Download - Let's talk business sept 2014
Let’s Talk Business
1
Let’s Talk Business Back To Basics Business Solutions - Support for Small Business
Online Complaints Can Make
or Break a Business!
Should they be allowed?
Inside this issue
Cover Story - Online
Business Complaints ...….2
Five Simple & Powerful Ways
to Boost Productivity
Dr Tim Baker …..….............3
Biz Snippets …………….......4
Do You Conduct Regular
Competitor Research?
Dennis Chiron………...........5
Business Plans are a Waste of
Time
Geoff Butler ………………..6
How are my Millionaire
Clients Different?
Dan Buzer ……..…………...7
6 Things That Google Looks
For in a Website
Karen Ahl ……..………..….8
Small Business & Your
OH&S Obligations
Tony Osmani …..…….…....9
Benchmarking and the ATO
Jo-Anne Chaplin………….10
Transition to Retirement VS
Salary Sacrifice .. In Plain
English
Paul Gillmore ………….. ..11
Editor’s BizTips ……….….12
LTB Objectives …..........…13
Volume 2 Issue 22 - September 2014
Let’s Talk Business
2
Should you be allowed to complain about businesses online?
One man doesn’t think so
Frank Chung from news.com recently
wrote an article regarding customers
being able to complain about poor
service or products online.
Frank stated: “In a time when
anonymous reviews from disgruntled
customers can make or break small
businesses, one man is on a personal
mission to bring some positivity back to
the internet.”
Paul Ryan, head of marketing company
Intouch group and co-founder of the
company formerly known as Wizard
Home Loans, is the behind a new
venture called Kudos2.
It’s an online testimonial service in the
vein of UrbanSpoon or Yelp, but with a
fairly significant catch — you’re only
allowed to post positive feedback.
“Service is subjective,” Mr Ryan
explains. “One man’s drink is another
man’s poison. What could be good
service for you might not be good
service for others.”
According to Mr Ryan, sometimes
“people have bad days” and while your
grievance may be legitimate, it’s unfair
to publicly sledge a business without
first giving them the opportunity to
rectify the issue.
“Today we’re very quick to jump on
negativity, but I think we should be
rewarding effort. If you post a negative
review online, it just breeds more
negativity.”
Mr Ryan hopes people will use Kudos2
to share positive service experiences,
and others will make their judgement
based on the number of
recommendations a particular business
has.
“Say you wanted to move to Port
Macquarie — you’ll need to find a real
estate agent, an insurance broker, a
dentist, a nice coffee shop,” he says.
“We want people to be able to jump on
Kudos, type in ‘Port Macquarie’, and see
all the businesses that have happy
customers.”
It all sounds lovely, but it begs a fairly
obvious question — what if a business
just isn’t up to scratch? Don’t customers
have a right to warn off others if they
believe they’ll have a bad experience?
“When a customer has a bad experience,
they want one of two things — they
either want to vent, or they actually want
something done about it. If it’s the
second one, the best people to speak to
are the businesses themselves.”
And if it’s the first one, Mr Ryan would
prefer it was done the old-fashioned way
— having a whinge to your mates at the
BBQ, rather than putting it up on
Facebook where thousands of people
can potentially see.
“Seventy per cent of people are now
researching online and trusting
recommendations they find — there’s
still Facebook, Yelp and the rest. They
can see all the negative reviews there as
well, and they’ll make their own
decision.”
Kudos2 is only three months old and Mr
Ryan isn’t sure when it will turn a
profit. Around three hundred businesses
have been given ‘Kudos’, and the site
has around 200 registered users.
“There are 1.4 million businesses out
there with fewer than four employees.
These are businesses that don’t have
huge marketing budgets, so the question
is how do they get themselves known in
the wider community?”
However, on the ‘flip-side’ Matt Wade
senior journalist from “The Age”
believes that the vast majority of
customers fail to complain about poor
service or treatment, and are prone to
suffer in silence.
Matt writes: “A 2011 survey conducted
for the Australian Communications and
Media Authority found that 76 per cent
of those who contacted their
communications provider with a
grievance did nothing more about it.”
So why are so many consumers so
passive? One reason is what behavioural
economists call “loss aversion” – the
tendency for consumers to care more
about preventing a loss than making a
gain.
