I saw a graph recently of a couple of the major international sharemarket indices showing the trends for 2011 and surprise surprise, as most neutral market commentators expected, we bascially went sideways over the whole year. This got me to thinking what should the smart business owner do in 2012? The answer, as it was at the same time last year, is review your business plan! Make it your New Year Resolution and do it!

It doesn’t have to be complex or long, it can be simple and concise as our article below outlines.

Here is an article from our website we wrote on this subject for our clients.

To paraphrase a famous saying “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”  Make a change and make a difference to your business!

And how do you find out? What do we mean?

More often than not the one tool businesses have right under their nose but ignore the most is their financial system. That’s not to say all financial systems are made the same. They most definitely are not. But for most small businesses something as simple as Xero will enable you to understand the details of your business – where you are and are not making money or even - how much money do you currently have! Simple stuff but a large proportion of small business owners don’t know this detail on a daily basis.

Do yourself a favour, get Xero or a similar web based financial system, it will make you more money than it costs!

Avegna assists businesses with implementing and using Xero, for further details on how we might be able to assist please contact us.

As someone once said, if your business isn’t growing, it’s dieing. Sales are the lifeblood of any business and you should always be concentrating on increasing your sales. But how do you do this?

A significant proportion of businesses attempt to compete with their competitors using price as one of the main weapons. This should only be done for a defined time and for a specific reason. Other key sales factors and tools are:

WIIFT – What’s in it for them?

Always look at your sales and marketing from your customers point of view. What’s your point of difference? What’s your reputation in the market place? Would you buy from you?

Customer Service is Everything

As the saying goes, under promise and over deliver. If you can exceed the customers expectations with your finished product then you will have a long term customer who will also continue to recommend you to other potential customers.

Largely, there is an inherent assumption, on behalf of most normal customers nowadays, that your price will be fairly close to the accepted market price and therefor what drives customers decision is their perception on how easy it is to do business with you and key things like:

• The additional fees some businesses try to add – extended warranties, shipping etc
• After sales service – The call the next day or week to check if all it ok
• Warranty quality – ever experienced Fisher & Pykel back up service? – now there’s an example of a great customer focused business!
• Returns policy if something goes wrong
• Do yourself and your business a huge favour – review your customer service policy and your customer service program… it will pay huge dividends!

Emphasise the Benefits, Not the Price

Highlight your products benefits over your competitors products without mentioning the competitors. More often than not customers will purchase from the sales person they feel they have struck up a good relationship with. If you can portray yourself and your business as a reputable, quality business who deliver nothing less and nothing more than what you say you will deliver then you are well on your way to selling to that customer without price even coming into it.

Marketing and ultimately selling is key to surviving during bad times and even good.

If you are unsure as to how to grow your sales, we recommend you seek professional business advice.

For furthter information pleaase refer to our website www.avegna.com.au

Previous blog entries in this series:

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Why?

Business Financial Management, as we all know this starts with bookkeeping. If you don’t do your bookkeeping on a system you really have very little choice but to manage your business finances manually. By doing things manually you are leaving yourself wide open to the chance of human error.

Spreadsheets Are Just As Bad

Using a spreadsheet is only slightly better (and sometimes worse) than manual business financial management. Spreadsheets by nature are only as good as the person who designs and/ or uses them. Most people are not Bill Gates (expert programmers) and therefor the excel spreadsheets will not be self checking or fool proof.

Benefits More Than Cost

As an example, I recently compiled a set of financial statements for a client with a small part time business. The business only turned over low five digits and everything was recorded on a spreadsheet. What I discovered in the process of preparing their year end financial statements was my client failed to record properly was their own invoices they were billing their clients. The end result, by saving a few hundred dollars on not buying a financial system they had lost several thousand dollars because they had not invoiced several of their clients for work done.

If you have a professional business financial management system such as Xero you can rest easier knowing your system is correct (assuming you keep your records up to date and reconcile your bank account regularly). So rather than guessing whether or not your reports are correct, all you have to worry about is actually managing your business!

Most Businesses Don’t Have Company Accountants
About ninety percent (yes 90%) of businesses in AustraIia have less than twenty employees and probably don’t have a fulltime accounts person let alone a qualified accountant in the business. This means the business owner is most often the person to take care of the financial management including cashflow management, processing the weekly payroll and chasing customers for money. Is this what you do in your business? It probably is!

How Hard is Financial Management for Non-Accountants?
Most business owners are not accountants. Most non accountants manage finances by how much money is in the bank. But this can get you into trouble if you don’t plan for things such as tax payments or even the next payroll. Then, before you know it, the business can get into serious financial trouble with suppliers, banks and the ATO.

But in reality businesses like this only need an accountant helping them for an hour or two during the month looking at these items just to make sure the cashflow is being looked at or the gross profit percentage is not being “discounted away” just to get sales. Most business owners think it will cost the earth. But will it? No!

