ideas and updates

Business Planning: It’s Back to Basics by Jon Hemming

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:32:00 GMT

Get Back On Top

As always, ‘failing to plan, is planning to fail’. In today’s rapidly changing, increasingly competitive commercial environment, there has never been a better time to revisit your business plan and get back on top.

Business success in 2012, as it has been in years gone by, is all about having a solid understanding of your customers, your industry and your competition. Only today, faced with uncertain financial times and global competition, it’s crucial to analyse, assess and plan your way forward… its business planning, and it is the only way to succeed.

Business planning provides a proven framework to collect crucial information about your customers, your industry and competition. But it’s not something that can be done once then forgotten. To be successful you need to regularly look at your customers’ needs – to understand why they connect with your business and how they want products and services delivered. Then you need to look at current industry pressures and maintain an eye on your competition.

Global and Economic Pressures

There’s no doubt that the global financial crisis has had a long-term impact on business and consumers. Customers are attuned to purchasing goods and services at bargain basement prices, and many businesses are happy to deliver on these terms, just to survive.

This situation is further compounded by the Internet, which provides the power to research and compare similar products and services from around the world online – and buy from alternative markets as well.

The Power of a Business Plan

You may feel that in the face of the current economy and with the threat of global competition, your customers have the upper hand. However there is a way to fight back. Business planning provides a methodical process to define your customers’ needs, your product placement and marketing approach. A comprehensive business plan will analyse:

• Your customers
• Your industry
• Your competition

Having analysed these three integral factors, you’ll have a greater understanding of the global industry, be aware of your competition and be ready to reconnect with customer purchasing preferences. Then you can develop and deliver an appropriate strategy to win your customers’ loyalty and keep it.

Know Your Customer

Many business owners believe they know their customers and can’t understand why they’re faced with losing market share and declining repeat business. Customer research, collected by an objective professional as part of a business plan, will provide you with accurate information about what your customers want in today’s environment.

Armed with a clear knowledge, your marketing team can tweak your product then get to work on promoting the brand in a concise, compelling and effective way.

Understand Your Industry

The current strength of the Australian dollar has made imported products less expensive and placed increased pressure on many domestic industry sectors. To survive in this economy, you need an objective assessment of your industry that includes:

• The size, potential and structure of your industry
• Political forces
• Emerging market trends
• Imminent changes to industry

Stay Ahead of Your Competition

Uniqueness is key when it comes to retaining a strong presence in a tight market, yet most customers will believe your business is one of many to offer the same products or services. That makes it essential to differentiate your brand – and to communicate your product’s uniqueness in a way that will prompt your customers to buy.

By understanding your competition and your customers you can do this. Additionally, you’ll be better placed to identify possible threats, opportunities and strategies your competitors may choose to implement.

Work, Health and Safety Legislation Across Australia 2012 | What You Need To Know

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:22:00 GMT

Get the front end Right!

We need to start with the end in mind, that’s simple, Zero injuries, Zero incidents, Reduction in Workers Compensation premiums, (Workcover is broke, Expect between 30-50% increases in premiums this year) increased productivity and a better cost benefit ratio.

On January 1^st 2012, health and safety in the workplace as you know, has changed – forever.

New national WHS laws have been introduced to harmonise Work, Health and Safety legislation across Australia.

Under the proposed new laws, you will have to:

Adjust to a completely new set of safety duties;

There is a new Act and Regulations making every document, every program, Management Program, SWMS, Safety Plan and Training, anything you have ever done is now OBSOLETE and you will need to redo everything that has been done in the past, update it and make all the changes required under the new Act and Regulations etc.

New Health and Safety Representatives (HSR’s) will need to be appointed and voted upon and they will need to undertake a NEW 5 day compulsory course (indicative cost $1250 pp.) If you employ 5 or more workers, a committee “must” be formed i.e. several staff needs to be trained or other consultative arrangements made… I can save you thousands of $$$ here!!

Upon completion of training HSR’s will be able to stop all works, issue Provisional Improvement Notices (PIN”s) to the PCBU…you, failure to rectify the Pin then you are fined. (Instigated by your own staff)

Change the way you do business to comply with a new range of WHS obligations;

Huge changes with stricter controls for just a few things like:

Asbestos Management
Machine Guarding
Chemical Management (Bunding etc.)
Forklift (daily pre start checks)
Consultation

Comply with new restrictions and consequences for discriminatory conduct.

There are significant extra management responsibilities regarding workplace bullying, Harassment, Victimization and stress. Monster increased fines including 10 year Jail terms.

