May 28, 2024 • 38 mins
New financial year new you! It's the perfect time to check in on your financial situation and goals and take stock of how you're tracking. So we've made a list to take all of the guess work out of EOFY for you! You don't wanna miss Victoria's top 5 things you should be looking at before we head into the new financial year.
Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
My name is Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud your
the Order Kernie Whoalbury and a waddery woman. I would
like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
(00:24):
the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
and lasting impactful tomorrow. Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hello and welcome back my friends to the Business Bible.
I'm Victoria Devine, the owner of several successful businesses, and
I am joined as always by one of the hardest
working side hustlers I know, miss jessic Garci.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Hello. I'm so excited.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I love Business Bible episodes and I'm still low key
sad that they're only once a month, but like, you
get what you get and you don't get upset. But
I'm really excited for today because Jess, what are we
talking about.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It's our first end of financial year themed episode and
we're talking about your favorite time of year.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I get really excited about end of financial year, because
I feel like it's such a good time to like reset, refresh,
get stuff going, And what a better time to release
this than with enough time for you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
To get prepared.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Like it's not going to be dropped on June thirty,
because that's way too late. We're giving you enough lead
up so that you can get stuff organized. But also
this isn't the only end of financial year episode will
be dropping because in a couple of weeks. Yes, we
have a very exciting accountant joining us so that we
can get all of his tips and tricks as well,
So we're not just preparing you with one app but multiple,
(01:51):
So you're welcome in advance absolutely.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
But today we're talking all about specifically small business stuff,
so some changes that are coming to SUPER this year,
which might be handy for IMP to know whether or
not you need to get an accountant, which look at
us doing that right before the accountant episode, it's almost
like we did that on purpose.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Oh my gosh, she need an accountant.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I mean at the end of the day sometimes no,
So we'll go through that.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Yeah, and then after the break, we've got a list
that VD is put together with five things that you
should be reassessing at this time of year before we
get into the brand new financial year, but before we
get to that VD, what is the ATO flagged that
they're going to be focusing more on this year generally.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So if you've listened to us she's on the money
episodes around tax before, you've probably heard that. Every single year,
the ATO outlines and makes a list of things that
they're going to be paying closer attention to this year
for the next round of tax reporting. And we're going
to touch more deeply on this in our upcoming community
Q and A without tax accountant, So don't worry, we
won't be giving specific tax advice today, but generally this year,
(02:51):
what they're focusing on is record keeping, which I'm not surprised.
I feel like some of us are getting a little
bit slack when it comes to keeping records. And as
I always say, keep your receipts, whether that is the
physical copy of the receipt or you snap a photo,
save it in your phone, like just make sure you've
got record of it, because I feel like this is
where money just like seeps out of your business, Like
(03:14):
if you're not keeping track of the little things, they
actually add up, like you might go, oh, Jess, just
keep that that was a laptop. I bought a new laptop.
It was two grand, But like you're spending a couple
of hundred bucks maybe every single month that office works,
and on printing and on things that you can claim,
so like, don't let them slip away, because there as
big as the laptop at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
The next is they're really focusing on rental property income
and deductions because a few people have been taking the
mickey when it comes to deducting things that maybe shouldn't
be included in their rental properties, so being super aware there.
And then number three is they're keeping an eye on
capital gains from crypto assets, property and shares. So obviously
(03:56):
they are always going to be looking at capital gains
in general. That they're peeling their eyes a little bit
closer when it comes to crypto nowadays because it isn't
as trackable and now it's actually easier for them to
do a little bit of a deep dive into your
digital history. So I would be keeping your finger on
the pulse when it comes to making sure that you
are even keeping track of your crypto because just how
(04:17):
many times have we heard from people in the she'es
on the money community that are like, I bought crypto, but.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know where it is. Yeah, you gotta keep
an eye on it.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
They're like, oh, I bought a wallet, or I downloaded
a wallet and I bought some crypto. I don't know
where it is, or I can't remember my password. Like
be on top of it, because if it's making money,
you might owe some tax.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Oh, owing tax is good because it means you're making money,
and that's what we all.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
If you can't find your password, like, that's not going
to feel good paying tax for money you can't access.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
What about that guy, sorry, I'm going on a full segway, the.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Guy who the like one chance at the password? I
think so he bought like a bunch of bitcoin when
it first dropped for like real cheap, don't know how
much was, but insanely cheap, and then it ended up
being worth like twenty million dollars or something.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Must be nice.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
But the whole problem was, I think you're right, he
couldn't remember his password and he had it like stored
on a hard drive that he got rid of and
sent to like the tip or something, and so he
must have tried to get in his account, couldn't for
some reason, and then his one chance at finding it
was gone. And apparently he was like going to the tip,
like searching trying to find it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Would be at the tip every day, I would there.
I don't remember. I don't know what car.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Sorting through the rubbishould be like, Yeah, want to join me?
Worth twenty meal? I'll pay you one.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I'll pay you a meal. He likes, straight off the top.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I'm not missing out so funny, but yeah, check in
on your stuff is the moral of the story.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Save your passwords on my safe. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
All right, so back into the episode, because I feel
like too many of us would actually go on a
complete tangent talking about crypto. Absolutely, there are two topics
this week that I want to take a little bit
longer on. I've obviously mentioned the three above. Actually, Jess,
can you hear that?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I can hear a little something something in the background.
What is it? It's a little sweet baby.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Harvey has joined us for a recording. He is in
his carrier on my chest asleep right now, and we thought, great,
what a time to record a podcast of his asleep
he's decided to be a very noisy sleeper, but we
will continue on and do the episode. So if you
hear a little squeak here and there, I promise it's
not yess.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
He's just very passionate about tax. Yeah, he hears tax
and he's like, oh, it's me. I'm dreaming of tax.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Anyway, back to this the sharing economy income issue. So
at the moment, the sharing economy, I feel like it's
really up and coming. We've still been talking about it
for a long time, but the ATO is convinced that
many people in their sharing economy are not properly declaring
their profits and their gains.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So if you work through Uber or air Tasker.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Or any of the many sharing economy platforms that exist
now which allow you to rent out your personal assets
or like your personal services, you've got to keep an
eye out. Especially this year, the ATO is now receiving
reports directly from companies like Uber and like air Tasker,
which they're then going to use to highlight data mismatches.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Yeah, and remember, if you're using one of those platforms,
it's your responsibility set aside the tax. Because I know
if you're a small business owner and maybe it's your
first year selling stuff, or if you are someone who's
ubering or door dashing or whatever, you don't have someone
taking out your tax the way you do when you're
an employee. So if you haven't been thinking about that,
it might be a bit of a nasty shock at
tax time when you have quite a substantial tax bill
(07:17):
because you need to be setting aside, you know, thirty
thirty five, forty five, whatever your tax practety is percent
because at tax time it's your responsibility to payment.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Similarly, if you rent out a property or like part
of a property on Airbnb or stays, you're going to
be under the spotlight this year. The ATO has numerous
third party sources of data which it can use to
identify if you're actually receiving rent and they're on the
lookout at the moment the mismatches with tax return data
that you're reporting. So they now have complete access to
(07:47):
being able to review your banking transactions and they might go, oh,
my friend that's coming from Airbnb, can we have a chat?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So I think it's.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Really important to just be on top of it. And
then the big one, Jess is where related expenses. So
the ATO recently claimed that there was an eight point
seven billion dollars shortfall between the tax individuals are expected
to pay and the tax that they are actually paying.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That's crazy, that's so much money.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Of money, and the ATO believes that work related expenses
claims are the biggest element in that quote tax gap
and have signaled that they're going to be looking really
closely at the deduction this year. So I would expect
them to focus in particular on a couple of things.
