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strategic alliances

Strategic alliances: the benefits of working together

Strategic Alliances: the benefits of working together

Your business may compete head-to-head with a number of other companies, but this doesn’t mean you have to treat ALL other businesses as if they are the competition. In fact, there are real benefits in creating strategic alliances with other like-minded organisations.

When you look at the wider marketplace, you’ll see that there are businesses out there that may well compliment your offering. And by working together (rather than against each other) it’s possible to become valued strategic partners. Collaborating to serve your joint customers, improve brand awareness and, ultimately, expand your target market.

If this sounds like a positive strategy, now’s the time to do your homework and start hunting down the best strategic partners for your business.

Working to serve a shared customer base

Strategic alliances are all about finding the common ground between you and your intended partner. This means finding the best ways to combine your efforts.

If you can share the same customer audience, and create a complementary way of meeting their needs, that creates a broader, more connected way of growing both companies.

Finding a company that’s interested in forming a strategic alliance

Find partners in complementary sectors

If you’re an professional services business, like us, it makes sense to partner with solicitors, lawyers, accountants, marketers, and other professional services providers who can help your clients.

If you're a manufacturer, find a shared audience or customer need, and to create some real synergy between your two businesses. For example, if you're a maker of shoes it makes sense to partner with a clothing manufacturer that shares your same sense of style and purpose. 

Take part in business networking and events

To get a wider understanding of your local, or industry specific, business network, it’s worth taking part in plenty of online and offline business events. You’ll meet new people, hear about new brands and will find it easier to find your ideal strategic partner. The wider your business network, the more choices you have for an alliance.

Look at crossover between your target audiences

Once you’ve found a potential strategic partner, it’s important to take a detailed look at the crossover between your partner’s audience and your audience. Do they shop through the same channels? Do they fit a certain age group or social demographic? Are these customers local? Or are they part of a national or global online customer base? How large is their database?

Cross-reference your customer databases

By sharing and comparing your client relationship management (CRM) data, you can cross-reference both sets of customer data. Then see where there’s overlap, or where you may already share some of the same customers. The better you understand each other’s customers, the more likely it is that you’ll find some common ground for shared marketing and promotion.

Run joint events and promotions

Present joint webinars with your strategic partner, or run joint promotions. By finding a common theme, you bring both audiences together and reinforce the alliance between your two brands. You also reduce the expenditure by sharing the costs and reach a wider audience.

Combine your R&D efforts

To move your alliance forward, you can also try combining your research and development (R&D) activity. Find new products, new services and new ways of keeping your joint customers happy. By sharing the time, costs and effort of developing new offerings, both companies will benefit. And you keep your businesses at the cutting edge of their respective sectors or specialisms.

Strategic alliances are all about finding the common ground. If you share the same customer audience and create a complementary way of meeting their needs, you can significantly expand your target market.

Setting Sales Targets

Setting Sales Targets

Setting Sales Targets

Setting sales targets for your business is standard practice for any aspirational, growing company. If you’re going to stretch the sales and marketing teams, it’s important to have clear, unambiguous targets for them to aim for.

Setting sales targets in uncertain times

In uncertain times it’s more than likely that your established sales targets will effectively become unrealistic and impractical for your teams to use.

So, how do you set sales targets when the world has changed? 

And how can you ensure these targets are meaningful, accurate and workable for your business goals?

Understanding your strategy and sales numbers

Knowledge is power, especially when it comes to defining your business strategy during uncertain times. The better you understand your position, the easier it will be to agree on the right strategy and to set sales targets that support these aims.

With a plan in place and targets to meet, everyone knows what they need to achieve. A list of key tasks to do at each point along the sales journey adds real value. Even if you don't end up gaining new business, you’ve made every effort to solve the customer's needs.

Important steps for setting sales targets:

Understand your turnover and profit goals.

Do you know how many sales to make if you’re going to break even, or want to actually make money? 

Understanding your gross margin, your break-even point and your desired profit margin helps you calculate how many sales will be needed to achieve this profit goal.

Bear in mind, of course, that your sales will, most likely, be down during uncertain times. And work this into your figures and targets.

Make your targets SMART

If you set sales targets then these numbers have to be Smart (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely).

Break them down into achievable goals, such as weekly or monthly targets, and track your actual sales over time. That way you can see how you’re performing against your sales target. 

Look at regular performance reports and make these part of your regular management meetings. Discuss how you’re tracking and what action you can take if you’re not hitting your desired targets.