Conversely, there is a website dedicated
to nothing else but harvesting
complaints: “Crappy Customer Service”
claim to be Australia’s largest complaint
site, and they claim to have received
over 13,000 complaints in the past 4
years.
What do you think? Do you agree with
Paul Ryan?
Let’s Talk Business
3
What are some relatively simple ways
of increasing profits by 30 per cent
without firing anyone or spending any
money?
Here are five simple and powerful ways
of doing this. Even if you only applied
one of these strategies your personal
and organizational productivity would
be significantly enhanced and so would
employee morale.
The biggest time wasters in
organizations from my observations
over 18 years across 21 industries are
spending unnecessary time on email,
attending mindless unproductive
meetings, conducting performance
reviews; indulging in too much fake
work, and administering surveys with
no follow through.
There are doubtlessly others, but these
five are covered in this short article.
1. Do an email audit
How much time do you spend daily on
compiling and reading emails? Too
much time? Why don't you find out
exactly how much time? Keep a log for
three days on when you attend to
emails. Get your staff to do the same.
Then work out an average amout of
time per person across the business.
Multiple that average time per week by
the mean weekly wage by 52.
This gives you the total cost of using
email annually across the business.
Then multiple that by two to
compensate for the lost time not doing
other more productive business activities.
The number will scare you. Then set up
an email protocol and ensure that
employees and managers follow it. If you
can reduce the amount of time on email
by 25 per cent would that make a
difference to the business's bottom line?
2. Reduce the number of procedural
meetings
Like emails, do a meeting audit. How
many meetings do you attend each week?
What percentage of your time is spent
sitting in meetings? More importantly,
how many of these meetings are a waste
of your time? I am all for increasing the
quality of communication in a business.
But it is often the mindless procedural and
reporting meetings that occur once a week
that are time wasters. Meetings are costly.
Six people in a room for a one hour
meeting can cost the business $850 to
$1,200. You need to be able to justify that
expense. A 20 per cent reduction in these
kind of meetings can save a business
thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds
of thousands of dollars a year, depending
on its size.
3. Replace performance appraisals
with performance development
Performance reviews are a waste of time.
There is no empirical evidence I know of
that demonstrates conclusively that
increased performance results from the
dreaded performance review. A better
focus is on short, regular, focussed
conversations around performance. The
Five Conversations Framework is such an
approach. At any rate, there needs to be a
shift from appraising performance to
developing performance.
4 Stop surveying people and start
listening
Organizations spend thousands of dollars
a year conducting a variety of online
surveys assessing levels of employee
engagement. Ironically, getting staff to
complete the engagement survey is
often the only form of engagement!
When the results are collated they
are generally discussed at the senior
management level and little else
happens. More time ought to be
spent on discussing the results with
staff and less time asking them to
fill out these surveys.
5. Eliminating fake work
Peterson and Gaylan wrote a
thought-provoking book called,
"Fake Work". Their general
argument is that we spend too much
time doing what they refer to as
fake work; that is, work that isn't
directly or even indirectly linked to
the strategic direction of the
business.
They believe that a small
percentage reduction in fake work
will lead to significant productivity
across a large organization. Using
the time-honoured 'To Do List' can
help in this regard. These days you
can complete a To Do List on your
smart phone.
And remember: writing the list
itself is not the point. It is the
prioritization of tasks and the
adherence to that list that makes all
the difference. Imagine for a
moment if everyone in your
organization was committed to
correctly using a To Do List every
day. What difference that would
make to eliminating fake work?
There are doubtlessly other ways of
increasing productivity that are cost
effective and I would love to hear
some of these from you.
But as I mentioned at the outset, if
you only committed to one of these
ideas and followed through, it
would make a profound difference
to the productivity across the
business you are working in.
Dr Tim Baker
Managing Director
WINNERS AT WORK Pty Ltd
www.winnersatwork.com.au
www.about.me/tim.baker
Telephone. +61 7 3899 8881
Five Simple and Powerful
Ways to Boost Productivity
Editor’s Note:
Dr. Tim Baker is an international consultant, successful author, keynote speaker, master trainer, executive coach, university lecturer and skilful facilitator.
In a nutshell, he has conducted over 2,430 seminars, workshops and keynote addresses to over 45,000 people in 11 countries across 21 industry groups.
