Blackburn Accounting

Empty Pocket

Most Small Businesses will experience ‘cashflow challenges’ those times when the sea of money seems to be adrift, with more money going out of the Business than there is cash coming in!

If this sounds familiar you are not alone with ‘92% of Australian small Businesses experiencing negative cashflow with owners struggling to pay essential costs such as rent and wages’ (Insight report July 2022). This is financial pressure small Business doesn’t need!

The good news is that there are ways to help stay afloat! With foresight and adopting sound financial management strategies some common mistakes can be avoided and obstacles overcome.

Here are some common challenges with our Top Tips to help you overcome them!

Profit margins: Particularly relevant in the current inflationary spiraling pricing cycle, it’s critical to have true-cost pricing. Don’t let your profit margins be eaten away by increasing costs.

Tip: Regularly check the cost of goods and products and determine realistic profit margins by setting prices not too low or too high. Pricing points are needed to keep you competitive and in the red. Offer value for money and your customers will keep coming back!

Overdue payments: monies due to you: Slow and late payments pose the greatest risk to small Business. Cash in keeps the money flow flowing, without it the cash river dries up!

Tip: Have an efficient invoicing and billing system in place, one that generates accounts at point of sale and offers various payment methods. Electronic systems can also monitor receipts and overdue accounts allowing you to better manage and avoid late payments. Keep on top of your debtors ledger, remember you are running a Business.

Personal and Business financial matters: Mixing money, personal and Company transactions is fraught with danger, including relationship friction and can easily lead to ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’!

Tip: Keep separate systems and records and avoid ‘borrowing’ from either. Makes it simpler for all concerned including for providing true and accurate Business financial reports, taxes and audits.

Recruiting staff has never been more challenging and on the other side of the pandemic smart small Businesses are doing it smarter by adopting a more strategic approach to this task. Rather than ad-hoc and piecemeal, the process is now more refined and organised. This framework has developed shaping the strategies for attracting and recruiting the best talent.

Recruitment Strategies for small Business include:

Social media opportunities: Post on all platforms. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, these are the super highways of communication. Put the word out you are hiring, looking for the ‘right’ people to join and help build your successful enterprise.
Sell your Brand & Culture: in all mediums, promote, show and tell what your Business is all about. Be the messenger, the story teller sharing the values, vision and what makes it great place to work in. Your job descriptions should reflect this professional and positive culture, making it attractive to applicants.

Small Businesses built on the strengths of personal relationships, smaller teams and approachability, are the unique features supporting a more authentic and responsive environment. It is these very strengths that allow the business to be robust and flexible this equips them to face the many challenges of running a small Business. Challenges such as with the current labour market shortage, recruiting staff, and managing business through the COVID period. To be in the race, including competing with the big players, Small Business has to work smarter by adopting Recruiting Tips & Tricks.

6 Recruitment Tips & Tricks:

Online opportunities: maximise digital platform exposure! Make the most of your recruiting efforts by posting on multiple sites with targeted messaging. Include various products, such as videos, podcasts and blogs. The web is your oyster!
Involve your Team: your Team is also the face and voice of the Company. Encourage they share ‘hiring’ opportunities with their networks.
Use contacts and connections: reach-out to your circles to increase your pool of potential candidates.
Read more …

Travel to work

It's a hot topic of conversation at tax time and the question most frequently asked is, 'can I claim a tax deduction if I drive my car to work'!

The answer lies in the detail as there are various scenarios and complexities to claiming. Along with a changed workplace environment as more taxpayers work remotely and from home which bring into play different tax rules. It's therefore not surprising to find Taxpayers can get their claims wrong.

Yes, you can claim in some circumstances.

If your travel was partly for work and partly private, it is the general rule that you can only claim for the part related to your work.
If you use your car or motor vehicle for work-related travel, where you use it in undertaking your work-related duties, other than your trip to and from work, you can claim a deduction.
If your home was a base of employment. that is, you started your work at home and travelled to a workplace to continue your work for the same employer. These rules can be 'tricky!'

You can find out more by visiting the ATO website

Or speak with Blackburn Accounting to help you with your claim.

Eligibility to claim: How you work out your deduction will depend on if you are using,

A car your own, lease, or hire (under hire purchase agreement)
someone else's car
a motor vehicle, that is not defined as a car.

Note: Check details of what the ATO defines as cars and other motor vehicles.

You can only claim work-related motor vehicle expenses you incur

Yes! it's that time of the year again, Tax-Time is just around the corner.

Don’t bury your head in the sand or put tax in the too hard basket, start now with our,

7 Top Tips!

Getting ready is about getting your ‘house’, Business in order. Start by organising your paperwork. If you have a 'shoe-box' or bottom drawer full of messy papers now is the time to start sorting and filing.

A stress-less tax time is all about good record keeping. You need to account for every dollar that comes in and out of your Business! Make sure you have the ‘evidence’ to back your claims!