Virtually everything I read about social media and small business these days focuses on marketing and very little else.

Now, I get the fact that building your brand and generating leads for your business is important. No sales, no business. But if that’s all you use social media for, you’re missing out big time on the opportunity to enrich your mind with the myriad of stories, ideas, opinions and philosophies that experts, authorities, and thought leaders locally and overseas expound regularly via blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Used properly — with passion and purpose — social media can help you professionally by broadening your perspective on a number of fronts, more so than at any time in our history.

Why? Because it’s never been easier to interact with thought leaders — to check out the links they share, read their blog posts, listen to their podcast interviews, or get involved in ... Continue reading]]> Virtually everything I read about social media and small business these days focuses on marketing and very little else.

Now, I get the fact that building your brand and generating leads for your business is important. No sales, no business. But if that’s all you use social media for, you’re missing out big time on the opportunity to enrich your mind with the myriad of stories, ideas, opinions and philosophies that experts, authorities, and thought leaders locally and overseas expound regularly via blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

Used properly — with passion and purpose — social media can help you professionally by broadening your perspective on a number of fronts, more so than at any time in our history.

Why? Because it’s never been easier to interact with thought leaders — to check out the links they share, read their blog posts, listen to their podcast interviews, or get involved in their conversations online.

While it’s incumbent on small business owners to stay up to date with what’s happening in their profession or industry, you will only grow as a professional by constantly expanding your horizons and challenging your thinking.

If you want to gain an edge over the competition, you really need to be in tune, not just with what’s going on in your industry specifically, but also with the business world generally. What are the thought leaders saying, what trends are bubbling under the radar, what are the new challenges facing companies, where is technology heading and what opportunities will emerging new media bring?

Thought leaders online

By all means continue to read the mainstream press, listen to the radio and watch television. But set aside part of your day to absorb the words and actions of people such as:

•  Seth Godin
•  Gary Vaynerchuk
•  Chris Brogan
•  Dorie Clark
•  Jay Baer
•  Susan Cain
•  David Meerman Scott
•  Nilofer Merchant
•  Dave Kerpen
•  Mitch Joel
•  Derek Halpern
•  Brad Feld
•  Erika Napoletano
•  Jonathan Fields
•  Brian Solis
• Mark Schaefer
•  Ross Dawson
•  Steve Sammartino
•  Dionne Kasian-Lew.

Try listening to podcasts such as Entrepreneur On Fire, The Engaging Brand, Six Pixels of Separation, The Human Business Way, Social Triggers and Michael Hyatt’s This is Your Life.

It takes roughly a minute to read one of Seth Godin’s daily blog posts, but the power of his words will rattle around inside your head for days. Watching Gary Vaynerchuk prowl the stage for a keynote presentation will challenge the traditional way you think about marketing. Losing yourself in the conversations Mitch Joel has with an array of interesting and forward-thinking guests on his podcast program will inspire you to investigate further.

Watching Jonathan Fields interview all sorts of thought-provoking guests on his Good Life Project web video series might take 40+ minutes out of your day, but it will take your mind out of your business and help you to see the world in a different way.

Following someone like Brian Solis or Mark Schaefer on Twitter will provide you with endless inspiration and links to more great material. And if you’re after even more inspiration and progressive ideas, check out LinkedIn’s influencers section where you can subscribe to regular posts from any number of globally recognised entrepreneurs, authors, politicians, journalists, experts and thinkers.

When running your own business, it’s very easy to get caught up in the minutiae of the day to day. But by following the right people on the social web — the progressive thinkers, disrupters and mischief makers — you will become a smarter business person with a sharper edge to your game.

How can retailers stop online shoppers treating their physical stores as try-before-you-buy showrooms?

People have been buying books and music online for years, but most shoppers still don’t like to buy everything sight-unseen. They still want to try on a jacket, road-test a pair of shoes or heft a new notebook for weight before they hand over their money. So they head over to the local shopping centre to try before they buy.

There’s a growing trend for people to do their research in a physical store, but then jump online to buy items cheaper elsewhere. They’ll pull out their phones, search for a better price online and order it on the spot — sometimes even if they’ve just spent half an hour picking the sales staff’s brains for advice. It happens so often that it’s even been given a name: showrooming — the habit of treating the local shopping centre as ... Continue reading]]> How can retailers stop online shoppers treating their physical stores as try-before-you-buy showrooms?