Let’s Talk Business
4
Rome did not create a great
empire by having meetings...they
did it by killing all those who
opposed them.
If you can stay calm, while all
around you is chaos...then you
probably haven't completely
understood the seriousness of the
situation.
Eagles may soar, but weasels
don't get sucked into jet engines.
Artificial Intelligence is no
match for Natural Stupidity.
A person who smiles in the face
of adversity... probably has a
scapegoat.
A bird in the hand is always safer
than one overhead.
A bird in the hand makes it hard
to blow your nose.
A clean tie attracts the soup of
the day.
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
A sales rep, an
administration clerk,
and the manager are
walking to lunch
when they find an
antique oil lamp. They
rub it and a Genie comes out. The
Genie says, “I’ll give each of you
just one wish” “Me first! Me first!”
says the admin. clerk. “I want to be
in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat,
without a care in the world.”
Poof! She’s gone. “Me next!
Me next!” says the sales rep. “I want
to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the
beach with my personal masseuse, an
endless supply of Pina Coladas and
the love of my life.” Poof! He’s
gone.
“OK, you’re up,” the Genie says to
the manager. The manager says, “I
want those two back in the office
after lunch.” …… Moral of the
story: Always let your boss have the
first say.
A wealthy man requested an old
scholar to wean his son away from
his bad habits.
The scholar took the youth for a
stroll through a garden. Stopping
suddenly he asked the boy to pull out
a tiny plant growing there. The youth
held the plant between his thumb and
forefinger and pulled it out. The old
man then asked him to pull out a
slightly bigger plant. The youth
pulled hard and the plant came out,
roots and all.
"Now pull out that one," said the old
man pointing to a bush. The boy had
to use all his strength to pull it out.
"Now take this one out," said the old
man, indicating a guava tree. The
youth grasped the trunk and tried to
pull it out. But it would not budge.
"I – It's impossible," said the boy,
panting with the effort.
"So it is with bad habits," said the
sage. "When they are young it is easy
to pull them out but when they take
hold they cannot be uprooted."
The session with the old man
changed the boy's life.
HUMOUROUS SIGNS Business Posters that you
don’t see in the office
And the Moral of the
Story is …..
Says
Let’s Talk Business
5
DO YOU CONDUCT REGULAR COMPETITOR RESEARCH ?
Dennis Chiron Marketing Means Business
0451 184 599 www.marketingmeansbusiness.com
[email protected] Skype: dennis.chiron2
An essential tool in any business's
toolbox is a clear idea and
understanding of reality.
Reality? What's that?
Reality is the difference between the
way you are conducting business
compared with the way your
competitors are conducting their
business.
The ultimate goal is to do absolutely
everything better than your competitors.
But how do you accomplish that? The
answer is: by spying.
Successful business owners ensure that
they thoroughly research their
competitors, their industry, and
especially, themselves.
Just realize that business information is
more available now than ever and that
your competitors are “on the ball”.
They're getting smarter every day, and
the only way you're going to know how
you measure up to them is by actively
engaging in regular spying.
Competitor ‘Fact-Finding’ is a painful
job, especially when you learn that you
are falling behind, but the opportunities
to make your business the best make up
for the pain.
Here are five suggestions to help you
get the best out of your Competitor
Research:
1. Order something. Buy something
from some of your competitors. Do
it by phone or mail or in person.
Keep a watchful eye out for the
smooth or rough edges in the entire
process. There will be more
differences than you think. And you
must ensure that you must outshine
your competition in all areas. Note
especially when they do their follow-
up. Make sure that you can do it
faster.
2. Visit your competitors. You
personally, or one of your most
trusted people should pay a visit to
the premises of your competitors.
Note the little details that win or lose
potential customers.
3. Phone your competitors. Focus on
the personality and attitude of the
person who answers the phone. If it's
warmer and more friendly than the
person who answers the phone in
your business, then train your person
to excel in this role.
4. Make a request for something.
Maybe it will be a price list or a
brochure. See how your request is
fulfilled, concentrating on speed and
follow-up. Do you handle requests as
professionally as your competition?
5. Compare and assess. Look at your
own business through the eyes of
your customer and compare your and
your competitors' service, pricing,
packaging, people, product selection,
follow-up, signs, quality, delivery
and attitude. Only thorough research
will give you honest feedback
on how you're doing.