So first is deductions from work from home expenses.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I feel like after COVID, a.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Lot of us just kept claiming a few things that
maybe we shouldn't have been and the ways that they
can be claimed changed last year with the introduction of
that new sixty seven cents per hour fixed rate, and
then they've enhanced substantiation requirements. So you've got to prove it,
my friends, and we expect the ATO to check claims
pretty thoroughly, because don't forget, they've got AI working for
(08:58):
them now, so it's not all just manual. They just
chuck it in and I'm pretty sure AI could whip
through everybody in Australia is really quickly. But they're going
to be particularly looking at verifying whether taxpayers have a
record of all they're working from home hours over the
entire year, in the form of time sheets or diary
or like copy of their work rosters and such. So
(09:18):
they're going to go, oh, Jess, you said you worked
from home. How have you been working from home? And
I mean, it's easy for you because you've got an
employer who will write a letter that just Saysess works
from home, full stop, end of story. But if you've
got one of those flexible jobs where you're like, I
work from home a day a week and then you're
telling the atos three like, you might end up in
(09:39):
a little bit of a pickle because you almost guarantee
your employer is not going to be very happy to
back you up on something that's not entirely true.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, I don't want to get into water.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Because they're claiming that you're in the office on their
tax returns through.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
One of us.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Is not making sense here, So let's just make sure
that we are on the same page. They're also going
to be looking at deductions for patients, so costs like
rent and rates and mortgage interests are all going to
be under the spotlight as they're actually not allowable unless
you are running a business from home.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
So I know.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Historically a few cheeky business owners have been claiming mortgage
or payments because they're quote working from home, but they
have a warehouse down the road. So we need to
be really careful because that's not how you do it right.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
That's just not on my friend.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
And then as always, just things like mobile phone and
internet costs are going to be looked at. Claims for
work related clothing and I know dry cleaning and laundry
always comes up every year, people like did you know
you can claim it? Yeah, if it's got a logo
on it and was provided by work, and even then
you've got to substantiate it, so be careful. Things like
overtime meal claims and union fees and subscriptions, and then
(10:47):
you know, motor vehicles are going to be looked at again,
So I think it's really important to just make sure
that you're doing it right because incorrectly claiming deductions under
the rule that allows US taxpayers who have incurred work
related expenses of three hundred dollars all less in total
to make a claim without receipts means that you need
to be extra careful because if you get audited, they're
going to go, Jess, we'll weary your receipts. You didn't
(11:09):
have to submit that when you submitted your tax return,
but we are well within our rights to audit you
and ask you to prove those costs.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, and at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Just don't claim things you're not paying for, like tax system.
I don't know about you, Jess, but I'm very grateful
to have in place. I feel like we are very,
very lucky. Let's not take advantage of it because the
ATO actually believes that lots of taxpayers are claiming they're
three hundred dollars when they didn't incur any expenses at all.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
The rule isn't that you can just claim up three
hundred hundred bucks, like because you want to, like you
still have to have spent the money.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
You can claim up to three hundred dollars without having
to go through the rigmarole of like getting receipts and
submitting them. Yeah, but after that you do. That doesn't
just mean it's a free three hundred bucks to claim. No.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
And as someone who has been audited and everything was
all fine, it was just because I worked multiple jobs
and claimed lots of things, but at the.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Time it was like, oh, that's a flag.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
I feel like a lot of people just assume that, oh,
I'm a small business or I'm just a small little fish.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
In a big pond, that I'm going to come after me.
They will.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
No, I'm miss jessic Riccie got got well, they can
get me good because I haven't.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But they got you.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
They made you anxious, they did. They may be very
stressed even though you had receipts. It's like when you
drive past the cops. I don't know about you, but
like I'll be driving completely like normally, completely legally, yeah,
and I would just like have a little.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Bit of a the cops are there. They're going to
get me, you know. I'm like, did I murder somebody?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Know?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Are they going to pull me over?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Why would they pull you over? Victoria?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Like, because you're looking real saus now driving fast? Turn
off my radio?
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Literally Now I know that all of those things can
sound very overwhelming and very complicated. So there's probably a
lot of people listening right now, d going should I
just get an accountant?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I mean you could. They are tax deductible. We love
that and you've got the receipt because if you pay
an accountant, you can claim it the next year in
your tax return, which is kind of attractive. But Jess,
there is a reason that ball of seventy five percent
of Australians actually use a tax agent, and that's because
tax is not that simple. So we're going to like
do a community Q and a session with our accountant
(13:07):
very soon. But I think it's really important to remember
that the tax system isn't there to confuse you. Yeah,
Like doing it online yourself is completely possible, and it'll
just take a couple of hours for you to go
through in DIY. At the end of the day, they
want to make it as simple as possible. We just
need to make sure we're doing the right thing. We're
not claiming things that we didn't incur and we're not taking.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
The absolute mickey.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I think it's just really important that we're doing the
right thing. And if you feel like you need help,
a tax agent is and can be a really good idea.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah, And the ATO website has some awesome resources for
anyone who is doing their own tax return, Like they
release every year. There's a comprehensive list of what you
can and cannot claim based on your industry, list all
the limitations. So if you're wondering, can I claim my laundry?
Can I claim this? Can I claim that?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Like they outline it, They're not expecting you to just
take a punt in the dark. So use that website,
use Google.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Like you'd be amazed at what you can do by
yourself without one hundred percent else and like, why not
have a crack.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You don't have to press submit.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
If it all becomes really overwhelming and you're like, oh
I cannot do this, then maybe go see a tax stage. Yeah,
but like, why not go and give it a crack
instead of just assuming that you can't do it. I
also love those websites, Jess, because they sometimes trigger your
memory into being like, oh I did actually incur that.
Let me sort through my things and find that receipt.
So definitely refresh yourself.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
If you haven't one hundred percent now VD Something that
I know eyes an employee have been looking for to
this new financial yart is the increase in maybe one
of your favorite investments, which is Super.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
You're getting more super, Jess, I'm paying you more super
Slay for me. You win superannuations going up zero point
five percent, which doesn't sound like a lot, but superanuation
used to be nine and a half percent, which at
the time I was like, yes, slay, this is great.
It's now eleven and a half percent from the first
of July this year, which is very, very exciting. So employees,
(15:01):
I would be checking your super and making sure I
don't know if employers are going to be very happy
with me saying this, but like making sure that you're
negotiating and that it doesn't come out of your take
home salary, because some employers are going to be switching
that point five from your take home salary and going, well, Jess,
actually you signed an agreement with me that says that
(15:21):
you get paid a seventy thousand dollars package. So the
percentages have changed, and I'm now allocating more of that
package to your superannuation and you'll have lace take home pay,
and that I don't think is fair. In this economy,
we are trying to increase our super because it's not enough,
and you know what else is not enough. Usually our
(15:42):
pay is at the moment like we are in a
cost of living crisis. Stand up for yourself and have
that conversation. So if you have a package system at work,
I would be making sure that maybe you renegotiate. If
you're not packaged, make sure that your employer isn't taking
it from your salary just because they think that maybe
you won't check. And that's how it happens, Jessica. No,
(16:05):
it's going up point five percent. Of course it gets
taken out of your salary, doesn't though.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
No.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
And then for employers, make sure that you are paying
your employees the correct amount and know when that changes
and when you need to start implementing that. Also, if
you're an employer, are you paying yourself super How many
times do small business owners lax on the super thing
and then get all the way down the road and
find that they don't have a nice little superbalance to
(16:33):
see them through retirement. You work so hard as an
employer and as a business owner that you're not setting
yourself up for the future. Like if you set business
owners down and I could just sit you down, just
be like why do you do what you do? Come
up with a million things like you're passionate about it,
you enjoy it, but at the end of the day,
you're doing it to increase your income to put yourself
(16:54):
in a better position. By not paying yourself super you're
doing the opposite. Yeah, and you're wasting heat of time
to ultimately end up in a worse off position.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Absolutely not one out of ten cannot recommend.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
No hate hate hate. But let's go to a really
quick break because on the flip side, V, we're going
to get your hot take on the five things that
all ours small business owners should be reassessing at this
time of year before we start the new financial year.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
So don't go anywhere. Coffee ten, Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Okay, what are the five things that you think end
of financial year is the perfect time for small business
owners to be reassessing.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Your coffee consumption? That's only not your coffee consumption. Never
questioned how much.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Coffee you have. Pump it straight in, straight into my veins.
Now I'm a mum.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Ten million coffees, thank you. Otherwise we are not showing
up to work. But the end of financial year, I
feel like is a really good time. It's kind of
like year New me, but like you get to do
it every six months. Yeah, we can have the real
end of year and then we can have the financial
end of year, and we can use this as a
time to either pivot our businesses or we can pivot ourselves.
Like there's no such thing as too late to implement something,
(18:12):
but the end of financial year is honestly the perfect
time to reset, review, and recalibrate. So I've written down
five things because like that's what I got to in
my list, and I was like, mah, five, will do?
Five is also not overwhelming, so we can look at
all of them. So we are going to review our objectives.
We're going to look at business growth. How fast are
you're growing now? Like what does growth actually mean in
(18:33):
your business? You might not think it makes a lot
of sense because you're, you know, eighteen months in and
you go, oh, should I be reviewing this be And
you might say, but being I'm assult trader, Like what's
the point? Absolutely because it can motivate you. It can
show you where you've come from and where you're going
and what that looks like. How much are you going
to grow your business in the next year? What's the plan?
