For many, the word ‘budget’ is about as appealing as the word ‘diet’. 

It seems to imply what you will go without, rather than what you will achieve. 

To a successful business owner, however, the word ‘budget’ has a very different meaning.

It’s more like a map than a diet. It’s an outline of where you want to take the business, and what you need to achieve to get there...Read more

“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 business, you could easily lose that client. Which is a pity, because it seemed they really wanted to do business with you...Read more

“You need to work on your business, not just in your business.” 

Made popular by The E-Myth Revisited author Michael Gerber, it’s advice I’m sure you’ve heard dozens of times over the years (I certainly have). But despite being told over and over again, many small business owners still don’t seem to truly understand what it means...Read more

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 – both from the work of unscrupulous individuals/organisations and through innocent breaches of IP... Read more

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 formal recruitment process.

But be careful. Even though you hired them as a contractor, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) may actually see them as an employee. And the penalties for disguising an employee as an independent contractor (known as “sham contracting”) can be up to $51,000 per instance... Read more

 “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...Read more

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, retail, healthcare, construction, security, or similar fields it can be even more challenging... Read more

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 be connected with and engaged... Read more

They say only two things are certain in life: death and taxes. For a lot of people, there’s also a third certainty in life: the pain of keeping track of every receipt when it’s time to do the taxes.

How many times has your bookkeeper or finance manager asked you for a receipt (that you swore you stuffed somewhere in the wad of receipts in your wallet) that you’ve then had to scramble and search everywhere to find?... Read more

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 still determined to drive the steam engine?...Read more