Track other sales elements

It’s also worth considering what other elements of the sales process you can measure, to get a handle on how you’re doing as a business. Track things like calls/enquiries, visits to your home page, trials, bookings or customer demos.

Analyse what drove these enquiries or visits, so you understand where things worked well and can do more of the same.

Run forecasts and scenarios

Use your tracking data to project your sales position forward in time. Base your projections on the historic information you have available and the other drivers you’ve identified. 

Run different scenarios. For example, 75% sales based on prior year numbers, 50% sales and 25% sales. And see how you’d need to tweak your sales targets to account for these drops in sales activity.

Fill the information gaps

Are there any gaps you could fill to get a better understanding of the market and your customers?

A proactive effort to make more follow-up calls with existing customers can be incredibly informative.

Running a customer feedback survey can also help to gauge where the sales process works well, where you could do better and what their future buying intentions might be over the coming months of the crisis.

Talk to us about your sales targeting process.

contractor or employee

Contractor or Employee

Contractor or Employee 

What You Need to Know

Should your staff be contractors or employees?

There are many factors to assess and, as a business owner, it’s your responsibility to get it right.

So, what is the difference between a contractor and an employee?

An employee

  • works in the business and is integral to that business
  • has rights and entitlements under the Fair Work Act 2009
  • has a reasonable expectation of ongoing work, agreed hours and duties
  • is covered by the employer’s workers compensation insurance
  • is paid superannuation guarantee.

A contractor

  • is actively running and advertising their own business
  • is responsible for their own insurance, equipment, licenses and tax
  • has a high level of independence, discretion and control as to how and when the work is performed
  • is able to delegate work
  • is liable to fix mistakes at their own cost
  • may or may not be paid super depending on the nature of the work engagement.

It is the business owner’s legal responsibility to determine the nature of the work and the correct basis of engagement. We can help you get it right.

Multi Factor Test

There are many factors involved in deciding whether a worker is an employee or contractor. And the guidelines must be applied individually to each working relationship.

There is no single overriding factor, rather, the totality of the working relationship and nature of the work being done is taken into consideration.

Sole Trader as a Contractor May Not be Right

When sole traders are engaged as contractors, the business owner needs to check whether they really meet the criteria for being engaged as a contractor. Many sole traders engaged as contractors are not actively carrying on a business, and do not have the level of independence that a contractor should have. This is even if they have their own ABN. 

Sole traders are often engaged for their own services and labour. However they are not free to delegate the work to someone else and must work under the direction of the employing business. In this case, they should be engaged as an employee and not a contractor.

Factors to Consider

This is not an exhaustive list but some of the main factors to assess.

  • Is the worker engaged to achieve a specific result or are they engaged for their labour?
  • Are they able to delegate their contract to another worker within their own business?
  • How much choice do they have in where, when and how the work is performed?
  • Is the service integral to the business?
  • Do they advertise services and accept work from other businesses?
  • Who is liable to fix damages or mistakes?

Contractor or Casual Employee?

If you are not sure whether a worker is an employee or a contractor, check the ATO Employee or Contractor information first.

It’s okay to engage a worker as a contractor initially and to reassess the engagement three to six months later if the situation is unclear.

However, at that point, if the worker does not meet the contractor definition and you don’t need a permanent employee, put them on as a casual employee. This is often the best solution for both parties.  It means the employer is compliant with tax, super and employment laws. Plus the worker retains some flexibility while being paid super and having tax taken care of.

The ATO and the Fair Work Ombudsman are particularly concerned with the validity of sole traders treated as contractors. This is because they are the workers most frequently disadvantaged by being classified incorrectly as a contractor when they in fact meet the test for being an employee.

Get it Right to Avoid Penalties

A business that should have engaged a worker as an employee will be liable for back-payment of entitlements (such as leave, overtime and allowances), and superannuation.

Some situations are straightforward to work out. But many contractor or employee decisions are not so easy with so many factors to consider.

Let us help you get it right and sort out the tax and superannuation obligations for all your workers whether contractors or employees.

benefits of forecasting

What are the benefits of forecasting?


What are the benefits of forecasting?

There are many benefits to forecasting for your business.

First and foremost is that you’re more likely to maximise your profits if you are able to accurately project your revenues and expenses.

Additionally, accurate forecasting helps you to identify potential opportunities and manage your cashflow. And when you have this information you are able to make educated decisions at the right time for your business.

Here are some examples of questions that an accurate forecast of your cash flow could help you answer:

  • Can i start creating a new product/service?
  • Can I open a new office/location or start selling in a different area/country?
  • Can I afford another member of staff or outsourced assets?
  • Can I take more money out of my business?
  • Am I at risk of running out of cash?