Are you actually going to be growing it by staff
(18:55):
members or are you just growing it by the amount
that you charge? Because now your quality better and you
have a better reputation, and you should be increasing your
fees consistently. Jessica, We've spoken about this before, because for me,
increasing fees should happen regularly. It shouldn't just be like
one day you wake up five years into business and
go been charging the same thing for five years. I
(19:17):
need to shock my clients and increase it. Now, that's
just going to cause you a whole heap of issues.
What number you choose is entirely up to you. We're
going to have a look at your financial targets. What's
the magic number that you're aiming for? Is there a
magic number? Or are you so shocked at what you've
already achieved this year that now it's time to set
some bigger and better challenges. Set it and then work
(19:38):
backwards to determine what you're able to achieve.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Also a little tip for anyone who's got a side
hustle or their sole trading addition to their full time job.
Now is a good time to assess how much you
have made in your side hustle or small business. Add
that onto your salary and check whether that's going to
bump you up a tax bracket.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Oh yeah, you could be boogier than you thought you were.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Because if that's the case, we're putting this episode out now.
You have time to maybe make some deductible purchases that
you need to make for things like that to drop
you back down attacks brush.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
She's a genius, but that's really important as well. Not
only do you make deductible purchases, just you could put
some money in your super and that would bring down
your taxable income, wouldn't it.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
We love to see it.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Oh, we love super so sexy does so much for us.
The next thing we're going to review jess personal aims.
Why are you doing it? Because I feel like so
many times we lock ourselves into these businesses and we
lock ourselves into these ideas. What do you want to
get out of this? Are you still getting out.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Of this business? What you want?
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Is it sparking joy? Are you happy? If you are not,
what are we changing? Maybe business isn't for you. And
I'm not saying that because you know when it gets
hard throwing the towel. That's not what I mean at all.
I've just spoken so many times recently to small business
owners who go, I wish I hadn't started like it's
not for me. I didn't realize how much work it was.
(20:56):
I just wish i'd stayed in my salary in payg job. Yeah,
well you can go back to that.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And there's nothing wrong with that. No, absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And maybe you go, oh, I've actually realized that this
side hustle thing be it is for me. I do
not want to work for somebody else. I actually need
to take charge and really turbo charge this because I'm
over it. I give it six months before I have
to quit my job because I'm so passionate. Ye, So
what are we going to do? The next thing? Sexiest thing, Jessica.
We want to review your actual versus your budget. So
(21:26):
what did you actually spend and what did you budget?
If you didn't budget, what are we budgeting for next
financial here, jess because that's super important. How are you
tracking against your revenue and your profit targets every month?
Do you have revenue and profit targets every month? If not,
now might be the time to go, all right, well,
I have this side hustle and ultimately I'd like to
make one thousand dollars per month. How am I going
(21:47):
to work backwards and make that happen?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
And vice versa.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Like if you're making one thousand dollars a month and
you're like, wow, I didn't see this coming. How do
you do it? How can we scale that? What does
that look like? Are you ahead? Are you behind?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Are you right on track?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Depending on where you are in relation to your budget,
this is actually going to determine where your decision making
needs to change in the new year, which is kind
of helpful. You're like becoming your own business mentor, and
that's genius. Yeah, we're going to look at our cash flow.
So cash flow is different to your budget, and you
need to always remember that reviewing inventory levels like how
much stuff have you got or work underway is important
(22:22):
at this time of year because you might be able
to move some of it before the end of year
and put some extra dollars into your bank account or
make some extra plans. Like maybe you're running out of stock.
You know, you've been so busy that you haven't had
time to stop and reassess.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
You go far out.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Actually, by the time I order new stock, it's going
to be two or three months before that arrives. Yeah,
like maybe I need more sooner than I thought I did,
And that could be a stumbling block later down the
track that actually puts you backwards.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Let's review our debt.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
What debt have we got? Have we got a business loan?
Who owes you money?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Is the important one? Chase them up?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Up your emoyees, following up our invoices, and we are
not sorry to follow up at invoices. If you're feeling
so awkward about emailing a client, do you know what
you did? You just got an assistant, Jess. We love,
we love an assistant. And back when I couldn't afford
an assistant, what did I have, Jess?
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Fake assistant?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I did?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
I had a fake assistant before I had Jess, and
fake assistant would follow up on behalf of me and
be like, Hi, so sorry, I work for Victoria and
I'm just chasing this debt that you definitely haven't paid.
And then they'd say, check with Victoria, and I'd be like,
I did.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
I have Victoria?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
No?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I never let that pat out of the bag.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
And to be honest, if you're a client of mine
from like twenty fifteen and you've heard that, no you haven't.
But that was because I was really anxious and I
really hated following up debtors. Now, I'll pick up the
phone in two seconds and be like, hey, you're right,
what's going on? How can we you know, follow this
up and come to an agreement because I need you
to pay your debt end of the day.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
That's how it should be.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
But if you can't, I totally get that, adopt a
fake assistant. Maybe you've hired a fake assistant this financial year, Jess.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
And put a hard deadline on it. I would say, like,
I feel like when you're having those emails like now,
is a really good time of you to say, hey,
please ensure this is paid prior to the end of
the financial year, because a lot of businesses will also
get that. They'll understand and they probably need to tidy
things up on their ends well before the end of
the financial year. So if you even just expressing hey,
like I need this done prior to eofy.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Like, you might have a bit of luck and hopefully
people are paying. If they aren't paying in the new
financial year, you could potentially look at putting a caveat
on your invoices as well. That basically says at the
bottom of the invoice, if the invoice isn't paid, it
could be referred to debt collectors at your expense, and
that actually puts you in a more powerful position so
(24:44):
that if you need to go down the debt collector route,
you don't have to pay the debt collector personally. You
get your full sum and the debt collector can add
the amount that they are charging on top of that invoice,
whereas if you don't disclaimer that on your invoice, they'll
take it out of the total sum that is payable. Yeah,
I speak from experience as someone who's had to collect
debts before, Jessicatte.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I can tell you've been wounded. I've been burned.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
I've been burned, and you don't have to be because
I'm learning for both of us, jess absolutely. And then
we are going to look at our key expenses, so
direct costs associated with raw materials and components and other
bits and bobs that make up your products, typically a
large expense known as the costs of goods sold or cogs. Jessica,
And catch up with suppliers if you've got them, and
(25:28):
discuss your plans for the new year, and get them
all on board, like get them intertwined into your excitement,
like I think that that is going to motivate you,
but also make sure that everybody is on exactly the
same page. I'd be looking at all your other expenses.
What's happening there? Are there any trends? Are you always
occurring way more expenses than you thought you would?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Jess Like?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Is admin taking you way longer than you thought? What
expenses can you bring down? How can we save money?
Review your bank statements? How many subscriptions have you got
inside your business that you're not using?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Like?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Did you subscribe to the AFR and then you don't
read the OFAR like, don't get me wrong, I do.
Don't take it off me. But if you weren't, that's
a good time to cut a subscription, do you know
what I mean? Now is the time to cut things.
And if you're consistently cutting things, your business expenses won't
get out of hand.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Speaking of things getting more expensive, what else should we
be looking at right now?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
You'll pricing? Love it?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
So I'm not saying review your pricing because it's getting
more expensive and you should lower your prices. We're valuable businesses.
We are increasing our prices, Doessica. But what you need
to be doing is a sales analysis. So how many
units did you sell? What units sold? Or how many
dollars have you had in sales? And what are the
effects of any promotions you've run. Are the promotions you're
(26:45):
running actually helpful? Or are you running promotions because you're like, Oh,
I probably should do a sale because everybody else is
doing a sale. But it actually puts you behind. Because
sometimes we might have a product and the margin on
the product's five percent, like we're not making much at all.
But maybe you were like, oh, everyone else in my
industry is doing a twenty percent off sale. Like that's
actually putting you in the whole. Like that is not
(27:07):
a good idea at all. So review these things and
review them consistently so that we're always on top of it.
What is the effectiveness of your sales team if you
have one, Like, if you've got a sales team, they're
actually driving sales or are most of your sales coming
organically through tiktoks? Like let's understand how the business is
driving us forward. Are there any interesting trends that you
(27:27):
can see? Is there anything different that might be impacting
your sales this year versus the previous year. We're going
to do a margin analysis. Yes, so I was talking
about this before, But which product or service is most profitable?
What could you do to improve the margins or the
sales of this product? What has been the impact of
any discounts that've be offered? As I said before, are
(27:47):
you offering too much of a discount because everybody else
is or is a discount something that you might want
to consider like new financial year sale or something to
drive a peek in sales at the beginning of your
financial year. And where are you making the most money?
