Your Business Angels

Well, just think about what it can cost you, if you don’t pay your Super on time. If you are in a company, it can cost you an extra $275 dollar per $1,000 of your Super. That’s 27.5% more! But if you are a sole trader, it will cost at least $320 per $1,000 of your Super. Which is 32% more! So if you forget or do not pay your Super, then the cost that still needs to be paid is not tax deductible.  Let’s get paid, every time you bank your money. So pay your Super and also pay a percentage of your BAS, (if you don’t want to get stuck with a brickie gangs rate of interest charged to you by the ATO on tax). Are you struggling with the compliance and worried about all the additional costs? And want to shift this problem? Call us at Your Business Angels 1300 982559

Don’t wake up the sleeping dragon who is ready to swallow you – if you are unprepared. When you call the ATO, you need to make sure you have all your information regarding your business ready on hand. Prepare the questions they are going to ask you, for example about late lodgement or debt and have them the answers ready, even if you don’t have the answer to their question. Finalise dealing with ATO regarding tax debt needs precis information. You might need to think about business viability information to do the payment plan. The person you are talking with, he or she might have a goal to achieve his or her KPI, so he or she will try and push you to enter into payment plan. Sometimes they are so appealing, but do not get carried away as it could be a trap. Dealing with the ATO might sound scary, but our experience shows that in order to deal with them, you just need to understand their system first. You need to follow their system to achieve a positive result for your

Over the past few weeks its really come to my attention the number of near misses I’ve had or seen while driving with many cars, vans, utes and trucks. A large amount of these vehicles have brandings and company names plastered all over them. I was behind a car traveling up the freeway that was swaying all over the place and couldn’t keep a constant speed. When I decided to overtake, I noticed he had his phone in his hand and was using it. Very popular brand all over it. Another case where a car was behind me and our lane ended so he jumped out from behind me and accelerated very quick, taking the gap and blocking me off so I was unable to merge. I continued to follow this car and watched that he did it at every set of lights. The last thing any business needs is a bad review based on a vehicle that had its branding. We all have dash cams and love social media, its funny how I see so many name and shames posted on Facebook now. I say to myself, I’ll never use them or g

According to the Deloitte Motor Industry Report; Australians as a nation buy over 1,000,000 new vehicles each year. Their research revealed: 80% of us had already narrowed our vehicle search online, before setting foot into a dealership. 80% of these new vehicles have been financed in some way; and some car dealers are reporting 90% of their profits now come from finance and insurance. Car dealers also made 40% more income as a group on their finance and insurance. So if car dealers are predominantly making more money with finance than ever before and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) interest rates are currently at around  3%, how are they making money offering finance at 1%, 2% and 2.9%? The short answer is, that they are not! These low rates simply mask the fact that some car dealers are now actually losing money selling cars. Your Business Angels experience is that the above phenomenon is actually amplified for second-hand dealer-sponsored vehicle sales and outr

In 1995 I had a major financial disaster. The way people kept away from me after that it felt like I had leprosy. But a few came around to give me a hand and one was a book that had motivational quotes in it. The one from Mary Pickford stuck out.   Mary Pickford was also a famous “silver screen start” who said that your voice didn’t matter in the silent movies, just showing up and looking great was important. She is also the challenger for being the first to say, “the secret to life is just turning up”. Making many small and large mistakes is just part of the business process. I have learnt after such a disaster, that you really should plan for small mistakes, discover them by being well tuned to your business “failing little and often” so that the repairs make you and your business stronger. Understanding that in business you are there to fix mistakes, repair the damage and get on with it and do the best you can is all part of the process.

I said that. I have used this a lot over the last 23 years. I started this business out after a financial disaster, one that I know no one else would want and I began to create a business that would protect and help others. I started with hospitality and it developed soon after when someone who operated a plastic injection moulding business asked me to help them. I knew nothing about plastic injection moulding, but I saw it as an addition to the small at the time business that I had created and started by applying the same costing procedures that exist in hospitality – which by the way followed for most businesses is without question the best for control. Your Business Angels and its accounting firms continue to develop. We have created our own software and we are looking to sell that to other accounting firms. We have seen the landscape of Australia change so that the majority of enterprises are people working for themselves (61.2%) and or has one to four employees (27.2%) ma

This saying is attributed to David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870) – a Union Admiral during the American Civil War. In 1864, at the Battle of Mobile Bay, he refused to consider retreat, shouting his now famous phrase. While commanding a fleet of fourteen wooden ships and four ironclads he ran through a minefield and past Confederate forts Gaines, Morgan and Powell, to defeat a Confederate flotilla, including the Confederate ironclad Tennessee, and take one of the South’s last major ports. This admirable was I think prepared to ask for forgiveness for failure before he sought permission to follow his particular strategy in The Battle of Mobile bay. He saw the risks, saw what could go wrong but also believed he could win. The lesson her is that if you can see the dangers and the risks, then you know also that you can achieve a goal if you try for it. Don’t give up because it looks hard, and usually in Australia now there are readier to quit and put you off your goals than encourage y