People have been buying books and music online for years, but most shoppers still don’t like to buy everything sight-unseen. They still want to try on a jacket, road-test a pair of shoes or heft a new notebook for weight before they hand over their money. So they head over to the local shopping centre to try before they buy.

There’s a growing trend for people to do their research in a physical store, but then jump online to buy items cheaper elsewhere. They’ll pull out their phones, search for a better price online and order it on the spot — sometimes even if they’ve just spent half an hour picking the sales staff’s brains for advice. It happens so often that it’s even been given a name: showrooming — the habit of treating the local shopping centre as a giant offline showroom for internet shopping.

Showrooming might seem the height of rudeness, but as everyone tightens their belts you can’t blame people for looking around for the best deal. Retailers might cry foul over the lack of GST on many online purchases, but it’s unlikely to make a difference when price tags are often twice as high in the stores as they are online.

Of course retailers have significant overheads to consider, such as floor space and payroll, but for bargain hunters that’s Someone Else’s Problem. They’ve watched globalisation decimate entire industries, possibly even their own, as businesses scour the world for the cheapest parts and labour. It’s only fair that shoppers should do the same when spending their hard-earned dollars.

How do bricks and mortar stores fight back against showrooming?

Charging people just to walk in the door is unlikely to win over customers in most sectors. Instead retailers need to give shoppers an incentive to shop in-store. You probably can’t beat the internet on price, so need to beat the internet on customer service and other value-added benefits that generate customer loyalty. It’s a buyer’s market, and you have to give them a good reason to buy from you and keep coming back.

If your potential customers are forced to wander the aisles in search of sales staff, who turn out to know nothing about what they’re selling, those customers will see little reason to hand over their money. Some hardcore showroomers will surely take advantage of your improved customer service, but it might be worth it if it helps convert more aisle wanderers into paying customers.

Great pre- and post-sales customer service also generates good will, which keeps people coming back and sees them recommend you to their friends (an area where the internet and social media can actually work in your favour). At this point a customer loyalty program, with discounts and other membership benefits, could be the perfect next step. The key to dealing with potential showroomers is to win them over, not to simply drive them away.

Every business journey is unique. Some may be smooth sailing with a few hurdles along the way, while others may be riddled with obstacles before they hit it big. Whichever way your business journey takes, there are a few characters that will form part of your permanent entourage along the way. One of them is your accountant.

Here at MYOB, we love the new spin on an old proverb: Behind every great business is a great accountant.

And a great accountant might just make the difference on whether your business floats or sinks.

We understand the value of this relationship, which is why we are giving accounting practices and accountants alike a chance to start their journey with their clients from day one with the registration of a new company.

With this in mind, we are launching CompanyDocs – an online tool that helps accountants register companies for their clients, anywhere and anytime.

Here we go again… another financial year coming to an end soon. As you prepare to trudge through the minefield of payroll and financial year end obligations, here’s a list of the important end of financial year (EOFY) deadlines for your business.

Your accountant should have a look at your financial data to help with any tax planning strategies for year end.  If you are using MYOB AccountRight Live or LiveAccounts, your accountant can log in, and look at your data while your file is in the MYOB cloud with no disruption to your operations.  If you are using Classic MYOB (version 19 or earlier), then you need to do a backup and send your files to your accountant. With our latest Client Accounting Module, accountants using Accountants Enterprise (AE) or Accountants Office (AO) can access their clients’ files in AccountRight Live directly from AE and AO.

After writing the ‘3 Biggest Blind Spots In Stock Management’, I received a number of questions from readers. As I read through each one of them, one common issue became apparent.

A crazy amount of businesses were guessing, second guessing and possibly triple guessing their most important business decisions.

Some of the questions and comments were:

“Opening file after file to compare what does or doesn’t sell year on year takes too long! So we make a guess based on our gut instincts.”

“Having literally hundreds of thousands items in our warehouse, a stocktake takes too long. We just do a quick check and hope it’s right.”

And the one that really stood out was this:

“We can’t see what products are our best sellers based on sales and profit. So we are left with no other option but to guess which ones we re-order”

In my experience, there is usually one of two reasons why businesses ... Continue reading]]> After writing the ‘3 Biggest Blind Spots In Stock Management’, I received a number of questions from readers. As I read through each one of them, one common issue became apparent.