Learn new rules for union rights of entry.

Yes, Union representatives will have the power to enter any site/workplace that has a union member or that a potential union member may be on.

They will be able to issue Pin notices, Instigate fines and prosecutions for breaches of WHS.

So instead of just having 360 odd Workcover inspectors you will have some extra thousands of Union Reps conducting the same inspections, investigations etc.

These changes – and many more – will affect ALL AUSTRALIAN WORKPLACES, yours included, so you need to make sure you are prepared.

The front end consists of all the statutory obligations or the “you musts” in the legislation they include Inductions, Emergency Procedures, Hazard Identification, Assessment, Controls, Reviews and Consultation, to name a few.

When staff are inducted with the rules of employment they cannot come back later with statements like, I wasn’t aware of that or no one told me I could not do that. This is standard tactic used regularly by the Civil litigation Companies looking for your compensation dollars.

“I have some very strong relationships with some of Australia’s largest companies. These have been built upon dealing with some very difficult issues, such as aging workforces, cultures of bullying or harassment, multi lingual workplaces and workers attempting to take advantage of compensation laws”.

For example at one business, there was a very loose hiring procedure. “This was literally killing the business. People with existing conditions were just not being picked up and it was not a matter of properly managing injured or infirm workers. This company did not even know these people had problems. In several cases workers were reporting injuries that cost the company many thousands of dollars after being employed, in some cases, just a few days.

Proper pre-selection is the key. It makes very good business sense to thoroughly check for any physical problems, such as wrist, shoulder, neck and back problems, prior to employment. A good physiotherapist can do this and the cost is minimal compared to a payout and increased compensation costs.

The steps you may need to tighten up on are as follows!

Be very careful with your recruitment. Check out prospective staff especially if the demographic is in the middle to older age bracket. Some may have pre-existing conditions and some are habitual Compo claimants that all have “wear and tear” and several hundreds of thousands of your dollars are at risk either by direct claim or increased premiums. Check them out properly!

Remember the rule of thumb is “if the activity could have contributed to the injury in any way then you are liable” for the Compo that means your premiums could be trebled!

Induction needs to be carried out for both new and existing staff and this includes site rules, emergency evacuation procedures, first aid etc. You must get control over all staff especially the ones that have been around for years!

Establish any existing muscular skeletal problems with current staff and manage accordingly.
Get your statutory obligations completed and active.
Establish a regular Consultation process with staff.
Look at your attendance to evidential due diligence programs. (remember the only defence anyone has any control over is evidence of prior due diligence) This is really important!
Look at your Risk Management. Have your Supervisors been suitably trained? Are they implementing, monitoring and training on procedures, machine operations, correct lifting etc.
Consider the need for constant improvement, ongoing education, awareness programs.
Look at what is done when an injury occurs.

In terms of minimising injury downtime there is a golden rule. “When a worker is injured then that is an emergency. Every effort must be taken to control the situation and that includes physically taking or accompanying the worker to the hospital and making an effort to participate in setting up the return to work on that initial visit to the doctor or hospital where possible. This includes having a list of light duties available for the doctor to consider in order to speed up Rehabilitation Programs and to lessen the time off work”.

When workers are not managed at this stage, the potential for extended claims are greatly increased and costs are massive. Supervisors initially will complain about being off site but they begin to appreciate the wisdom of this action as the doctor can also be influenced by how much they see the company cares. Where there are line ball decisions to be made, they will favour companies that show an active interest and caring attitude to the patient and of course, the supervisor can answer questions about what is and isn’t possible in terms of managing the injury in the workplace.

The Law and You!

WHS Law is based on Duty of Care! Simply it means you must ensure the Health, Safety and Welfare of yourself and anyone else on your workplace.

Therefore if an injury occurs, you are automatically exposed as you have failed your duty to ensure Health and Safety.

Whilst there are several defences available like who is in control and acts of god, there is only one that anyone has any control over and that is prior Due Diligence.

Due Diligence simply means that you have done everything reasonably practicable prior to the event.

This is the bit I find most lacking in every business. Everyone has good intentions and some sophisticated programs but they never quite get around to actually doing the consultation, training, ongoing education, safe work processes and procedures.

You need to seriously address these points of Due Diligence! They need not be stumbling blocks, they, when completed, are in fact your savior and become stepping stones to a safe and prosperous workplace.