I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I’ve been –  Pooh Bear I’m going to spend some time with a young couple. They are clients of mine, I really like them. They have 3 beautiful young children and are working hard to be a great mum and a great dad. They are not work shy and you can understand that they can really put in. The business they have (tradies) is improving, but there is a big tax debt. It’s a mess but we have a plan to take them from this mess to owning a house, but its going to be hard. They never had that experience in life where they had to save money. They come from many of the generations that where told they could “have it now” so they have blown so much money on things quite frankly just keep them poor. I know that in our plan they have a reasonable amount of income. The plan works around paying the tax debt, but in doing so when the debt is paid keep saving at the same rate so that they will have a deposit after a further 2 years,

Self-confidence is a powerful thing.   Continually doing something stupid that doesn’t work is different to changing so that you can find a way to a solution. If your goal is worthwhile, if you really do have a vision that you can build a great business or achieve a great outcome, be the goal a personal one. Henry Fords saying I take as a description of something long term. Where you have a will and a desire to achieve something then your conviction is the fundamental core of that. After that, it’s the plans, the strategies and tactics that employ and the time that helps you arrive there. You simply have to accept that there will be a series of mistakes and wrong directions that need to change, and this involves different people, or changing people. Also, worth considering is that the goal will change as you realise that that the use or meaning of what you are doing has changed. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph to records famous men’s dying words, or great speeches. He

While that post-pimply young person who doesn’t wear socks is telling you about the great benefits of digital marketing and Google ad words, I thought I would tell you about how radio works. In a previous post I talked about “analogue marketing” and the evaluation I made of many months for Junk mail – I still keep my watch – I wanted to tell you about radio and how it really works. We built our brand in Melbourne on radio, and as we approach a 20 year anniversary I thought I would talk about it. Firstly, be prepared to spend a lot of money to get on a platform where it works. If you can’t get through the idea that you have to do this to be a radio brand then don’t start the journey. We were lucky in the sense that we got traction with our ad, but generally you need to stay the course. Secondly, 30 seconds is both a long time and short time. The creative people need to have as much about you and the brand as possible. I have learnt that writing a radio ad is as much about mak

It’s “as random as hell” but the ATO can take your business identity away from you so you can’t work as an enterprise for a living. They do this when you or an organisation you have appear on their radar. You may be in a position where this is the only way you are able to get work. You may have been on their radar because you hadn’t completed your tax for a long time, or they just needed to pick on someone, so you may have just picked up the short straw and a hail of garbage will rain down on you. The merry go round is a drama, they do a review and decide that you are not carrying on a business and take your ABN from you. You can’t write business invoices and you now are working out how to pay rent, feed your family or whatever else. When making an appeal… guess who reviews the appeal? Surprise, surprise, the ATO. Their decision making process is not transparent, and the test of whether someone is an employee or eligible to keep using an ABN is quite complicated, packed down

Can you spot the difference between these 2 second-hand workmate Utes? They are both the same age, I can tell you they have similar KM usage and look like they are in great condition to last a tradie a few years of hard work. Similar prices as well. Except  – this is the big difference, the Ute on the left is selling for  $19,800.00  and the Ute on the right is selling for  $20,300.00  and this is a  massive  difference  when it comes to tax . The Ute that’s under $20,000.00 can have the full amount of the purchase written off  immediately . And if you have financed it, you can also claim the interest, so how you finance it is only important to make sure you are buying and not leasing. The Ute that’s over $20,000.00 must be claimed through depreciation over a number of years, so the claim against tax occurs  slowly , though you  do  get there in the end. This is worth knowing, because if you are planning to buy a Ute or any equipment below $20,000.00 in value before the

“We want to help small businesses – if you’ve purchased a car for your business, you may receive a letter from us soon to help you work out whether you’re providing car fringe benefits” If you buy a car with an ABN then there is a chance that you may be called by the taxman to discuss who is using the car and whether what is called a “ Fringe benefit ” has occurred. A car fringe benefit occurs when your business owns or leases a car and makes it available for your employees’ private travel. Keep in mind that directors might also be employees. Some examples of providing a car fringe benefit include: Employees using the car for private travel, such as travel between work and home. Garaging the car at or near your employees’ home, which makes it  available  for private use – even if it is not used privately. In the case of a company – if you are a director, this includes you. Things that can often trip you up are: Thinking you can buy a car for your partner and claim