6. Buy something. It always helps you
to own the product or use the service
of your competitors, because it
enables you to spot your own
weaknesses as well as your own
strengths.
Be prepared to have to face up to some
home truths about your business.
Of course, there's a chance that you're
doing everything better than your
competitors, but if you research (spy)
properly and learn from your espionage,
there's a great chance.
Once you've completed your research,
react to what you've learned and be
committed to improving.
Of course, a nicer term for this activity
are words like Competitor Analysis; but
no matter how it is phrased or worded,
it boils down to be totally aware of
everything your competitors are doing.
Remember, many of the best companies
in the world remain at the top of their
game by keeping a very close eye on
their competitors.
Strategic competitor analysis is an
excellent way to obtain information
about important competitors and use
that information to predict competitor
behaviours whilst making better
business decisions.
In my own capacity, both as a business
owner and a consultant, I am often
surprised that small to medium business
owners neglect to analyse their
competition.
It is so important to know who and what
you’re competing with. Can you
imagine that Microsoft doesn't know
what Apple is doing in terms of its
product development and market share,
or vice versa?
Let’s Talk Business
6
I know it’s a bit controversial for
someone like me who works as a
Consultant to SME businesses to
make this statement, but for most
business owners it’s the absolute
truth.
Having worked as a business
improvement and implementation
specialist to businesses in virtually
all industries for over a decade, the
absolute truth of the matter is that
most business owners spend a lot of
time and effort developing business
plans which then sit on a shelf and
gather dust.
If this is the case they have simply
wasted their time and should have
carried on and just hoped they had
the right game plan. It will be the
dearest coffee table book they’ve
ever bought, and they had to write it
themself.
Ricardo Semmler, the author of
Maverick and The Seven Day
Weekend said ‘The best thing about
not planning is that failure comes
as a complete surprise, and isn’t
preceded by a period of worry and
depression.’ It’s actually one of my
favourite sayings.
Over the years I’ve seen hundreds
of Business Plans, most of which
have been written to convince the
bank that the business will make
enough money to pay back the loan
they gave them to get it started, or
for that next major expansion. They
are unrealistic expressions of hope
that highlight the strengths of the
owners and their team, as well as the
opportunities of the venture, whilst
virtually ignoring the weaknesses and
threats in the business and market in
which they operate.
What people fail to realise is that
banks in Australia have been reading
business plans for about 150 years,
and chances are they have seen better
fables than you’re trying to spin over
the years.
They will spot an unrealistic business
plan in an instant, because they’ve
seen lots of them. They’ll probably
still give you the money but they’ll
make sure they have security over
your house before they do.
You probably sense I’m a bit jaded
by the whole business planning
concept, but that’s just not true.
A balanced Business Plan that is well
implemented and regularly reviewed
is probably the most valuable bit of
intellectual property in your business,
but the truth of the matter is that to
find one that is realistic, implemented
and reviewed is incredibly rare.
In small and even medium sized
business there is absolutely no point
in an 80 page document that nobody
is going to read. You need a short
punchy document that has a few key
features such as a comprehensive
Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities
and Threats (SWOT) analysis from
which the strategies have been
developed that will lead to the agreed
objectives and ultimate goal of the
organisation that also need to be
documented within the Plan.
It should also be accompanied by
robust budgets for profit, cash flow and
capital expenditure requirements. In
my experience these Plans are rarely
more than 15 to 20 ages in length.
The most important step once you have
completed your shiny new Business
Plan is to develop your Implementation
Plan. This is the step that most
business owners fail to complete and
yet it is almost as important as
developing the plan in the first place.
The Implementation Plan breaks down
the strategies contained in the business
plan, prioritises them, and then breaks
them down into individual tasks,
allocating them to a person, and
timelines when they must be
completed.
In effect it turns each strategy into a
Project Plan which is solely focussed
on achieving the objective to which it
is linked.
If you just have a Business Plan
without an Implementation Plan, I
would suggest you’re just wasting your
time.
Geoff Butler FAIM AP, MAITD MACE
Principal/Business Improvement & Implementation Specialist
Business Optimizers
Mobile: 0414 943072
Fax: 3036 6131
Email: [email protected]
Skype: business.optimizers1
Business Plans Are a Waste of Time
Let’s Talk Business
7
“… How Are My Millionaire Clients Different to My
‘Want’ To Be Millionaire Clients? …”
I spent an intensive ½ day with one
of my millionaire Clients last week.
