Tax Planning Tips

It’s tax planning season!

Now’s the time to get one step ahead of the tax man.

Tax planning allows us to take a look into your future at 30 June. To do this we take a detailed look at your financial results, extrapolate these to the end of the year, and calculate what your tax position is likely to be.

Based on that data, we can then put thought into specific strategies that you can consider implementing prior to 30 June so that you spend money on what YOU want, rather than paying it to the ATO.

The ATO are happy for you to do tax planning, as long as it doesn’t turn into tax avoidance. See what they have to say here. Engaging qualified & experienced professionals will help you keep on the right side of the law.

If you are after general tax planning tips, click here.

Posted by Sigrid Arundel | Posted in Business Planning, My Accountant Qld, Tax Planning, Uncategorized | Tags: MAQ Clients, planning |

Sep 2017

Is time management important to my profitable productive business?

For service businesses it’s easy to answer with a resounding YES!

But what about businesses that sell products?

Proper time management implies people spend time on profitable productive tasks.

More time spent on profitable productive tasks means you’ll get close to your goal.

For service based businesses this means that the people with the expertise spend most of their time doing work that results in revenue and profit. The same applies to businesses which mostly sell products.

How to determine where you’re at

List all the “service” tasks that have to be done in the business that are not necessarily customer facing
Check you’ve included as many as you can. Think about administrative tasks like bookkeeping or payroll, through to the supply chain & logistics of sourcing and delivering your product.
Determine if these are being done efficiently by people with the appropriate level of expertise. Ask yourself “is this task profitable productive for my business”.

What to do next

It’s easy, especially if you take a lazy approach. Do what gives you the least path of resistance.

Choose one task you’ve identified as not being done well and/or by the wrong people. Think of ways to do this differently & be creative. Just brainstorm. You might not be able to access all these options today, but might be able to later down the track.
Then choose the easiest option to implement now & go implement.

Thoughts about your options

Outsource wisely

You can outsource tasks to your staff or to external consultants. Don’t make your Sales Manager print & bind the proposal; give this task to your receptionist. Your Sales Manager should be focusing on leads, prospects & customers. Equally as the business owner you should lead the critical areas of your business, not take time unjamming copiers or running payroll.

Use technology

Don’t get bogged down in your business; keep an eye on the outside world & see how things are changing. Use time saving technology to give back time to you and your staff for more profitable activities.

Analyse Cost vs Benefit – before you implement

Run the numbers to understand the cost and the potential profit drivers to get the most from the change. Read more about this topic here.

We can certainly assist you in this area – just give us a ring.

Posted by Leanne Roberts | Posted in Business Planning | Tags: benchmark, planning |

Sep 2017

Getting the best return from your bottom line

Do you really know whether you’re getting the best return from your business?

You may be satisfied by the way your business operates as well as the money you earn from it. But do you really know whether or not you are getting the best return from the investment you’re making?

Don’t just consider the money you’ve invested in the business when answering this question. Or the money you are receiving from it. Consider the time you and your family spend attending to business related tasks. As well as all the other “little” things that eat into your lifestyle.

Why is this important?

The investment you’ve made in your business (money, sweat and possibly tears) is an important part of your overall wealth strategy. It is up there with owning your own home, having money in super for retirement, and holding investments like shares or rental property.

If your business has the right amount of assets generating an appropriate return on those assets, then

you’re earning the best money (profit) you’re able to earn on that investment
you’ll have an asset that you can sell to fund another “thing”; like a different investment or to help put towards your retirement

You can have an opinion on whether or not you think the business is doing OK. But to determine if you REALLY are doing well you need to do some analysis.

Optimise your return

You should understand whether or not you’re achieving the best return for all the capital you’ve invested in the business. This is what makes your business good, bad or so-so.

If the cost of running your business is eating into your profit (and cash) without you knowing, then it may be that simple tweaks will earn you more profit (and cash) without requiring you to make massive changes to the status quo.

How?

There are various ways to do this depending on your business. Yes, this step takes a bit of analysis & focussed thought.

