Empowering SMEs: Recent Episodes
Peter Towers
Peter Towers presents topics to help Australian small and medium sized businesses survive and thrive during this tough economy.
There are still many challenges ahead for most small businesses and medium-sized enterprises. Many of your clients will have gained an appreciation of the extra services that you can provide to them following their first-hand experience of assistance from their accountants during COVID-19.
The big question now is are your clients ready for the post COVID-19 recovery?
Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=303&Itemid=639
The final COVID-19 Survival Panel webinar for SMEs is being presented on Wednesday, 28th October 2020 at 12-noon AEST (1.00pm AEDT).
The keynote presenters are Ashley Evans, Managing Director, AAA+ Financial Solutions and Peter Towers, Managing Director, ESS BIZTOOLS and ESS Small Business.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=273&Itemid=639
Greetings from ESS Small Business – We hope you're starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
Do you need an insight into research and development?
The feedback that we're receiving is that many small business and medium-sized business operators have been using the work from home restrictions during COVID-19 to commence research and development activities on better ways to undertake business activities within their businesses.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=272&Itemid=639
Worst Economic Position In Living Memory The Australian economy has been badly affected by COVID-19 Coronavirus, as indeed have the economies of most countries.
The Australian Parliament has passed the extension to JobKeeper legislation at a smaller amount from 1st October 2020 to 3rd January 2021.
For eligible team members working more than 20 hours per week the JobKeeper payment in the October to December period will be $1,200 per fortnight.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=271&Itemid=639
Concerns About Business Funding From 1st October 2020 Onwards
Whilst the Australian government has announced that the Coronavirus SME Guarantee Loan will be redrawn and applications enabled until 30th June 2021, a $1 million maximum loan for a period of 5 years, with the money being able to be used for any business purpose, there is still an expectation that many businesses will have difficulties in negotiating with banks for new funding facilities from 1st October 2020.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=270&Itemid=639
Greetings from ESS Small Business – Tradies' Charge Out Rates Review And Corporate Governance.
In our next ESS Small Business COVID-19 Survival Panel webinar for small businesses and medium-sized enterprises, Kevin Thiele an experienced Management Accountant will discuss the concepts of establishing charge out rates for tradies so as to ensure that the...
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=269&Itemid=639
The Prime Minister and Treasurer have announced significant changes to the JobKeeper program:
From 28th September 2020, businesses will be required to reassess their eligibility for JobKeeper with reference to their actual GST turnover in the September quarter 2020, as compared to the September quarter in 2019, to be eligible for the JobKeeper payment from 28th September 2020 to 3rd January 2021.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=268&Itemid=639
The latest developments in Victoria, where Level 4 restrictions have now been imposed in Melbourne and Level 3 in Regional Victoria, have really highlighted the challenges that can confront businesses all over Australia if COVID–19 coronavirus is allowed to become established in a particular location.
Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=282&Itemid=639
Want to learn more about ESS Small Business? (Click here)
Greetings from ESS Small Business – Tax Ruling on JobKeeper and Research & Development.
The Australian Taxation Office has issued a draft taxation determination relating to “Notional Deductions for Research and Development Activities Subsidised by JobKeeper Payments”.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=267&Itemid=639
The Australian government made a number of very important announcements this week, including the JobKeeper extension which, from 28th September 2020, will comprise 2 tiers with a reduction in the fortnightly payments payable to people who qualified at 1st March 2020.
Tier 1 applies to people who were working more than 20 hours per week at 1st March 2020.
Tier 2 applies to people who were working less than 20 hours per week at 1st March 2020.
In both cases, the people must still be employed by the business/charity.
Tier 1 payments from 28th September 2020 to 3rd January 2021 will be $1,200 per fortnight and from 3rd January 2021 to 28th March 2021 will be $1,000 per fortnight.
Tier 2 payments from 28th September 2020 to 3rd January 2021 will be $750 per fortnight and from 3rd January 2021 will be $650 per fortnight.
Read The Full Article Here
Greetings from ESS Small Business – using a coordinated social media campaign and having an awareness of the equity fund raising available for small businesses are the key items for today.
The situation in Victoria has created a significant wake-up alert to businesses all over Australia as well as governments and the general public.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=264&Itemid=639
Greetings from ESS Small Business – "Strategies Include Systems and Adequate Funding for Your Business".
A lot has happened in the last few months. On 18th June 2020 the “Financial Review” published an article “Accountants Become the “Centrelink” of Business World” – “The accountant of the future will need to be a compliance expert who can grapple with fast changing rules while providing broader advice to clients about their business”.
Read The Full Article Here
Greetings from ESS Small Business – Are You Planning Your Strategies for the New Financial Year?
There is still a lot of debate about what the government is likely to do relative to a number of programs, including JobKeeper, as we approach the original deadline date of 30th September 2020. The government has already announced changes to JobKeeper as it applies to the Childcare Industry and there is speculation that JobKeeper will continue for some industries that are suffering additional pain because of COVID-19 coronavirus.
read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=262&Itemid=639
Greetings from ESS Small Business.
Due to administrative problems in setting up the grant processing mechanism with State government departments, there have been some delays in the rollout of the Home/Renovation Grants for homebuilders and for renovations to houses.
The $25,000 grants made available by the Australian government to individuals who are constructing a new house or renovating an existing house, are expected to significantly enhance the building industry and some trade business classifications all over Australia.
Read The Full Article Here
Want to learn more about ESS Small Business? (Click here)
Greetings from ESS Small Business.
Thousands of business owners and team members have been working from home for the last 2-3 months and may have given some thought to the development of new products, processes or services by undertaking some initial research and development. They might now be wondering whether they should continue to work on this business idea to see whether a commercial product or service could be developed and whether they could obtain a taxation deduction for the expenditure that they have incurred. If you're one of these people – congratulations because Australia needs to develop new products and services.
Read The Full Article Here
Want to learn more about ESS Small Business? (Click here)
This week we looked at:
- Utilisation of three-way forecasts (“predictive accounting”) to understand where your business is heading.
- Emerging from the 'lockdown blues'.
Paul Barnaby, Predictive Accountancy Consultant and Australasian representative of PlanGuru, made the following comments relative to the preparation of financial forecasts:
Read The Full Article Here
Greetings from ESS BIZTOOLS and our affiliates. Welcome to this weekly update on issues confronting accountants, business advisors and bookkeepers from the COVID 19 coronavirus.
This week we looked at:
- Financing your Business
- Engaging your Accountant to add Value to your Business
Read The Full Article Here
Greetings, we hope that you're well and looking after yourself as well as your clients and that you're communicating with your clients in relation to their reopening strategies.
The National Cabinet has started the first tentative steps towards reopening the Australian economy with the release of the three step plan process that is to be implemented, primarily by state and territory governments, according to their own timetables.
Read more: https://www.essbiztools.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=267&Itemid=639
Greetings from ESS BIZTOOLS and our Affiliates, welcome to this weekly update on issues confronting small businesses and medium-sized enterprises from the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Preparing for the end of the lockdown.
Read More: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=256&Itemid=639
Greetings from ESS BIZTOOLS and our Affiliates, welcome to this weekly update on issues confronting small businesses and medium-sized enterprises from the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=255&Itemid=639
This week the Australian Taxation Office has released rules relative to the calculation of alternative decline in turnover for the JobKeeper payments and confirmation has been issued on JobKeeper payments that can be claimed for people other than employees.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=254&Itemid=639
Greetings – we hope you’re staying safe and still operating your businesses or, if not, you're able to think about some business strategies to implement when you to recommence business operations again.
The Australian government, through the Stimulus Package Number 3, which was unanimously passed by Parliament last week, has implemented a number of significant strategies to assist many small and medium-sized enterprises that are struggling with the challenges of COVID-19 Coronavirus.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=253&Itemid=639
This Australian government has now released three stimulus packages to assist small businesses and medium-sized enterprises to survive the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Most small and medium-sized business operators will require the proactive assistance from your accountant/business advisors to guide you through these challenging times so as to ensure that your business is intact and able to operate efficiently when this crisis is over.
Read more: https://www.esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=252&Itemid=639
What sort of Small Business or Medium Sized Enterprise do you envisage operating or working at in 2020?
Does your business have a “vision” for the next three to five years?
Have discussions been held on the development of policies and strategies to assist in attracting outstanding people and retaining the good people that you already have?....
Read The Full Article Here
The good news on the equity capital scene for small businesses and medium sized enterprises continues with the Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, confirming that the Federal Government’s election commitment relative to the establishment of the Australian Business Growth Fund official launch is imminent.
This is great news for small businesses and medium sized enterprises because it will make it easier for these enterprises to access equity which will allow these companies to grow and employ more people.
The Government has acknowledged that improved access to equity capital will reduce risks for small businesses and medium sized enterprises because it will reduce reliance on debt funding.
The government anticipates that the Australian Business Growth Fund will approve equity investment in 30 to 50 companies annually.
Read the Full Article Here
Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising might be able to help your business.
For the last twelve months private companies have been able to utilise the Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising sections within the Corporations Act to raise up to $5 million every twelve months from the public.
By 31 October 2019, 55 companies had taken advantage of the amendments to the Corporations Act to raise $39.9 million shareholders capital direct from the public.
Read full article: https://esssmallbusiness.com.au/index.php?option=com_zoo&task=item&item_id=249&Itemid=639
This is something to celebrate because the biggest change in financing arrangements for small businesses and medium-sized enterprises – private companies turned one on 19 October 2019.
Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising could be of significant benefit for your company, if you meet the basic eligibility requirements:
- group turnover under $25 million annually
- group asset value under $25 million
- not registered on a Stock Exchange anywhere in the world
Do you want to grow your business?
Have you got a good business?
Do you have a vision – energy – enthusiasm?
If your business meets these characteristics, you could be able to raise up to $5 million in a 12 month period from the public...
View The Full Article Here
“Attracting and keeping the right people is a key component of the life-cycle for most businesses” (Verne Harnish – Scaling Up)
The other three essential components are:
- Creating a truly differentiated strategy (empowering SMEs047)
- Driving flawless execution (coming soon)
- Having plenty of cash to weather the storms (coming soon)
Your accountant could assist you in identifying the characteristics of people who could assist your business to add value. If your accountant is not available to assist you because of other work pressures you are invited to contact us and we will introduce you to an accountant/advisor who is able to assist you with this very important component of assistance on your business journey i.e assisting your business to create a “Talent Development Team.”
Where do you start? Who is responsible for “Talent Development” in your organisation at present?
Read the Full Article Here
Does your business have a strategy that differentiates your business from your competitors?
A “ Differential Strategy” is one of the key factors in creating a successful life cycle of a business.
Have you talked to your accountant about assisting you to develop an update of your strategy and to make sure that your strategy has important differences incorporated which will differentiate your business from your competitors?
Where do you start?
Why not lock yourself away for a couple of hours of “quality time” and identify the key ideas that you have relative to the operation of your business. The items that you are noting should cover the key aspects of your business including:....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Have you ever had a critical look at the financial accounting information that your accountant is providing to you or that your accounting system is delivering to you?
Do your Financial Accounts give you the information that you need to be able to effectively manage your business and add value to your business?...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Recently a business operator wrote an article in “Accountant’s Daily” that pleaded with his accountant to provide a broader range of professional services not just taxation services.
The small business person wrote “the truth is that while I’ve been patiently waiting for you to escape the compliance cubicle, I cannot hang around much longer.”
“Over the years, I’ve sat through meeting after meeting with you about my tax returns. To be honest, I do this under sufferance – tax does not light me up!”