Philip B Martin

CEO

Work, Health and Safety Australia Pty Ltd

phil@workhealthandsafetyaustralia.com

phil@worksafeinbusiness.com.au

Mobile: 0433 958 473

Phone: (02) 9636 6821

Improving Productivity Starts With Improving Management

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:24:00 GMT

Business owners know that workers who aren’t using their time and resources effectively are costing the company money. Declining productivity means falling profits and sliding competitive position. That makes the findings from this year’s Proudfoot Productivity Report a cause of concern to employers.

The 2011 report covered businesses in the U.S., Australia and Europe. It reports a disturbing average of 18% of working time wasted among the surveyed businesses. The U.S. came in as most efficient with ‘only’ 14.1% of working hours wasted while Australia topped the charts at 19.4% wasted.

Analysis of contributory causes revealed that more than three-quarters of inefficient working in 2006 could be attributed to just three causes:
• Inadequate workforce supervision (31% of all wasted time)
• Poor management planning and control of work (30%)
• Poor communication (18%)

The remainder of wasted time recorded was the result of IT problems, low morale and a skills absence or mismatch.

When managers were asked to select from a range of actions they considered could increase workplace productivity the top 2 they chose were investment in workforce skills and investment in management skills. But this may be putting the cart before the horse.

The interesting thing is that all three major contributors to time waste are directly referable to internal management practices. Wasted time may be up, but as the report recognises, the root cause for that is inadequate management supervision, disjointed planning of production processes and inadequate communication of the information employees need to work at their most productive level.

Managers can’t dodge their share of responsibility for the amount of time wasted each year by under-producing employees. When it comes to improving productivity the first area to attend to should be reforming poor management practices and getting managers up to speed in some basic skills.

Workforce Supervision
How to supervise a group of people effectively is a basic HR skill for anybody in a position of leadership or management. Managers should have at least some training in critical HR areas such as employment law, selecting people with the right workforce skills, setting compensation packages, training and developing employees and carrying out performance reviews. These HR skills underpin your ability to get the best out of your employees and improve organisational performance.

Management Planning
The ability to work to a business plan that sets out the broad goals to be achieved in a given period of time, organise all the inputs required to achieve the goals, coordinate the activities and monitor progress towards them are all essential managerial skills necessary to achieve business growth, yet the ability of many managers in these areas is problematic.

Inefficient practices are rarely improved by simply automating them. Introducing technology before optimising the process it is intended to improve merely results in automated inefficiency. But how many managers take the time to analyse just how efficiently their key processes, such as supply chain operations, are working? How many take the effort to develop procedure manuals to ensure employees do things in a consistent and approved manner?

Communication
Managers often have issues with formulating and delivering clear verbal instruction. This can be addressed to a large degree by having the right support resources in place: a clear organisational structure; well defined job descriptions to avoid confusion about responsibilities; policies and procedures manuals to provide a definitive answer on the approved method of doing things; and investing time in inducting and training new employees. Implementing measures like these will reap huge long term productivity benefits.

Employees do usually try to achieve what they think the job requires of them. To get them achieving the right things you need to be very clear in the instruction you provide, whether that be at the level of explaining how to perform a process or what goals the business is trying to achieve and their role in contributing to their attainment.

Poor productivity can be the result of just plain time wasting by employees but more likely it’s the result of poor planning, inefficient practices and an inability to clearly communicate what needs doing. Whether through coaching, talking to a business advisor or putting themselves through one of the many SME management short courses on offer, a manager has a responsibility to make themselves the best they can be before laying problems of poor productivity at the feet of their employees.

Multichannel Strategy - Why Retailing Is Failing

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 06:28:00 GMT

As a business owner in 2012 your success will be directly linked to how well you understand the psychology of why customers choose to connect to your business. over which channels and how these insights can be used to optimise organisational channel strategy.

A more globalised, connected, networked and informed world changes the way that customers view service and sales. There is clear evidence around how the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds are starting to blur.

The many aspects of the customer decision-making process are mediated by “networked experts” who are frequently part of customers’ social network rather than company employees. It also underlines the importance of getting a consistent and coherent cross media strategy which often challenges the traditional silos of physical channel, website and retail store.

Despite the fact that multichannel strategies have been around for a number of years now, many companies have yet to implement a successful multi channel strategy despite the fact that the customer is demanding one.

With power and control shifting from organisations to customers, can organisations afford not to understand what customers are looking for from the channels available to them?

Online Strategy | Understanding Different Applications for Personalization

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:25:00 GMT

There is so much information on this topic. A great article by Bryan Yeager demystifies much on this topic.

“Personalization” continues to be a prominent topic in a number of different circles: marketing, publishing, eCommerce, social networking, and search. It’s no wonder why: personalization helps boost response rates and profitability in cross-media campaigns, helps marketers drive conversion on their Websites & landing pages, and much more.