After our meeting I offered to drive
him over to another of his business
sites.
On the way back to my office I took a
moment to think about how he and
my other successfully wealthy Clients
are different to my not so wealthy
Clients.
Here’s what I came up with …
They’re not big users of
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and
other social media tools. They
have people manage those tools
for them (very well), but are not
into it themselves.
They’re prolific uses of the
phone, as are their friends. Their
phones are almost constantly
ringing. They use emails to help
lead into conversations on the
phone (which lead to business),
to transfer information and to
have documented records.
They spend their lives ‘solving
problems’. Nearly every word out
of their mouths revolve around
identifying, solving or reflecting
on the solving of a problem of
some kind. Problems with
tenants, staff, sales, marketing,
cashflow, supply, product
quality, efficiency, etc.
The number one difference!?
They are PRODUCTIVE! They
generally hate (and I know that’s
a strong word) wasting time on
fluff, crap and maybe’s. They
mean what they say and get things
done. If they need more sales,
they go and get them. Full stop!
Lastly, they love leveraging by
using experts in their field. They
don’t see it as a cost if the expert
gets them the results they want.
My millionaire Clients are also
passionate! They generally love what
they do. They’re products and services
are an extension of them.
They’re busy people, but they don’t
see it as work. If they didn’t work in/
on their business, they would be busy
doing something else.
They are also forward thinkers,
community aware and family
conscious. Some of my Clients could
comfortably (very comfortably) retire
and live off their current income
streams.
However many of them are driven by
the idea of leaving a legacy and an
ongoing opportunity for their family,
employees and even their suppliers &
customers.
My ‘not so financially successful’
Clients have some commonalities as
well …
They often get distracted by bright
and shiny objects, new ways of
doing things and promises from
other people who are not
successful.
They don’t know how to
accurately measure where they are
in terms of what results they’re
aiming to get, what they’re
progress is to achieving results
and how to get back on track
quickly without losing
momentum.
They use their time to save
money, rather than use money to
save time. They see spending
money as a risk because they
often don’t have past experience
to learn what to spend money on.
They sometimes get distracted
from the ‘learning experiences’
on their journey to getting the
results they want.
I asked some of my successful Clients
what their suggestion to those who
would like to be successful. They’re
answers were surprisingly similar.
“Learn to be the leader of a smart
Team. If you’re the smartest person
in your business, you’re probably
doing things harder than you need to
be”.
I hope these ideas help you to either
identify why you may be achieving
your goals, or not.
Mention this article for your copy of
the Profit Mechanics Sales &
Marketing Diagnostic Questionnaire
along with a 30 minute phone chat to
help guide you through the tool and
apply your business objectives to it.
Remember … Business is More Fun,
When There’s Profit!
Dan Buzer
Profit Mechanics
0414 567 188
www.profitmechanics.net/ [email protected]
Let’s Talk Business
8
When planning for a website, it is
important to keep Google in mind.
1. Your Domain Name
EXAMPLES:
www.yourbusinessname.com.au,
www.whatyouoffer.com.au or
www.yourindustry.com.au
Consider branding, simplicity and
keywords.
Think about…
Using your business name as
your domain name
Memorability & spelling
The keywords you want to rank
for
Aim for your business name, your
main keyword or both in your
domain name. If you already have a
domain name that doesn’t do this,
don’t panic! There are many other
ways to ensure your website ranks
great.
2. Your Wording
This is possibly one of the most
important things Google looks for.
Take your time. The saying,
“Content is King” is relevant.
Google makes regular updates to
how they rank websites. The
freshness, the quantity and the
quality of a websites’ wording is
important. This is why BLOGs are
so popular!
Think about…
What do you want to rank for?
E.g. Brisbane Catering
What areas do you service?
E.g. Brisbane, Chermside etc
What services/products do you
offer?
E.g. Event Catering
Include all of this in your website
wording. Do not repeat your keywords
too much and don’t copy and paste
wording from another website. You
may get penalised for spamming or
duplicate content. 330+ words per
page, keep sentences short, use dot
points and bold some of your
keywords.