“It is time to spell it out….Help me run a better business!”
The writer then asked his accountant to meet with him quarterly with appointments set twelve months in advance – “know that I’ll look forward to our meetings and be interested in what you have to say...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
The Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Scorecard produced by ESS Small Business / ESS BIZTOOLS as at 31 July 2019 has identified that 31,141 investors have invested an average of $1,207 each in the 44 companies that have raised $37,586,246. (Click here to view the Scorecard)
This uptake indicates that after a slow start Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is starting to raise much needed capital for small businesses and medium-sized enterprises operating their businesses all over Australia.
Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising has been established in Australia following amendments to the Corporations Act by the Australian Government....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
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What is in it for a company?
- Ability to raise up to $5 million in a 12 month period direct from the public
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This is not a loan therefore:
- No loan application required
- No security required
- No personal guarantees required
- No monthly repayments of principal and interest required
- The company issues ordinary shares to the investors
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What does your client want to achieve for their company?....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Accountants can assist companies to prepare the documentation that they will require:
- Business Plan
- Budgets/Cash Flow Forecast
- Customer analysis
- Identification of unique competitive advantage
- Business valuation to determine the number of shares to be offered and pricing
Company directors and managers will benefit from advice on how Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising operates including:....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
- Based on information contained within the Crowd Sourced Funding Intermediaries’ websites we have prepared the following scorecard as at 19 June 2019:
- Link to Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Intermediary’s Scorecard
- Sample of business activities of companies which have raised capital include:...
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Companies need to have their “House in Order” - Andrew Geddes Chair of Greencross Ltd for 11 years (former ASX top 200 company) and a consultant to the Australian Accounting Industry for the last 30 years.
- “To raise capital SMEs have to go through all the disciplines of getting their “house in order” before investors will even consider supporting them, and in many ways that is a good thing.”
- “To put a Crowd Sourced Funding Offer Document together a company needs:....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is not the same as “Crowdfunding”.
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Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is governed by the Australian Government’s “Corporations Act” which specifies strict legal requirements for the company to abide by.
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The company has to appoint an Intermediary from the businesses which have been appointed Crowd Sourced Funding Intermediaries by ASIC....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
When the then Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull announced the Coalition Government’s Innovation Policy in December 2015 he indicated that two new types of corporate entities would be established.
These entities were:
- Early Stage Innovation Company which required amendments to be made to the Income Tax Act
- Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising which required amendments to be made to the Corporations Act
An Early Stage Innovation Company status can grant to eligible investors the opportunity to be able to claim a tax rebate on the value of their investment (subject to limitations) and these original investors may be entitled to avoid Capital Gains Tax on their initial investment in the company....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
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Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising represents the biggest improvement in business financing for small businesses and medium sized enterprises in the last 35 years!
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Australia is playing catch up – Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is already proven in overseas countries
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- Canada
- New Zealand
- have had Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising (or its equivalent) for the last seven years.....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Former public company director, Andrew Geddes, is hopeful the recent $3-million capital-raise by the women’s ride-sharing company, Shebah, will encourage more female-owned companies to begin using Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising for their growth capital.
Mr Geddes, the former Chair of Greencross Limited, believes Crowd Sourced Funding is likely to become the preferred way for the small and medium sized business sector to raise capital in the near future.
He claims the traditional alternatives of bank loans and angel investors often place stringent obligations on the company, its directors and loan guarantors that limit the potential for growth....
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Are you missing out on the capital on which your successful small or medium sized business needs to grow?
There’s no real reason you should be, if you run a SME that meets the requirements for an all-new capital-raising process.
Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising (CSF) has seen a rapid uptake amongst those companies, who have been first to market, since the process was legalized for small proprietary companies here in Australia back in October last year.
More than $22M has already been raised as capital for small and medium sized businesses, in less than five months.
That’s pretty remarkable, isn’t it?
So, if your business is on the hunt for capital, Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is a path that you and your accountant should seriously consider for your company.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Sounds great doesn’t it? Would you like to be in this position?
Already in Australia over $23.1 million has been raised by 27 companies since Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising was given the “green light” just 4 months ago.
This change represents the biggest change in business finance for small and medium-sized businesses in the last 35 years.
Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising offers a number of distinct advantages for your business/company.
Why do I think Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising will receive a vote of thanks by the Australian small and medium-sized business sectors?
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
So, you want to grow your business.
What is it they say?
If you’re standing still while others around you are moving forward, then you’re sliding backwards.
Everything is relative and that applies to the growth of small and medium-sized businesses as well.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Holidays at the beach in January.
Starts you thinking, doesn’t it?
You look in the mirror and you say to yourself “wouldn’t it be great to be able to relax like this all day, every day?”
After all, you’ve put in 30 or so years of hard work.
So, you start thinking about retirement, but, you own and operate a small or medium-sized business.
That business has been good to you, but you’re now stuck with a lot of obligations, like bank guarantees, and you don’t know how you can slide out from under them.
How can you cash up and retire with dignity?
I’ll bet you’ve always thought that someone will come along and buy you out just when you we’re ready to ‘hang up your spurs’.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
How often do you have people telling you how lucky you are that you own your own business?
If only they knew the half of it!
Most small and medium sized businesses these days are heavily supported by bank loans or overdrafts.
Then, there are always those times, when being in business feels like you’re living inside a pressure cooker.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
A recent report by the Australian government’s Small Business Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, indicated that more than 25% of small and medium enterprise loans are being funded by the parents of small and medium enterprise owners.
The “Bank of Mum and Dad” is being forced to fund a significant amount of the loans to small and medium enterprises because of the credit crunch which has been worsened by the fallout from the Banking Royal Commission, Kate Carnell was reported as saying in a recent article in the “Financial Review”. (Click here).
“Falling residential property prices are compelling the difficulty in borrowing, because most lenders require small and medium enterprise owners/shareholders to put up their houses as collateral”.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
A recent report by the Australian government’s Small Business Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, indicated that more than 25% of small and medium enterprise loans are being funded by the parents of small and medium enterprise owners.
The “Bank of Mum and Dad” is being forced to fund a significant amount of the loans to small and medium enterprises because of the credit crunch which has been worsened by the fallout from the Banking Royal Commission, Kate Carnell was reported as saying in a recent article in the “Financial Review”. (Click here).
“Falling residential property prices are compelling the difficulty in borrowing, because most lenders require small and medium enterprise owners/shareholders to put up their houses as collateral”.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Are you a naturally sceptical person?
Most of us are a little, I guess, especially when we hear about new ideas involving access to money.
Well, Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising isn’t a scam or a ‘get rich quick’ scheme, and it’s not ‘crowdfunding’ that we hear so much about on social media.
'Crowdfunding' is when people are asked to donate money to a worthy cause, like a family left destitute after their house burns down.
It's a social media thing, and... there have been problems.
In the non-business world, people are able to utilise social media to assist in raising money for virtually any type of legitimate reason – there is virtually no government control.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Doesn’t it really‘frost your cookies’ that medium-sized business always seems to get left out of the most important decisions?
Well, as it turns out, the sector has finally scored a big win!
Many medium-sized companies will be perfect candidates for a concept that’s going to revolutionise capital raising for Australian business and it’s already underway.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE
Every so often, a new concept comes along that completely revolutionises the way we do things in small/medium enterprise businesses.
This…….. is one of those times.
As of now, Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising for Small Proprietary Companies (group turnover under $25 million per annum, group gross asset value under $25 million, not listed on a stock exchange anywhere in the world) is legal in Australia.
Why not join “Shark Tank’s” Dr Glen Richards and his team and former Greencross Limited Chair, Andrew Geddes to create your “Growth Plan for 2019 and Beyond” at the “Scaling up Masters” two day highly interactive workshop on 25/26 October? Click Here.
As the owner of a small or medium size business…Let me ask you…What is your next goal?
Do you need funding to lift your company up to the next level, or perhaps you are thinking about retiring and want to get rid of those personal guarantees on your current loans from the bank.
What do you want your business to look like in two to three years’ time?
You might have developed a new technology or a product through to the prototype stage.
What is your goal for two to three years’ time?
If you want to grow your business, stay ahead of competitors and offer a wide range of solutions to your clients – solutions that:
- provide you with “new income streams” – through new businesses;
- generate a variety of interesting work for your team, resulting in improved team morale, productivity and team retention;
- enable management to improve their business skills;
you will probably be very interested in finding out about the Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising opportunities that are now available for private companies.
If you want your company/organisation to be successful, directors/committee members have to embrace the development of a “positive culture”.
In this article we have summarised comments made by Andrew Geddes, the recently retired Chairman of Greencross Limited, whilst commenting on Greencross’ journey from a small company (founded by Dr Glen Richards) to an “ASX Top 200 Company” where directors and senior managers committed to the creation of a “positive culture” which Andrew Geddes says was vital for the success of Greencross Limited.
Directors of SME companies/committee members of not-for-profits, charities, sporting and social organisations need an understanding of taxation matters for the performance of their duties.
Budgets and Cash Flow Forecasts are an intricate part of a sound financial system for every company, business and organisation. Directors of SME companies and committee members of not-for-profit, charities, sporting and social organisations should have an understanding of the budgeting and cash flow forecast systems that are being utilised in their respective organisations.
Hello, I’m Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS Small Business and ESS BIZTOOLS. Welcome to Empowering SMEs.
Directors of SME companies, business operators, committee members of not-for-profits, charities sporting and social organisations need to be able to write these three things down.
Have you formulated your plan for the next three months? If not, let me help you.
Creating “future proofing” for a SME company and not-for-profits, charities, sporting and social organisations is an important issue for directors of SME companies and committee members of organisations. ESS Small Business’ “Corporate Governance Network” is targeted at SME company directors and officers and committee members and officers of not-for-profits, charities, sporting and social organisations.
The particular challenge that is being presented to participants is – “are you and your organisation developing strategies for “future proofing” your company or organisation to meet the challenges of the next few years?”
There are hundreds of government grants for small business provided by the Australian, State and Territory governments. Company directors and officers need an awareness of the availability of these grants to assist small business – companies, trusts, individuals and partnerships.
The Corporate Governance Network, being presented by ESS Small Business, will give SME company directors and committee members of not-for-profits, charities, sporting and social organisations the opportunity to listen to commentary presented by a panel of experts relative to the operation of businesses and organisations and to consider the development of action plans for their own professional development and for their businesses or organisations. The Corporate Governance Network is being presented in 8 x 90-minute webinar/workshops during 2018/19.
Directors/committee members need an understanding of the strategic planning process that will assist the development of their company/organisation. Few directors are able to make the journey from an SME company director to chairman of a listed public company.
Company directors and committee members of organisations have a clear responsibility to protect their company’s/organisation’s assets. For many companies/organisations, debtors are a large asset.
The “management of debtors” is a key area for directors/committee members to enquire about – to satisfy themselves that appropriate systems have been implemented and that the systems are operating efficiently.
Welcome to Empowering SMEs.
An awareness of human resources laws and best practices is an important component of a company director’s and committee member’s knowledge base.
Whilst it is true that directors should authorise a company’s human resources system and that it is management’s role to implement that system, directors have an ongoing responsibility to regularly enquire as to the effectiveness of the system.
Many directors of small/medium enterprise companies will also be management team members and they, therefore, have two key responsibilities – as a director, signing off on the human resources policy and monitoring the effectiveness of the system and as a management team member, implementing the human resources’ system.
Hello, I’m Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS Small Business and ESS BIZTOOLS. Welcome to Empowering SMEs.