Wikipedia provides a very broad definition of personalization, which I do like: “using technology to accommodate the differences between individuals.” Specific to the groups that I am referring to, I believe that personalization can be more precisely defined as leveraging data to deliver relevant content to specific individuals.

That’s still pretty broad; what kind of data? what kind of content? what channels are being used? With this many constituencies looking to use personalization in their own ways to meet specific goals, those answers can range extensively. Furthermore, when these groups end up talking to each other about personalization, it can cause confusion and miscommunication. To clear the air, so-to-speak, I wanted to shed some light on the different ways personalization is being employed by these different groups.

Cross-media Direct Marketing: You’re likely familiar with the personalization model for cross-media campaigns: a digitally-printed direct mail piece (or e-mail) with variable text and graphic elements and a personalized URL, which links to a personalized microsite with variable text and graphic elements, often highlighting the recipient’s name in some way. Personal and demographic data is primarily used to drive the personalization in these applications. Depending on the client/campaign, additional data may be used for more granular, relevant content.
Digital Marketing: Personalization is popular with digital marketers. E-mail is a popular spot for personalization: according to a 2011 study by marketing technology provider Alterian, 72% of marketing professionals surveyed reported using personalization for their e-mail campaigns. E-mail marketing complexity ranges from mass blasts to segmentation to real-time individualization, typically using customer data and purchase history data to make recommendations. Another prominent personalization tactic for marketers is retargeting, which involves serving ads to a specific user after they have left a Website in efforts to raise brand awareness, recapture their attention, and drive people back to their Website.

eCommerce: Business-to-consumer eCommerce was and still is a center of innovation in Web personalization, driven by Amazon.com and other eTailers looking to provide a custom-tailored experience for each individual user in hopes of getting them to buy more. For these sites, personalization often comes in the form of a recommendation engine, which tracks your browsing habits, shopping cart, wish list, reviews, purchase history, and other facets to deliver personalized recommendations on what the system thinks you would like. It should be noted that digital marketing goes hand-in-hand with eCommerce; real-time individualized e-mail marketing is common for eCommerce companies, and retargeting helps bring back shoppers that left the conversion funnel.

Publishing: For print publishing, personalization often means mass customization, specifically in the print-on-demand model for books, where eCommerce orders trigger specific books to be printed, often in one-off fashion. Services like MagCloud and Time Inc’s Mine Magazine endeavor represent personalization efforts for magazines. On the Web and in digital media, personalization is geared more toward delivering relevant content based on an individual’s specific interests or preferences. Sometimes meeting this objective requires readers to input specific information about their tastes; other times, information like a Twitter, Facebook, or Google Reader account may be analyzed to assess your interests and deliver content based on who you’re friends with, who you follow, or what news you already read. A great example of this method is exhibited through Zite, a “personalized digital magazine” mobile app.

Social Networking: Social networks are rife with different types of individuals’ data, making them ideal for personalization. Social networks typically employ personalization to deliver relevant content feeds from a user’s friends or connections on a network, as well as to deliver highly-targeted display advertising. For content delivery, networks may use algorithms to interpret connections, interactions, and profile information among users and deliver content based on what it believes is most relevant to each user. For advertising, networks typically act a facilitator between advertisers and users, presenting key profile characteristics of users that advertisers can choose to target. Facebook generated over $3.5 billion in revenue through this type of advertising.

Search: Search engines have always utilized algorithms to determine the display results of a user’s query, but these algorithms have recently started to take user information, such as profile or location data, into consideration before displaying results. Just recently, Google stepped up its game in this area, launching “Search, plus Your World“, which integrates a user’s Google+ data into everyday search queries. Advertising is a critical component to search, and generated over $35 billion in revenue worldwide for Google in 2011. Up until now, most search ads have been delivered based on the content of users’ search queries, but location information and even personal information are starting to be used to deliver more targeted search ads to users.

At its core, all that is needed to enable personalization is data, content, and a mechanism to have one drive the other. As has been covered, applying personalization for different use cases has a substantial impact on the type of data being used, the content that is being tied to that data, and the types of delivery mechanisms that enable that personalization. Understanding these differences and requirements for each application can help different stakeholders communicate more effectively when pursuing personalization, as well as open the door to new opportunities

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Marketing Solutions That Deliver

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:25:00 GMT

In challenging economic times, more and more pressure is put on making your marketing and advertising dollar go further. Still so many businesses continue to take pot-shots with their advertising only the detriment of the bottom line, and the long-term stability of their businesses.