A crazy amount of businesses were guessing, second guessing and possibly triple guessing their most important business decisions.

Some of the questions and comments were:

“Opening file after file to compare what does or doesn’t sell year on year takes too long! So we make a guess based on our gut instincts.”

“Having literally hundreds of thousands items in our warehouse, a stocktake takes too long. We just do a quick check and hope it’s right.”

And the one that really stood out was this:

“We can’t see what products are our best sellers based on sales and profit. So we are left with no other option but to guess which ones we re-order”

In my experience, there is usually one of two reasons why businesses resort to guessing.

1. It takes too long to work it out with their current systems and processes, and/or;
2. They believe that guessing is ‘good enough’

The quarter of a million guess

I asked the company who sent in the last question if I could use them as an example for this blog post, to help other businesses out there suffering the same problem.

This company operates 8 clothing stores and wholesale their clothes to other businesses as well. Each store runs its own stock and accounts. The head office will manually request stock reports monthly from the stores to know what they had or hadn’t sold and what items needed to be re-ordered from the warehouse.

Here’s the rub. As each store runs independently, the manual process for re-stocking made it difficult to see trends in the buying patterns. Because they couldn’t tell which items of stock made them the most money in each store, they were simply restocking based on gut feel which proved to be costly.

How costly, you ask?

I’m sure you’ve walked past a clothing store and seen racks of unsold and discounted clothes out front. I bet you 9 times out of 10, you won’t find your sizes if you rummage through the racks. This is because your size is a popular size for that store.

After looking through monthly reports, it became obvious that the 8 stores had different sizing trends according to the location’s demographics. So, while the head office ordered 10 new t-shirts in every size to each store, it didn’t make sense as one store sold more size 8s and 10s, while another sold more 14s and 16s.

We calculated the total cost to the company over the last 12 months including getting rid of stock and the missed sales opportunities. What we found was:

• They had lost $150,000 in profits due to selling unsold stock at cost or below cost.
• Based on the number of shopper requests for stock they had ran out of on an average of $65 per sale, they’d lost an additional $65,000 in abandoned sales over the period.

Effectively, $215,000 was wiped out from their books last year, almost a quarter of a million dollars. This is a very expensive guess!

Had they known each store’s trends, they could have ordered more of the right sizes or styles, translating to higher sales, more profit and ultimately happier shoppers.

Needless to say, they are now looking at a better solution that gives full visibility of every store using one system so they can easily identify these trends with very little effort. The immediate plan is to reduce all the unsold stock and increase the number of sales by having the right stock available in the right sizes.

So the next time you are ordering stock, and making a guess on what to order, ask yourself “Is this stock going to end up unsold, wasting away on a shelf and costing you money or is this what my customer wants?”

_______________________________________________

MYOB Enterprise Solutions are hosting free online seminar next month titled “Is Unsold Stock Costing You Money?” where you can learn how MYOB EXO Business can help reduce your levels of unsold stock. Register today

Whether you are a start-up or an established small business, keeping proper records is very important not only for calculating your income tax and BAS payments, but also for determining the financial health of your business.

I’ve outlined 5 basic steps you need to do to start preparing for your business’ end of financial year (EOFY).

Organising your receipts can be painful, but doing it now can save you time later on. All business owners are required to keep records for 5 years in either electronic or paper form. These include:

Here’s a tip. Forget your shoe boxes of ... Continue reading]]> Whether you are a start-up or an established small business, keeping proper records is very important not only for calculating your income tax and BAS payments, but also for determining the financial health of your business.

I’ve outlined 5 basic steps you need to do to start preparing for your business’ end of financial year (EOFY).

Step 1: Gather All Receipts

Organising your receipts can be painful, but doing it now can save you time later on. All business owners are required to keep records for 5 years in either electronic or paper form. These include:

• sales records (i.e. invoices, vouchers, receipts, credit card statements and cash register tapes)
• purchase/expense records (invoices, receipts, cheque butts, credit card and bank statements)
• employee records such as wages and superannuation details, and PAYG Payment Summaries
• end of year tax records (i.e. motor vehicle expenses, debtors and creditors list, stocktake sheets and asset purchases).