Have a look at that and deep dive into how
you can turbo charge that aspect of your business, because
I promise it is easier to sell to pre existing
(28:10):
clients than it is to attract brand new ones.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Absolutely, And if cost of materials and things have gone up,
that's going to have eaten into your margins now, so
exactly where it's a great time to go. Okay, well,
if the cost of XYZ material has gone up by
five percent, I need to be passing that five percent
onto the consumer. Otherwise I'm now out five percent. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
And the other thing I would do and not get
hung up on, is a competitor analysis. So what is
your market doing. Do you have any known competitors, what
are they doing? How do your prices compare, how do
your products and services compare? How close are your offerings
to those of your competitors, and how do you differentiate yourself?
Even more so, we always use on the business Bible,
(28:50):
you know, the example of a candle business. There are
so many of them, but they are all still successful,
right because we all have different reasons and like key
into your hobbit, like Jess and I like a product
and I like having it in my house. Or you know,
you might go to Mecca and buy your candles because
you like spending a lot of money on candles.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
But it's one of those things where.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You need to do a competitor analysis. But I don't
want you comparing and feeling less than or that you're
not doing enough, because we're all on different journeys. Like
if you're a photographer and in your first few years
of working in a business, yes, obviously a competitor is
a pre established business that's been around for fifteen years,
But don't compare yourself to them and expect yourself to
(29:29):
be at that stage or at that level.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Use them as inspiration.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Every time you feel envious, go why and try and
channel that into becoming inspiration instead of envy. I think
so many times it goes into envy because you go,
oh wow, I wish I could have that. You can
if you work hard enough.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Like, And that's a very cool outcome of doing a
competitor analysis.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I really like that. That's such a nice way to
reframe it. Now.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
We did a business by episode about this recently, on
how you spend your time in the business. It was
back on April twenty fourth, if anyone missed it. But
I think end of financial year is also a really
great time to review how you are spending your time
inside your business.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Right absolutely, And I feel like in a financial year,
as I said, every six months is a new year
of some form and we should be using it. So
I guess my best tip obviously, in addition to all
of the tips above, I think it's more about reviewing
your use of time. How much time are you spending
on each part of your business? Are you working one
hundred hours a week and making four dollars? Is that
(30:31):
how you want to spend your time? How can we
change it so that that's not always the outcome. You
might find that that's your reality, but you know that
there's a bigger picture at play, and in a couple
of years you'll be working one hour and making millions.
So it's all about perspective as well. We're not saying, oh,
don't use it how you want, But sometimes we find
(30:52):
ourselves in a bit of a business whirlpool and we
just keep doing what we keep doing because that's how
we've always done it. But that doesn't mean it's correct.
And then is it time to outsource some tasks? You know,
if your business is growing, Like could we outsource something?
Could we get a VA? Could we get somebody else involved?
And then also like how do we know when is
the right time to hire? And who are we going
(31:14):
full blown into having a full time employee? Are we
doing part time? We're getting a casual employee. We're just
getting a VA for a few hours a month. Like
what does this look like? And is this reasonable for
our business at this time?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
And I guess.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Speaking of this, if you have one, we are reviewing
our team. We are reviewing performance to date. This isn't
because we're trying to be savage, Jess, your team members
deserve a review like I know you and I like
sitting down and going all right, Jess, what have you
achieved this year? Vice versa, how have you liked working
with me? What does this look like? How does this work?
It's a two way street when it comes to team
(31:47):
performance review. Have you scheduled performance review meetings with all
your team members before the end of the year or
before the end of the financial year, whichever you want
to do. Do you actually have formal documents to support
the performance management process and your business? Your business is
not too small to have formal documents. I feel like
so many times small businesses go I'm too small.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I know, Jess really well, Jess.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Do we do formal performance review in our team? Of course,
but it's so helpful because it lets us slip out
of this friends and getting stuff done and day to
day and going all right, well, actually, you've got this
formal dog, let's go through it together. You've put your
notes in it, I've got mine, Like, where are you
at with these things? Because even though we're friends, you know,
I'm the business owner and you work for me, and
(32:34):
we have you know, gone beyond that. I feel like
you deserve that from me and vice versa, and if not,
now's the time.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
To do it. There are heaps on Google.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I can always share mine at some point, but I
think kicking off the new year with tangible targets for
your team gives them more motivation. And you know what
motivated people do, just make money, make more money, and
we like that. We're going to be looking at rewards.
Your team deserve to be rewarded. Incentives and bonuses can
be a really great way of rewarding contributions that your
(33:04):
team members make to your business. Don't forget they are
working for you. They are working to build your business,
and that deserves to be rewarded. They can obviously be
really effective in increasing activity during slow times and really
motivating your team. I've heard from a lot of people
who have said I can't afford rewards. I can't afford
(33:26):
the benefits for my team. And don't get me wrong,
we're all in different places to offer incentives or bonuses,
but you need to make sure that your team members
feel valued and you could go hejs. Obviously we're not
making heaps of money as a business, and I really
wish I could pay you more. How about I give
you a couple of days off next month not included
(33:47):
any stayed with that, Like, there are lots of ways
to incentivize your team members that don't include cash. If
cash is in short supply, which for a lot of
people at the moment it is. That doesn't mean you
can just not look at your team members and make
them feel valued. H career development plans and discussions around that.
Even if you have a performance review discussion with your
(34:08):
teenage year how clear are their career development discussions? Where
do they want to be in twelve months? Where do
they want to be in three years? I feel like
you need to be open with your team to the
point where that could.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Be not with you. And that's not a bad thing.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
And I've always said that, Jess, I would keep you
every day for the rest of ever. But I also
would never want to get in the way of your
career development. And if I become a beautiful launching pad
into a bigger, better career for you, slay like, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
I've been part of that.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
But I think that too many times people assume that
by having career development discussions with their team, they have
to have the career inside their business, Like I go, oh, jess, Well,
where would you want to go? And at the moment
you're kind of sitting at the top of what you
do in my business. Yeah, so how do we have
those career development discussions where you might go, well, V
I actually want to stay here and I really would
(34:59):
like to do ABCDN next year. Great, that's adding additional
value to my business. Or you might go, yeah, look
at some stage, I'd like to launch into big business
and take on a really corporate structure. Great, how can
I help you to get there? Because I promise you're
going to get more from your team if you're helping
them to get where they want to go. Then if
you go, oh, but you have to stay in my
(35:21):
business forever in a.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Day, that is such a good point and it really
is so true. I guess for both an employer and
an employee, it's really important to be checking in with
each other. Is there any other last little tipbits before
we go away that you reckon? People should really be
getting on top of this end of financial season.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Your clients and your customers. So let's review our service.
Are we serving who we want to serve? Who are
your most profitable customers? How do we get more of
those ones who are your least profitable clients? How do
we have less of those? What are your service highlights? Like?
Have there been some like flashes of brilliance? Like have
there been some things that you've been like, Wow, actually
we knocked it out of the park for that client.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Just how do we do it again?
Speaker 3 (36:00):
We do that and take that magic of that experience
and give it to everybody in our business. What are
the low lights? Have there been some issues along the way?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
How do we make.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Sure it doesn't happen again in the next twelve months?
And then maybe you could open it up as an
opportunity for feedback. Now is a perfect time to get
feedback and survey your customers. Seek feedback through surveys or
focus groups or interviews, or just pick up the phone
and be like, Hey, Jess, long time no speak.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
You still loving working with us?
Speaker 3 (36:26):
You said that ages ago, but like, has the service
been the same? I'm just gathering some feedback to make
sure that next year is our best year yet. And
I can almost guarantee that everyone's going to be like,
oh yeah, Jess, I really want to be on top
of this. So go to your most important customers first,
but send an email, you'll get some feedback and it
will put you in the best possible position to have
(36:46):
the best year yet.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
I completely agree, and I think like the overall theme
of today's episode is like we're halfway through the yard.
It's a really good time to stop and take an
assessment of what you've achieved, what you want to achieve. Like,
let's kind of get a bit of that you financially
are you me? And you know, just taketalk of what
you've done, because like it's been six months and that's
incredible and we're so proud of you. For those of
(37:08):
you who have been working in a business for six
months or have been planning something, maybe you're just ready
to launch it.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
I feel like I have nothing else of value to ADDVD.
That was an awesome episode that I feel like will
help a lot of people. So fun.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
All right, Well, we'll see you soon for our Accountant's episode,
and till then listen to She's on the Money, my Friends,
because we're back there.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
See you on Friday.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Bye. The advice shared on She's on the Money is
general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances.
She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and
should not be relied upon to make an investment or
(37:48):
financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
The PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Advice tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 5 (37:57):
Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are author representatives
of Money sherper P T y L t D A
b N three two one six four nine two seven
seven zero eight a f s L four five one
two eight nine
Hello.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
My name is Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud your
the Order Kernie Whoalbury and a waddery woman. I would
like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of
which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging
the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and
(00:24):
the storytelling of you to make a difference for today
and lasting impactful tomorrow. Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Hello and welcome back my friends to the Business Bible.