Why not create a sales and marketing campaign that really boost sales instead of just lining the ad agencies pockets?

That all sounds great, however, do you know which advertising strategies best work for your business? Or are you simply guessing and taking pot-shots with your advertising?

To avoid this, it’s really important to know which sales and marketing strategies work today in this consumer environment. Many companies are now out of touch with the changing consumer behaviour and with the squeeze on tighter spending, are missing out on all-important revenue.

So what is the solution? One of the best ways to get back in the driver’s seat with your sales and marketing is to find out what your customers need today. Gone are the days relying on customer loyalty and hoping that the fax machine will simply turnover with orders.

Too much effort I hear you say? Well what’s the alternative? Do nothing and let the competition take you over? OR take action and save yourself a lot of time and money trying to work out what will be successful in your advertising today.

So with this in mind, businesses who have been spending more time understanding their customers are winning in these difficult economic times. Why not try conducting your own market research with your customers via immediate response advertising?

That’s right; remember the old adage “what gets measured gets managed”? Well this has never been truer because, if you can measure the results of your advertising, you can assess just where advertising is really boosting your sales, dollar for dollar.

Immediate response advertising through the following channels will help you ascertain how effectively your marketing dollar is being spent:

• customer enquiries
• split runs in newspapers
• sales monitoring
• monitoring retail store traffic
• surveys

Utilise these low-cost ways to get back in touch with your important clients and really understand what’s important to them today.

This first important step will get you business on its way to remaining competitive, whereby you can maintain your customer contact and also give them more what they want without the guess work. This could lead to making small changes in your service and or product to meet their needs accordingly or find a brand-new market opportunity.

Take the lead today and if this sounds a little complicated, don’t worry. Your Unity Management consultant can help you design a marketing plan and set up an integrated sales program that will measure the results, and assist in data analysis. They can also show you ways to actually improve the conversion rate from initial enquiry to your ads, through to a sale, so as to further increase the return on your advertising investment. Start today and get the edge.

Business Planning for Success - Make 2012 Your Most Successful Year Yet

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:25:00 GMT

The New Year provides a great opportunity to review your business situation. Once the Christmas festivities are out of the way, it’s time to make your business New Year resolutions a reality.

Many business owners know the improvements they would like to make in their business but many get stuck with the practicalities of devising the projects necessary to turn the business around with the available finances and resources.

The idea of working to a budget is foreign to most SME owners - that’s something that big companies do. Without putting your business plan into figures it is very difficult to make an informed decision about how to improve your business in the coming year and into the future. Are you in running your business without a budget and making critical decision?

Business owners who take the approach that budgeting isn’t for them, often operate reactively and drive the business for the short term, plugging away week by week working out what they need to do with their revenue as it comes in to meet immediate obligations.

By developing a budget for your business, you are taking a proactive approach in your business and most importantly collecting the critical information to make a better decision. Whether it relates to operational challenges, the cost of production or upcoming development expenses, budgeting can be both a “sobering” and empowering experience.

Instead of simply allocating the money that comes through the door, you start with planning for the year ahead and understanding just how much it will cost to run the business and most importantly, what it will take to achieve your goals. Once the costs are understood, it’s very easy to see what sales are necessary to return the net profit target.

There are other benefits of undertaking a business planning and budgeting process: firstly, the business owner gets up to date with the cost of running the business today, while looking forward at revenue projections and the available resources, helps assess the business potential for the year ahead.

Some business owners think that just by increasing sales, the business will become more profitable. In a competitive marketplace, it’s not enough to just want to increase sales. Having control over the profitability of your core business is critical to remain profitable and resourceful, especially during the business development cycle. We all know that business improvement requires spending money and allocating resources in different ways from simply maintaining the business. You can’t get the same result doing what you’ve always done – right? And therefore funds need to be allocated prudently.

Operating your business from a plan puts you back in the driver’s seat. Analysing the numbers that matter ensures you can compare your actual figures to the budgeted figures and get insight into how the business is performing. This needs to be done month by month, and while it requires some discipline, the payback is worth it. It will allow you to manage your spending so that you don’t overspend or eliminate your hard earned profit. You will also be able to see where sales have met projections and if they will cover expenses. Where there are variances, ask yourself why the numbers are different. Identifying key areas for profit improvement while monitoring sales is a critical mix in managing a successful company.

Working your business plan to a budget means having some control of your finances in advance. Setting the standard for your spending against expected revenue and having a tool to compare the expected figures against the actual set each month will give you a way of monitoring and changing plans so as to stay on top of your business. At the very least, it will give you an indication of whether your business is profitable or just busy. How much of your time are you spending putting out fires and working reactively?