Here’s a tip. Forget your shoe boxes of receipts and invoices. If you have to flick through countless documents for details of individual asset purchases or breakdowns of repair and car expenses for your accountant, you’re not doing it right. Imagine how much easier it would be if you use accounting software. All you need are just a few clicks to send the information across to your accountant for EOFY.

Step 2: Organise Your Records

Now, you need to organize your documents for EOFY. This is the list of what you need to prepare:

• Listing of Accounts Receivables (debtors or people that owe you money) as at 30th June
• Listing of Accounts Payables (creditors or people that you owe money to) as at 30th June
• Review your Accounts Receivable (debtors) and write off invoices which you deem cannot be recovered.
• Employees PAYG Payment Summaries
• A stock take on 30th June
• Employees PAYG Payment Summaries
• Employees Superannuation records

 Step 3: Review & Reconcile

Keeping good records makes it easier to prepare business activity statements and to collate the information for your accountant to prepare your income tax return.

When reviewing your financial records, there are a few basic things you should undertake.

• Prepare bank reconciliation for each bank account. This will compare the transactions in your records against your bank statement.
  • Missing transactions can be added to ensure accuracy
  • Duplicate transactions are easier to find and correct
  • Unpresented amounts are identified and will provide the business with a true bank account balance
  • You can make changes to earlier transactions. However, keep your accountant in the loop. They may have an impact on your next BAS or require your old BAS to be amended.
  • Match your receipts against your bank transactions. If there are missing receipts, you should acquire copies from your suppliers.

Unless your business has very few transactions each month, then it pays to use accounting software to prepare your BAS accurately and provide the right information to your accountant at tax time. This will reduce the time you spend on bookkeeping and allow you to focus more time on running your business.

Step 4: Calculate Income and Expenses

Technically, you could do this while you’re doing your return, but it saves you time if you do it now. You need to go through each income and expense category and calculate a sub-total. If you are registered for GST and prepare a BAS, then you need to exclude the GST to determine the GST exclusive amounts required for tax return reporting. You’re now ready to see your accountant about preparing your income tax return, should you have an accountant review your books.

It’s important to note that the income and expenses on your tax return are calculated on a GST-exclusive basis unless of course your turnover is less than $75,000 per annum and you are not registered for GST. If you have accounting software, it will automatically exclude the GST and produce the information required for your tax return.

Step 5: Avoid Doing This Manually For Next EOFY

Let’s face it, this is a mind numbing exercise that many small businesses undertake every year. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to catch up. If you’re using accounting software, you would be saving time by entering transactions on a weekly basis to keep the files up-to-date and reconciling the amounts entered to the bank statements at least monthly.

Your accountant will need to make end of year adjustments for items such as depreciation, to reduce any private expenses claimed as business and for capital expenses posted to repairs (e.g. purchase of equipment). They can do this quite easily by syncing in with your accounting software.

Avoid the stress of using a manual system and simplify your processes by considering a cloud accounting system. If you’re looking for a light and easy to use accounting solution, LiveAccounts, is now available at a low monthly subscription. But if you’re after a solution that will grow with you over time, AccountRight Live is also available at a low monthly subscription. This solution is used by many small businesses with simple accounting needs. Give it a try – it’s FREE for 30 days.

Is your business healthy?

After you’ve handed your data over to your accountant, it’s time to take a step back to determine if your business is doing great or barely breathing.

This is where accounting software comes in. You get up-to-date information about your business, which allows you to make better business decisions. By maintaining good records, you get to monitor your cash flow by keeping track of your creditors and debtors so you can plan ahead.

Banks and other financial institutions will also require information about your business when you apply for a loan or lease equipment for your business. This includes financial data such as profit & loss statements and balance sheets for previous years and current year-to-date. Having these reports easily accessible will save you the pain in having to create them manually.

BONUS TIP

Your accountant can advise you which MYOB product is suitable for your business. Our accounting software is simple enough to be used by tradesmen, professionals and even manufacturers.

In the early stages of using the software, it is advisable to send your file to your accountant at BAS time. Your accountant can then check your file for accuracy and correct any bookkeeping issues you may have. This method would save any accountancy fees, as your accountant won’t need to spend more time correcting the same errors. MYOB’s reporting functionality allows you to produce a list of your debtors and creditors anytime as well as provide profit & loss and balance sheets to your bank when applying for finance.