Directors of small/medium enterprise companies, committee members of not-for-profits, charities and sporting organisations need an overall understanding of “business” to carry out their duties.
An understanding of “business” is what “corporate governance” relates to.
Many directors and committee members do not fully appreciate the wide range of items that they are legally responsible for, once they are appointed a director or committee member. It is this awareness and understanding of a director’s key role and responsibilities that we’re trying to articulate through the series of webinar/workshops on “corporate governance”.
Today we’re going to look at the Research and Development Tax Rebates and the Export Market Development Grant.
Good leadership is needed in every type of business, whether it’s a sole trader, partnership, trust or company, with a turnover of any level, or your entity is a not-for-profit, charity or sporting organisation.
Directors and committee members of charities, not-for-profits and sporting organisations need to be aware of the legislation that applies to either companies or not-for-profit type organisations. What is the best practise? What are the ethics of running businesses or organisations?
Revelations from the Banking Royal Commission have highlighted that directors have a responsibility to:
- develop policies and strategies for their company; and
- make sufficient enquiries to satisfy themselves that management and the team have appropriately implemented systems to ensure that the policies and strategies signed off by the directors are working efficiently.
This series of articles is part of the Corporate Governance Network and today’s subject is “People Issues with Directors and Committee Members”.
Company directors, committee members for not-for-profits, charities and sporting organisations have a very important responsibility when it comes to “people issues” within their organisations. So, lets look at some of the “people issues” that we will be exploring in some depth in the Corporate Governance Network series of webinars/workshops, which commences on Wednesday 9th May 2018.
Corporate governance requires an awareness of “All Things Financial”.
Company directors and committee members of not-for-profits and charities, together with officers in all types of organisations need to have an awareness of a wide range of financial matters.
Hello, I’m Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS BIZTOOLS. Welcome to Empowering SMEs.
Today I want to talk to you about awareness of legislation, because this is a very important component of the new Corporate Governance Network Product that we are releasing, with the first webinar/workshop on the 9th May 2018.
Today I'd like to talk to you about a new concept that we’ve developed which we’re calling the Corporate Governance Network.
Over the last two years, through our consulting business – Towers Business Development Pty Ltd – we have conducted a series of workshops on behalf of the AusIndustry (a department of the Federal Government) on the Role & Responsibilities of Company Directors.
Accountants who are committed to offering business advisory services to their clients will contribute to adding value to their clients’ businesses.
The long-awaited legislation for Crowd-Sourced Funding becomes operational from 29 September 2017. This is great news for the small/medium enterprise community who have long suffered from a disadvantage in that they have been unable to go to the market to raise capital. Instead many small/medium enterprise operators have had to take out second and third mortgages on their homes, borrow from relatives and friends and run up large debts on credit cards so that they were able to finance their business operations.
Australia earned a very dubious title a couple of months ago that Australia has the worst debtors' days outstanding in the world. Not a very attractive title to win. I'd rather win the world cup! But we have won the dubious title of having the highest debtors' days outstanding in over 80 countries.
The Australian government's Small Business Family Business Ombudsman, Kate Carnell has described this as the "silent killer of modern business".
She has indicated that she is going to talk to government departments and big businesses about improving their debtors' payments. However, I believe there is another contributing factor to this problem and that is unfortunately, many small/medium enterprises do not have effective debtors' systems in operation. This has occurred because many of you were not able to get appropriate advice at the time when you started business and you didn't know the intricacies of what's involved in appropriate debtors' management.
A very unwanted title has been awarded to Australian small/medium enterprise operators with the announcement that Australian small businesses have the “largest debtors' days outstanding in the world". (Download Australian Financial Review Article)
The survey was conducted by UK-based “Market Invoice” which found that Australian businesses were being paid 26.4 days later than the traditional payment period, far later than the next latest country, Mexico with 18.6 days or South Africa with 16.5 days late.
Based on the traditional 30-day payment terms this means that Australian small businesses are being paid on an average of 56.4 days which the Australian Government Small Business Ombudsman, Kate Carnell described as the “silent killer of modern business”.
Ms Carnell said that “in Australia more and more small businesses are falling victim to the unscrupulous payment practices of some big businesses – and even government departments – that are quite frankly a drag on productivity”.
Today I want to talk to you about innovation. Innovation is important in Australia. The Australian government has recognised this by introducing an Innovation Statement and a range of legislation to support innovation.
The first new law to be introduced related to Early Stage Innovation Companies. That will apply to:
- entrepreneurs
- inventers
- companies;
- and business people who are developing new products, processes or services and other new types of products.
This legislation commenced from 1st July 2016; yes, it's already operating. Unfortunately, the government, for whatever reason, has not fully promoted and publicised that this new, exciting legislation is now operational. That's unfortunate, because this legislation will give many small/medium enterprise operators, inventors and entrepreneurs the opportunity to present your business to potential investors who, hopefully, will then be encouraged to make investments in your types of companies.
Why don't you undertake some research to see whether you fit some of the key characteristics that are going to be required to be deemed to be an ESIC?
- Was your company incorporated in the last three years? There are some rules that allow companies incorporated up to six years ago to be eligible for ESIC, but the main emphasis is on companies that are under three years of age.
- Does your company undertake research and development expenditure?
- Have you participated in the Accelerating Commercialisation Grant Programme?
- Have you been a participant in an Accelerator Programme?
- Was your company's total expenditure for your company and any wholly owned subsidiaries in 2015/16 under $1M?
- Was your company's income, including any wholly owned subsidiaries, in 2015/16 under $200,000?
- Has your company developed a registered patent or a plant breeder's right that has been registered anywhere in the World?
- Has your company processed an innovation patent or a registered design anywhere in the World?
- Have you already raised more than $50,000 from "arms-length" investors in 2015/16?
- Have you developed a new product, process, service, organisational or marketing methodology for your business?
If you have undertaken these types of activities (not all of them by any stretch of the imagination) then you are potentially eligible to be deemed to be an Early Stage Innovation Company.
Our recommendation is that, if you're going to be able to satisfy the requirements of investors, you will require professional assistance to complete the various statements and to assemble all of the supporting documentation to be presented to investors.
If you'd like to talk to an accountant who is able to assist you to determine whether you're an Early Stage Innovation Company, why not go to our website - www.esssmallbusiness.com.au - and then click on "Find an Accountant/Adviser" and then all you have to do is to insert your postcode and you will then be able to read the names and a summary of the services that those firms offer, who are subscribers to ESS BIZTOOLS (our other major product) and who are able to deliver you advice and assistance on the due diligence process to assist you to become an Early Stage Innovation Company.
If you have any enquiries, why not send me an email - peter@essbistools.com.au and we will get back to you with suggestions on what your next steps should be.
Australia really needs companies that are committed to the innovation process.
The team at ESS BIZTOOLS and ESS Small Business look forward to supporting you on your endeavours.
Hello, I'm Peter Towers for ESS Small Business.
We have a special webinar coming up on the 19th October 2016 for small/medium enterprise operators who are looking for a boost to their businesses.
This webinar is particularly aimed at people aged over 50 who are operating businesses. But don't worry, those of you who are younger it also equally applies for you; because one day, you'll also be 50.
The presentation is going to be made by Lorraine Pirihi. Lorraine is going to be looking at freeing up time and what matters to you, as a business operator.
The key items to be discussed include:
- Get the right team in place.
- Master the skill of productive marketing.
- Staying on track with effective systems.
- Focus on creating wealth.
- Make time for yourself and time for your family and priorities.
Lorraine Pirihi is a coach, a productivity expert, a mentor, a speaker and author and I'm sure that she will make a great presentation which will make you think about various aspects of your business.
Why don't you join us for this free webinar on Wednesday 19th October 2016, at?
- 00am (WA time)
- 30am (NT time)
- 00am (Qld time)
- 30am (SA time)
- 12-noon (NSW, VIC & TAS)
Please click here to join this webinar on the 19th October 2016.
The Early Stage Innovation Company legislation which commenced operation on the 1st July 2016 gives small/medium enterprise operators, inventors and young companies that have been involved in research and development, have been a participant in Accelerating Commercialisation Grant Program, have already received capital investment from arms-length investors of $50,000 or more; or if you've already registered a patent, a plant patent, an innovation patent or a registered design, or you are a business that has developed a new product, process, service, marketing or organisational methodology. So that's a very broad aspect of business operations.
If you've been involved in any of those things, then you are potentially an organisation that could be deemed to be an Early Stage Innovation Company.
Hello, I'm Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS Small Business. Welcome to Survival Hints for Small Business.
The Early Stage Innovation Company legislation which commenced operation on the 1st July 2016 gives small/medium enterprise operators, inventors and young companies that have been involved in research and development, have been a participant in Accelerating Commercialisation Grant Program, have already received capital investment from arms-length investors of $50,000 or more; or if you've already registered a patent, a plant patent, an innovation patent or a registered design, or you are a business that has developed a new product, process, service, marketing or organisational methodology. So that's a very broad aspect of business operations.
If you've been involved in any of those things, then you are potentially an organisation that could be deemed to be an Early Stage Innovation Company.
If you're not currently a company, but you've carried out all of the research and ready now to try to develop the commercialisation program for this business.. don't worry, you can form a company now and potentially become registered as an Early Stage Innovation Company, because the legislation has got a particular clause which is called "Principle Based Test" which applies to very new companies that have developed new products, processes, services etc.
There are going to be some accountants who will be marketing services to you who are users of our products and services and they'll be well prepared to assist you on your journey because; first of all you have to go through the process to determine whether you are an Early Stage Innovation Company and then you need to get yourself "innovation prepared" and that means you've summarised your intellectual property, if you're going to make a patent application, it's an opportune time to do so and then you're going to go to the "investment readiness" phase. This phase is what type of documents are you going to submit to investors to satisfy themselves about investing in your company? It's not only just going to be that you're an ESIC, you then have to satisfy investors that you have a marketing plan, a market research document, a business plan, budgets and cashflow forecasts and an information memorandum.
You then need to be able to stand up and make an investment pitch to a room full of potential investors at which you'll normally be allocated between 7 and 10 minutes to be able to make that presentation. It's very important that you have received appropriate professional advice on this entire journey.
Accountants who have subscribed to our products will be able to assist you in achieving this.
Why don't you go to our website - www.esssmallbusiness.com.au - to register? If you'd like to receive our special article on the Early Stage Innovation Company - as it affects small/medium enterprises, inventors etc., also indicate that when you on the ESS Small Business website and we'll send that to you.
If you'd like to make contact with an accountant who is committed to assisting small/medium enterprises on your ESIC journey, whilst you're on the ESS Small Business website, click on "Find an Accountant/Advisor". All you have to do is insert your postcode and the system will identify accountants/advisors in, or near, your postcode who are prepared to assist you on your ESIC journey.
A complimentary copy of an article Self-Assessment for Early Stage Innovation Company is attached with this transcript.
We're presenting a webinar on "How ESIC Can Assist SMEs" on Wednesday 21st September 2016 commencing at 4.00pm AEST.
If you have any questions about any aspect of investing in an "ESIC" type company, you can obtain details from the accountants and advisors registered on the ESS Small Business website
Good luck with this very important period of your business' career.
I hope it's going to be very successful for you.
If you have any further questions, please send me an email - peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Good luck with investing in an Early Stage Innovation Company!
Thank you.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Hello, I'm Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS Small Business. Welcome to Survival Hints for Small Business.
There are tremendous opportunities for investors under the Early Stage Innovation Company legislation.
