Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

5 productivity tips from a small business success

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KathyBYBKathy Vant Foort is owner and founder of Backyard Buyers, a business that helps property owners sub-divide and develop excess land. Kathy is one of the few female Registered Building Practitioners in Victoria.

Having grown the business from concept to start-up, Kathy now manages her company from Melbourne.

Nearly ten years on, business has never been better.

Here are Kathy’s top five tips for success:

1. Know your objectives

“I have two whiteboards visible from my desk. One has long-term objectives and targets. It also has a list of big or innovative ideas.

“The other whiteboard is operational, mapping out all current and pipeline sub-divisions, key performance metrics and projects.”

Read more here.

Organising your business for success in the new financial year

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PrganiseMYOBI recently accompanied the Australian Minister for Small Business, Bruce Billson MP, as he visited small businesses in Templestowe Village, Victoria. The Minister was out selling the good news in the budget about the immediate deductibility of assets costing less than $20,000 (for small businesses with an aggregated turnover less than $2 million). He talked with young entrepreneurs and owners of businesses ranging from restaurants and dry cleaners, to cafés and specialty fashion retailers. Did you know the deduction was available on purchases from 7.30pm 12 May 2015?

There are two reasons I mention this: read more here.

Sleep easy! Manage Australian payroll tax with ease

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PayrollMYOBSuccessful entrepreneurs beware! The easiest way to manage Australian payroll tax is simply not to mismanage it in the first place. Like all taxes, ignorance is no defence, and you will ultimately end up paying your dues, probably plus a penalty and interest.

Small businesses that are growing rapidly and medium sized businesses need to work closely with their business advisors. MYOB has Australia’s biggest network of accountants, bookkeepers and consultants, ready to help you and your business succeed. As small operations ride high on success, it need not be a ‘dangerous’ time for business compliance.

Read full article here.

Marketing your professional services firm

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IMG_1970The next graduate arrives, interviewing for a position at a small to medium-sized accounting firm: your accounting firm. This graduate will be one of the top performing employees for the employer of their choice. It takes you a while — nearly fifteen minutes into the interview, to fully realise that they are actually interviewing you.

Methodically, the graduate carefully crafts their answers and questions. When you look up from your notepad, direct eye contact takes a fraction of a second to re-connect: this graduate is absorbing the environment, the workspace and your body language. As you take notes, this graduate is also checking boxes on their own mental checklist: assessing you as a partner and the firm as a whole.

They don’t fit into your standard interview guide or assessment criteria: they are impressive in every aspect that a young aspiring graduate could be. They are energized and prepared to embark on a exciting career — just not with your firm.

Read more here

How much is my time worth?

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Photo motorbikesA few years ago, one of my first business coaching sessions was with an entrepreneur who had spent a year and a half in development. He’d given up a well-paid job and spent about $25,000 on developing an App. He had no real business plan. When I pointed out that he had notionally invested about a quarter of million dollars on the App, he drew a deep breath of entrepreneurial fatigue, and said disheartenly, “Well, I suppose so.”

This back of the envelope calculation was done as follows: see calculations and read more here.

A CEO start-up guide to personal taxes

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Communities

People depend on the CEO to get things right. A failure to manage your personal taxes may see you damage your reputation, send your startup belly up and let down all those people looking at you as an inspirational start-up CEO.

A chance to be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a startup company can be one of the most exciting, challenging, inspiring, risky and adrenalin-filled periods of your life. Particularly for young innovators and entrepreneurs, the dynamic and fast paced environment can leave little time to reflect on your own tax position or obligations to any new employees.

A lot of great startups come undone by neglecting the mundane — but essential — regulatory or compliance functions. So while I would love to write an inspiring story of innovation and success, Why? Because you are the CEO and it is your job to get it right.

Read my full blog here.

Will your business expenses trigger a personal audit?

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phone deer horns

Are you worried your business tax deductions will make you stand out? New techniques and ever evolving technology, may make you more obvious than you think. Photo © Andrew McIntosh CPA

Some of us went crazy with the Game of Thrones grand finale, with the show becoming the most pirated program in history. Australians were the worst offenders. Digital piracy is illegal; so too is tax evasion.

If you have cheated the tax system, it may not impact you now as a struggling entrepreneur or business owner, but perhaps years later when you are held to account for your actions. Long after the moment of greed, or seeming need, you may have a partner, child and a thriving business by then.

Do you participate in the cash or hidden economy? Read the full article here.

I am a 90 year old one man band because I am also underfunded but resolute!

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After being surprised by the stat that “the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity is in the 55-64-year-old group” in a recent article by Jim Dougherty, I was posting my own blog about single operator businesses and was surprised yet again to get this comment back:

“I am a 90 yr. old one man band because I am also underfunded but resolute! There are services that one can sign up for that begin in a free stage and I definitely use them, have to. But this digital business needs advertising money, lots of it. One SBA volunteer told me since I didn’t have money I’m dead in the water. But I got an order the other day.” David Lambert

Amazing: especially after you read his bio of life experiences, I could not help but try to encourage a few followers, likes, views for him. Because you can do digital business at no or low cost and not all entrepreneurs are young, Jim rightly says. And maybe he’ll get the odd order or two; I know I became his second order from #socialmedia.

All this links social links are from his webpage, so anyone feeling socially generous, please give David’s Delicious Chocolates a like, follow or even an order (via PayPal, here’s on that too)!

I live in Australia and David is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have never met David until he reached Melbourne via LinkedIn and now I’m ordering chocolate from some guy called David in Pennsylvania!

http://davidsdeliciouschocolates.com

 

How do you get business inspiration (and keep it)?

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Go!

Go!

Think

Stop. Think. Get inspired.

The gardening crew has arrived outside my office. I hear a clunk and a bump as their truck and trailer bounces into the lot. I watch for a few minutes, and I’m inspired by the efficiency. They quickly rev up the ride-on mower and begin trimming the edges. It’s like a well-oiled pit stop team — every worker knows his place. Someone hands me the bill and everybody leaves as smoothly as they came in. In business, it’s important to be creative. Here are five sources of inspiration. See full article: Here

Entrepreneurs: are you running a one person show?

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TVF

Many entrepreneurs start out as a one-man (or woman) show. While this can be challenging, exhausting and incredibly rewarding, ultimate success may not be determined by your business idea, but by how organised you are.

Experienced freelancers and small businesses that are single person operations need to be ultra-organised. Whether you are flying solo for the first time or well established, technology can improve your efficiency and performance. Here are some pointers based on my own experience running a one-man show.

See full article here: The Pulse