I'm Victoria Devine, the owner of several successful businesses, and
I am joined as always by one of the hardest
working side hustlers I know, miss jessic Garci.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Hello. I'm so excited.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I love Business Bible episodes and I'm still low key
sad that they're only once a month, but like, you
get what you get and you don't get upset. But
I'm really excited for today because Jess, what are we
talking about.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
It's our first end of financial year themed episode and
we're talking about your favorite time of year.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I get really excited about end of financial year, because
I feel like it's such a good time to like reset, refresh,
get stuff going, And what a better time to release
this than with enough time for you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
To get prepared.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Like it's not going to be dropped on June thirty,
because that's way too late. We're giving you enough lead
up so that you can get stuff organized. But also
this isn't the only end of financial year episode will
be dropping because in a couple of weeks. Yes, we
have a very exciting accountant joining us so that we
can get all of his tips and tricks as well,
So we're not just preparing you with one app but multiple,
(01:51):
So you're welcome in advance absolutely.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
But today we're talking all about specifically small business stuff,
so some changes that are coming to SUPER this year,
which might be handy for IMP to know whether or
not you need to get an accountant, which look at
us doing that right before the accountant episode, it's almost
like we did that on purpose.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Oh my gosh, she need an accountant.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I mean at the end of the day sometimes no,
So we'll go through that.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Yeah, and then after the break, we've got a list
that VD is put together with five things that you
should be reassessing at this time of year before we
get into the brand new financial year, but before we
get to that VD, what is the ATO flagged that
they're going to be focusing more on this year generally.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So if you've listened to us she's on the money
episodes around tax before, you've probably heard that. Every single year,
the ATO outlines and makes a list of things that
they're going to be paying closer attention to this year
for the next round of tax reporting. And we're going
to touch more deeply on this in our upcoming community
Q and A without tax accountant, So don't worry, we
won't be giving specific tax advice today, but generally this year,
(02:51):
what they're focusing on is record keeping, which I'm not surprised.
I feel like some of us are getting a little
bit slack when it comes to keeping records. And as
I always say, keep your receipts, whether that is the
physical copy of the receipt or you snap a photo,
save it in your phone, like just make sure you've
got record of it, because I feel like this is
where money just like seeps out of your business, Like
(03:14):
if you're not keeping track of the little things, they
actually add up, like you might go, oh, Jess, just
keep that that was a laptop. I bought a new laptop.
It was two grand, But like you're spending a couple
of hundred bucks maybe every single month that office works,
and on printing and on things that you can claim,
so like, don't let them slip away, because there as
big as the laptop at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
The next is they're really focusing on rental property income
and deductions because a few people have been taking the
mickey when it comes to deducting things that maybe shouldn't
be included in their rental properties, so being super aware there.
And then number three is they're keeping an eye on
capital gains from crypto assets, property and shares. So obviously
(03:56):
they are always going to be looking at capital gains
in general. That they're peeling their eyes a little bit
closer when it comes to crypto nowadays because it isn't
as trackable and now it's actually easier for them to
do a little bit of a deep dive into your
digital history. So I would be keeping your finger on
the pulse when it comes to making sure that you
are even keeping track of your crypto because just how
(04:17):
many times have we heard from people in the she'es
on the money community that are like, I bought crypto, but.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I don't know where it is. Yeah, you gotta keep
an eye on it.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
They're like, oh, I bought a wallet, or I downloaded
a wallet and I bought some crypto. I don't know
where it is, or I can't remember my password. Like
be on top of it, because if it's making money,
you might owe some tax.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Oh, owing tax is good because it means you're making money,
and that's what we all.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
If you can't find your password, like, that's not going
to feel good paying tax for money you can't access.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
What about that guy, sorry, I'm going on a full segway, the.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Guy who the like one chance at the password? I
think so he bought like a bunch of bitcoin when
it first dropped for like real cheap, don't know how
much was, but insanely cheap, and then it ended up
being worth like twenty million dollars or something.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Must be nice.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
But the whole problem was, I think you're right, he
couldn't remember his password and he had it like stored
on a hard drive that he got rid of and
sent to like the tip or something, and so he
must have tried to get in his account, couldn't for
some reason, and then his one chance at finding it
was gone. And apparently he was like going to the tip,
like searching trying to find it.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Would be at the tip every day, I would there.
I don't remember. I don't know what car.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Sorting through the rubbishould be like, Yeah, want to join me?
Worth twenty meal? I'll pay you one.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I'll pay you a meal. He likes, straight off the top.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I'm not missing out so funny, but yeah, check in
on your stuff is the moral of the story.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Save your passwords on my safe. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
All right, so back into the episode, because I feel
like too many of us would actually go on a
complete tangent talking about crypto. Absolutely, there are two topics
this week that I want to take a little bit
longer on. I've obviously mentioned the three above. Actually, Jess,
can you hear that?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I can hear a little something something in the background.
What is it? It's a little sweet baby.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Harvey has joined us for a recording. He is in
his carrier on my chest asleep right now, and we thought, great,
what a time to record a podcast of his asleep
he's decided to be a very noisy sleeper, but we
will continue on and do the episode. So if you
hear a little squeak here and there, I promise it's
not yess.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
He's just very passionate about tax. Yeah, he hears tax
and he's like, oh, it's me. I'm dreaming of tax.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Anyway, back to this the sharing economy income issue. So
at the moment, the sharing economy, I feel like it's
really up and coming. We've still been talking about it
for a long time, but the ATO is convinced that
many people in their sharing economy are not properly declaring
their profits and their gains.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So if you work through Uber or air Tasker.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Or any of the many sharing economy platforms that exist
now which allow you to rent out your personal assets
or like your personal services, you've got to keep an
eye out. Especially this year, the ATO is now receiving
reports directly from companies like Uber and like air Tasker,
which they're then going to use to highlight data mismatches.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
Yeah, and remember, if you're using one of those platforms,
it's your responsibility set aside the tax. Because I know
if you're a small business owner and maybe it's your
first year selling stuff, or if you are someone who's
ubering or door dashing or whatever, you don't have someone
taking out your tax the way you do when you're
an employee. So if you haven't been thinking about that,
it might be a bit of a nasty shock at
tax time when you have quite a substantial tax bill
(07:17):
because you need to be setting aside, you know, thirty
thirty five, forty five, whatever your tax practety is percent
because at tax time it's your responsibility to payment.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Similarly, if you rent out a property or like part
of a property on Airbnb or stays, you're going to
be under the spotlight this year. The ATO has numerous
third party sources of data which it can use to
identify if you're actually receiving rent and they're on the
lookout at the moment the mismatches with tax return data
that you're reporting. So they now have complete access to
(07:47):
being able to review your banking transactions and they might go, oh,
my friend that's coming from Airbnb, can we have a chat?
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So I think it's.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Really important to just be on top of it. And
then the big one, Jess is where related expenses. So
the ATO recently claimed that there was an eight point
seven billion dollars shortfall between the tax individuals are expected
to pay and the tax that they are actually paying.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That's crazy, that's so much money.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Of money, and the ATO believes that work related expenses
claims are the biggest element in that quote tax gap
and have signaled that they're going to be looking really
closely at the deduction this year. So I would expect
them to focus in particular on a couple of things.