It’s important to meet all your tax and compliance obligations this EOFY. Check out MYOB’s Tax Changes Information section, meant to help startups and small businesses stay on top of their game with tax changes.

Tax time — yes, I can hear you shuddering now, but for many businesses it’s time to prepare for the completion of their tax return.

My best advice is to get your tax return done early in the year, so you can move onto the next financial year knowing any tax liabilities or refunds that are due. It’s important because you need to know how to meet your tax obligations and claim your business entitlements correctly so that you do not pay more tax than you need to.

This is when you will learn to love your accountant. I’m going to give you a few tips on how you can help your accountant so they will love you back, if not more, this end of financial year.

Correct, timely data is essential, as it is the basis of how your business tax return is prepared by your ... Continue reading]]> Tax time — yes, I can hear you shuddering now, but for many businesses it’s time to prepare for the completion of their tax return.

My best advice is to get your tax return done early in the year, so you can move onto the next financial year knowing any tax liabilities or refunds that are due. It’s important because you need to know how to meet your tax obligations and claim your business entitlements correctly so that you do not pay more tax than you need to.

This is when you will learn to love your accountant. I’m going to give you a few tips on how you can help your accountant so they will love you back, if not more, this end of financial year.

1.   Record keeping is vital — utilise the cloud

Correct, timely data is essential, as it is the basis of how your business tax return is prepared by your accountant.

It’s critical in business to have a consistent way of recording how money comes in and goes out of your business. Cloud based accounting systems have revolutionised the way businesses record their transactions, and this is the first place you should start. If you cannot measure your business, then how can you meet your tax obligations and know how your business is performing?

An investment in a cloud based accounting system allows the upload of real time data transactions. With a cloud based system, you can also invoice your customers, record your expenses and track inventory. The best part is that this can be accessed by you and your accountant 24/7 from any internet connection on any computer or smartphone or tablet in the world. Receipts can also be scanned and loaded into these software systems, which will lighten the load and keep you from drowning in paperwork.

2.   Know what you can claim as expense deductions

Keeping track of the money you spend to run your business is important, as it means you pay less tax. As a general rule, you can claim expenses that you incur as part of carrying on that business. Importantly, you need to be able to show why the expense was necessary and have a record of the expense.

Deductions can include:

• Rent or lease payments on your business premises — if you work from home, you can claim a portion of your rent as long as you have a specific work area in your home.
• The cost of tools or other equipment for the business
• Employee costs
• Business motor vehicle costs — based on a business use % as per a log book
• Interest on money borrowed for the business
• Computer costs and repairs
• Business travel and accommodation
• Seminars and courses
• Bank fees and charges
• Telephone and internet expenses
• Transport and freight costs
• Electricity or other power and fuel costs
• Accountancy and business-related legal fees

Get into the habit of keeping receipts. Use your smartphone to scan and email them to yourself, save them in your cloud based accounting system, or create a Dropbox to keep all your scanned receipts.

3.   Increase your tax deductions and know the tax incentives available

• Review your list of assets and write off any you no longer hold. This increases your tax deductions. See if you need any new assets to take advantage of government tax incentives.
• Ensure you pay your own and your employees’ superannuation before 30 June, as superannuation that is not paid by 30 June is not available as a tax deduction.
• Review your stock, and write off damaged or obsolete stock. Consider valuing the stock differently if it is worth less than cost.
• Review debtors, and write off any bad debts.

The Top 3 Deductions For 2013

• Instant asset write off: If your business has purchased or needs to purchase assets or plant equipment, then you can expense it if the asset costs less than $6,500. No prorating is required.
• Accelerated expenses for motor vehicles: If your business has or needs to purchase a motor vehicle, and the motor vehicle costs less than $6,500, it can be claimed as a 100% expense. The motor vehicle is eligible for a 100% depreciation expense under the instant asset write off rules. If the motor vehicle costs $6,500 or more, the cost of the motor vehicle is added to a pooled depreciation schedule of assets, and the deduction is $5,000 plus 15% depreciation of the remaining cost of the car.
• Accelerated depreciation deduction: All assets in the long-life small business pool and general small business pool as at 30^th June can be consolidated into a single pool, all to be depreciated at one rate. So, using the consolidated opening written down value of the assets as at 1 July 2012, all assets are depreciated at a flat rate of 30%. If your business purchases any new assets, they are added to this pool. These assets are depreciated at a flat 15%.