What is an Early Stage Innovation Company? This is a new corporate structure that the Australian government legislated for in May 2016 and commenced operations from 1st July 2016. The legislation is targeted at companies that are developing new products, processes or services. In the main the companies have to be under three years of age, but in some circumstances the companies could be under six of age.
There are three tests with which the companies have to comply. They have to pass two of these three tests.
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The first test is the "Provisional Test" (that's the name we've given it) because it looks at the age of the company, and whether it's income is under $200,000 in the previous income year, not including any grant income from the Accelerating Commercialisation Grant. The company's expenditure in the previous income year has to be under $1M. The company cannot be listed on a Stock Exchange anywhere in the world. That's the Provisional Test.
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Assuming that the company has answered these questions, they can then move into what is called the "Gateway Test". Within the "Gateway Test" there are seven subjects for consideration and the company can earn points from each of these subjects. These subjects include:
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research and development - over 15% of expenditure
- whether the company has been admitted to the Accelerating Commercialisation Grant Programme
- whether the company has participated in an Accelerating Programme, delivered by a registered organisation
- whether the company has already achieved investment of, at least, $50,000 from "arms-length" investors
- whether the company has registered a patent, plant patent
- whether the company has an agreement with an organisation that is specified under the Higher Education Act for the Research & Development Act
- whether the company has registered an innovation patent or a registered design
There are points available for each of these subjects, ranging from 25 points to 75 points. What the company has to do if it's going to qualify under the Gateway Test is earn 100 points or more.
If a company has successfully completed the Gateway Test and earned more than 100 points, and obviously the company has already passed the Provisional Test, then the company has self-assessed as an Early Stage Innovation Company.
- However, if the company was unable to accumulate 100 points under the Gateway Test, it now must move into the third and final series of tests. This is known as the "Principles Based Test".
Companies that gain acceptance as an ESIC under the Principles Based Test will normally be very new companies that have just completed their research and development; perhaps as a sole trader or partnership and have now decided to incorporate a company to assist with the capital raising activities.
To be assessed under the Principles Based Test, the company needs to positively answer five questions
- Is the company generally focused on commercialisation of a product, process, service, organisational or marketing methodology?
- Does the company have high growth potential?
- Does the company have the ability to scale the business?
- Is there a market opportunity, broader than the local market, in which the company is currently operating?
- Does the company have competitive advantages?
If the company is able to successfully answer these questions, that would be great, but most companies' boards of directors will have difficulty answering those questions and supplying the required supporting evidence unless they obtain an independent report from an "arms-length" professional consulting firm which is able to review the company's operations, look at the company's business plan or documents as to what it wishes to achieve and have that report as the key supporting document for investors and the Australian Taxation Office to review.
This legislation has been established on the basis that companies can be a self-assess, so that the company will be able to undertake these tests themselves; but then they need to convince investors that they have undertaken these tests in an appropriate professional manner.
At some stage, all of this material is going to have to be submitted to the Australian Taxation Office and AusIndustry. It can be submitted to the Australian Taxation Office and AusIndustry at a very early stage for them to review the material and decide whether the company is an ESIC. I expect that this process will take a considerable amount of time and there is no expectation, from our point of view, that the ATO or AusIndustry will undertake this assessment process unless they receive all of the supporting information.
If a company is able to convince investors that they have successfully self-assessed and this could be in particular relating to the Provisional Test and the Gateway Test, then an investor can invest in those companies, but ultimately the company will have to submit the information to the ATO as part of the company's tax return that follows after the date the investment was made.
Obviously with the Principles Based Test, we believe the company will require an independent "arms-length" report.
ESS BIZTOOLS and ESS Small Business have developed a "package" which we call the ESS ESIC Product Package to assist accountants to undertake this due diligence process of companies to determine whether they have appropriate reasons to be able to classify themselves as an Early Stage Innovation Company.
What's all the fuss about, from an investor's point of view? Well, this is the only investment that I know of in Australia currently that you're able to obtain a 20% tax offset on your investment. The maximum investment for a sophisticated investor is $1M to obtain the offset, so that would mean that for $1M in a year, the investor would obtain a tax offset of $200,000. If you don't use all of the tax offset in one year, it can be carried forward to subsequent years.
For a retailer investor, which is anyone who is not a sophisticated investor, the maximum investment is $50,000 and therefore the maximum tax offset is $10,000.
Investors in an Early Stage Innovation Company are also eligible for a Capital Gains Tax Exemption, if they hold the shares for more than 12 months up to less than 10 years, and then there is no Capital Gains Tax payable on that original investment. If you invested $500,000 into a company and subsequently your share of the sale proceeds of that company was $3M, the $2.5M profit is tax free in the original investor's hands.
A complimentary copy of an article "Tax Incentives for ESIC Investors" is attached with this transcript.
We're presenting a webinar on "ESIC Investor Opportunities" on Wednesday 14th September 2016 at 5.00pm. Click here to register to attend this webinar, free of charge.
If you have any questions about any aspect of investing in an "ESIC" type company, you can obtain details from the accountants and advisors registered on the ESS Small Business website.
The accountants that I'm referring to who can assist you are the accountants/advisers who are on our website - www.esssmallbusiness.com.au. If you click onto the Accountants/Advisors Directory and insert your postcode, the system will identify for you the accountants/advisers who are committed to assisting small/medium enterprises, inventors and other businesses to assess whether the company is an ESIC and then to assist the company on the investment readiness and investment presentation phases.
If you have any further questions, please send me an email - peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Good luck with investing in an Early Stage Innovation Company!
Thank you.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Hello, I'm Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS Small Business. Welcome to Survival Hints for Small Business.
Will you have an ESIC story? Do you know what ESIC is? Well, please join me for the next couple of minutes and I'll give you an overview of an ESIC story.
Have you developed a new product, process, service or developed an organisational or marketing methodology? Have you been undertaking research and development? Have you already participated in the Accelerating Commercialisation Grant Programme? Have you registered a patent, plant patent or a registered design? These are some of the requirements for you to join us on an ESIC story.
First of all you need to talk to an accountant and have a strategy determined for you.
You'll need to have a company and undertake a self-assessment process. The accountants that I'm going to introduce you to later have a product which we've developed which will assist them to assess whether your company can be deemed to be called an "Early Stage Innovation Company". If you can, you can raise whatever sum of capital you require from a significant number of investors to help you commercialise your project.
Assessing yourself as being an "Early Stage Innovation Company" is only the first part of this journey. Your accountant will then have to assist you to go through the "investment ready" phase because investors will want to know more about your business than just that you're an Early Stage Innovation Company. They will want to see your Budgets, Cashflow Forecasts, Business Plan and an Information Memorandum so they can decide whether they wish to invest in your Early Stage Innovation Company.
The next phase that your accountant should be able to assist you with is the investment pitch preparation phase so that you can present an investment presentation to business organisations like Business Angels which are situated in capital cities and major provincial areas around Australia and also Founders Forum, which also has groups around Australia which are keen to invest in ESIC companies.
The accountants that I'm referring to who can assist you are the accountants/advisers who are on our website - www.esssmallbusiness.com.au. If you click onto the Accountants/Advisors Directory and insert your postcode, the system will identify for you the accountants/advisers who are committed to assisting small/medium enterprises, inventors and other businesses to assess whether you’re an ESIC and then to assist you on the investment readiness and investment presentation phases.
If you do all of that successfully, you will also have an outstanding ESIC story which you can share with your business colleagues.
A complimentary copy of an article "Will you have an ESIC Story", is attached with this transcript.
We're presenting a webinar on the ESIC Story on Wednesday 7th September 2016. Click here to register to attend, free of charge.
If you have any further questions, please send me an email - peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Thank you.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Do you know that there are accountants/advisors around Australia who are committed to supplying a Virtual Chief Financial Officer (CFO) service to their small/medium enterprise clients?
ESS Small Business and ESS BIZTOOLS have developed material for those accounting/advisory businesses to utilise, to give you a more effective service and to give you the products that you’ve asked for as an industry of small/medium enterprises, in survey after survey over the last 15 years.
In fact, the ESS Small Business and ESS BIZTOOLS’ package gives accountants/advisors access to a wide range of information and products that they can utilise to help you add value to your business.
One of the key articles we’ve prepared is a summary of what public companies are looking for when they hire a CFO or chief accountant. You might say, “I’m not a public company”. However, it’s amazing how many of the services that public companies have listed that they require from CFOs, which also apply to small/medium enterprises. I was a CFO in a listed public company some years ago. I can assure you that there are many similarities.
The problem you and most of your colleagues have, as small/medium enterprises, is that you haven’t got a CFO person in your organisation available on a daily basis.
There are accountants/advisors around Australia who are committed to supplying a Virtual CFO service and, with modern communications, technology and computer programs, there’s no excuse that accountants/advisors can’t supply a Virtual CFO service to you.
The days of accountants/advisors only supplying taxation services are gone! There’s a lot more to running a business than worrying about tax returns. The information you really need is the kind of information which will help you run your business more effectively.
Accountants/advisors who are committed to offering a Virtual CFO service can offer you pre-prepared packages of services that they’re able to offer. Alternatively, they’re happy to sit down and tailor a program to suit your specific requirements. Of course, to work with the team that you already have. You may have a very capable bookkeeper who can do a significant part of the work that might otherwise have been allocated to a CFO.
However, there will always be some activities on which you will need an external input, including analysing your budgets and cashflow forecasts and making sure that your monthly financial accounts are being prepared to suit your requirements.
Management Accounts If you have five different businesses operating within your business, why not have five separate Profit & Loss Accounts that are prepared for management, not for the ATO. Your accountant can consolidate all those into one Profit & Loss Account at the end of financial year to submit to the ATO. Preparing financial accounts for submission to the ATO is required, however this process doesn’t help you run your business or add value to your business. Accountants/advisors need to be supplying you with the services that will help you operate on a day-to-day basis.
Key Performance Indicators Have you sat down with your management team and asked them whether they understand the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? Incidentally, are you receiving KPIs on a daily, weekly and monthly basis? The key is do your managers understand what these indicators mean? If not, your accountant/advisor, acting as a CFO, should be able to sit down and inform them as to the basis of these calculations.
Indeed, there are government grants around at present for skills development for which your accountant/advisor could assist you to apply, to introduce a special skills training program, to ensure that your management team and your team clearly understand what all the financial information means, to help improve your business performance.
Benchmarking Are you benchmarking your performance against commercial benchmarks? There’s a great organisation in Australia, Benchmarking.com.au, which produces benchmarking reports. You could also prepare a benchmarking report exercise with other businesses with similar industry background to you. They could be situated in any part of Australia, thus enabling your business to be compared to a number of other businesses.
Accountants/Advisors can Assist There’s a tremendous opportunity for you to influence the type of services that you’re receiving from your accountant by asking them to submit to you a proposal to undertake a Virtual CFO service for your business. You can say, “You don’t know these types of accountants.” We’ve got the answer for you.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisors in or near your postcode who are committed to supplying a wide range of commercial services, namely business advisory services. You can then make contact with them and have a no obligation conversation with them, to see the types of services that they can offer to your business. You will then need to make a decision on what you’re going to do on the supply of these types of services to your business.
Remember, accounting relates to far more than taxation. Taxation is not the only activity that accountants/advisors can do for your business.
A complimentary copy of an article on improvements in accounting services for a small/medium enterprise, “Utilisation of Accountancy Businesses Offering CFO Services”, is attached with this transcript.
We’re presenting a webinar on utilising accountants/advisors to supply a Virtual CFO service, which will be held on Wednesday 17th August 2016 at 4pm. Click here to register to attend, free of charge.