Also make sure it is readable too. It is
a balance between keeping Google
and your audience happy.
3. Your Images ALT Tags
Otherwise known as “Alternative Text
Tags”. Alt tags were originally
designed for the blind where a
program would read out the wording
on a website. The Alt tag would serve
to describe any photos.
Most DIY website software
provide fields to complete these
Ask your website designer if Alt
tags have been added to your site
If you don’t have any images on
your site…consider adding some
You can usually see ALT tags when
you hover over an image.
4. Title & Description (Meta Tags)
This is what is shown in Google
Searches!
Screen Shot: Google search for
“Bribie Island Electrician”
Some guidelines…
Title = up to 72 characters long
Description = 150 - 160
Using just your business name or
the default page name (e.g. Home) as your Title tag is a
waste of time
Your Meta Tags must compliment your page wording
for max. effect.
Each page can be different to
better match that page’s wording
5. Existing Traffic
A crowd attracts a crowd
How to get more traffic…
Send an email to your contacts inviting them to click on a link to
your website
Post a link on Facebook etc.
Add your website address to your
email signature & advertising
6. Download Speed
How fast does your website load?
Things that effect a sites speed…
Image size – the bigger they are
the slower they will load
Other background programs,
coding, applications etc.
Website hosting speed
By ensuring that images are only as big as they need to be, that background programs are not too complicated and the quality of your hosting. While we don’t have control over the speed of the internet connection of those visiting your website, taking care of these few things can radically improve the chances of them loading your website
in full.
We will go through 6 more things
that Google looks for in a website.
For further information, please feel
free to email Karen ~ The Webgirl.
Karen Ahl
Bac. Bus (Mark, Man), TAE40110, Cert IV IT
Caboolture, Queensland
Ph 0415 142 178
www.web-sta.com.au
6 things that Google looks for in a website
Let’s Talk Business
9
Legislation requires you to notify or give
notice to WHS in your State, of various
activities, including work incidents.
Notify WHS in your State about a
work health and safety incident
You are required by law to report certain
workplace incidents if they arise out of
the conduct of a business or undertaking
and result in the death, serious injury or
serious illness of a person or they
involve a dangerous incident.
In an emergency
In an emergency dial 000, do not touch
the scene other than to administer first
aid. Contact Work Safe Australia on
1300 551 832
After a death in the workplace
A death in the workplace is always
investigated to find out what happened
and to determine ways to prevent the
same thing from happening again.
Other notifications required by SWA
Legislation requires you to notify or give
notice to SWA of the following
activities:
Asbestos notifications
Demolition work notifications
Hazardous chemicals notifications
Contact SWA in your State about other
matters
Tony Osmani C.E.O.
Tell : 1300 421 914,
Mob: 0411 09 5539
Small Business &
Your WHS Obligations
Make a workplace complaint
Request a review of a SWA
decision
Request an inspector to help
resolve a workplace issue
Ask SWA Infoline a question
Compliments and complaints
If you need advice or guidance, in
any aspect of safety in your
workplace, you should contact Safe
Work Australia (SWA).
SWA leads the development of
national policy to improve work
health and safety and workers’
compensation arrangements across
Australia.
You should contact SWA if you
are seeking information and advice
on:
Complying with Work Health
and Safety laws.
Reporting a workplace incident.
Renewing or applying for
licences.
Workers' compensation claims.
Registering plant and plant
designs.
They have regulators who
Always seek independent legal
advice on what is applicable to your
situation.
Small businesses account for more than
95 per cent of all Australian businesses
and are responsible for the health and
safety of approximately 4.8 million
workers.
State and territory work health and
safety regulators have developed
resources to assist small business
owners understand their work health and
safety obligations. Resources include
access to free advisory services,
information sessions, fact sheets and
tools.
Under occupational health and safety
(OH&S) and new work health and
safety (WHS) legislation you are
obliged to provide:
safe premises
safe machinery and materials
safe systems of work
information, instruction, training
and supervision
a suitable working environment and
facilities.
Complying with these duties can prevent
you from being prosecuted and fined,
and help you to retain skilled staff.
Workplace health and safety authorities
in each state and territory and Safe
Work Australia have responsibilities for
enforcing the WHS legislation.
They provide education, training and
advice on health and safety at work.
You can get information about your
WHS obligations and other valuable
WHS resources both in hard copy and
online from their websites.