It’s important to meet all your tax and compliance obligations this EOFY. Check out MYOB’s  Tax Changes Information section, meant to help startups and small businesses stay on top of their game with tax changes.

It has been an exciting couple of days due to a major milestone that will transform the future of accounting software in Australia and New Zealand. MYOB has signed an agreement to purchase the Australian and New Zealand operations of BankLink.

BankLink is a highly successful organisation. The BankLink service is used by nearly 5,000 accounting practices, and more than 320,000 small businesses throughout Australia and New Zealand. Each month, it securely delivers in excess of 13 million customer transactions from more than 100 banks, credit unions, brokers and fund managers. Not only that, BankLink’s data accuracy specialists review data using processes they have refined over 25 years – providing highly accurate bank feeds with additional checks over the banks’ raw feeds.

MYOB and BankLink have a positive and close working relationship that has endured for many years. That relationship was strengthened when BankLink started providing daily bankfeeds to MYOB LiveAccounts and ... Continue reading]]> It has been an exciting couple of days due to a major milestone that will transform the future of accounting software in Australia and New Zealand. MYOB has signed an agreement to purchase the Australian and New Zealand operations of BankLink.

BankLink is a highly successful organisation. The BankLink service is used by nearly 5,000 accounting practices, and more than 320,000 small businesses throughout Australia and New Zealand. Each month, it securely delivers in excess of 13 million customer transactions from more than 100 banks, credit unions, brokers and fund managers. Not only that, BankLink’s data accuracy specialists review data using processes they have refined over 25 years – providing highly accurate bank feeds with additional checks over the banks’ raw feeds.

MYOB and BankLink have a positive and close working relationship that has endured for many years. That relationship was strengthened when BankLink started providing daily bankfeeds to MYOB LiveAccounts and MYOB AccountRight Live.

Bank feeds take the hard work out of business accounting, syncing your bank transactions with your accounting software and reducing manual data entry.This enables business owners to spend less time on their financials and have more time to focus on what they really love, running their business and making it successful.

By coming together, MYOB and BankLink will leverage the strengths of both organisations, and position the new entity to lead the next wave of industry growth – cloud accounting. As two companies that share the same vision and values, this acquisition makes perfect sense for all our clients  - from small businesses to book keepers and accountants.

What does this mean to our clients?

Accounting is going through a period of rapid innovation. Cloud solutions are replacing desktop applications and this is being accelerated by the use of daily bank feeds for processing and reconciling accounts. 

Key to the success of MYOB’s online strategy is its partnership with accountants in practice. The coming together of MYOB and BankLink allows accountants to recommend the most appropriate accounting solution for each and every unique client.  Our combined suite of offerings will extend into the micro business market with BankLink onboard, and will now offer a full suite of products for micro businesses through to medium-sized enterprises.

This is good news for practicing accountants, especially as we realise the vision of the common ledger– a seamless system for accountants to service their clients from a single connected process.  The latest release of the Client Accounting module is a key milestone in achieving the common ledger, ensuring we continue to lead this change and drive productivity for accounting practices.

Our newly combined team of over 1,000 members strengthens our focus on servicing accountants and  SMEs.  It is our vision to make your business life easier, and we are now, more than ever, equipped to make this happen.  This team, unmatched in size and quality, will span across Product Development, Sales, Marketing, Support and Consulting to ensure we help you achieve your goals.

Over the coming weeks, MYOB and BankLink will start the process of becoming an integrated team with the primary focus over the coming months to continue delivering high quality services to you.

In summary, this acquisition is about bringing two market leading businesses together, with complementary solutions to offer the most comprehensive set of SME and accountants solutions in the market today. It is an exciting time in our industry and I firmly believe a united MYOB and BankLink will only strengthen our ability to deliver the solutions and services that will drive your business forward.

Last night’s Federal Budget announcement had some winners and losers. But a budget deficit of $19.4 billion was always going to mean that there would be little or no good news for small business owners, despite Treasurer Wayne Swan’s emphasis on job creation.