If you have any further questions, please send me an email - peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
How diligent are you about your succession planning?
Do you know that, in various surveys that have been conducted by MYOB, CCH, Smithink and other companies over the last 15 years, succession planning has been identified as a very important process from a small/medium enterprise operator's point of view? Are you getting the assistance you require for your succession or exit planning as it relates to your business? Are you talking to your accountant/advisor about providing those services?
Accountants have access to a range of products that we have produced, to enable them to assist you in your succession or exit planning. We believe that it's very important that the accounting profession is able to support you in this very important activity, so the package which we've produced includes questionnaires for the owners, CEO, management team, directors and the employees (the team that is doing the work) to get their input as to what they believe should be happening in the business.
The package also includes questionnaires relating to the business and succession issues and whether you're going to have enough money to retire. This includes a personal due diligence checklist for you to work through.
The material also includes articles on the concept of a Family Charter or Constitution. Many family businesses in Australia have Family Charters or Constitutions and this helps to give some guidance to the management team running the business as to how they should relate to the family, especially in businesses where the family is not all directly involved in the day-to-day activities of the business.
From Family Charters and Constitutions has come Family Councils that some of the major business families in Australia have instigated for their businesses. Quite a number of small businesses have also formed Family Councils. This allows a forum to exist between those family members who are not involved in the business on a day-to-day basis to be able to get some communications, some feedback, and some idea of the strategies that management is using within the business.
Is this the type of service that you're looking for from your accountant/advisor to assist you in planning your succession?
Incidentally, please remember that succession is not just for the owner or CEO. Succession planning should be implemented in a business for every position within the business because businesses should be continually looking to see who can replace someone so that a person can be promoted, so it’s the ongoing commitment to staff training and development that is also a very important component of succession planning.
There are accountants/advisors around Australia who are committed to offering business advisory services, including succession planning. If you have difficulty with your accountant/advisor assisting you with succession planning, visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisors in or near your postcode who are committed to supplying business advisory services who you can then contact and have a no obligation conversation to obtain an understanding of the type of services that they can provide you.
A complimentary copy of an article, “Succession Planning – Why is it Necessary?” is attached with this transcript.
If you have any further questions, please send me an email - peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Good luck with your succession planning issues in your business.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Have you got a business plan? Do you know what purpose it will serve your business? Have you talked to your accountant/advisor about helping you to prepare a business plan? This is the facilitation role that accountants/advisors could perform. The main group of people involved in a business planning process are you and your team and your accountant/advisor is there to facilitate, ask the questions, record what you’re saying and try to get feedback from you and your team as to what they perceive should be happening within your business.
ESS BIZTOOLS and ESS Small Business have developed material that accountants/advisors can utilise to be able to fully discuss with you all aspects of your business. This can be encompassed with forms, articles, briefing documents and questionnaires, to assist in understanding what your aims are in your business.
This is a very important process because, if you have a business plan, you can then measure your actual performance every month, quarter, six months and, indeed, every year, to see how you’re going to see, if you’re on target. If you get behind what your plan indicated that you were going to achieve, perhaps you can then do some fine tuning and catch up.
Alternatively, you could develop a revised strategy for your business plan that takes into account a few things that did go wrong and this is how you’re going to correct it, so this is your new plan for your new journey in the next few years.
Please don’t hesitate to talk to your accountant/advisor on assisting you in the preparation of a business plan. The best document is a written document that also contains an action plan that details who’s supposed to do something, when are they going to do it by and to whom this task has been allocated.
Then follow up at each Board Meeting, Board of Advice Meeting or Management Meeting which, hopefully, your business is conducting on a monthly basis. Each of those meetings should have an agenda item, “Implementation of Business Plan”, that you can refer to, to see who is supposed to have done tasks in the previous month and have they performed those tasks.
The business plan is not only a written document but will also become an implementation document to help you implement the strategies that you have given due consideration to, as part of the business planning process.
Accountants/Advisors can Assist You may say, “Well, our accountant only does tax.” We’ve got an answer for you. ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants/advisers who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisers in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises, including the preparation of business plans.
We’re presenting a special webinar, free of charge, featuring “Business Planning for SMEs”, on Tuesday 2nd August 2016 at 4pm AEST. Click here to register to attend.
A complimentary copy of our article on business planning and how business plans can help you in achieving your business visions, is attached with this transcript.
If you have any questions in relation to how accountants/advisers can assist you to add value to your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 1800 232 088 or send me an email at peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
I'm Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS Small Business. Welcome to Survival Hints for Small Business.
According to the “Accounting Market Pulse”, a publication produced by the Commonwealth Bank targeted at accountants, this is the year of “business advisory services”.
What are you going to do to be able to make sure that you receive more commercial services from your accountants/advisors during this financial year - the year that the accountancy profession has acknowledged as being the year of business advisory services?
ESS Small Business supplies resources to accountants/advisors to assist them to be able to deliver a wider range of commercial services, other than taxation, to you, the small/medium businesses. These services include:
- articles
- forms
- templates
- videos
- powerpoint slides
- webinars
- news releases
to assist your accountant/advisor to be able to offer these services, without them having to spend an enormous amount of time in preparing that material.
The overall objective is to try to shorten the time that it takes for accountants/advisors to be able to deliver an effective business advisory services range of products to you to assist you to add value to your business. Isn't that what it's all about?
In fact, the product range that we have, covers some vital areas of small business management, including:
Early Stage Innovation Company If you're interested in trying to raise some capital from external investors for a product, process, service that you've developed… this is the company for you, so talk to your accountant in relation to this. They can use the checklist software that we've introduced to be able to tell you whether you can self-assess as being an Early Stage Innovation Company. You can then raise capital from investors.
Debtor's Management What is your current debtors' days outstanding? Do you know what it is? In most businesses it's far too high. Your accountant can help you in this very important cashflow management process to reduce the amount of money that you're owed by your debtors.
Personal Property Securities Register What do you know about the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR)?
Many small businesses don't know much about it at all, yet this legislation, if you do not comply with it, can financially wreck your business, so one of the most important risk management areas that you have is to make sure you're familiar with how the Personal Property Securities Register works. Talk to your accountant/advisor and your lawyer about this legislation.
Business Plans Business plans are like maps for tourists; you need to plan where you're going to go and then be able to measure how you're going on that journey. Running a business is no different.
Succession Planning Succession planning covers the owners of the business, the management team of a business, but it also encompasses all of the team members because unless people are continually training and improving their skills and knowledge, which is really what succession planning is all about, you'll not be able to promote them - you'll have to continually bring in new people from outside.
Virtual Chief Financial Officer Service The virtual CFO product offering that some accountants/advisors are now able to deliver around Australia is a vital component to assisting you and your management team to have a better understanding of the financial accounts, the key performance indicators, the ratio analysis, the budgets and cashflow forecasts. How it all merges together and then, with that knowledge, your management team should be able to run your businesses far more effectively because they will clearly understand what the financial data is telling them.
Government Grants What value of government grants did you receive in 2015/16? What about the year before? Do you realise there are billions of dollars being paid out in Australia for virtually every type of business as government grants.
Why do governments offer government grants?
They don't do it just to spend taxpayers' money, even though some cynics might say that. At times, government do it because they're trying to make a contribution and the only way that governments can perceive to do that is to try to improve the overall business performance in Australia by paying about 50% of the cost for some improvement activities to be introduced.
If you're not receiving a government grant, knock on the door of your accountant/advisor and ask them why they're not talking to you about government grants, because I and a large number of other accountants/advisors believe that this is an important process that accountants/advisors should be doing.
To celebrate everything that we're doing as we enter this year of business advisory services, we are presenting a webinar to you, a small/medium enterprise operator, on Wednesday 27th July 2016 at 4pm AEST. We look forward to you participating in this free webinar. Click here to register to attend.
We have produced a special article on the services that accountants/advisors can provide to you, “…”. A complimentary copy of this article is attached with this transcript.
Accountants/Advisors can Assist Remember, you're the boss when it comes to dealing with your accountants/advisors. If you want some additional services, please ask them to supply them. If they're unable to supply them, ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants/advisers who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisers in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
Good luck in 2016/17 and I really hope that you are able to obtain the additional services that you want, to be able to add value to your businesses.
If you have any questions in relation to how accountants/advisers can assist you to add value to your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 1800 232 088 or send me an email at peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
As a small business operator, are you aware of the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR)? Has your accountant/advisor talked to you on how you can minimise the risks under this register? Do you know that, in Australia, over $120M has been lost by small and large businesses in court cases involving the Personal Property Securities Act (PPSA)? Virtually in every one of those cases, the company or business had not registered on the PPSR. It’s rumoured that over $200M in addition has been lost by other businesses who haven’t registered on the PPSR, sought some legal advice and found that they had no case to be able to present. Therefore, they lost that money.
You could insure on the PPSR for under $5 for a 7-year period per transaction. Undoubtedly, this is the cheapest insurance in Australia.
ESS Small Business provides material to accountants and small/medium enterprises to help you review your business operations, to determine your risk areas. The risk areas cover virtually every asset in your business, except land and attachments to land.
The legislation applies to:
- debtors
- stock
- stock on consignment
- vehicles
- plant and equipment
- builder’s plant and equipment
- tradesmen’s plant and equipment
- Intellectual Property
- cattle
- horses
- thoroughbred horses (has been an infamous case in New Zealand with over $2M lost by the legitimate owners to a liquidator acting on behalf of a secured creditor)
- aeroplanes
- boats
- cars
Everything, except land and attachments to land, is caught up under this legislation.
The ESS Small Business and ESS BIZTOOLS’ system, produced to assist accountants/advisors and small/medium enterprises is the only one of its kind in Australia, to specifically assist businesses to alert on the areas where you’re subject to problems under this legislation.
For example, where did you store your stock last night? If you had stock stored in someone else’s premises and, in an unfortunate circumstance that a liquidator was appointed to that business, you will probably lose it.
The other big risk that businesses are running relates to preferential payment claims being received from liquidators. Have you already received one of those? I can assure you that thousands of businesses have. The vast majority of those businesses could’ve avoided all of the stress, the worry and the costs of the preferential payment claim if they had registered that particular debtor on the PPSR.
Do something about it. In the first instance, we invite you to visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and obtain the articles we’ve developed on the PPSR.
Accountants/Advisors Can Help If you would like to talk to an accountant/advisor who is keen to provide you with advice on a PPSR due diligence system, to help protect your assets, ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants/advisers who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisers in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business also includes a number of free articles and articles for sale, including a complimentary copy of the article “PPSR – Operational Issues in Risk Management”, which is attached with this transcript.
We will be presenting a webinar, featuring “Personal Property Securities Register”, on Wednesday 20th July 2016 at 4pm AEST. Click here to register to attend this webinar, free of charge.
If you have any questions in relation to how accountants/advisers can assist you to add value to your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 1800 232 088 or send me an email at peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Do you know that, in survey after survey over the last 15 years, you and your peers have identified that small/medium enterprises want to receive additional commercial services?
One of the services that would benefit most small/medium enterprises is assistance with debtors’ management.
Accountants/advisors who are offering business advisory services, other than taxation, can assist you to manage your debtors.
At ESS Small Business, we provide a debtors’ management service that many accountants/advisors use, to provide specialised advice to small/medium enterprises. These services will help you:
- Identify ways to welcome your new customers but ensure that, first of all, you’ve undertaken appropriate due diligence reviews on your potential new customer.
- Identify ways to reduce debtors’ days outstanding – an area where a lot of money can be tied up in your business.
- Improve debtors collections.
