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Success in business requires a number of essential ingredients. A sound strategy. A robust business model. Effective planning. Strong financial control and bookkeeping. A good team. Great systems. Measurement. Focus. But you know what? Even all those elements are not enough without this skill: Execution. Call it “Getting Things Done”, making things happen, implementation skills, […]

Intellectual property. It’s a hot topic.  Why?  Because, in the globalised and ultra-connected world we live in, the intellectual property (IP) of individuals and businesses is increasingly at risk. It’s not just famous cases like Ugg Boots that are making the news. Trade mark, patent and copyright infringements in general are on the rise – […]

When a prospective client asks you for a quote, it’s a powerful opportunity to make a sale. In fact, with the right response you may be able to ‘seal the deal’ almost immediately. But if you take your time to respond, provide wildly different quotes for similar work, or otherwise send bad signals about your […]

While everyone wants their businesses to be successful and operate for a long time, you may not necessarily want to remain at the helm. At some point, you may want to pass the business on to your children, or to someone else in the company. You may want to sell your share to your business […]

In a lot of situations, hiring a contractor to get a particular job done makes perfect sense. It may require expertise or skills none of your employees has. You may only need someone for a short timeframe to clear a backlog of work. Or maybe you just want to avoid having to go through a […]

The world has changed. Work has changed.  The possibilities provided by cloud and mobile technologies are beyond what most people would even have considered possible just a decade ago. But have you adapted and updated your systems to keep up with — and take advantage of — these exciting and fast-moving changes? Or are you […]

As a business owner, do you or your managers spend a lot of time recruiting, conducting exit interviews, and onboarding new staff?  When the ‘revolving door’ in and out of your business doesn’t stop revolving, it can impact so many parts of the business that it soon becomes a priority to address the problem. A […]

Busy work. That work you have to get done, but somehow seems to take over your entire day and before you know it, you’ve reached the end of the week and still haven’t managed to make a dent on the most important task on your to-do list. Sure, this can be about priorities, but more […]

They say there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. For many people, there’s also a third certainty: the pain of keeping track of receipts. How many times has your bookkeeper or manager asked you for a receipt (that you swore you stuffed into that wad of receipts somewhere) that you’ve then had […]

Any business that isn’t planning for the future is planning to get left behind. While most business owners know that budgeting is a critical part of their planning, there is some confusion about which components should be included in a budget. There are three critical elements. Together, they provide the oversight you need for your […]

Thinking of selling? Or just curious to know the value of your business in case you do decide to put it on the market at some point? Many business owners are well-wide of the mark when placing a value on their prized asset. They overvalue it and under-prepare for their exit, believing in a huge […]

Cloud computing and web-based apps have undoubtedly improved business efficiency. But once you and your team start using various online apps, one aspect quickly becomes inefficient (not to mention downright annoying): having to repeatedly enter usernames and passwords to log in. It’s bad enough having to enter a multitude of login credentials when you first […]

“Signing on the dotted line.” It wasn’t all that long ago that phrase meant signing pen-on-paper. Increasingly these days it can also mean signing on-screen with a stylus—or even with your finger tip!—or by using your computer and keyboard. So why have many businesses moved to using electronic signatures? What are the advantages over using […]

So, you’re thinking about using a marketing calendar for your business but you’re not sure if it’s worth the effort or how exactly to go about it. Let’s clear something up right off the bat: you DEFINITELY need a marketing calendar. No matter what business you’re in or how small it is, you need to […]

“I get all my business from word-of-mouth marketing.” “I’m a referral business.” “I don’t have the budget for marketing.” “I’m just too busy to market my business!” If you find yourself saying any of the above, it’s likely that you experience considerable peaks and troughs in your small business. Why? Because it means that you […]

We’ve seen plenty of spectacular social media fails from large corporations over the years – from McDonald’s accidentally (or deliberately, some have argued) tweeting placeholder text, to the social media planner for Britain’s HMV using the company’s Twitter account to live-tweet the sacking of over 60 employees. There was Donald Trump’s ‘covfefe’ tweet, and that […]