When are you obligated to make
contact?
Incidents, notifications and contacting
SWA
Let’s Talk Business
10
Jo-Anne Chaplin
Tax & Superannuation Professionals Pty Ltd
PH 07 3410 8116 / Mobile 0457 960 566
Email : [email protected]
Web: www.taxandsuperprofessionals.com.au
I am a qualified Accountant and will celebrate my 20th anniversary as a
Registered Tax Agent this year. During my time in Public Practice I have
assisted clients to achieve business growth and prosperity. My earlier career
included positions in banking, manufacturing, construction and retail. My
particular interest is in promoting a culture of using local industries and
business in order to build a strong community.
The tax office now conducts reviews
on business trading using small
business benchmarking. Small
business benchmarks as used by the
ATO are published on its website, and
are categorised into industry type, and
then turnover range.
From time to time they will issue a
notice to a business requesting further
information because they have
noticed that the business has fallen
outside the published benchmarks.
The letters are usually generated
where the business trading margins
fall significantly outside the
benchmark percentages.
The benchmarks have been developed
by the ATO, and are categorised into
turnover ranges to allow for
economies of scale which occur and
are directly related to the size of the
business.
The purpose of the benchmarks is to
identify those business who are under
reporting their income. Particularly
cash based businesses.
The process of review should your
business be operating outside the
benchmarks is:-
1. A letter is received from the ATO
requesting that the taxpayer check
their records and make any
voluntary disclosures of
unreported income or other errors
which may have occurred. A
within the requested time frame so
that the matter can be settled quickly.
Benchmarking is widely used to
review a business performance in
comparison to other business of it’s
type and size.
Benchmarking can provide the
owners with valuable insight into
their business efficiencies and
turnover performance.
If your business is operating outside
benchmarking ranges on a regular
basis, then is it imperative that the
you find the reason for this and
remedy the situation.
Unchecked margins will result in
poor profits and cashflow shortages,
which will, in turn result in a shortage
of capital available to grow your
business.
Benchmarking should be undertaken
regularly, and is best done when your
trading figures are prepared for a
quarterly business activity statement.
At the very least, an annual review is
advised. Once the benchmarking
system is setup, it is a simple process
to monitor on an ongoing basis.
If you are unsure what is required, or
want to see the benefits of
benchmarking, then please give us a
call to discuss.
statement form is provided for this.
The taxpayer is also given the
opportunity to provide a reason why
their business may be operating
outside the benchmarks.
2. Once a response is received it is
dealt with the tax office will respond
with either a decision to accept the
explanations provided, or to they
will decide to conduct a review of
the business’s trading activities.
3. Should a review be requested, then
you will need to answer a
questionnaire and provide all your
documentation for the period to the
ATO.
There may be many reasons why your
business is operating outside the
benchmarks, and these can include local
economic conditions, staffing issues,
health issues or one-off problems
associated with a particular job.
It is important to respond to the ATO
BENCHMARKING
AND THE ATO
Let’s Talk Business
11
Transition to Retirement or TTR is a
way to boost your superannuation
heading towards retirement. You can
simply begin to draw some of your
super whilst working and
contributing to super. It allows you to
put more into super, reduce your
working hours, you can maintain,
reduce or increase your take home
pay or a combination of all these.
This can be very powerful !
Salary Sacrifice is similar but not as
powerful. You can make tax
deductable contributions into your
super which places more in your
super, reduces your taxable income
and reduces your take home pay.
That’s it !
You can salary sacrifice at any age
but you can only TTR from age 55
onwards.
Let’s compare and you’ll easily see
what I mean.
Mary, a teacher aid, is 61 years
young earning $51,238 gr p.a. Her
compulsory super contributions (SG
– Super Guarantee) are $5825 p.a.
Salary Sacrifice – Mary contributes
$150 p.f. to her super = $3,900 p.a +
$5825 SG = $9725 into super. Her
take home pay is $1096 p.f.
Compared to:
TTR. Mary converts $50,000 of her
super to pension or income phase and
begins drawing $180 p.f.
She contributes $878 p.f. to super. Her
Take home pay is still $1096.
Mary gets an additional $18928 +
$5825 SG = $24,573 into her super
retirement savings this year.
What’s the difference ?