- Provide a debtors’ reduction checklist to help with the identification of particular debtors that needed to be approached for above normal payments to be made by them.
- Identify one of the key business risk areas for small/medium enterprises, which is the PPSR and how it operates. The PPSR does affect debtors and you can receive liquidators preferential payment claim letters. A way of significantly reducing this is to implement an appropriate PPSR strategy in your debtors’ system.
- Have a written debtors’ system for your business.
In fact, the SME Debtors’ System Manual, developed by ESS Small Business, gives you a customisable manual that will suit your business requirements, to assist a person who has the difficult job of managing debtors within any small/medium enterprise. The manual will also help to keep debtors’ days outstanding to a reasonable figure, which will benefit your cashflow.
Accountants/Advisers Can Help If you would like to talk to an accountant/advisor who is committed to assisting small/medium enterprises, like yourself, in business advisory services, other than taxation, ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants/advisers who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisers in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business also includes a number of free articles and articles for sale, including articles on debtors’ management.
We will be presenting a webinar on debtors’ management on Tuesday 12th July 2016 at 2pm AEST. Click here to register to attend this webinar, free of charge.
If you have any questions in relation to how accountants/advisers can assist you to add value to your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 1800 232 088 or send me an email at peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Welcome to 2016/17!
A new financial year – what are you going to try to achieve this year?
Are you happy with your financial performance? Are you happy with the support that you’re receiving from your accounting/advisory firm? Are you getting feedback?
I’m going to ask you six questions to undertake a review of your preparation to be an outstanding business during 2016/17. If you would like some further advice on the questions that I’m going to raise, I will have suggestions on where you can turn to for support.
Debtors’ Days Outstanding “Is the debtors’ days outstanding in your business less than 40 days? If not, my recommendation is that you have a debtors’ due diligence system review undertaken for your business.”
Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) “Are you aware of the PPSR? Do you know that approximately $300M has been lost by businesses in Australia since this legislation commenced about 3 years ago? Have you considered the risks that you’re running by not registering assets?”
“If you’re registering assets on the PPSR, have you asked your accountant/adviser to conduct a review? Recently, I was told by a solicitor of a problem that had occurred to one of their clients that, inadvertently, there had been a mix-up on terminology between “grantor” and “grantee”. This caused the business to lose around $400,000. Perhaps that could’ve been avoided if there had been a follow-up review of their systems.”
Succession Planning “Do you have succession planning operational within your business?”
“Succession planning isn’t just for the owners or CEOs but can apply to all positions within a business. An accountant/adviser who is offering business advisory services can undertake a review for you.”
Business Plan “Do you have a business plan? If so, is it up to date? Are you using it? Should you have a business plan?”
“Business plans are like maps for tourists. If you haven’t got a written plan, how are you going to know where are you proposing to go? More importantly, how do you compare your current performance against your predetermined strategy?”
Financial Position “Do you understand your financial position? Do you understand the terminology that is used in financial accounts? Are you receiving accurate monthly, departmentalised management accounts that you and your team of managers can use to really understand what’s going on within your business? Are the KPIs that you’re receiving appropriate? Do they help you run the business or could you think of some better KPIs that might serve your purposes better?”
Early Stage Innovation Companies (ESIC) “Have you developed a new product, process, service, marketing or organisation method? Are you interested in raising capital to help you with this new venture?”
“If so, I’ve got some great news for you.”
“The Federal government has finalised the legislation for the ESIC. By the time you listen to this podcast, that legislation will be operational so you could form a company and, as long as it complies with the requirements to be called an ESIC, you could raise capital in excess of $2M if you wish. This would probably make you happy and would also make the investors happy because they can receive some significant taxation benefits by investing in an ESIC.”
“Accountants/advisers who are committed to offering business advisory services for clients can assist you in these processes of, not only confirming that you’re potentially eligible to be deemed to be an ESIC, but then assisting you to get investment ready.”
Accountants/Advisers Can Helps ESS Small Business and our associated company ESS BIZTOOLS have developed detailed packages to assist accountants/advisers to deliver each of these services to their clients.
We’re more than happy to introduce you to accountants/advisers who are committed to supplying business advisory services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants/advisers who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisers in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
To welcome 2016/17, we’re presenting a special webinar, free of charge. This webinar will evaluate Early Stage Innovation Companies legislation and advise you on the process that will have to be undertaken for you to self-assess, possibly with assistance from your accountant/adviser, then to assist you to become investment ready.
This webinar will be held on Wednesday 6th July 2016 at 4pm AEST. If you would like to register, please click here.
I look forward to presenting this webinar to you.
If you have any questions in relation to how accountants/advisers can assist you to add value to your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 1800 232 088 or send me an email at peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Once again, happy new financial year and, from the team at ESS Small Business, good luck for a highly successful 2016/17.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
The Australian government has finalised the legislation for the Early Stage Innovation Companies (ESICs) prior to the Parliament being adjourned for the Federal election. Unfortunately, the legislation for Crowd Funding Equity Raising entities was still being debated in the Senate when the Senate adjourned. Hopefully, this legislation will be finalised after the election when the Senate reconvenes.
The ESIC legislation has benefits for small/medium enterprises, sole traders, entrepreneurs and inventors who have some new innovation products, processes, services, organisational or marketing methods that wish to raise capital. There are also significant benefits for investors via a tax rebate, based on an investor’s investment and potential CGT exemption on that investment in an ESIC.
To be an eligible ESIC, the company must have been incorporated in the last 3 years, although there are some ways that a company incorporated 6 years ago could be eligible. The company must have incurred total expenses of less than $1M in the income year before the current income year. The company must have earned total assessable income of less than $200,000, excluding any grant income from an Accelerating Commercialisation grant in the income year before the current income year. The company must not be listed on a stock exchange anywhere in the world.
After the company has passed this preliminary test, the company then has to satisfy one of two further tests:
The Gateway Test
The company must earn over 100 points from a series of questions relating to:
- Research and Development expenditure.
- Whether the company has received an Accelerating Commercialisation grant.
- Whether the company has participated in an approved Accelerator Program conducted by an appropriate organisation.
- Whether the company has already received $50,000 or more investment from arms-length investors.
- Whether the company has already registered some Intellectual Property such as patents, plant patents, innovation patents or registered designs.
- Whether the company has agreements with certain organisations to co-develop and commercialise a product, process or service.
The Principles Based Test
This test is only needed if the company was unable to pass the Gateway Test.
The Gateway Test and the Principles Based Test are self-assessment tests. Companies would be wise to obtain independent verification of eligibility as an ESIC to satisfy investor due diligence requirements. Most investors will require some independent verification that the company is going to be accepted by the ATO as being an ESIC because of the importance for most investors for the tax offset and the CGT avoidance.
The company must be able to positively answer 5 questions relating to the potential to commercialise a new product, process, service, marketing or organisational method.
Companies will need to develop an outstanding investment ready presentation for investors, which would include details of:
- Market Research
- Marketing Plan
- Management Team
- Board of Directors
- Business Plans for the next 2-3 years
- Budgets/Cashflow Forecasts for the next 2-3 years
- Share Pricing Report showing how the share pricing was calculated
- Information Memorandum
- Investment Pitch Presentation
Investors can obtain a tax offset calculated at 20% on their investment, up to a maximum of $200,000 per annum for sophisticated investors and $10,000 per annum for retail investors. The maximum investment for a retail investor is $50,000 per annum.
An investor can also obtain a CGT exemption if shares are held for more than one year and less than 10 years.
A sophisticated investor is outlined in the Corporations Code basically states that to an investor who has earned more than $250,000 in assessable income in the last two year or has assets a value of a net amount in excess of $2.5M. A sophisticated investor who is able to produce a letter confirming those items from a practicing accountant will be deemed as such.
ESS Small Business and ESS BIZTOOLS have developed a range of products to assist accountants and business advisers to be able to advise small/medium enterprises on their eligibility for the ESIC status.
If you would like to have a discussion with an accountant who is utilising our special ESIC Product Package, ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants/advisers who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisers in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
We’re presenting a special webinar, featuring “Early Stage Innovation Companies”, on Wednesday 6th July 2016 at 4pm AEST. If you would like to register, free of charge, please click here.
A copy of a complimentary article, “Early Stage Innovation Companies”, is attached with this transcript.
If you have any questions in relation to ESIC, or how accountants/advisers can assist you to add value to your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 1800 232 088 or send me an email at peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Do you know that accountants/advisers have been identified by small/medium enterprises as being your “trusted adviser”? This is a recognition of accountants/advisers supplying a wider range of professional services other than taxation.
Taxation doesn’t help you add value to your business, however some of the other non-compliance areas that accountants/advisers have been trained to offer can assist you to build real value in your business.
ESS Small Business develops a range of products for small/medium enterprises to use. We offer webinars, videos and interviews with people who can assist small/medium enterprises and small/medium enterprise operators themselves.
We’ve also developed tools to assist accountants/advisers to be able to deliver this range of non-compliance services to you as a small/medium enterprise operator.
In fact, our products will assist you to have a better grasp of your overall business operations and hopefully will contribute to adding value to your business. A selection of the products which we have available for accountants to assist you include:
- Debtors’ Management
- Business Planning
- Personal Property Securities Register Due Diligence
- Chief Financial Officer Services
- Identifying grants – so you can receive some government assistance for some of your projects
- Succession Planning
- Business Evaluation
If you would like to have a conversation with an accountant who is committed to offering a broader range of professional services, other than just “taxation”, ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants/advisers who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisers in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
We’re presenting a special webinar, featuring “Business Evaluation Workshop”, on Tuesday 21st June 2016 at 4pm AEST. If you would like to register, free of charge, please click here.
A copy of a complimentary article, “Planning Your Business – Small Businesses”, is attached with this transcript.
If you have any questions in relation to how accountants/advisers can assist you to add value to your business, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 1800 232 088 or send me an email at peter@essbiztools.com.au.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Business plans are very important for all types of businesses, large and small.
Business plans for businesses are just like maps for tourists. It helps you determine where you’re going to go and to be able to measure along the way whether you’re on target.
Some of the key things contained in developing a business planning strategy is to determine where you want to be in one year, two years, five years and 10 years. It also helps to give some consideration as to what your exit strategy might be.
Accountants and business advisers can assist you to prepare business plans. In fact, I recommend that you have a conversation with your accountant or business adviser, to help you in the business planning process.
Where do you start?
My recommendation is you start with a Think Tank Meeting with your key team members or whole team if you like, along with your key advisers. Appoint someone to be the facilitator, in many cases, this should be your accountant or business adviser, to guide you through the business planning process. That person should then prepare the overall business plan for the business.
Some of the key areas you will be looking to discuss in the business planning process include:
Business Performance Review of your current business performance. How is the business performing in all of its aspects?
Resources What are the resources of the business? Do you need new resources?
Products and Services What products/services are you producing? Are they all profitable? Are they all contributing? Do you need to make some changes? Are they still fashionable? Are they meeting the market’s requirements? Are your customers happy?
Profit Analysis This is the time to do some profit analysis on various products and services and other products that you might be looking to introduce.
Market What’s happening in the market in which your business operates?
Customers Are you getting feedback from your customers on changes that they would like to see introduced? Are you meeting their expectations?
Location Is the location of your business OK? Will it still be OK in another five years’ time?
Competition What are your competitors doing? There’s no law against copying competitors, as long as you’re not copying copyright material or patents, however you can learn a lot by observing what your competitors are doing.
