THE BLOG FOR AUSTRALIAN SMALL BUSINESS
November 27, 2012

NUMBER-CRUNCHING HEADACHES
AND TAXING PROBLEMS
How to Choose the Right Accountant for Your Business!

Has your Small Business made the right calculations for choosing the perfect Accountant?When it comes to wrestling with your Small Business Taxes, have you made all the right calculations in choosing the perfect Accountant to guide you through the financial jungle?

I can vividly recall a cheery conversation I had quite a while back with an entrepreneurial friend of mine down at Smokey Joe’s Small Business Bar.

For quite some time, my good mate, Jason, had been greatly concerned that his long-serving and highly-regarded accountant was finally retiring from business to go and live the rest of his life on an exotic private island, as far away from calculators and tax returns as it was possible to get.

Jason was doubtful that he would ever find a worthy replacement to sort out his tangled tax affairs, but he was still determined to have a go at hunting down the services of somebody who might just be nearly as good.

In the end, Jason’s patience and dedication in seeking out the perfect new candidate eventually led to a pretty amazing and completely unexpected result.

When it was time for Jason to file his next tax return, he was delighted to discover that his new accountant had saved him an incredible amount of money in all kinds of different areas that his previous accountant had either overlooked or just lazily ignored.

When I next bumped into Jason down at the bar, he was so thrilled with this surprising new development that he bought me a drink and told me all about it.
I was genuinely happy for the guy.
Maybe I shouldn’t really have asked him how he felt about all that money that he’d thrown down the drain over the last 20 years by sticking with a rubbish, over-priced accountant who was totally unsuited to Jason’s line of business.
That line of questioning seemed to puncture the jubilant atmosphere just a little bit…

It’s clearly of huge importance to get the right accountant working alongside your business to ensure that you don’t end up paying over the odds throughout the next 20 years!
But how exactly do you choose the perfect accountant to unscramble your Small Business Taxes?

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Posted In Accountancy and Accounting, Business Clinic, Entrepreneur Zone, Finance In Focus, How-To's and Tutorials, Starting a New Business
August 15, 2012

LOST CASH AND MISSING RECEIPTS
Cloud Banking Serves Up New Solution to Taunting Tax Returns

Still hunting for missing business receipts? How much money do we lose in tax rebates by misplacing our vital paperwork?Just how much money does the average Australian taxpayer miss out on by misplacing a valuable receipt?

And could a new cloud-based banking solution have the power to change the way we manage our business receipts in the future, and ensure that we always claim our rightful tax rebates?

Even in the super-organised and ultra-efficient world of Small Business, it’s surprising just how many of us seem to fall under a weird dizzy spell when it comes to safely storing the receipts for all those work-related purchases which we could have had deducted from our tax bill if only we hadn’t gone and lost them.

Maybe all these business receipts get sucked away into a secret dimension in which the Taxman sits on a golden throne and cackles with glee at the thought of all this money that he doesn’t have to give back to us.
Or maybe we just need to be a bit more careful about the whole thing.
Although in fairness, it isn’t always our own fault…

Just the other week in Martin Print H.Q, I was dismayed to discover that Doris had thrown away a whole stack of essential receipts that had been piling up on my desk for some time.
I don’t blame poor Doris for a second.
As most of the receipts had been turned into fun paper planes during quieter moments in the office, I can see why they may not have looked particularly important to the untrained eye.
But these various unfortunate accidents do happen from time to time, and it can prove to be an expensive sort of mistake when our tax rebates end up being thrown out with the beer bottles.

(Mind you, I’m not entirely convinced that I would have had any luck in filing an expense claim for a clown costume, a bouncy castle and a giant stuffed bear. But it would still have been worth a shot…)

So, just how big is this problem of wandering business receipts and lost opportunities to claw back cash?

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Posted In Accountancy and Accounting, Archives, August 2012, Bookkeeping, Business Clinic, Entrepreneur Zone, Finance In Focus, Newsdesk, Online Security, Technology & The Web
June 06, 2012

GETTING DIZZY WITH THE TAXMAN
Why Thousands of Small Businesses Will Pay Far Too Much Tax This Year

Is the Taxman shaking every last cent from your Small Business pockets? How do we avoid paying too much tax?I wonder just how many people get excited about the thrilling prospect of Tax Reporting?

Probably not very many.

In fact, according to a new report conducted by American Express, 64% of Business owners are more than happy to brush it under the carpet for as long as possible and forget all about it.

An alarming 24% of them even admitted that the chore of cleaning out the office fridge would be likely to get higher priority over the tricky task of tax reporting!

Wow.
You know that things are getting pretty heavy when the prospect of cleaning out your fridge seems more appealing than just spending a bit of time on your taxes!

I don’t think that any members of the Martin Print team would fall into this 24%, though.

Not because we enjoy doing our taxes. Far from it.
It’s just that no man, woman or beast has ever been brave enough to get within touching distance of our office fridge for several years now.
Old Bert did once threaten to remove it from the premises altogether and buy a new one himself, as the strange smells and noises seeping from the fridge door were giving him nightmares.
He got pretty close too….but he swears blind that a menacing voice from inside the fridge urged him to retreat now whilst he still had a soul.