Analyse the numbers that matter and make 2012 your most successful year yet by implementing your business plan to a budget.

Start 2012 With A Business Review

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:16:00 GMT

Every business owner wants to build a better business; whether it's sustaining the existing business or expanding on a new opportunity, it’s critical to understand the limitations and areas that need attention.

Completing a business review is a great way for the business owner to analyse how the businesses is currently performing. A Business Review is a quick, question-and-answer review process that produces a comprehensive diagnostic report that will enable you to identify areas that offer the best opportunity for profit growth.

In most small businesses, the manager/business owner has great skills in their chosen field, however, often lacks the management skills essential to continually manage the business in today's competitive and fast changing business environment. Are you an expert in business strategy, financial forecasting, marketing and developing effective business systems and processes? Without those key management skills, your enterprise may be vulnerable in critical areas that can bring your business to a grinding halt.

Undergoing a Business Review is a powerful means of assessing your business position. Ideally, an external consultant carries this out as this allows for objective analysis and unbiased reporting.

As a business owner, it's challenging to step back and see the full picture when you're immersed in the daily operations/challenges.

There are many dynamics in managing a business successfully and to neglect any one of them in the long-term can be costly. Make a more informed decision and take the business where you want it to go with a business health check. Moreover, business health checks provide a great opportunity to get back in touch with what the business is excellent at and refocus the customer service activities. How in touch are you with your customers and the performance of your business operations?

Whether it's improving customer satisfaction, increasing sales or looking at operational cost savings, regular business health checks can quickly help you and your business. Call +612 9011 5220 and get your business in check today.

Business Succession Planning - Ensure Business Continuity

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:18:00 GMT

Protecting your business involves putting in place strategies that will enable the business to survive if an owner suffers a tragic event.

Business succession planning combines appropriate insurance and a legally prepared buy/sell agreement. This ensures the wealth you created within your business remains with your family in the event of death, trauma or disablement.

The following should form part of any comprehensive business succession plan:

Buy/sell agreement

A buy/sell agreement ensures business continuation with minimum disruption by creating ready buyers and sellers at a fair, negotiated price.

A buy/sell agreement provides a legal mechanism by which an ownership interest in a business can be transferred from an outgoing owner to the continuing owner(s). There are many reasons why a business owner might leave a business, however death, total and permanent disablement and critical illness are all events that can be covered by a buy/sell agreement. This type of agreement is usually funded through the use of insurance. If one of the trigger events (outlined in the buy/sell agreement) were to occur, the insurance proceeds would be used to pay out the exiting partner’s share in the business. It then allows the continuing owner(s) to take ownership of the business without having to come up with the funds (through borrowing or sale of assets).

Without a buy/sell agreement in place, significant problems may occur between the departing business owner (or their estate) and the surviving business owner(s) which could destabilise the business and ultimately affect its survival.

Key person insurance

A key person is someone whose loss, either temporary or permanent, would have an adverse financial impact on the business. Key person insurance helps to reduce or counteract adverse financial effects. Businesses can use the policy proceeds to replace lost revenue, repay debt, inject capital into the business, find a suitable replacement or train other staff to fill the key person’s position. Key person insurance helps protect the financial stability of the business at this critical time.

Contact us for further information on this important subject. Phone NOW +612 9011 5220.

Help Motivate Employees To Give Their Best Effort

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:18:00 GMT

In today’s challenging work environment, managers would like all members of their team to contribute their best effort toward achieving the organization’s objectives. Managers would like a simple solution for motivating employees. Unfortunately, there are few easy answers. This article reviews some myths and provides suggestions.

Dispel common myths about motivation

Some believe that there are certain people who cannot be motivated. That is simply not true. We are all motivated to do what we perceive to be in our best interests. The trick is to align the interests of the organization with those of the employee. The best way to do this is to establish goals for the employee, which, if achieved, will support the overall effort of the organization.

Another common myth is that managers can motivate employees. The fact is that managers cannot motivate people; people have to motivate themselves. People are motivated by different things. While money is a good motivator, it can go only so far.

Focus on motivational truths

The first truth related to motivation is goal alignment. I used to have a boss who said that employees full of energy doing the wrong things are worse than slow-moving employees doing their best on the right things. You need a structure to channel the energy toward appropriate results.

It is important to clearly define what you are trying to accomplish, measure progress toward that goal, and reward success in a timely manner. Clear expectations and timely feedback tend to motivate and energize people.

