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Small Business Marketing

Even with the best products and/or services in the world, you won't make many sales if your intended customers don't know about your business. To raise awareness of your brand and to kickstart your sales process, you need to start marketing and promoting the company. Sales and marketing doesn’t have to be complicated, but it is important to have a clear idea of your customers’ preferred channels and how you can engage with them in these places. Create a website and an online/digital presence...

Time is Money: Make the most of 2022!

Are you familiar with the ancient Japanese philosophy of ‘Kaizen’?Kaizen is the principle of continuous improvement that can make a huge difference to the efficiency of any company and is saving some of the world’s most powerful companies millions of dollars a year. Sound good? Here are ways you can embrace Kaizen to improve your business.What’s your waste? - This isn’t just about what’s ending up in the rubbish, it’s also unnecessary movement, overproduction of stock, waste d...

Setting up the compliance foundations for being in business

To trade as a business, you need to meet the right compliance requirements. It’s certainly not the most exciting part of creating a business, but setting up the right legal, accounting and tax compliance foundations ensures that you’re doing everything by the letter of the law.Here are the main compliance steps to think about, and why they’re so important to the smooth running of your business.Decide on a legal structure for the businessFirst off, you’ll need to make a decision about the...

Make sure your small business finances are in order

Getting your head around the basics of bookkeeping, accounting and good financial practice may not come naturally to all business owners. But the better you understand the numbers, the more control you'll have over your business and your decision-making. To get you started, here’s a rundown of some of the main financial terms and how they apply to the financial management of your startup. Revenue and money coming into the businessMost of us understand that revenue is the income you generate th...

Tax Planning & Budgeting

As a NZ resident you are responsible for paying Income tax on any taxable income. TAX RESIDENT You become a New Zealand tax resident when the first of these happens: you’ve been in New Zealand for more than 183 days in any 12-month periodyou have a permanent place of abode in New Zealand. TAXABLE INCOME Most income you get is taxable. This means we’ll include it in your end of year automatic calculation, or if you file an individual tax return – IR3 then you’ll need to declare the income...

The Difference between CASHFLOW and PROFIT

Do you know the difference between profits and cash flow? We’ll help you understand why cash is king and how to improve your cash flow management AND profitability #businessadvice #cashflow CONTENT The foundational goal of any business is to make a profit. As a business owner, that’s one of your key financial aims – to make enough sales, at a big enough margin, to generate profit from your enterprise. But how does profit differ from cashflow? And why is cash king?How do profit and cas...

Accounting basics: the profit and loss and balance sheet reports

Do you know the difference between your P&L and your balance sheet? We can explain exactly what each report means – and how it reflects your current performance as a business #businessadvice #accounting #PandL Understanding your finances is a vital part of running your business. But getting down into the nitty gritty of the company accounts isn’t every entrepreneur’s top skill. If you are new to company accounting, or simply want to expand your knowledge, we can help explain the foundation...

Do a year end in Xero?

In Xero, you don't need to do a formal year-end close or roll up journal in Xero. Follow this simple process to check your accounts are up to date.How it works In Xero there's no need to do a roll up journal to bring the profit and loss balance back to 0.00 at the end of the year. Xero's reports are created in real-time, and reports like the Profit and Loss report run from the start of the financial year using the year-end date you've specified in Xero. Once the new financial year starts, as lon...

Is Property still a good Investment?

The rules for property investors have changed, removing tax deductibility for rental loan payments and extending the bright line test to 10 years.How does this change property investing?The biggest impact of these recent changes is that investment properties are now more expensive to own, since you can no longer offset interest payments against rental income. The equations have changed: it’s harder to find positive or even cashflow neutral rentals. You’ll need to keep this in mind when you w...

The minimum wage increases on April 1st 2021

From April 1 2021, the adult minimum wage will increase from the current rate of $18.90 per hour to $20 per hour.There are 3 types of minimum wage — adult, starting-out and training.The adult minimum wage - applies to employees aged 16 years or older.The starting out minimum wage - applies to workers who are:16 and 17 years old and have been with their current employer for less than 6 months18 and 19 years old: have been paid a benefit for 6 months or morehaven’t worked for 1 e...

EOFY: 6 things you need to know for end of year payroll

It‘s coming up to the end of the financial year for many businesses – an important time to be on top of all things payroll, especially after the added complexities of 2020 (wage subsidies, minimum wage increases, changes to parental leave entitlements to name a few). Need a bit of help, or just want to check you’ve got it all under control? Keep reading… To help you prep for the end of the 2020/21 financial year, we’ve covered off the following things: Upcoming changes to legislat...

Managing your cashflow

Keep your cash flow strong to grow your business and get through challenging times. Learn how to set and manage your budget, forecast your future cash flow, and get paid faster. Watch the 35min Xero video below....

Building Client Trust

How do you gain the trust of your current and prospective clients, as well as colleagues, subordinates and others with whom you do business or want to do business? One of the best ways to build trust is to always deliver on your promises and commitments. When you commit to follow up on an issue, take ownership and do just that. A common mistake and “trust-buster” is failing to regularly communicate your status and not keeping the involved parties adequately informed. You know how frustrating...