System Have you developed systems to improve the reporting of the performance within the business? This might mean dividing the business into a number of different operations (eg transport department, retail store, the office). Within workshops, a job costing system will assist in determining profit or loss for individual jobs. This will help management by being able to view actual results for each component of the business, rather than putting everything in one of those horrible Statement of Financial Performance Accounts that have all your businesses just thrown into one. Does that really help you run your business? I don’t think so.
Work in Progress/Stock Control If you’re in a business that’s producing work on an individual work in progress or job basis, have you introduced a computerised work in progress/stock control system? The benefit of this is that you will then receive a report on the individual performance of each job, not lumped together in one overall account.
I’m working with a client at present that’s been lumping everything into one Statement of Financial Performance Account for a turnover of around $5M - $6M. We’re now dissecting it into individual job costing results. I believe they will be able to better manage their business.
Suppliers Do you need to talk to your suppliers to improve your arrangements with them, by discussing some of your strategies with them? Give them some advanced notice that you might like some particular support. This might be a personality that comes to your area that your supplier arranged for a visit.
Team Is your team adequately trained? Are they motivated? Do you have regular toolbox meetings or team meetings so they can understand what’s happening within the business?
Marketing Is your marketing plan appropriate for 2016/17? Does the business have a social media strategy? It’s difficult to envisage that anyone these days can run a business without having a social media strategy and, for this matter, a website.
Sales Who does the selling in your organisation? Is there close cooperation and communication between the marketing person, the sales person, the product developer or are they all just going off and doing their own individual thing? It’s very important that it’s coordinated.
Organisational Structure Is the organisation structure suitable for your business?
Risks Have you looked at the risks that confront your business operation? Some of the key risks are insurance and the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). There’s at least another 50 significant risk areas that most businesses in Australia have. Businesses need to develop strategies for them.
Implementation Once you’ve developed the business plan, it’s very important that, as part of the process, action plans are prepared for every item and allocations are given as to who is going to be responsible for implementing the strategies. Then, on a monthly basis, a Board of Directors, Board of Advice or management meeting review what’s happening on the actual implementation.
You could have a formal retreat meeting every six months. Go away somewhere, separate from the office, with no day-to-day phone calls happening. Review where the business is going.
Find an Accountant/Adviser You might ask: “Where are these accountants that can undertake this type of work because our accountant is only interested in preparing income tax returns?”
ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants/advisers in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business contains other free articles and articles for sale, prepared by approximately 20 other businesses, on a wide range of small/medium enterprise matters.
ESS Small Business also presents webinars, free of charge, covering a wide range of small business matters. These webinars are also recorded and are available for viewing.
We will be presenting a webinar on Tuesday 14th June 2016 at 3pm AEST, featuring “Business Planning”. Click here to register to attend, free of charge.
Whilst you are on the ESS Small Business’ website, why not have a look at the offerings from a wide range of business people who are able to assist small/medium enterprises?
A copy of a complimentary article, “Planning Your Business – Small Businesses”, is attached with this transcript.
If you have any questions on services that accountants can offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
The normal understanding of succession is basically what would happen within the business if something happened to the owner or CEO.
I believe that a “succession strategy” requires a far broader review of what’s happening within a business relative to succession because there should be a succession plan for virtually every position within a business. The concept of a “succession strategy” will become far more important in the near future with the introduction of Early Stage Innovation Companies (ESIC) from 1st July 2016.
As experienced business people commence evaluating proposals for investment in ESIC, as part of their due diligence process, they will be very keen to look at:
- The management team.
- The ownership of the Intellectual Property (IP).
- Is the IP properly registered?
- Has the IP been properly documented?
- Have assignment of IP agreements been prepared?
- What is the “succession strategy”?
Is everything “locked up” in the CEO’s head or do a number of key management personnel have direct day-to-day involvement in the real management of the business? This becomes very important when investors are investing their hard-earned money into new emerging companies.
The development of a “succession strategy” is a task that accountants, who are committed to offering business advisory services, can supply to their clients. In this review I believe they would start in conducting a “succession strategy”, which would involve a review of the corporate management chart for the organisation, who does what and are there any obvious holes.
The next step would be to review the job descriptions for each of the management team members and then a discussion with them to determine what they actually do. Are they performing in accordance with the job descriptions or has the job description been varied?
The next task would be to review the job description of the CEO, then have a discussion with the CEO to ascertain what exactly the CEO does day by day.
The next phase is to conduct a Corporate Governance “Think Tank Meeting” with the management team members, including the CEO, for a full review of all aspects of the organisation and how it all relates back to the company’s Board of Directors and Board of Advice if the company has one (Management Team Meeting if there’s no Board of Advice).
What are the responsibilities of each management personnel to the broader structure of Board of Advice, Management Team Meetings and Board of Directors?
Part of this process would involve the development of a “skills’ matrix”. Most businesses have 50-60 key areas of responsibilities and it’s always very important to ensure that a detailed analysis has been prepared as to who is responsible for each of these tasks, to ensure that there has been appropriate allocation of the responsibilities throughout the organisation and that it’s all not left to the CEO. In some businesses, 85%-90% of the items on that delegation list have, in fact, been allocated to the CEO, in many cases, by default. That’s one of the key areas that a review of a “succession strategy” should be able to overcome.
Another important outcome of this process is going to be the determination of a “skills development strategy” for each individual management team member for the next 12 months.
Out of this process, the management team members will have a greater appreciation of their role and how they fit in to the Board of Directors’ reporting and/or Board of Advice’s reporting process. Succession will be enhanced by the delegation of more of the responsibilities of the CEO so that the CEO can concentrate on his/her most important function, “to plan the future operations of the business”, hopefully, with appropriate communication to the other members of the management team. There would also be current job descriptions.
Find an Accountant/Adviser You might ask: “Where are these accountants that can undertake this type of work because our accountant is only interested in preparing income tax returns?”
ESS Small Business has a directory of accountants who are interested in supplying a wider range of services, commonly known as “business advisory services”, to small/medium enterprises. This directory is called “Find an Accountant/Adviser”.
Visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business contains other free articles and articles for sale, prepared by approximately 20 other businesses, on a wide range of small/medium enterprise matters.
ESS Small Business also presents webinars, free of charge, covering a wide range of small business matters. These webinars are also recorded and are available for viewing.
Whilst you are on the ESS Small Business’ website, why not have a look at the offerings from a wide range of business people who are able to assist small/medium enterprises?
We will be presenting a webinar on “Succession Planning” on Tuesday 14th June at 3pm AEST. We invite you to attend this webinar, free of charge, which gives you an interactive overview of what’s involved in “succession strategy”. Click here to register to attend.
A copy of a complimentary article, “Succession Planning”, is attached with this transcript.
If you have any questions on services that accountants can offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
Many small/medium enterprises have indicated to me that they’re looking for assistance from accountants to identify grants for which they might be eligible to apply. I know that many of you get upset when the first thing you know about a grant is when you hear that one of your competitors has received a grant. You ask a very legitimate question: “How come no one told me about the grant?”
It’s a realistic expectation of business operators that accountants, acting at the “trusted adviser” to small/medium enterprise clients, should be able to advise you on grants that are available. Billions of dollars are allocated in Australia each year, by the Federal, State and Territory governments, for grants, most of which are targeted at small/medium enterprises.
Are you receiving information about government grants? Have you actually received a government grant?
Grants that are available will supply financial assistance from the government, ranging from 25% to 75%, with the average being 50%. In these difficult economic times, I’m sure that grants will be very beneficial to your business, to undertake some work which, otherwise, you might’ve hesitated in doing.
Some of the grants that can assist you and make a difference to your business operations include:
Business Growth Grant This grant covers the government’s “priority industries”, including:
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Oil, Gas and Energy Resources
- Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals
- Mining Equipment, Technology and Services
- Food and Agribusiness
Enabling technologies and service industries that support one or more of the priority industries, including:
- Professional Services – mainly scientific areas
- Freight and Logistics
- Infrastructure Related Construction
- Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
- Digital Technologies
These general business groups include over 650 different types of businesses, including most of the trades activities.
To be eligible, the business will have to operate as a company, have a minimum turnover of $1.5M and a maximum turnover of $100M. If the company is located in Northern Australia, which covers areas including Queensland and Western Australia North of the Tropic of Capricorn and the whole of the Northern Territory, the minimum turnover is $750,000.
The companies must have been operating for 3 years. The maximum grant available is $20,000 on a 50% contribution basis, which can be used by the company to do literally anything within the business that will improve the business’ performance. For example:
- Budgets
- Cashflow forecasts
- Debtors’ analysis
- Lean management review
- Workplace Health and Safety review
- Re-design of a factory
- Corporate Governance reviews
- Board of Directors mentoring
These are some of the tasks that can be conducted under this grant.
Accelerating Commercialisation Grant This is a very popular grant, particularly targeted at someone who has developed a new product, process or service and needs assistance in the commercialisation phase.
This grant kicks in after the research and development phase has been finished. Anyone can apply for this grant, however if a grant is offered, the applicant must incorporate as a company. The turnover requirement is from NIL to $20M. Preference is given to applicants from one of the “priority industries” mentioned earlier, however any type of business is eligible to apply.
The potential grant is large, with grants of up to $1M on a 50% subsidy basis.
There’s a significant number of companies throughout Australia who have received grants under this program.
Research Connections This is another grant that many people overlook. The grant is to assist small/medium enterprises to collaborate with research sectors such as universities, CSIRO and Australian Institute of Marine Science, to develop new ideas with commercial potential.
Grants of up to $50,000 on a 50% basis are available.
The grant is targeted at companies within the “priority industries” or a company that has been admitted to the Accelerating Commercialisation Grant program. The company must have a minimum turnover of $1.5M. For companies located within Northern Australia, the minimum turnover is $750,000. If the company has been in the Accelerating Commercialisation program, the minimum turnover could be as low as NIL.
Northern Australia Tourism Incentive This grant only applies to Northern Australia. Businesses need to have a minimum turnover of $750,000. The business must have been operating for 3 years.
Grants of up to $20,000 on a 50% basis is available, to undertake literally any type of business improvement activity.
The applicants don’t have to be companies. They can be any type of business.
Industry Skills Fund This is another very popular grant. The grant provides access to training so that a business operation is better placed to succeed in a rapidly changing economy.
The grant is available to any type of entity, not just companies, with preference given to “priority industries”, however other industries can apply.
The grant is determined by the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees within the business:
| Type of Business | Number of FTE Employees | Grant | | Other Parts of Australia | Northern Australia | | Micro Businesses | 0-4 | 75% | 75% | | Small Businesses | 5-19 | 66% | 75% | | Medium Businesses | 20-199 | 50% | 75% | | Large Businesses | 200+ | 25% | 50% |
The business must have been operating for 3 years.
The Industry Skills Fund can supply a wide range of services, including mentoring and training in:
- skills for tradespeople
- strategic planning
- marketing workshops
- Corporate Governance
- business plan understanding
- business plan mentoring
- advanced Quickbooks training
- leadership skills for workshops
- supervisors training key staff in new workshop processes
- many other types of training
The key for this grant is that the business must intend to utilise the new skills that the employees are going to be equipped with within the business’ operations.
These are just some of the samples of grants that are available. There are hundreds of grants targeted at small/medium enterprises.
Find an Accountant/Adviser If you would like to find an accountant who is proactive in supplying these types of services to small/medium enterprises, generally known as business advisory services, please utilise the Find an Accountant/Adviser directory within the ESS Small Business’ website. Please visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business contains other free articles and articles for sale, prepared by approximately 20 other businesses, on a wide range of small/medium enterprise matters.