Incentive pay systems offer limited success

While money may not be the only motivator, it is the reason many people work. Incentive pay systems generally provide a short-term payoff for achieving certain results. In the long term, however, they can lose their effectiveness because they generate feelings of entitlement. People want the payoff without increasing their contribution.

The other challenge with incentives is that they are most effective using easily-measured performance criteria. They are not able to reward intangible but difficult-to-measure factors, such as customer service, dedication, loyalty, or problem-solving ability. There is also the risk of over-rewarding people for results over which they have little control.

Provide stimulation, challenge, appreciation, and continuous learning

The key to long-term motivation and performance is to keep people stimulated, challenged, and feeling appreciated, while in a continuous learning mode. It is the combination of a lot of little things managers do that makes people motivated.

If you need help in your organization determining what to do to bring about better motivation, give us a call at 02 9011 5220.

R&D Tax Concession

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:18:00 GMT

The R&D Tax Concession is a broad-based, market driven tax concession which allows companies to deduct up to 125% of qualifying expenditure incurred on R&D activities when lodging their corporate tax return.

A 175% Incremental (Premium) Tax Concession and R&D tax offset are also available in certain circumstances.

Are you looking for Government Grant Assistance for your business then call our friendly consulting team.

Budgeting – Putting Your Business Plan Into Figures

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:19:00 GMT

The idea of working to a budget is foreign to most SME owners – that’s something that bigger companies do. Maybe they'll need to develop one when their business grows but meanwhile it’s altogether too time consuming and would keep them away from the ‘real’ work. That thinking may need a little revision. The fact is, businesses that don’t operate to a budget are unlikely to grow.

Business owners who take the approach that budgeting isn’t for them can be seen plugging away week by week and month to month working out what they need to do with their revenue as it comes in to meet immediate needs: is it a pay period?; will it cover the electricity account?; is more inventory needed?

In developing a budget for your business you reverse this approach and take some control over the whole process. Instead of working with whatever amount happens to come in each month you start with planning, for the year ahead, just how much it will cost to run the business. Then estimate how much revenue will need to be generated through sales in order to cover those costs, pay you a salary, and still have a bit of profit left over. A budget has been described as a business plan expressed in numbers. At its simplest it looks like this:

Estimated Sales minus Estimated Expenses = Profit (or loss)

In developing projections for a year ahead you will be working in the dark to a certain degree, but anyone who has been in business for a couple of years will have the financial records to make a reasonable forward prediction of their sales and expenses based on averaging past years.

You might call this your ‘no-growth’ budget - you have estimated just the minimum necessary to keep the business operating.

If you are interested in growing the business though, you start with working from the other end of the equation and setting the profit margin you would like to (realistically) obtain. Once a profit margin figure for the year has been decided a whole series of planning decisions cascade out from that: is extra inventory required?; will you need to put on more employees or move to bigger premises?; will you need to put more resources into marketing? All of these add to the Estimated Expenses part of the equation. To cover them and achieve the desired profit there needs to be extra Estimated Sales.

If your aim is business growth, the starting point is to build a sound estimate of the extra cost and of the extra sales revenue necessary to cover those costs so as to reach the desired profit. These things can’t be left unplanned, the costs and sales merely guessed at, or the whole growth project will operate haphazardly and you may out-spend your revenue and put yourself out of business.

Budgets are usually created for a 12 month period with month by month estimates of sales and costs. That provides for including expenses that come up only once or twice a year, such as insurance, and spreading their cost out over several months. In this way you can plan ahead for the expense by trying to achieve enough sales each month to have the amount available when payment comes due.

As you conduct business during your budget year you compare your actual figures to your budgeted figures. This needs to be done month by month and requires some discipline but the payback is worth it. It will allow you to manage your spending so that you don't over spend and cut into or eliminate your profit. You will also be able to see if sales have met projections and will cover expenses. Where there are variances, ask yourself why the numbers are different. If some of your expenses, for instance, are higher than you expected, do you need to look for ways to cut them, or did business increase more than was expected and so add to your variables? If sales aren't on track, what has happened to cause the difference and how can you improve them? Or would it be more realistic to accept they will remain low and trim future costs to match?

Budget variances can be either warning signs or opportunity signals and the information they provide should be used constructively to decide where changes need to be made in operations to reach your budget goals. Alternatively, if you regularly fail to reach your monthly estimates your budget figures are a warning to pull in spending and set more realistic income goals.