How do you create a forecast?

The short answer is you don’t have to do it manually anymore.

Forecasting Apps, such as Futrli, mean that the complex, manual time-consuming forecasting is a thing of the past. Forecasting is now possible with the click of a button.

An added benefit of using Futrli to forecast, is that you can test out your decisions before you make them.

Using automated predictions means you have a second brain on your business 24/7.

Futrli

  • Creates separate predictions for invoices, cash transactions and journal entries
  • Works out how many days it takes for invoices to be paid for every account
  • Considers ‘what we thought the month will look like’ compared to current month actuals and adjusts accordingly
  • Reads account names and looks for account-specific patterns
  • Creates staff payroll predictions just like your payroll software does

And the information is presented in chart format, making it easy to understand.

How far into the future should I forecast?

Forecasts are most beneficial for looking at the next year. They should be used in the short term for immediate planning and decision making and medium to long term to assess and extrapolate current trends.

It’s important to remember that the further you look into the future, the less accurate your cash flow forecast will be as there are too many unknowns yet to pass.

Talk to us about forecasting and how Futrli can benefit your business. 

demystifying your balance sheet

Demystifying your balance sheet

What story does your Balance Sheet tell?

Do you understand the story your Balance Sheet tells about your business? 

It’s important you understand the components of your Balance Sheet and the key ratios that measure the health of your business.

1. It measures the net worth of your business.

Your Balance Sheet is made up of all of your assets and liabilities; your net worth is your total assets less total liabilities.

Current assets are assets which are expected to be converted into cash within 12 months; current liabilities are expected to be paid within 12 months

Non-current assets aren’t expected to be converted into cash in the short-term; non-current liabilities are long-term liabilities which aren’t expected to be paid within 12 months

Your net worth is the owners’ interest in the business. In other words, if your business was to be wound up this is how much you’d be left with as the owner of the business.

2. It tells you if your business is solvent.

Solvency is the acid test for survival. If your business is insolvent, without immediate action to remedy this, it’s unlikely to survive for long. There are two components to solvency:

Current ratio greater than 1 (current assets / current liabilities)

Positive net assets (total assets - total liabilities)

If your business is insolvent, you’ll struggle to pay bills on time and you may be personally at risk. It’s imperative you seek help immediately if your business is insolvent.

3. It allows you track the strength of your business.

By comparing your Balance Sheet to previous periods, you can track whether your net worth is increasing or decreasing.

The stronger your Balance Sheet, the easier it will be for your business to survive a downturn.

For example, if your retained earnings are diminishing over time, it’s clear that you need to take action to strengthen your Balance Sheet to ensure you’ll receive value upon the wind up or sale of your business.

4. You can calculate key ratios.

Key ratios not only allow you to compare your results year on year or to industry benchmarks, they also highlight areas for improvement.

For example, calculating your debtor days may show that it takes on average 35 days for customers to pay you. If your payment terms are within 7 days of invoice, it’s clear that your debtor processes need to be strengthened.

Perhaps you calculate how long it takes inventory to sell and see it’s taking twice as long to sell this year than it did last year. Or, maybe a specific product is taking a lot longer to sell than others, which may indicate you should discontinue it. Key ratios calculated using your Balance Sheet can tell a us a multitude of things.

As a business owner you should be able to read your Balance Sheet and understand what it's telling you. 

If you need help demystifying your Balance Sheet and identifying key areas for improvement, get in touch now!

cutting costs and increasing prices

Cutting costs or increasing your prices

Are you considering cutting costs or increasing your prices?

With more than 85% of SMEs expecting a lower profit in the next nine months, the more prepared you can be for the unexpected, the better.

Managing expenses is a good idea at any stage in your business and you may need to consider increasing your prices.

Smart ways to get your costs under control


Cashflow has been a big issue for thousands of businesses this year, and when the money’s not rolling in, it can help to rethink your costs. To do it effectively involves more than just keeping an eye on outgoings. It’s about looking at all the moving parts of your business to see if your systems (or lack of) are costing you unnecessarily.

Here’s how:

Muck in

Do a cost control audit to work out where your big cost centres are and look at your systems for managing them.

Be aware

Don’t just slash your expenses. Track costs and look out for opportunities to trim fat or take a different approach.

Unite your team

Bring everyone together to monitor and analyse inputs and expenses. Reviewing and developing your systems? Get your team’s feedback.