ESS Small Business also presents webinars, free of charge, covering a wide range of small business matters. These webinars are also recorded and are available for viewing.
Whilst you are on the ESS Small Business’ website, why not have a look at the offerings from a wide range of business people who are able to assist small/medium enterprises?
We will be presenting a webinar on “Grants that are Available to Assist your Business” on Monday 6th June 2016 at 12pm AEST. We invite you to attend this webinar, free of charge, to give you a more interactive overview of government grants for which your small/medium enterprise business might be eligible. Click here to register to attend.
If you have any questions on services that accountants can offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
The Parliament has passed the legislation for Early Stage Innovation Companies (ESIC). This is a great opportunity for small/medium enterprises that have developed a new product, process, service, marketing or organisational method, to be able to raise capital.
To be an ESIC, the company needs to have been formed in the last 3 years, however it could’ve been formed in the last 6 years, subject to some additional tests relative to expenditure.
The total annual expenditure of the company has to be $1M or less and the total assessable income has to be less than $200,000. If a company has obtained grant funding from the Accelerating Commercialisation Grant, that grant is not included in the assessable income.
There are 2 ways that companies can satisfy the requirements as an ESIC:
The Gateway Test This is a 100-point innovation test relating to:
- Research and development expenditure.
- Has the company been a participant in the Accelerating Commercialisation Grant?
- Has the company participated in an accelerator program?
- Has the company already raised $50,000 in equity capital from arms-length investors?
- Has the company registered any patents or plant patents in the last 5 years?
- Has the company registered any innovation patents or registered designs in the last 5 years?
The Principles Based Test This test applies if the company is generally focused on developing for commercialisation one or more new or significantly improved products, processes, services, marketing or organisational methods and the business relating to those products, processes, services, marketing or organisational methods have a high growth potential.
The company should also be able to demonstrate that:
- It has the potential to be able to successfully scale that business.
- It has the potential to be able to address a broader than local market, including global markets, through that business.
- It has the potential to be able to have competitive advantage for that business.
Retail investors (who are not sophisticated investors) can invest up to $50,000 per company per annum.
There’s no restriction on the amount of investment that a sophisticated investor can make. A sophisticated investor is a person who an accountant certifies has net assets in excess of $2.5M or, for the last 2 financial years, has earned in excess of $250,000 income per annum.
There’s a CGT exemption for investors in ESICs if they hold the shares for more than one year and less than 10 years. There’s a 20% investment rebate to a total of $200,000 available.
The investor must disregard any capital loss from its investment until after the 10th anniversary of the issue of the shares.
To be able to successfully raise capital, companies that aspire to be deemed to be an ESIC will need to prepare for investment readiness. This involves understanding the market, summarising the Intellectual Property that’s owned by the business, preparing a business plan, budgets and cashflow forecasts, a commercialisation strategy and a share valuation.
Companies will need to make key appointments, including Company Directors, Company Secretaries, CEOs and CFOs.
There are number of people who can help companies classified as ESICs and then help with the capital raising process. These are entities including Bistorque Pty Ltd, a company that has a team of experts who can assist in the principles based test for the company. Business Angels Group and Founders Forum are interested in assisting companies to raise capital.
Accountants who are proactive in involvement with assisting clients with business advisory services will be able to assist entities in the planning and getting investment ready process.
Find an Accountant/Adviser If you would like to find an accountant who can offer the types of services mentioned in this edition, generally known as business advisory services, please utilise the Find an Accountant/Adviser directory within the ESS Small Business’ website. Please visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business contains other free articles and articles for sale, prepared by approximately 20 other businesses, on a wide range of small/medium enterprise matters.
ESS Small Business also presents webinars, free of charge, covering a wide range of small business matters. These webinars are also recorded and are available for viewing.
We will be releasing a new product package for sale within ESS Small Business' website in about 2 weeks' time, titled “Early Stage Innovation Companies for SMEs”. We will be finalising material on the other new company, Crowd Funding Equity Companies, as soon as the legislation is passed by the Senate.
Whilst you are on the ESS Small Business’ website, why not have a look at the offerings from a wide range of business people who are able to assist small/medium enterprises?
If you have any questions on any aspect of ESICs, or services that accountants can offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
The Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) and the associated Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) can affect every business in Australia.
Many small business operators say to me, “Why are you worrying about a personal property piece of legislation?” Unfortunately, the term “personal property” is a misnomer. This applies to business property. In fact, it applies to every business asset except land and attachments to land, including your debtors, stock, vehicles, Intellectual Property (IP) and items that you’re renting or leasing to someone else.
In the first instance, it’s highly desirable that you have a consultation with a commercial solicitor, especially if you haven’t done so since January 2012, relative to the two key documents that you need for this legislation – the Terms of Trade Agreement and the Retention of Title Agreement. Your solicitor will give you a general overview as to how this legislation works.
Then we believe that you need input from your professional accountant or adviser, to establish a system that guides you as to what should happen to utilise your two documents and to ensure that registrations are appropriately enacted.
When you start transactions with a new customer, prior to any sales being made, you should’ve asked your prospective customer to review your Terms of Trade Agreement and Retention of Title Agreement and to sign the agreements. When you receive the signed agreements, a decision needs to be made within your organisation as to whether a registration of that customer will be made on the PPSR.
The rule of thumb that I suggest you use is that, if this customer didn’t pay you or you had to refund money that they had paid you in the previous 6 months because you’ve received a preferential payment letter from a solicitor, would that payment financially embarrass you? If so, I believe you should ensure that this customer is registered on the PPSR.
You don’t have to register every invoice. You’re basically registering the customer and, if your solicitor has drafted the Terms of Trade Agreement appropriately, that agreement will cover the current and future sales that you’re going to make to that customer.
If you have stock on consignment at someone else’s premises, that’s a vulnerable position for you and your business. It’s an asset that you can gain protection for on the PPSR.
If you’re renting or leasing assets to someone else, you can obtain some relief by registering on the PPSR.
If you have plant and equipment, scaffolding, building equipment, tradesmen’s tools, etc stored on someone else’s property, then you should be getting advice as to whether you need to register those assets on the PPSR.
If you have IP in your business that you’ve licensed or entered into some type of utilisation agreement with someone else, then that transaction should also be registered on the PPSR.
We believe that the obvious professional group to assist you in this regard are accountants or advisors. Our recommendation to you is, once you’ve received your Terms of Trade Agreement and Retention of Title Agreement from your solicitors, have a discussion with your accountant or advisor relative to implementing an appropriate system to ensure that your system works properly within your organisation, to give you the maximum protection.
It has been 3 ½ years since this legislation started in Australia. If you haven’t experienced any problems or, indeed, had anything to do with the PPSA and the associated PPSR, you’ve been lucky. Over $120M has been lost in court cases by businesses that owned assets and hadn’t registered those assets on the PPSR. Those assets were ultimately forfeited under a court order to someone else – normally a secured creditor via a liquidator. You may also have avoided receiving preferential payment claims from liquidators of companies with which you’ve had dealings.
This is no reason why you shouldn’t be protecting yourself now, for future transactions. The cost for a 7-year protection is very small (under $5), the cheapest insurance premium on the market. I would urge you to have discussions with your solicitor to get the agreements prepared and then have discussions with your accountant or advisor to ensure that you have an appropriate system within your business, to protect you from the consequences of not appropriately registering on the PPSR.
Find an Accountant/Adviser If you would like to find an accountant who can offer the types of services mentioned in this edition, generally known as business advisory services, please utilise the Find an Accountant/Adviser directory within the ESS Small Business’ website. Please visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business contains other free articles and articles for sale, prepared by approximately 20 other businesses, on a wide range of small/medium enterprise matters.
ESS Small Business also presents webinars, free of charge, covering a wide range of small business matters. These webinars are also recorded and are available for viewing.
We will be presenting a webinar, featuring “PPSR – System for Individual Businesses”, which will be held on Thursday 28th April 2016 at 6pm AEST. Click here to register to attend, free of charge. To view our other upcoming and recorded webinars, click here.
Whilst you are on the ESS Small Business’ website, why not have a look at the offerings from a wide range of business people who are able to assist small/medium enterprises?
If you have any questions on the services that accountants can offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Peter Towers
Managing Director
On the ESS Small Business’ website, we have a wide array of information (some free, some available for purchase) relating to debtors’ management.
The free material includes the debtors’ overview, looking at the various aspects of the management of debtors and suggestions on how to collect debts (Debtors’ Collection).
We also have a subscription service available, whereby you can subscribe for an SME Debtors’ Manual that you can review, edit as you require and then customise as yours so that you have a manual in your business to guide the persons who have the responsibility for debtors and covers items such as:
- opening an account
- approving an account
- PPSR function
- collection of debtors
- calculation of debtors’ days outstanding
- sending of statements to your customers
The manual also looks at some of the due diligence services combined with debtors’ management.
The SME Debtors’ Manual includes introduction on an effective debtors’ system, debtors’ management system and setting up for a debtor.
Setting up for a debtor is the initial application for a debtor to be able to open an account. At that stage, they’re not a debtor, they’re a prospective customer who has asked if they can purchase on a credit basis. How do you go about checking the bona fides of that would-be long-term customer?
Once the new customer has been approved, the next task is the drafting of the welcome letter to the new customer, which allows you to identify your terms of trade and the credit limit that the customer has been granted.
Evaluation of the PPSR issues is very important. Over $120M has been lost by Australian businesses in court cases since the PPSA commenced 4 years ago. The Debtors’ System Manual discusses the Terms of Trade and Retention of Title Agreements, both of which should be prepared by your commercial solicitor. There needs to be a discussion on whether you’re going to register a particular customer. Just bear in mind that you don’t need to register each invoice on the PPSR, you just need to register a customer. The registration lasts for a maximum of 7 years.
There are a lot of problems at present with liquidators issuing preferential payment claims. One way that you can avoid these types of claims is if you’ve registered that customer on the PPSR.
There are forms in the system to assist with the calculation of debtors’ days outstanding, comments on debtors collection systems, including digital debtors collection.
We’re linked to our business partner, IODM, which has an excellent system that utilises digital technology to assist in the management of debtors.
The SME Debtors’ Manual is available for you to personalise to suit your business so that your staff has a written system to guide them in this very important area of debtors’ management.
The SME Debtors’ Manual is available for $265 including GST.
As a preview of what’s included in the SME Debtors’ Manual, the following complimentary articles are available:
- Debtors’ Overview
- Debtor Collections
Find an Accountant/Adviser If you would like to find an accountant who can offer the types of services mentioned in this edition, generally known as business advisory services, please utilise the Find an Accountant/Adviser directory within the ESS Small Business’ website. Please visit www.esssmallbusiness.com.au and click on “Find an Accountant/Adviser” menu tab. All you need to do is to type in your postcode and the system will then show you accountants in or near your postcode who offer a wider range of commercial services to small/medium enterprises.
ESS Small Business contains other free articles and articles for sale, prepared by approximately 20 other businesses, on a wide range of small/medium enterprise matters.
ESS Small Business also presents webinars, free of charge, covering a wide range of small business matters. These webinars are also recorded and are available for viewing.
We will be presenting a webinar, featuring “Improving Debtors’ Management”, which will be held on Thursday 21st April 2016 at 4pm AEST. Click here to register to attend, free of charge. To view our other upcoming and recorded webinars, click here.
Whilst you are on the ESS Small Business’ website, why not have a look at the offerings from a wide range of business people who are able to assist small/medium enterprises?
If you have any questions on the services that accountants can offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Peter Towers
Managing Director