It is important to remember that 15%
contributions tax is deducted from
both contribution amounts
TTR strategy is $24,753 – 15% =
$21,040 net into super
Salary Sacrifice Strategy is $9725 –
15% = $8266 net into super
If you compare $21040 to $8266
contributions to your retirement
savings, you can see why I call it a
powerful strategy but to be fair,
Mary’s case is a good outcome, other
scenarios will vary but I think you’ll
agree, it’s worth at least looking into if
you are 55 years and want to boost
your retirement savings.
Why is this so ?
The difference between Salary
Sacrifice and TTR that makes it so
Paul GILLMORE DFS
Founder and Director
Southern Cross Financial Services
07 5429 5561
powerful is that the tax you would
otherwise have paid on the income,
goes into your super at a much
lower tax rate – the difference
between your top tax rate and the
super tax rate actually stays in
YOUR super !
The reason why it works so well for
Mary is that her top tax rate was
32.5% but with TTR her top tax rate
becomes 19%, so, it looks like this:-
Salary Sacrifice
Transition to Retirement (TTR)
Naturally there are calculations and
legislative requirements behind the
scene and all super funds will
recommend you seek financial
advice to set up your TTR strategy.
If you would like to find out more,
or how you could benefit, phone
Paul on 5429 5561
PS. This is a real scenario that I did
last week. Do you think that Mary
(not her real name) is happy?
Too bl@#dy right !
Transition to Retirement v Salary Sacrifice . . . . in Plain English !
Let’s Talk Business
12
What is Networking?
Connecting with the right people to
help your business grow and making
sure everyone knows about your
exceptional products or services is
critical to your success in business.
Learning to be an effective
networker is the key in achieving
these two goals.
Networking is a life skill, not just
something we do when we want
something.
Great networkers:
Give without expectation.
Do things for others - not to get
something back. Have a “share
and support” mentality and with
this alone anything is possible.
Believe in making the pie bigger
for everyone. They cross
network with competitors and
regularly give away referrals.
Know that having a “protection”
mentality, where people come
from fear - fear of sharing ideas,
of giving information away
freely - is a negative way to live.
Believe in the universal law of
reciprocity, they know that what
you give out comes back ten-
fold.
Remember great networkers work
at their networks for a minimum of
15 minutes per day.
__________
Build a Precise Picture of Your
Ideal Customer
Identifying your target market is the
first step of any marketing plan and
it’s essential that you are as precise
as possible.
If not, you run the risk of a scatter-
gun approach that will dilute your
you have to offer (what’s in it
for them / in what ways will
they benefit)?
____________
How Much Should I Spend On
Advertising?
This question is often asked, and there are a number of methods by which advertising budgets are determined.
However, it is worth noting that only direct advertising expenditure should be charged against your advertising account.
Direct advertising may include:
Media space or time;
Preparation of advertising material;
Photographs and show-card writing for display signs and posters;
Printed promotional material and sales literature.
Direct advertising expenses do not
include:
Advertisements that are placed in publications that are planned to assist charities – this should be charged to your Donations Account;
Gifts to clients at Christmas time;
Lunches, entertainment, or membership of clubs or organisations.
Your advertising budget, therefore,
should set out what amounts are to
be allocated to which media, and
when these amounts will be spent.
message and drain your budget.
Instead, think about your target market
in terms of specifics – who in your
current customer base is the right fit for
your product or service?
What have they purchased from you
before?
Do their purchasing patterns suggest
they might be a good target? Are they
the kind of customer you even enjoy
doing business with?
What about reaching new customers
outside your customer base?
The more specific you can be, the
easier it will be to craft the right
message and tactics for reaching that
audience.
___________
How Can You Reach your Target
Market?
Now that you know who you want to
reach and what actions you want them
to take, you’ll need to identify the best
ways to reach them and with what
message.
To do this, consider the following
about your customers and prospects:
What associations do they belong
to?
Are they active on social media?
Do they subscribe to your email
marketing?
What print or online media do they
read?
What are their ‘pain’ points (how
can you help address these)?
What types of messages or call to
actions have they responded to in
the past?
Why should they care about what
Dennis Chiron Marketing Means Business
0451 184 599 www.marketingmeansbusiness.com
[email protected] Skype: dennis.chiron2
Let’s Talk Business
13
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