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7 Tips to Deal with Cash Flow during Coronavirus

Mar 16, 2020

Now more than ever, we need to be smart about how we do business. Here are my top 7 tips for dealing with cash flow to ensure business success:

1. Review your expenses.

Firstly, let's look at your business costs. For each items ask yourself these questions:
  1. Is it essential?
  2. Is there a less expensive alternative that will provide the same result
  3. Can we do without this for a period of time whilst we ride out the current challenges?
Secondly, do the same with your personal/living costs. By reviewing both business and personal expenses, the aim is to reduce their drain on your cash flow.

2. Aim to put 10% of your income aside into a savings account to build a stash of cash.

This is difficult to do and a bit like the mantra of "pay yourself first before you pay your bills". If 10% is just too hard as your cash flow is already very tight, start with 5% or even 2%. It may not be much but every dollar saved, may save the day in the future.
 
Do you remember the Christmas...
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Is Modern Business the Goal for Traditional Businesses?

Mar 09, 2020

Do you have a traditional business where you are tethered to your office, shop or workplace? A business that serves the local community but you dream of growing bigger and serving a larger market?

Marketing gurus spruik the benefits of having an online business where you can make money while you're sleeping. Whilst there's a degree of hype in their messages, the underlining model is where the future lies.

Example

A good friend of mine owned a retail shop for many years. She sold it some years ago to focus on manufacturing, importing and direct selling. Over time, as online product sales became the way her target market was buying, she moved her business online.
 
Imagine waking up in the morning to find sales processed overnight. Her business evolved from waiting for someone to walk into the physical shop to having her business open 24/7 online. Having an online shop doesn't guarantee sales. You've still got to do the marketing to get people to your online shop for them to...
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Modern Business rising from the ashes of Traditional Businesses

Mar 04, 2020

The types of businesses operating today have changed significantly from the traditional businesses we all know.

 
You know the ones; the ones with a bricks and mortar presence, whether it's a shop, a workshop, a factory unit or an office. Businesses traditionally were location specific and served the local community. Their incomes are directly linked to the size of the community around them and those who pass through or come for holidays.
 
In Australia, those traditional businesses in areas impacted by bushfires have been badly impacted. There are those whose businesses were engulfed in flames losing everything. There are others where the business premises were saved from the flames, but the community around them is in crisis. Holidaymakers were ordered to stay away or go home.
 
The livelihoods of these business owners has been damaged beyond belief.
 

Small Business

Small business is a term that has multiple definitions depending on the context in...
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5 Tips to Deal with the Stress of Travel

May 16, 2019

I love to travel, and I’ll use any excuse to get on a plane.

So, if there’s an interesting conference in an overseas location or a speaking opportunity I’ll be itching to go, and even better when I have clients in far-flung locations around the world. And the sad thing is, it doesn’t even have to be an exotic location, although those are more interesting and fun.

OVER THE YEARS, I’VE TRAVELLED FREQUENTLY FOR BOTH BUSINESS AND PLEASURE, AND I’VE DEVELOPED MY FIVE MUST DO’S TO REDUCE STRESS FOR ANY TRIP I TAKE, WHICH ARE:

1. Arrive at the airport well before your departure time. I got caught out once arriving at a US airport for a domestic flight to Los Angeles with a connecting international flight back to Australia.

We arrived about an hour or so before the flight to find a very long queue for the check-in machines. By the time we got to them, it was just under an hour before we would travel, and we were told that because we were flying...

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Love Is In Your Business

Feb 14, 2019

Around Valentine's Day, we all think of love as relationships with loved ones... but you have a relationship with your business too.

You need to love and be in love with your business for it to thrive, and survive into the future.

I'm sure when you started out, you were super excited, passionate about it, loved what you were doing. That's why you started, right?

After you've been in business for a little while are you still jumping out of bed with the same enthusiasm?

Do you still love what you're doing with the same passion and energy that you started?

Probably not as after a little while reality kicks in.

The reality of having enough money to pay the bills.  The reality of the hours you need to put in to make it work.

In order for a business to succeed you have to love your business, and you need to learn to love your numbers too.  Because the numbers are everywhere.

Numbers are part of everything you do - they're the lifeblood of the business.

Whether...

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How to calculate the most crucial number for your business

Jan 11, 2019

Often the focus in business is all around revenue, but there is one crucial number that service-based businesses need to focus on even more.

Break-even.

Break-even is the minimum amount of income you need to cover all your costs.  It’s the bare minimum number you need to keep your head above water each month.

So how do you figure it out?

Oddly enough, we’ll start with your non-business expenses. Your personal expenses.  While break even is all about the business, we need to understand what you need to be drawing out of the business to look after yourself.  Think of this as your personal break even!

1. Start by writing a list of your personal expenses

These are your portion of the household expenses to keep the house running smoothly. We’re talking mortgage, rent, electricity, telephone, clothing, entertainment, schooling, food. 

If you're already drawing a certain amount out of your business - as a salary or drawings – this is a good...

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Business Financials: Look to the Future, Not Over Your Shoulder

Jul 30, 2018
We have eyes that look forward to where we’re going and whilst some people may say they have eyes in the back of the head, the reality is they don’t.
 
So why is it then, that when we’re looking at finances, we are continually looking backward and not looking to the future? Pilots are at the front of the plane watching where the plane is going, into the future, as they fly us around the world. They’re not looking behind them at where they’ve been. The past is useful and has a place. Pilots use their experiences and lessons learned in the past to help them fly the plane into the future.

SO WE TOO SHOULD BE FOCUSING ON FINANCIAL FIGURES THAT ARE LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE WHILST USING THE HISTORICAL, PAST REPORTS TO GUIDE US.

People in agricultural businesses are great at doing this.
 
Whilst they use their experience over the years, even decades, of growing and harvesting their crops, they are continually looking to the future to make...
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