It may be:

analysing “Return On Investment”
examining performance over time
bench marking to your industry

Then what?

Once you have done your analysis, you’ll be able to create options to improve your profitability.

An easy way to get started is to see where the “low hanging fruit” is; that is, what is the simplest, quickest, easiest thing to change which will yield a result that brings you one step closer to your goal.

If you do this process regularly, and implement a simple change each time, then you can make massive improvements to your profitability.

Need help?

We can help you understand where your business stands.

We can help you compare your unique historical trends as well as comparing your result to the rest of the world.

This is a great basis for discussion around getting the best return for your business.

Posted by Sigrid Arundel | Posted in Business Planning | Tags: benchmark, planning |

Sep 2017

Decisions you make in your business

Are your investment decisions working for you? The key to enlightenment is to look at your results. But first let’s get back to basics.

When you are a business owner you can make investment decisions whether you’re aware of making that decision or not.

Lifestyle The amount of time you use in your day to attend to tasks in your business, as well as the amount of “bleed” you accept all impact your lifestyle, your contentment and your well being. By “bleed” we mean the little things that you do in your own time that somehow need to be done but not intended to do which impact your me time (such as returning that phone call just as the first guests arrive to your BBQ).

Capital In very simple terms this is the investment you’ve made in the business where you’ve contributed to the business in some way. This might be money you’ve put in over time, the purchase price you paid for the business, the earnings you’ve forfeited to invest further into your business.

Financing This is the method you’re using to put that Capital into the business. If you’ve not gone on holiday to use the funds for a gizmo for the business, then you’ve funded that transaction and contributed equity to your business (you sacrificed personal cash flows for the business). If your bank gave you the money for that gizmo, then you’ve increased debt in the business and not equity, probably to ease your cash flow. In this case you’re potentially building equity over time, and betting that your investment will yield greater returns than it costs.

Have you considered the investment decisions you’re making and the impact they are having?

What dice are you rolling each day? Better choices are made when you know and are OK with how they roll. Take time out to examine how things stand for you.

Lifestyle Is your lifestyle satisfactory? Do you get time out from your business? Are you confident choices made while you’re not there are in line with your plans?

Capital Are you satisfied that you are getting the returns from your capital investments?

Financing Are in control of your cash flow and satisfied with what’s happening?

If you don’t answer these questions with a 100% positive YES! then you should take some time out to consider your options to improve things.

An interesting challenge is to determine how much money your business generates for you for each hour you invest. If you include all that “bleed” time you will get a clearer view of the real cost to you.

If you have decided you want to improve your situation you don’t have to go it alone. We can help you analyse what’s happening, help you identify options to help you find the best solution for you.

Posted by Sigrid | Posted in Business Planning | Tags: planning, strategy |

Sep 2017

Planning with purpose

If your business is your “retirement fund” or your key to a more passive income (that is, you don’t need to be there 100% of the time to make it work), then it’s essential you put some thought into how the business operates now and where it should head in the future.

If you want to take your business to the next level then proactively thinking about your plan will give you the key to taking advantage of opportunities that come your way.

We all know that plans don’t always work out the way you imagined they would; however the process of thinking through potential scenarios means that you are much more prepared to make the best decision for you in the moment that opportunities arise.

When you develop those scenarios and plans there are a few aspects you should consider.

Practicality. This is the actual execution of the plan. Do you have the people, skills, knowledge & resources you need?

Balance Sheet effect. How the plan impacts on your assets & liabilities. Does the plan build strength so that you achieve a return on your investment, get financier support and so on?

P&L effect. How the plan affects your business income, expenses, profitability and bottom line. What line items are affected by the plan and what might you need to do?

Cash flow effect. How the plan impacts your cash flow. Often there’s an upfront cost to recoup over time; how can you best manage that for you?

You’re the expert in the Practicality aspect. We’d love to be your sounding board in the other aspects so that you are clear on the ramifications & can plan your actions to get the best result for you.

Your “retirement fund” will love you for it!

Posted by Sigrid | Posted in Business Planning | Tags: planning, strategy |