Consider A Cheaper Alternative
Avegna assist business owners like you with managing your business finances. Our accountants work with businesses like yours from as little as a few hours a month to ensure you can sleep easier without worrying about about your finances.We do it cheaper than most tradtional accountants because we come to you and therefore our overheads are less saving you money. Our team have “hands on” real world experience running the finances for businesses like yours.

You Can Implement Financial Controls in Your Business
It is actually easier than you think to manage the finances of your business strategically. With some very basic financial controls you can run your business finances as if you were an accountant. Avegna regularly present a free seminar showing you how to do this, for more information on our next seminar email us on info@avegna.com.au.

Avegna offer a free, no obligation initial consultation for more information please contact us on info@avegna.com.au.

Kind Regards

Scott Lyall

CEO of Avegna

www.avegna.com.au

Almost all business owners have little knowledge of financial systems, what they need and what the systems have or don’t have to meet there needs. “I need quoting and progress billing and timesheets and job costing”. Yes but why? What about reporting? Can you review the jobs you have completed in  the last month side by side in the same report and see which one was the most profitable? If you have MYOB, for example, probably not.

Some tips on choosing a financial system for your business:

• All reputable financial systems have debits and credits – that’s a given. So the crucial thing is for your new system to meet those specific requriments you have which are crucial to your business. Document the detail of the most important requirements you have in your business. e.g. Quoting and progress invoicing? Timesheets and Job Cost reporting?
• Do your research on the internet and read the reviews on the potential systems.
• Sign up for the free trials of the software – A lot are offering these nowdays
• Don’t ask a consultancy or business that only pushes one product as they will try and “fit” their product to your requirements. Only use a consultancy or reseller where you are confident their product will meet your specific requirements as discussed above.
• Look very closely at the reporting and reporting tools the system has. After all it is the reporting that you will use to make decisions and manage your business with. If the reporting is crap you won’t get what you need to improve your business.

What next? The key things in implementing the system you choose. To be continued…

And how do you find out? What do we mean?

More often than not the one tool businesses have right under their nose but ignore the most is their financial system. That’s not to say all financial systems are made the same. They most definitely are not. But for most small businesses something as simple as Xero will enable you to understand the details of your business – where you are and are not making money or even - how much money do you currently have! Simple stuff but a large proportion of small business owners don’t know this detail on a daily basis.

Do yourself a favour, get Xero or a similar web based financial system, it will make you more money than it costs!

Avegna assists businesses with implementing and using Xero, for further details on how we might be able to assist please contact us.

Our advice, if you sell anything to anyone on account or buy anything from anyone on account get advice from a lawyer who knows about the new laws.

Step One: Business Plan

It doesn’t need to be fancy, complex or long but you do need one. Take the time to review your current one or draft one if you don’t currently have one documented.

A business plan does three main things. It makes you analyse where you are now, it makes you think about where you want to get to and it makes you put together a list of how to get there. Simple. Why wouldn’t you have one?

There are many free business plan templates available on the internet and we are happy to share one we have developed for free email us from our website.

We even developed a ten minute business plan template, so you can’t say you haven’t got time to do that.

Even if you think you don’t know how to write a business plan our template works by asking you questions rather than expecting you to write a detailed, complex business plan all on your own.

Make a start today, as a famous little man once said the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.

As someone once said, if your business isn’t growing, it’s dieing. Sales are the lifeblood of any business and you should always be concentrating on increasing your sales. But how do you do this?

A significant proportion of businesses attempt to compete with their competitors using price as one of the main weapons. This should only be done for a defined time and for a specific reason. Other key sales factors and tools are:

WIIFT – What’s in it for them?

Always look at your sales and marketing from your customers point of view. What’s your point of difference? What’s your reputation in the market place? Would you buy from you?

Customer Service is Everything

As the saying goes, under promise and over deliver. If you can exceed the customers expectations with your finished product then you will have a long term customer who will also continue to recommend you to other potential customers.

Largely, there is an inherent assumption, on behalf of most normal customers nowadays, that your price will be fairly close to the accepted market price and therefor what drives customers decision is their perception on how easy it is to do business with you and key things like:

• The additional fees some businesses try to add – extended warranties, shipping etc
• After sales service – The call the next day or week to check if all it ok
• Warranty quality – ever experienced Fisher & Pykel back up service? – now there’s an example of a great customer focused business!
• Returns policy if something goes wrong
• Do yourself and your business a huge favour – review your customer service policy and your customer service program… it will pay huge dividends!

Emphasise the Benefits, Not the Price

Highlight your products benefits over your competitors products without mentioning the competitors. More often than not customers will purchase from the sales person they feel they have struck up a good relationship with. If you can portray yourself and your business as a reputable, quality business who deliver nothing less and nothing more than what you say you will deliver then you are well on your way to selling to that customer without price even coming into it.

Marketing and ultimately selling is key to surviving during bad times and even good.

If you are unsure as to how to grow your sales, we recommend you seek professional business advice.

For furthter information pleaase refer to our website www.avegna.com.au

Previous blog entries in this series:

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three: