Happy New Year! It feels good to be welcoming in 2023, doesn’t it. The very whacky first three years of this decade are behind us, and despite wars and struggling economies, still it seems excellent to have moved on from the pandemic era.
Our accountants in Ballarat and Torquay are excited about this year. We have a brand-new office space in Ballarat, so that’s awesome, and our staff in Torquay are predicting an extended summer season which will see them going for a swim at the beach after work, well into April. Let’s hope so.
Lots of our Ballarat clients will be down at Torquay or other locations along the Surf Coast in January, on holidays. We hope you are all having a fantastic time.
New Years Resolutions
Did you make New Year’s Resolutions? Our accountants love New Year’s resolutions, because there’s so many delicious numbers to crunch.
From specifying numbers of days or weeks, or months for some scheme or other – to caps on how many drinks, muffins, or sausages – to kilogram, push-up and dollar goals: it’s all about the numbers; the lovely, friendly, unique numbers…
Seriously though, it could be a good time to make some positive plans or righteous resolutions for your finances in 2023. Particularly if you own and operate a small business (which is the majority of our clients). We list five suggestions below…
Set Out A Budget And Stick With It
Having a cleverly conceived budget is a great idea for small businesses. For many it is crucial actually. A budget should help you keep your head around the important things like cash flow and revenue – and hopefully assist you in finding the way forward to growing your business.
Your budget should help you to see around the corner – to anticipate what you’ll need further along in the year – and to prevent problems rather than having to put out fires later.
Smart budgets include targets and perhaps even KPIs. If you don’t achieve them, that’s ok; when you have a proper budget, you should be much better equipped with data and information to figure out why you didn’t kick every goal you wanted to.
From there you can work on implementing ways to address those issues and make improvements.
Be Master Of Your Cash Flow
Every three months we can get a bit of a shock, right, when it’s suddenly time to pay GST, PAYG and Super. It may be wise to have a separate account for these things, into which you automatically transfer the appropriate funds to cover these three, but otherwise don’t touch.
In this way you have your tax obligations under control and your cash flow is simplified. There are other ways to stay on top of your cash flow. Your trusted local accountants in Ballarat and Torquay can give you prudent advice; ask us today.
Automate Is Your Mate
There are lots of excellent packages for small business now which automate the day-to-day accounting. There are the well-known and widely used solutions such as Xero, as well as software packages which are more specifically tailored to different industries and businesses.
The majority of small businesses now use automated systems. If you don’t yet, get with the program and get one of these programs, people! You’ll wonder how you ever managed without one before. You’ll have access to all kinds of data around the clock, even from your phone.
Eliminate tiresome, time-consuming manual activities and focus on finessing the finer points of your business.
Keep Business And Pleasure Seperate
Well, hopefully it is quite often a pleasure to be running your own business, but not every day, hey. What we mean by this is, keep the accounting aspects apart. For instance, if you need to borrow money for your business – perhaps temporarily, in order to bolster cash flow.
Or for larger loans such as significant purchases, keep it separate from your personal finances. If you have personal debt, always ensure this is paid off before your business debt. You might need to look at re-structuring your business and private debt scenarios in order to advance your overall position. Ask us how.
Never Stop Learning
That’s why larger businesses and organisations have compulsory CPD (Continuing Professional Development). Some employees at these companies may see it as a bit of drag; as a box which requires a tick once a year. But for small business owner-operators, you should embrace any and all opportunities to enhance your knowledge, skills and experience.
This includes educating yourself about the numbers which are critical to your success. Our accountants love numbers.
Talk to them today and let us help you better understand your numbers and thereby make more informed decisions about your business’s strategy, operations and growth.