So first is deductions from work from home expenses.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I feel like after COVID, a.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Lot of us just kept claiming a few things that
maybe we shouldn't have been and the ways that they
can be claimed changed last year with the introduction of
that new sixty seven cents per hour fixed rate, and
then they've enhanced substantiation requirements. So you've got to prove it,
my friends, and we expect the ATO to check claims
pretty thoroughly, because don't forget, they've got AI working for
(08:58):
them now, so it's not all just manual. They just
chuck it in and I'm pretty sure AI could whip
through everybody in Australia is really quickly. But they're going
to be particularly looking at verifying whether taxpayers have a
record of all they're working from home hours over the
entire year, in the form of time sheets or diary
or like copy of their work rosters and such. So
(09:18):
they're going to go, oh, Jess, you said you worked
from home. How have you been working from home? And
I mean, it's easy for you because you've got an
employer who will write a letter that just Saysess works
from home, full stop, end of story. But if you've
got one of those flexible jobs where you're like, I
work from home a day a week and then you're
telling the atos three like, you might end up in
(09:39):
a little bit of a pickle because you almost guarantee
your employer is not going to be very happy to
back you up on something that's not entirely true.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, I don't want to get into water.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Because they're claiming that you're in the office on their
tax returns through.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
One of us.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Is not making sense here, So let's just make sure
that we are on the same page. They're also going
to be looking at deductions for patients, so costs like
rent and rates and mortgage interests are all going to
be under the spotlight as they're actually not allowable unless
you are running a business from home.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
So I know.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Historically a few cheeky business owners have been claiming mortgage
or payments because they're quote working from home, but they
have a warehouse down the road. So we need to
be really careful because that's not how you do it right.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
That's just not on my friend.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
And then as always, just things like mobile phone and
internet costs are going to be looked at. Claims for
work related clothing and I know dry cleaning and laundry
always comes up every year, people like did you know
you can claim it? Yeah, if it's got a logo
on it and was provided by work, and even then
you've got to substantiate it, so be careful. Things like
overtime meal claims and union fees and subscriptions, and then
(10:47):
you know, motor vehicles are going to be looked at again,
So I think it's really important to just make sure
that you're doing it right because incorrectly claiming deductions under
the rule that allows US taxpayers who have incurred work
related expenses of three hundred dollars all less in total
to make a claim without receipts means that you need
to be extra careful because if you get audited, they're
going to go, Jess, we'll weary your receipts. You didn't
(11:09):
have to submit that when you submitted your tax return,
but we are well within our rights to audit you
and ask you to prove those costs.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, and at the end of the day.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Just don't claim things you're not paying for, like tax system.
I don't know about you, Jess, but I'm very grateful
to have in place. I feel like we are very,
very lucky. Let's not take advantage of it because the
ATO actually believes that lots of taxpayers are claiming they're
three hundred dollars when they didn't incur any expenses at all.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
The rule isn't that you can just claim up three
hundred hundred bucks, like because you want to, like you
still have to have spent the money.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
You can claim up to three hundred dollars without having
to go through the rigmarole of like getting receipts and
submitting them. Yeah, but after that you do. That doesn't
just mean it's a free three hundred bucks to claim. No.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
And as someone who has been audited and everything was
all fine, it was just because I worked multiple jobs
and claimed lots of things, but at the.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Time it was like, oh, that's a flag.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
I feel like a lot of people just assume that, oh,
I'm a small business or I'm just a small little fish.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
In a big pond, that I'm going to come after me.
They will.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
No, I'm miss jessic Riccie got got well, they can
get me good because I haven't.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
But they got you.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
They made you anxious, they did. They may be very
stressed even though you had receipts. It's like when you
drive past the cops. I don't know about you, but
like I'll be driving completely like normally, completely legally, yeah,
and I would just like have a little.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Bit of a the cops are there. They're going to
get me, you know. I'm like, did I murder somebody?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Know?
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Are they going to pull me over?
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Why would they pull you over? Victoria?
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Like, because you're looking real saus now driving fast? Turn
off my radio?
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Literally Now I know that all of those things can
sound very overwhelming and very complicated. So there's probably a
lot of people listening right now, d going should I
just get an accountant?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I mean you could. They are tax deductible. We love
that and you've got the receipt because if you pay
an accountant, you can claim it the next year in
your tax return, which is kind of attractive. But Jess,
there is a reason that ball of seventy five percent
of Australians actually use a tax agent, and that's because
tax is not that simple. So we're going to like
do a community Q and a session with our accountant
(13:07):
very soon. But I think it's really important to remember
that the tax system isn't there to confuse you. Yeah,
Like doing it online yourself is completely possible, and it'll
just take a couple of hours for you to go
through in DIY. At the end of the day, they
want to make it as simple as possible. We just
need to make sure we're doing the right thing. We're
not claiming things that we didn't incur and we're not taking.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
The absolute mickey.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I think it's just really important that we're doing the
right thing. And if you feel like you need help,
a tax agent is and can be a really good idea.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah, And the ATO website has some awesome resources for
anyone who is doing their own tax return, Like they
release every year. There's a comprehensive list of what you
can and cannot claim based on your industry, list all
the limitations. So if you're wondering, can I claim my laundry?
Can I claim this? Can I claim that?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Like they outline it, They're not expecting you to just
take a punt in the dark. So use that website,
use Google.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Like you'd be amazed at what you can do by
yourself without one hundred percent else and like, why not
have a crack.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
You don't have to press submit.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
If it all becomes really overwhelming and you're like, oh
I cannot do this, then maybe go see a tax stage. Yeah,
but like, why not go and give it a crack
instead of just assuming that you can't do it. I
also love those websites, Jess, because they sometimes trigger your
memory into being like, oh I did actually incur that.
Let me sort through my things and find that receipt.
So definitely refresh yourself.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
If you haven't one hundred percent now VD Something that
I know eyes an employee have been looking for to
this new financial yart is the increase in maybe one
of your favorite investments, which is Super.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
You're getting more super, Jess, I'm paying you more super
Slay for me. You win superannuations going up zero point
five percent, which doesn't sound like a lot, but superanuation
used to be nine and a half percent, which at
the time I was like, yes, slay, this is great.
It's now eleven and a half percent from the first
of July this year, which is very, very exciting. So employees,
(15:01):
I would be checking your super and making sure I
don't know if employers are going to be very happy
with me saying this, but like making sure that you're
negotiating and that it doesn't come out of your take
home salary, because some employers are going to be switching
that point five from your take home salary and going, well, Jess,
actually you signed an agreement with me that says that
(15:21):
you get paid a seventy thousand dollars package. So the
percentages have changed, and I'm now allocating more of that
package to your superannuation and you'll have lace take home pay,
and that I don't think is fair. In this economy,
we are trying to increase our super because it's not enough,
and you know what else is not enough. Usually our
(15:42):
pay is at the moment like we are in a
cost of living crisis. Stand up for yourself and have
that conversation. So if you have a package system at work,
I would be making sure that maybe you renegotiate. If
you're not packaged, make sure that your employer isn't taking
it from your salary just because they think that maybe
you won't check. And that's how it happens, Jessica. No,
(16:05):
it's going up point five percent. Of course it gets
taken out of your salary, doesn't though.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
No.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
And then for employers, make sure that you are paying
your employees the correct amount and know when that changes
and when you need to start implementing that. Also, if
you're an employer, are you paying yourself super How many
times do small business owners lax on the super thing
and then get all the way down the road and
find that they don't have a nice little superbalance to
(16:33):
see them through retirement. You work so hard as an
employer and as a business owner that you're not setting
yourself up for the future. Like if you set business
owners down and I could just sit you down, just
be like why do you do what you do? Come
up with a million things like you're passionate about it,
you enjoy it, but at the end of the day,
you're doing it to increase your income to put yourself
(16:54):
in a better position. By not paying yourself super you're
doing the opposite. Yeah, and you're wasting heat of time
to ultimately end up in a worse off position.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Absolutely not one out of ten cannot recommend.
Speaker 4 (17:05):
No hate hate hate. But let's go to a really
quick break because on the flip side, V, we're going
to get your hot take on the five things that
all ours small business owners should be reassessing at this
time of year before we start the new financial year.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
So don't go anywhere. Coffee ten, Welcome back everybody.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Okay, what are the five things that you think end
of financial year is the perfect time for small business
owners to be reassessing.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Your coffee consumption? That's only not your coffee consumption. Never
questioned how much.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Coffee you have. Pump it straight in, straight into my veins.
Now I'm a mum.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Ten million coffees, thank you. Otherwise we are not showing
up to work. But the end of financial year, I
feel like is a really good time. It's kind of
like year New me, but like you get to do
it every six months. Yeah, we can have the real
end of year and then we can have the financial
end of year, and we can use this as a
time to either pivot our businesses or we can pivot ourselves.
Like there's no such thing as too late to implement something,
(18:12):
but the end of financial year is honestly the perfect
time to reset, review, and recalibrate. So I've written down
five things because like that's what I got to in
my list, and I was like, mah, five, will do?
Five is also not overwhelming, so we can look at
all of them. So we are going to review our objectives.
We're going to look at business growth. How fast are
you're growing now? Like what does growth actually mean in
(18:33):
your business? You might not think it makes a lot
of sense because you're, you know, eighteen months in and
you go, oh, should I be reviewing this be And
you might say, but being I'm assult trader, Like what's
the point? Absolutely because it can motivate you. It can
show you where you've come from and where you're going
and what that looks like. How much are you going
to grow your business in the next year? What's the plan?
Are you actually going to be growing it by staff
(18:55):
members or are you just growing it by the amount
that you charge? Because now your quality better and you
have a better reputation, and you should be increasing your
fees consistently. Jessica, We've spoken about this before, because for me,
increasing fees should happen regularly. It shouldn't just be like
one day you wake up five years into business and
go been charging the same thing for five years. I
(19:17):
need to shock my clients and increase it. Now, that's
just going to cause you a whole heap of issues.