Look to your peers

How do your costs compare to others? If a business of a similar size and production system to you is performing well, but spending less, explore what they’re doing differently.

Seek advice

Got a good idea of where the issues are, or feeling totally confused? Talk to your advisors about your next steps

How can I put my prices up without losing customers?

If you need to change your pricing to make ends meet, be honest and up-front with your customers at all communication points.

  • Make it clear on your website and social media that prices have changed and why.
  • Send an email to let all your clients and suppliers know about the changes.
  • Meeting people face-to-face? Make sure they’re aware of the price hikes before they’re invoiced - otherwise you could be in breach of the Fair Trading Act.
  • Provide the best customer experience you can by updating staff on any changes and advising them on how to communicate them to customers.
  • Worried you’ll lose fans? Consider staggering price increases of individual products over time.

Talk to us about how we can help you make better business decisions.

why data matters

Why data matters

Why data matters!

With cloud accounting software, such as Xero, simplifying much of the bookkeeping process, you now have greater accuracy over business numbers with less effort and time.

Yet, there is still one point of weakness.

Your data.

Data is often still manually entered. And if your data has errors, is missing information or is out-of-date, your results will reflect that.

Remember the saying “garbage in, garbage out”.

And that’s not a good thing when it comes to your business. Especially when it comes to forecasting.
When making decisions about the future of your business, getting the full picture is essential. And that means you need clean and accurate data.

When you have accurate forecasts, you can say goodbye to surprises and take better control of your business.
Businesses who consistently make errors with their data and base decisions upon incomplete data often end up in a cash flow crises. And more often than not, realise they’re about to run out of cash when it's too late to respond.

There is a direct line between accurate, up-to-date data and making better decisions for your business.

One way to improve your data accuracy is by automating as many points in your bookkeeping process as possible. 

Using apps that integrate with Xero, such as ReceiptBank and Futrli, makes it easier to get the right information you need to make the best decisions for your business.

Using Receipt Bank makes it easy to photograph snap your receipts with your phone and extract the information your accounting system needs.

No longer do you have to file away physical copies as your information and a copy of the receipt is stored in the cloud.

Receipt Bank then “talks” to your accounting software, for example Xero, and uploads your receipts.

Your information is available in your accounts system ready to be reconciled by your bookkeeper. And then Futrli uses that information to report in, predominantly, graphic form. And most importantly, provide the ability to set budgets and forecast. 

Talk to us about how Receiptbank, Futrli, and Xero can help make better business decisions.

understand your cashflow statement

Understanding your cashflow statement

Understanding your cashflow statement

Understanding your cashflow statement means you know how your business has generated and used cash (and cash equivalents) within a specific time period. And this gives you an overall picture of your business performance. 

It is another important financial statement to understand in conjunction with the Profit and Loss statement and the Balance sheet. These three reports provide a good understanding of the financial position of your business.

How does it work?

The cashflow statement integrates the information provided by the profit and loss statement and the balance sheet into a current cash position.

Your cashflow statement is reported on a cash basis, while your other financial statements are usually reported on an accrual basis. Accrual income (from the profit and loss statement) is converted to cash by calculating the changes in the balances of asset and liability accounts.

Report categories

Your statement of cashflows is organised into sections that report on different types of business activity.

  1. Operating activities - all business income, expenses, assets and liabilities (except for those assets and liabilities reported in investing and financing activities).
  2. Investing activities - the purchase and sale of long-term investments, property, plant and equipment as well as security deposits paid to suppliers or received from customers and dividends received.
  3. Financing activities - the changes in balances of equity accounts, for example, issuing and repurchase of stocks and bonds and payment of company dividends if applicable. Loans are also included in financing activities.

Formal financial report packages usually include notes to the financial statements. The notes contain supplemental information that explain significant items or activities that did not involve cash transactions. 

Why is it useful?

Your cashflow statement gives you a valuable measure of cashflow in and out of the business over a given period. It shows the ability of your business to pay bills and fund operating activities. This gives you a picture of overall performance.

It also shows the relationships between assets, liabilities, equity and cash accounts. Your cashflow statement shows changes and movements over time. Whereas the balance sheet and profit and loss reports show account values at a single point in time.

Your cashflow statement gives you vital information on your business.

  • How strong is your cash position?
  • What is the long-term outlook for your business?
  • What activities generate the most cashflow?
  • What is the relationship between your net income and your operating activities? 

If you’d like to understand your financial statements, cash position and future outlook in more depth, give us a call today. We’ll help you identify and appreciate the strengths of your business.

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