In truth, small business will be left wanting from the lack of any significant measures designed to make doing business easier, reduce costs, improve education, skills and training, or support business and consumer confidence.

Almost everything had been regurgitated as part of the government’s plans to “support business to innovate,” as most measures had already been announced, including the $500 million investment in Industry Innovation Precincts and the $1 billion “Plan for Australian Jobs”

These measures were put forward as “part of our plan to support and create jobs, building on our loss carry-back and instant asset write-off reforms for 3 million small businesses” not yet legislated from last year’s ... Continue reading]]> Last night’s Federal Budget announcement had some winners and losers. But a budget deficit of $19.4 billion was always going to mean that there would be little or no good news for small business owners, despite Treasurer Wayne Swan’s emphasis on job creation.

In truth, small business will be left wanting from the lack of any significant measures designed to make doing business easier, reduce costs, improve education, skills and training, or support business and consumer confidence.

Almost everything had been regurgitated as part of the government’s plans to “support business to innovate,” as most measures had already been announced, including the $500 million investment in Industry Innovation Precincts and the $1 billion “Plan for Australian Jobs”

These measures were put forward as “part of our plan to support and create jobs, building on our loss carry-back and instant asset write-off reforms for 3 million small businesses” not yet legislated from last year’s budget.

Here’s a list of  measures that I believe will affect small business owners negatively:

• Self-education expenses are capped at $2,000 per year. You’ll struggle to find a conference, training initiative or educational course these days where the cost comes in below this figure. Instead of promoting our small business owners and their staff to become smarter and plan for growth, we are doing the opposite.

• Fair Work Australia receives $21.4 million for crackdown on workplace bullying. While I agree with stamping out bullying, much of this will be targeted at small to medium businesses that often struggle when dealing with the reality of a small staff. It can be difficult to manage personalities, and owners may not have the ability, time or finances to fight allegations.

• The ATO will also receive additional funds in order to investigate tax compliance among trusts. This is a structure used by many small business owners in Australia, especially in our rural communities. The budget has allocated $77.8 million over the next four years to improve compliance and to boost its data matching capabilities with third-party information. Last year they tested the data matching by looking at the ownership of luxury boats; this year it may be cars, property or similar items.

• Many small business owners have resorted to the 457 system to replace staff lost to the mining boom, but the budget has delivered a double blow to the 457 visa program. The government will nearly double application fees to $900, and The Fair Work Ombudsman is also set to receive $3.4 million over the next four years to monitor and enforce employer activity among 457 visa holders.

• There will be more upfront checks for startups seeking to register new Australian Business Numbers and an increased business-name registration fee.

There are a few positives for small businesses:

• They have promised $29.4 million in assistance for SME businesses quoting for government services and tenders.

• A further $12.9 million has been put forward to assist businesses in accessing the National Broadband Network.

• In terms of Superannuation, the concessional contribution cap will be increased so that:
  • From 1 July 2013 taxpayers aged 60 and over will have a $35,000 cap; and
  • From 1 July 2014 taxpayers aged 50 and over will have a $35,000 cap.
• The government will guarantee unpaid entitlements for any non-employee/contract workers in the textile, clothing and footwear industries if their employers collapse or go into bankruptcy. The new funding is an extension of the current Fair Entitlements Scheme and will be directed towards any workers who are not currently classified as employees.
• Spending on roads and infrastructure may result in savings for small business owners who need to travel around our cities to work.

• Currently any super fund member hit by excess contributions tax is charged 46.5%, regardless of their marginal tax rate. Now the changes will see excess contributions taxed at an individual’s marginal tax rate plus an interest charge, and individuals will be allowed to withdraw any excess concessional contributions from their fund. Many self-employed have made errors over the last few years, and, by breaching their caps, faced penalty tax at the highest rate. This goes a long way to reaching a fair solution.

• They have also promised funding to standardise the business name registration process.

Most importantly, we did not really see the government reign in spending and deliver a budget that will increase consumer and business confidence. Small business would have traded a lot for some strong leadership.

Oh, and if you are a small business owner planning a family, you have until 31 May by my reckoning to get working, as any later than that, and you will miss out on the baby bonus cut-off nine months later!