What number you choose is entirely up to you. We're
going to have a look at your financial targets. What's
the magic number that you're aiming for? Is there a
magic number? Or are you so shocked at what you've
already achieved this year that now it's time to set
some bigger and better challenges. Set it and then work
(19:38):
backwards to determine what you're able to achieve.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
Also a little tip for anyone who's got a side
hustle or their sole trading addition to their full time job.
Now is a good time to assess how much you
have made in your side hustle or small business. Add
that onto your salary and check whether that's going to
bump you up a tax bracket.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Oh yeah, you could be boogier than you thought you were.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Because if that's the case, we're putting this episode out now.
You have time to maybe make some deductible purchases that
you need to make for things like that to drop
you back down attacks brush.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
She's a genius, but that's really important as well. Not
only do you make deductible purchases, just you could put
some money in your super and that would bring down
your taxable income, wouldn't it.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
We love to see it.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Oh, we love super so sexy does so much for us.
The next thing we're going to review jess personal aims.
Why are you doing it? Because I feel like so
many times we lock ourselves into these businesses and we
lock ourselves into these ideas. What do you want to
get out of this? Are you still getting out.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Of this business? What you want?
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Is it sparking joy? Are you happy? If you are not,
what are we changing? Maybe business isn't for you. And
I'm not saying that because you know when it gets
hard throwing the towel. That's not what I mean at all.
I've just spoken so many times recently to small business
owners who go, I wish I hadn't started like it's
not for me. I didn't realize how much work it was.
(20:56):
I just wish i'd stayed in my salary in payg job. Yeah,
well you can go back to that.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And there's nothing wrong with that. No, absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
And maybe you go, oh, I've actually realized that this
side hustle thing be it is for me. I do
not want to work for somebody else. I actually need
to take charge and really turbo charge this because I'm
over it. I give it six months before I have
to quit my job because I'm so passionate. Ye, So
what are we going to do? The next thing? Sexiest thing, Jessica.
We want to review your actual versus your budget. So
(21:26):
what did you actually spend and what did you budget?
If you didn't budget, what are we budgeting for next
financial here, jess because that's super important. How are you
tracking against your revenue and your profit targets every month?
Do you have revenue and profit targets every month? If not,
now might be the time to go, all right, well,
I have this side hustle and ultimately I'd like to
make one thousand dollars per month. How am I going
(21:47):
to work backwards and make that happen?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
And vice versa.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Like if you're making one thousand dollars a month and
you're like, wow, I didn't see this coming. How do
you do it? How can we scale that? What does
that look like? Are you ahead? Are you behind?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Are you right on track?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Depending on where you are in relation to your budget,
this is actually going to determine where your decision making
needs to change in the new year, which is kind
of helpful. You're like becoming your own business mentor, and
that's genius. Yeah, we're going to look at our cash flow.
So cash flow is different to your budget, and you
need to always remember that reviewing inventory levels like how
much stuff have you got or work underway is important
(22:22):
at this time of year because you might be able
to move some of it before the end of year
and put some extra dollars into your bank account or
make some extra plans. Like maybe you're running out of stock.
You know, you've been so busy that you haven't had
time to stop and reassess.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
You go far out.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Actually, by the time I order new stock, it's going
to be two or three months before that arrives. Yeah,
like maybe I need more sooner than I thought I did,
And that could be a stumbling block later down the
track that actually puts you backwards.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Let's review our debt.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
What debt have we got? Have we got a business loan?
Who owes you money?
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Is the important one? Chase them up?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Up your emoyees, following up our invoices, and we are
not sorry to follow up at invoices. If you're feeling
so awkward about emailing a client, do you know what
you did? You just got an assistant, Jess. We love,
we love an assistant. And back when I couldn't afford
an assistant, what did I have, Jess?
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Fake assistant?
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I did?
Speaker 3 (23:15):
I had a fake assistant before I had Jess, and
fake assistant would follow up on behalf of me and
be like, Hi, so sorry, I work for Victoria and
I'm just chasing this debt that you definitely haven't paid.
And then they'd say, check with Victoria, and I'd be like,
I did.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
I have Victoria?
Speaker 2 (23:31):
No?
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I never let that pat out of the bag.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
And to be honest, if you're a client of mine
from like twenty fifteen and you've heard that, no you haven't.
But that was because I was really anxious and I
really hated following up debtors. Now, I'll pick up the
phone in two seconds and be like, hey, you're right,
what's going on? How can we you know, follow this
up and come to an agreement because I need you
to pay your debt end of the day.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
That's how it should be.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
But if you can't, I totally get that, adopt a
fake assistant. Maybe you've hired a fake assistant this financial year, Jess.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
And put a hard deadline on it. I would say, like,
I feel like when you're having those emails like now,
is a really good time of you to say, hey,
please ensure this is paid prior to the end of
the financial year, because a lot of businesses will also
get that. They'll understand and they probably need to tidy
things up on their ends well before the end of
the financial year. So if you even just expressing hey,
like I need this done prior to eofy.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Like, you might have a bit of luck and hopefully
people are paying. If they aren't paying in the new
financial year, you could potentially look at putting a caveat
on your invoices as well. That basically says at the
bottom of the invoice, if the invoice isn't paid, it
could be referred to debt collectors at your expense, and
that actually puts you in a more powerful position so
(24:44):
that if you need to go down the debt collector route,
you don't have to pay the debt collector personally. You
get your full sum and the debt collector can add
the amount that they are charging on top of that invoice,
whereas if you don't disclaimer that on your invoice, they'll
take it out of the total sum that is payable. Yeah,
I speak from experience as someone who's had to collect
debts before, Jessicatte.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I can tell you've been wounded. I've been burned.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
I've been burned, and you don't have to be because
I'm learning for both of us, jess absolutely. And then
we are going to look at our key expenses, so
direct costs associated with raw materials and components and other
bits and bobs that make up your products, typically a
large expense known as the costs of goods sold or cogs. Jessica,
And catch up with suppliers if you've got them, and
(25:28):
discuss your plans for the new year, and get them
all on board, like get them intertwined into your excitement,
like I think that that is going to motivate you,
but also make sure that everybody is on exactly the
same page. I'd be looking at all your other expenses.
What's happening there? Are there any trends? Are you always
occurring way more expenses than you thought you would?
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Jess Like?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Is admin taking you way longer than you thought? What
expenses can you bring down? How can we save money?
Review your bank statements? How many subscriptions have you got
inside your business that you're not using?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Like?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Did you subscribe to the AFR and then you don't
read the OFAR like, don't get me wrong, I do.
Don't take it off me. But if you weren't, that's
a good time to cut a subscription, do you know
what I mean? Now is the time to cut things.
And if you're consistently cutting things, your business expenses won't
get out of hand.
Speaker 4 (26:18):
Speaking of things getting more expensive, what else should we
be looking at right now?
Speaker 1 (26:23):
You'll pricing? Love it?
Speaker 3 (26:25):
So I'm not saying review your pricing because it's getting
more expensive and you should lower your prices. We're valuable businesses.
We are increasing our prices, Doessica. But what you need
to be doing is a sales analysis. So how many
units did you sell? What units sold? Or how many
dollars have you had in sales? And what are the
effects of any promotions you've run. Are the promotions you're
(26:45):
running actually helpful? Or are you running promotions because you're like, Oh,
I probably should do a sale because everybody else is
doing a sale. But it actually puts you behind. Because
sometimes we might have a product and the margin on
the product's five percent, like we're not making much at all.
But maybe you were like, oh, everyone else in my
industry is doing a twenty percent off sale. Like that's
actually putting you in the whole. Like that is not
(27:07):
a good idea at all. So review these things and
review them consistently so that we're always on top of it.
What is the effectiveness of your sales team if you
have one, Like, if you've got a sales team, they're
actually driving sales or are most of your sales coming
organically through tiktoks? Like let's understand how the business is
driving us forward. Are there any interesting trends that you
(27:27):
can see? Is there anything different that might be impacting
your sales this year versus the previous year. We're going
to do a margin analysis. Yes, so I was talking
about this before, But which product or service is most profitable?
What could you do to improve the margins or the
sales of this product? What has been the impact of
any discounts that've be offered? As I said before, are
(27:47):
you offering too much of a discount because everybody else
is or is a discount something that you might want
to consider like new financial year sale or something to
drive a peek in sales at the beginning of your
financial year. And where are you making the most money?