Having a budget means having some control of your finances in advance. Setting the standard for your spending against expected revenue and having a tool to compare the expected figures against the actuals each month will give you a way of monitoring and changing plans so as to stay profitable. At the very least it will give you an indication of whether or not your business is profitable or just busy.

When you work to a budget you have one of the most effective management tools of all - a benchmark that you can use month by month to check your progress towards your business goals.

Follow Your Leads - Why Don’t Salespeople Follow Up?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:20:00 GMT

Aside from impulse buys or necessary purchases, sales typically take place over a period of time as the customer works through the options and alternatives to arrive at a final purchase decision. That’s why following up with customers who have discussed your product with you is an important part of finally closing a sale.

It’s amazing how many businesses either neglect to do this or do not have an established plan for following up with their leads.

If you want to really appreciate the importance of this point put yourself in the shoes of a consumer, let’s say a woman who is thinking of adding a deck to her house. She contacts 5 firms for an onsite inspection and quote. Statistics suggest she’d be lucky if even 2 of those followed up with a visit and later sent her a quote. What if one of those two actually followed through with a phone call to ask if the information was what she wanted and could they be of any further assistance. Which is likely to get the job?

Why don’t salespeople follow up?

There are a number of reasons commonly offered by salespeople for not following up with leads. Top of the list are:
• Not wanting to appear too pushy
• Didn’t get the impression the prospect was really interested in their offer
• Didn’t think the prospect was ready to buy yet
• They just simply forget!

None of these ‘reasons’ really hold water. They are based on second guessing the situation and losing the initiative by leaving it up to the prospect to call back when they are ready. This approach doesn’t exactly increase the chances of making a sale. After spending time on the initial appointment, maybe delivering a presentation and supplying a quote, why let the deal die from neglect by not following up?

See it from the prospect’s point of view

A reminder call to a prospect will rarely be considered as ‘too pushy’ by them. They will more likely welcome the opportunity to discuss things further or even to be given that little prompt to decide the deal. It’s true that following up too frequently will come across as being pushy so you need to consider what might be an appropriate interval between follow ups. You can make follow-ups more palatable by keeping them short and to the point. If it’s possible to provide some additional value during your follow-up call so much the better. This may give your prospect a reason to choose you instead of a competitor.

A good sales pitch is no guarantee that a prospect will automatically call you back either. People get busy, they have other projects on the boil or they forget. The longer the time you leave them without a follow-up call the more likely they are to get somebody else for the job or it may even slip off their list of things to do.

Build follow-up into your sales process

Getting the most from follow-up contact depends on building it into your normal plan of sales activity. You can script it so it works smoothly and without causing you any qualms by tackling it this way:

1. Always ask permission to follow up. That’s good manners and it provides the opportunity to check diaries and arrange a time convenient for the prospect when they are likely to be more receptive. Besides, you may need to allow time for them to try out the product or gather further information for them.
2. Put the time and date details into your planner. Now you won’t forget it or have to place several annoying calls trying to settle a mutually convenient time. It’s also a commitment to making the follow-up so that the opportunity isn’t lost because you find yourself too busy on other things.

There aren’t too many things you should be busier with than selling, so follow-up is a process salespeople really can’t afford to leave out of their sales process.

Can I Write My Own Business Plan?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:20:00 GMT

While there may be savings in writing a business plan yourself, there are considerable benefits working with a business planning professional.

Successful business planning is a mix of increasing your business knowledge while also getting fresh insights into the potential of your business. Often this is all too difficult to achieve on your own. After all, you only 'know what you know' and having a ‘sounding board’ to bounce ideas off, will help get you ahead of the competition and make quick work of this important process.

No matter how you choose to write your business plan, you must gain fresh insights into your business that supports your goals and or the key shareholder circumstance. Large and small companies alike often learn this the hard way, and while no one knows your business better than you, there are limits to everyone’s expertise when it comes to solving often difficult business challenges – especially the ones you cannot see and which require expertise out of your professional know-how.

Identify the blind spots in your business today and discover opportunities by working with a business planning professional. If you do decided to write your plan - contact us to download your Business Plan Template.

Spent A Fortune On Marketing That Hasn't Delivered?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:21:00 GMT

Have you spent plies of money developing compelling marketing only to fail in getting the customer leads required to successfully convert into new business revenue?

It's easy to get caught up in the many aspects of your marketing only to leave the sales activity lacking or not working in a unified way.

Let Unity Management show you how to create a marketing and sales system that works directly with your marketing initiatives to deliver the results you are looking for.

Don't miss out on reaching your sales revenue targets in 2012. Call Unity Management for a no obligation discussion about your marketing and sales on: +612 9011 5220.