Very creepy. We’ll gladly take the horror of tax reporting over the horror of fridge cleaning any day.

But just how many Small Businesses this year are going to end up giving the taxman far more than they actually need to, simply because they didn’t spend quite enough time looking at the detail?
Will you be claiming all the tax concessions that your Small Business is rightfully entitled to?
Are you in total control of your tax reports, or has the Taxman got you into a needless dizzy spin?

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Posted In Accountancy and Accounting, Archives, Business Clinic, Entrepreneur Zone, Finance In Focus, June 2012, June 2012, Newsdesk
April 02, 2012

TIME TRAVELLING WITH PROFESSOR PRINT
How to Save the Lost Hours of Your Small Business and Rescue the Future of Time!


Is there not enough time in the day for your Small Business? How can we save more time in our working day?I recently met up for a very pleasant lunch with my Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather, the legendary Professor Print.

I realise that the odds might seem to be stacked quite heavily against such a meeting being possible in the first place, but then Professor Print was always a very odd chap anyway, and the laws of time never really bothered him too much, as you’ll soon discover.

The Professor was always much more obsessed with getting the most out of time, and trying to squeeze out every last drop of potential from every single minute of the day.

He used to be a Small Business owner himself (Entrepreneurship runs in the family!) but he was continually frustrated about there not being enough hours in the day to get all his critical work done.
He had the passion, the drive, the talent, the commitment, the dedication….he just never had enough time.

It’s a very common problem in Small Business.
We often end up working all through the night, or even shelving certain exciting new ideas and concepts indefinitely, because the days are just far too short for our liking.

We’re so busy juggling several thousand balls in the air whilst standing on one leg and making a cup of coffee, that we simply run out of time to focus on other potentially crucial areas of our business that might just need our urgent attention.

So, how do we rescue our working days from the stifling grip of time?
How do we grow more time to help grow our Small Business?

Well, Professor Print’s eventual radical answer to this problem was to build himself a Small Business Time Machine in his garden shed.
Now, I should quickly point out that I’m definitely not recommending this as a handy little solution to the problem which every keen Entrepreneur should consider as a useful strategy for the future.

Apart from anything else, it really is an absolute nightmare to get hold of some of the Time Machine spare parts and accessories on eBay.

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Posted In Accountancy and Accounting, April 2012, Bookkeeping, Business Clinic, Delegation, Entrepreneur Zone, How-To's and Tutorials, Staff Management, Technology & The Web, Weird & Wonderful
November 28, 2011

IMPROVE YOUR FINANCIAL FITNESS!
How to Get Your Small Business in Shape for a Fit and Healthy Finance Future!


Give Your Small Business a Financial Workout!Getting slightly lost in the financial maze? It’s way too easy to get stressed out by invoices and accounting and cashflow and strange new taxes that you’ve never even heard of, when all you’re really trying to do is provide a brilliant service to all your customers.
But are you remembering the simple basics for a healthy financial outlook? Or are you buckling under the weight of several tons of confusing spreadsheets and a pocketful of crumpled receipts?

Martin Print Blog invites you to a simple financial workout, and discovers how just a few basic business fitness techniques can ensure that your Small Business stays in shape and keeps on sprinting far into the distance, without having to stop every five minutes for a bit of a breather and maybe just a little lie down…..


If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably spend every spare second of your time down at the local Gym – lifting weights whilst running on the treadmill, and doing a little bit of boxing whilst skilfully mastering the hula hoop.
Can’t beat it. It’s great for the body and soul.

Hmmm. Why do I get the impression that I’m not really convincing you?
Well, fair enough, I might be exaggerating just very slightly. Maybe I don’t spend every spare second of my time there. I might have made up the bit about the hula hoop as well. And the weights and the treadmill.
Oh, and the bit about boxing.

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Posted In Accountancy and Accounting, Bookkeeping, Cashflow Management, Finance In Focus, How-To's and Tutorials
July 28, 2011

FINANCE IN FOCUS:
When Do I Need To Hire
An Accountant Or Bookkeeper?

Can your small business get away with a DIY approach to bookkeeping and accounts? When is it time to call in the professionals? What’s the difference between a book-keeper and an accountant anyway? And which one do you need? Isn’t it all just a waste of money?
Martin Print investigates……

 

None of us like to throw good money away on something we feel we can manage perfectly well ourselves.
Why go to the trouble of hiring someone to make you a cup of coffee in the morning when they’ll only make it too weak and put too much sugar in it? They would probably even forget to pour it into your favourite Winnie The Pooh mug.

May as well just do it yourself and get the job done properly. You can maybe give yourself a free haircut while you’re at, that hairdresser in town never seems to get the spikey bits quite right, and how hard can that be? CONTINUE READING

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Posted In Accountancy and Accounting, Bookkeeping, Cashflow Management, Finance In Focus
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