_____________________________________________________

MYOB is covering Australia’s budget extensively this year. Download our FREE whitepaper on the Federal Budget to see the changes affecting your business. We will be releasing more whitepapers on each state’s budget after they are announced.

Nearly 70% of all businesses in Australia are family-owned, whether that’s the local news agency run by a husband and wife team, through to the mid-sized, father and son construction company. Ideally, tonight’s federal budget annoucement should cater for family-owned small businesses.

It’s no secret they have a significant impact on our economy. More than 2.1 million small businesses employ over 4.8 million Australians (nearly 50% of private sector industry employment), and contribute 34% of gross domestic product.

MYOB’s Business Monitor survey, which includes more than 960 small businesses, revealed the top initiatives that would turn small business election votes towards the proposing party. These include reducing paperwork burden, returning the budget to surplus faster, investing further in infrastructure, free government-funded training, and increasing innovation and R&D funding. Let’s look at these points a little more.

Independent small business owners and managers continue to call for tax reform, deregulation and the ... Continue reading]]> Nearly 70% of all businesses in Australia are family-owned, whether that’s the local news agency run by a husband and wife team, through to the mid-sized, father and son construction company. Ideally, tonight’s federal budget annoucement should cater for family-owned small businesses.

It’s no secret they have a significant impact on our economy. More than 2.1 million small businesses employ over 4.8 million Australians (nearly 50% of private sector industry employment), and contribute 34% of gross domestic product.

MYOB’s Business Monitor survey, which includes more than 960 small businesses, revealed the top initiatives that would turn small business election votes towards the proposing party. These include reducing paperwork burden, returning the budget to surplus faster, investing further in infrastructure, free government-funded training, and increasing innovation and R&D funding. Let’s look at these points a little more.

1. Simplifying the GST/BAS reporting process

Independent small business owners and managers continue to call for tax reform, deregulation and the reduction of red tape (67%). The tax office found a commensurate increase in the number of compliance discrepancies from 266,000 in 2007-08 to over 540,000 in 2011-12. The significant level of paperwork and compliance required by the government is a common pain point, hence Victoria recently appointing its own red tape commissioner. Perhaps this should be expanded to a national posting. More work must be done to help SMEs simplify their regulatory commitments.

2. Slash government expenditure and address structural deficit

While businesses would welcome a targeted approach to stimulating productivity and growth in the 2013 budget, they are also calling for the government to renew its commitment to balancing the books. 44% of small businesses would support even further cuts to government expenditure. This would help reduce their feeling of economic uncertainty and boost confidence in the economy.

3. Increase investment in transport infrastructure for major states and cities

With fuel prices continuing to reach record highs and expected to remain so over the short term, fuel prices are noted as small businesses top pressure point. It’s no wonder 64% said they would vote for the party that proposed more investment in city transport infrastructure. The pressure is felt by many small businesses, but most of all by those in transport, postal and warehousing. The research found 45% of respondents in this sector experienced a drop in revenue in the first half of this financial year.

4. Provide free training on using the Internet for small businesses

Over half of small businesses would welcome free government-funded training on how to use the internet to help them enhance and grow their business. Our research found that small businesses with a business website were 60 per cent more likely to experience a revenue rise. The benefits of small businesses participating in the digital economy include the ability to compete on a more level playing field with local and global rivals, increased productivity and less time spent on administration. This means more time for growing the business.

5. Increase funding for innovation and R&D

I hope to see the government devote more funding to innovation and the development of the workforce – both of which have the potential to transform the economy. 56% of small business operators would welcome an increase in government funding for innovation, research and development. In this budget, government has the potential to make a real difference to the growth and development of family-owned small businesses by focusing on the areas that underpin increased productivity. This has the potential to make a difference to our economy.

Australian business owners and managers are known for digging deep, embracing change and adapting. However in periods of uncertainty, being in business is even tougher. I call on the federal government to strengthen their support for family-owned businesses, no matter their size or shape. There’s plenty of opportunity for policy consideration in this year’s budget and in the run up to this year’s election.

MYOB is covering Australia’s budget extensively this year. Download our FREE whitepaper on the Federal Budget to see the changes affecting your business. We will be releasing more whitepapers on each state’s budget after they are announced.

_______________________________________________________

This article first appeared on Business Spectator on 13th May 2013.