. As you can see there are plenty of companies doing this today. The main features to look for are:
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| Comments | 0 | Hits: 69 |
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It is that time of the year again. We are all madly working to close the FY books, bring in outstanding creditors and pay debts in advance for next year. These things are all good and keep our financial team happy as well as help business health. But what are you going to do next? We all know things are not going to stop, so operations is going to be top of mind. Apart from that, what about your Business Plan? Hopefully your Business Plan is not sitting in a draw somewhere, is it? Even if it is get it out and dust it off. Look through the plan and have a look at what is relevant today. Most likely things have changed somewhat. Priorities, Goals and Objectives change over time. Maybe things have changed so much that a complete review of the Business Plan is needed. Here is a quick and easy way to overcome the Business Plan problem. Even if you do not have a business plan doing this is a great start. Have a think about the next year for your business and write down the following headings:
Business Focus/Scope: This is the business activities you are going to focus on for the next year. It may be establishing a new line of products or another outlet. It may be focusing on an aspect of your business that you want to improve. Put down at least three bullet points but no more than five. Revenue/Income: This is your expected Revenue for the year. You should also put this down as a monthly or quarterly guide. Also think about the “mix” of the revenue if you have multiple income streams. Costs/Expenses: Same as you did with revenue. Highlight costs associated to Mix so you can check those. Resources: Bullet point your staff numbers and functions. You may have 30 staff made up of 2 Shift Leaders, 3 Apprentices and 25 Tradesman. What other resources will you need? Salespeople, administration, bookkeeping. Bullet point these. Facilities: list the facilities you will need for the year ahead Goals: These should be your Goals for the year. Be careful to make sure they are SMART. They should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Driven Now do yourself a favour and think of the year PAST this one. In other words, what would these headings and bullet points look like in another years time?
This Business Plan should fit on one page. So on doublesided printing you have this years and next years plan. If you laminate this and keep it in your work folder, diary and even post it on your wall, you have a handy reminder of what you are trying to do that year.
You might even refer back to your Business Plan or create a new one. If you need help in creating a plan please contact us at InFormGroup.
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I just read a good article in NETT magazine. It was written Peter Quinn of Quinn Consultants. Essentially he is saying that if payroll tax was abolished then a business could employ more people. A side benefit is that the Government would not have to fund unemployment for those folks. "In 1992, the payroll threshold was $500,000 and based on average wage of $30,617 per year a business could emply 16 people. The threshold today is $625,000 and based on an average wage of $60,595 and also Superannuation guarantee, a business can employ on 9 people" If payroll Tax was abolished would you employ more staff?
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Have you been caught by this? I almost was, once. A company sent an invoice to me for around $200. But it was not an invoice, in very small print and grey letters it was spelled out that this was an offer to be put in some directory. The "invoice" referred to a publication I had advertised through recently. Obviously, these guys get on the lists for publications etc and then send invoices as if they represent the advertising you have commissioned. My instant reaction: " Oh bugger, I must have forgotten to pay that". But, I checked the records and sure enough I had. I then reread the "invoice". I took the matter to Consumer Affairs and gave them copies of the invoice. they contacted the company who issued it and I have heard nothing since. As the article says, with more pressure on SMEs at present, these scammers are very active. Beware!
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Need a loan? Maybe not the thing you want to think about in today's world. But business has to go on and for a lot of SMEs raising capital for projects or new business is an ongoing problem. The Victorian Government has put together a good website for finding information and suppliers of loans. You fill in some simple questions on the website and then get a comparison table back with the supllier, interest rates and the monthly payable amount. To see more have a look at the website. theBizWiz
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I like marketing and especially the use of technology as a marketing tool. The other day I needed some ink for my HP 3 in 1 Fax/scanner/printer. Of course, I needed it then. For many months I have received a weekly email from a supplier Inkman. I had purchase a toner cartridge for my laser from them. The emails were not that annoying but I mostly deleted them without reading them. But when I needed the HP ink I looked up the website and checked their prices. I ordered some with next day delivery. I also raced down to Harvey Norman and bought some ink to get by that day. In marketing there is a model called AIDA. Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. Well, the weekly emails created awareness. They generated some interest but generally no desire and the only action was the deletion of the email. What was the secret ingredient missing? Timing. the marketing material presented did not raise my desire so that I could order the ink BEFORE I needed it. So timing raised my desire level and so I was pushed into action. Thinking about this more I can see a case for weekly emails from suppliers of necessary products and services. But how would that equate to suppliers of more complex solutions or services. What about Legal advertising in local papers? Does that work the same way?
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Microsoft View of Manufacturing in the future. theBizWiz http://www.boulterassociates.com.au/ http://www.informgroup.com.au/
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Legal structures, Tax, keeping records, employees, GST and where do I get help? These are all issues on the mind of anybody starting a small business. I have a family member looking at doing this, in fact I have three little entrepreneurs as well as myself. No wonder nobody goes to bed around here and the Electricity bill is so high. The checklist available form the ATO is a great place to start. theBizWiz
http://www.informgroup.com.au/
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