Have a look at that and deep dive into how
you can turbo charge that aspect of your business, because
I promise it is easier to sell to pre existing
(28:10):
clients than it is to attract brand new ones.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
Absolutely, And if cost of materials and things have gone up,
that's going to have eaten into your margins now, so
exactly where it's a great time to go. Okay, well,
if the cost of XYZ material has gone up by
five percent, I need to be passing that five percent
onto the consumer. Otherwise I'm now out five percent. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
And the other thing I would do and not get
hung up on, is a competitor analysis. So what is
your market doing. Do you have any known competitors, what
are they doing? How do your prices compare, how do
your products and services compare? How close are your offerings
to those of your competitors, and how do you differentiate yourself?
Even more so, we always use on the business Bible,
(28:50):
you know, the example of a candle business. There are
so many of them, but they are all still successful,
right because we all have different reasons and like key
into your hobbit, like Jess and I like a product
and I like having it in my house. Or you know,
you might go to Mecca and buy your candles because
you like spending a lot of money on candles.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
But it's one of those things where.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
You need to do a competitor analysis. But I don't
want you comparing and feeling less than or that you're
not doing enough, because we're all on different journeys. Like
if you're a photographer and in your first few years
of working in a business, yes, obviously a competitor is
a pre established business that's been around for fifteen years,
But don't compare yourself to them and expect yourself to
(29:29):
be at that stage or at that level.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Use them as inspiration.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Every time you feel envious, go why and try and
channel that into becoming inspiration instead of envy. I think
so many times it goes into envy because you go,
oh wow, I wish I could have that. You can
if you work hard enough.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Like, And that's a very cool outcome of doing a
competitor analysis.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I really like that. That's such a nice way to
reframe it. Now.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
We did a business by episode about this recently, on
how you spend your time in the business. It was
back on April twenty fourth, if anyone missed it. But
I think end of financial year is also a really
great time to review how you are spending your time
inside your business.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Right absolutely, And I feel like in a financial year,
as I said, every six months is a new year
of some form and we should be using it. So
I guess my best tip obviously, in addition to all
of the tips above, I think it's more about reviewing
your use of time. How much time are you spending
on each part of your business? Are you working one
hundred hours a week and making four dollars? Is that
(30:31):
how you want to spend your time? How can we
change it so that that's not always the outcome. You
might find that that's your reality, but you know that
there's a bigger picture at play, and in a couple
of years you'll be working one hour and making millions.
So it's all about perspective as well. We're not saying, oh,
don't use it how you want, But sometimes we find
(30:52):
ourselves in a bit of a business whirlpool and we
just keep doing what we keep doing because that's how
we've always done it. But that doesn't mean it's correct.
And then is it time to outsource some tasks? You know,
if your business is growing, Like could we outsource something?
Could we get a VA? Could we get somebody else involved?
And then also like how do we know when is
the right time to hire? And who are we going
(31:14):
full blown into having a full time employee? Are we
doing part time? We're getting a casual employee. We're just
getting a VA for a few hours a month. Like
what does this look like? And is this reasonable for
our business at this time?
Speaker 1 (31:25):
And I guess.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Speaking of this, if you have one, we are reviewing
our team. We are reviewing performance to date. This isn't
because we're trying to be savage, Jess, your team members
deserve a review like I know you and I like
sitting down and going all right, Jess, what have you
achieved this year? Vice versa, how have you liked working
with me? What does this look like? How does this work?
It's a two way street when it comes to team
(31:47):
performance review. Have you scheduled performance review meetings with all
your team members before the end of the year or
before the end of the financial year, whichever you want
to do. Do you actually have formal documents to support
the performance management process and your business? Your business is
not too small to have formal documents. I feel like
so many times small businesses go I'm too small.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I know, Jess really well, Jess.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Do we do formal performance review in our team? Of course,
but it's so helpful because it lets us slip out
of this friends and getting stuff done and day to
day and going all right, well, actually, you've got this
formal dog, let's go through it together. You've put your
notes in it, I've got mine, Like, where are you
at with these things? Because even though we're friends, you know,
I'm the business owner and you work for me, and
(32:34):
we have you know, gone beyond that. I feel like
you deserve that from me and vice versa, and if not,
now's the time.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
To do it. There are heaps on Google.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
I can always share mine at some point, but I
think kicking off the new year with tangible targets for
your team gives them more motivation. And you know what
motivated people do, just make money, make more money, and
we like that. We're going to be looking at rewards.
Your team deserve to be rewarded. Incentives and bonuses can
be a really great way of rewarding contributions that your
(33:04):
team members make to your business. Don't forget they are
working for you. They are working to build your business,
and that deserves to be rewarded. They can obviously be
really effective in increasing activity during slow times and really
motivating your team. I've heard from a lot of people
who have said I can't afford rewards. I can't afford
(33:26):
the benefits for my team. And don't get me wrong,
we're all in different places to offer incentives or bonuses,
but you need to make sure that your team members
feel valued and you could go hejs. Obviously we're not
making heaps of money as a business, and I really
wish I could pay you more. How about I give
you a couple of days off next month not included
(33:47):
any stayed with that, Like, there are lots of ways
to incentivize your team members that don't include cash. If
cash is in short supply, which for a lot of
people at the moment it is. That doesn't mean you
can just not look at your team members and make
them feel valued. H career development plans and discussions around that.
Even if you have a performance review discussion with your
(34:08):
teenage year how clear are their career development discussions? Where
do they want to be in twelve months? Where do
they want to be in three years? I feel like
you need to be open with your team to the
point where that could.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Be not with you. And that's not a bad thing.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
And I've always said that, Jess, I would keep you
every day for the rest of ever. But I also
would never want to get in the way of your
career development. And if I become a beautiful launching pad
into a bigger, better career for you, slay like, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
I've been part of that.
Speaker 3 (34:38):
But I think that too many times people assume that
by having career development discussions with their team, they have
to have the career inside their business, Like I go, oh, jess, Well,
where would you want to go? And at the moment
you're kind of sitting at the top of what you
do in my business. Yeah, so how do we have
those career development discussions where you might go, well, V
I actually want to stay here and I really would
(34:59):
like to do ABCDN next year. Great, that's adding additional
value to my business. Or you might go, yeah, look
at some stage, I'd like to launch into big business
and take on a really corporate structure. Great, how can
I help you to get there? Because I promise you're
going to get more from your team if you're helping
them to get where they want to go. Then if
you go, oh, but you have to stay in my
(35:21):
business forever in a.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
Day, that is such a good point and it really
is so true. I guess for both an employer and
an employee, it's really important to be checking in with
each other. Is there any other last little tipbits before
we go away that you reckon? People should really be
getting on top of this end of financial season.
Speaker 3 (35:36):
Your clients and your customers. So let's review our service.
Are we serving who we want to serve? Who are
your most profitable customers? How do we get more of
those ones who are your least profitable clients? How do
we have less of those? What are your service highlights? Like?
Have there been some like flashes of brilliance? Like have
there been some things that you've been like, Wow, actually
we knocked it out of the park for that client.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Just how do we do it again?
Speaker 3 (36:00):
We do that and take that magic of that experience
and give it to everybody in our business. What are
the low lights? Have there been some issues along the way?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
How do we make.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Sure it doesn't happen again in the next twelve months?
And then maybe you could open it up as an
opportunity for feedback. Now is a perfect time to get
feedback and survey your customers. Seek feedback through surveys or
focus groups or interviews, or just pick up the phone
and be like, Hey, Jess, long time no speak.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
You still loving working with us?
Speaker 3 (36:26):
You said that ages ago, but like, has the service
been the same? I'm just gathering some feedback to make
sure that next year is our best year yet. And
I can almost guarantee that everyone's going to be like,
oh yeah, Jess, I really want to be on top
of this. So go to your most important customers first,
but send an email, you'll get some feedback and it
will put you in the best possible position to have
(36:46):
the best year yet.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
I completely agree, and I think like the overall theme
of today's episode is like we're halfway through the yard.
It's a really good time to stop and take an
assessment of what you've achieved, what you want to achieve. Like,
let's kind of get a bit of that you financially
are you me? And you know, just taketalk of what
you've done, because like it's been six months and that's
incredible and we're so proud of you. For those of
(37:08):
you who have been working in a business for six
months or have been planning something, maybe you're just ready
to launch it.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
I feel like I have nothing else of value to ADDVD.
That was an awesome episode that I feel like will
help a lot of people. So fun.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
All right, Well, we'll see you soon for our Accountant's episode,
and till then listen to She's on the Money, my Friends,
because we're back there.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
See you on Friday.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Bye. The advice shared on She's on the Money is
general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances.
She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and
should not be relied upon to make an investment or
(37:48):
financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
The PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Advice tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 5 (37:57):
Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are author representatives
of Money sherper P T y L t D A
b N three two one six four nine two seven
seven zero eight a f s L four five one
two eight nine
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