How to have a paperless system

Paper is everywhere. We hardly think about it, but businesses spend a lot of time and money moving paperwork around. Analysts have been predicting the arrival of the paperless office for more than two decades, yet more paper is produced every year. It doesn't have to be this way. In almost all areas of business, it's now possible to get rid of paper entirely. Digital documents are simpler, easier to store and send, more searchable and more versatile than paper.But many businesses have a long way...

Choosing the right accountant

Once you've decided it's time to hire an accountant, the next step is to choose which accountant to hire. It’s important to take the time to do this carefully, and there are a few things you’ll want to consider first. You'll need to think about issues such as the accountant's location, the division of workload and the type of accounting software you'll use. Consider how much you'll have to pay the accountant, and whether they can help to reduce your business taxes.It's in your company’s be...

Stewardship

Stewardship is a job of taking care or supervising something, such as an organization or property. We also believe that stewarding relationships, health and finances makes for a great balance in ones life and business. In this blog we focus on you and your finances! Here are some tips and tricks to help manage and look after your finances. Stewardship TIP 1Do you have a system in place to manage your finances? Systems we suggest to manage your finances are Set up a 3 bank account systemIf you le...

Future proof your small business with cloud technology

Consumers significantly reduced, or even stopped spending their money with small businesses altogether, since COVID-19 hit. But, they do expect to pick this up again once the situation improves. Although they are spending less overall, consumers have actually increased their spending through digital channels. Digital spending during COVID-19 has increased significantly across all product categories that were surveyed, including goods we don’t usually buy online, such as groceries.And consumers...

Changing your thinking to financial Success

Financial Success can be described as many things for different people. Financial success is all about balance, perspective, knowledge, values, and how you define what is most important to your happiness. For others, the idea of financial success means “less”; as in, less debt, less stress, less possessions, less complications. Whether you consider yourself a “more” or “less” person, it’s all perspective and the level of energy you are willing to invest in ...

Changing your thinking to financial Success - Confidence

CONFIDENCE can be described as a belief in oneself, that one can meet life's challenges and to succeed—and acting in a way that conveys that belief. Being CONFIDENT requires having a realistic sense of one’s capabilities and feeling secure in that knowledge. KREA believe that in order to change our thinking, mindset and heart we must be CONFIDENT within ourselves and in what we are doing to make a difference for others. Our brand line was “Cultivating financial CONFIDENCE.” As an ent...

Changing your thinking to financial Success - Listening

LISTENING is an active process of receiving and responding to a spoken message through a form of communication. KREA believe that in order to change our thinking, mindset and heart, we must be an effective LISTENER. LISTENING is at the top of all the competencies to successfully manage communication in a leadership role....

Changing your thinking to Financial Success - Adapting

ADAPTING is making something suitable for a new purpose. KREA believe that in order to change our thinking, mindset and heart, we must be ADAPTABLE. We may ask how one ADAPTS. After listening to Doctor Shimi Kang and her research we agree that using her study of the analogy P.O.D, will provide a strategy to assist with being adaptable. In this case we use a dolphin POD as an example, which is a group of dolphins. Dolphins are social creatures and they group in PODS (also call...

Cyber security basics?

We’ve all heard the cyber security buzzwords – phishing, botnets, malware. You might be thinking, are these real and am I really at risk? The truth is, cyber criminals don’t tend to target businesses or individuals in particular. They target weakness. Cyber attacks are automated, they constantly probe for weaknesses, which is why it’s important to get into good security habits.  In light of this month’s Cyber Smart Week in New Zealand and Scams Awareness Week in Australia, we’ve...

Chapter 2 - Putting small business ideas into action

Putting small business ideas into action How do you come up with a small business idea and how do you decide if it’s any good? Can you do your own research? When will you need to get professionals involved?  Here’s how to put your business idea into action. Where do good business ideas come from? Not many businesses start with a eureka moment. Some don’t even start with an idea at all. A hobbyist, for example, might just fall into business by doing what they love.Most other businesses...

Chapter 1 - The secret to starting a business

Starting a new business is a big job, but don’t let that put you off. Thousands of people do it every day and those collective experiences have given us guidelines.Starting a business is a process, not an event People talk about ‘taking the plunge’ into small business like it’s an adrenalin sport. And there will be some heart-stopping moments, like when you take a loan, sign a lease, or greenlight your first order of supplies.But starting a business isn’t one big decision. It’s hundr...

Budgeting and forecasting

Starting a business is a big financial decision. Before you get going, you’ll want to estimate how much money it will chew through, and how much it will make. Welcome to the world of budgeting and forecasting. What is a business budget? Budgets show how money will come and go from your business over a period of time (usually a year). That money might come in as loans or revenue from sales. It will go out on things like inventory, rent, advertising and wages for you and your staff. Most budgets...