If someone gave you the opportunity to attend a meeting where thousands of your prospects were also present, you’d be silly not to take them up on the offer…right? This opportunity might be staring you in the face. LinkedIn is the world’s largest database of professionals; hundreds of millions of professionals waiting there, ready to […]

Telecommuting, teleworking, working from home, mobile work, remote work, flexible workplace… whatever you want to call it, it amounts to the same thing. No chats about last night’s match at the watercooler. No comparing notes about the movie you watched. And no after-work drinks. Just the work, I’m afraid. But, looking on the bright side, […]

Still using spreadsheets for rosters, timesheets, and payroll? The administrative load involved in efficiently rostering staff, preparing accurate timesheets, and ensuring that everyone is paid correctly can be a huge burden on a small business – especially if you are doing it all manually. If your business involves shift work or hourly work in hospitality, […]

It’s easy to be wise after the event. Taking out certain types of personal insurance is being wise before the event!  What happens if you’re in a bad accident and need to take an extended period off work to recover? Or you were left permanently disabled – or worse? What would happen if you got […]

Whoever said, “You can never have too much insurance” obviously never had to pay the premiums. Still, there’s no denying the fact you need it to protect your business and its assets. So you probably have building and contents, public liability and public indemnity insurance. But what else should you get cover for? What else […]

As much as you try to share skills, knowledge and information in your company, you probably have some people who are key to your business’ success.  It might be a Director or the CEO, whose vision made it a success in the first place. It might be your star salesperson, or someone in your IT […]

You don’t need to be a genius to realise that Building & Construction is a “long lead time” industry. It takes months or years to get a project off the ground, and months or years to complete it. So, the impact of the “buyer’s strike” created by the COVID-19 recession (and tighter bank lending policies) […]

There’s a saying in business, “You can go broke making a profit.” And another, “Cash is king. Profit is theory.” As you know only too well, you don’t pay rent, meet payroll or pay your bills with profit. You pay them with cash. A business can make a lot of sales, have a book full […]

As a business owner, there are plenty of things you need to manage, and two of the most important of these are assets and risks. In other words, building your wealth and protecting your wealth. There’s no point building a lot of wealth if the way you have things structured behind the scenes means that […]

Published: May 10, 2020 As a small business owner, decision making can be stressful, especially when there’s a lot on the line. However, decision making is one of the key aspects of the job description. Just like Neo in The Matrix, you will be required to make many decisions, both big and small. Do you […]

Published: May 9, 2020 If you’re the man in charge of construction projects, you know the tremendous amount of work it takes to keep everything running smoothly. You can have upwards of a hundred people work on a site for months or even years, with tight budgets and potential risks arising every day. With that […]

Published: May 8, 2020 The medical industry is one of the most financially stressful fields to work in, from struggling university student to practice owner. We recently spoke to a group of medical practitioners about how to solve their financial problems and set up their practices for success. After our presentation, we also got to […]

Published: May 7, 2020 Last year we covered the top 10 issues facing the construction industry in 2019, which was read by thousands of people and helped construction companies solve their problems. We decided that we should update this list, and check in on the new challenges that construction business owners were facing. The new […]

Published: May 6, 2020 If you’re a small business owner, there’s no reason why 2019 can’t be your best year yet! Set your goals, put in the work to achieve them and take your business to the next level. Of course, to do this you will have to overcome many hurdles along the way. It’s […]

Published: May 5, 2020 Every profitable construction business in the struggling Perth building sector at the moment is likely to have one thing in common – a good CFO. That CFO is often an outsourced specialist who provides these builders with regular business advice based on their specific circumstances. How can you tell if you […]

Published: May 3, 2020 Losing money on a construction project causes financial headaches (and in some cases, disaster) for the businesses and contractors involved. Being experienced business advisors in the Perth construction sector, we understand how it can happen. But more importantly, we also know how losing money can be avoided. Our business advisors put […]

Published: May 2, 2020 If you want to reward yourself with an expensive toy for all the hard work you’re putting into your Perth construction business, there’s one sure-fire way to do it: INCREASE PROFIT. You know that solid foundations are the key to anything you build. It’s the same with planning to increase profit […]