Establishing document systems and processes

With growth comes growing pains. Such pains can affect team morale as well as your margins. It’s critical to preempt potential friction and put systems in place to ensure you scale up with minimal disruption. 

It’s essential that you regularly review your business’s systems and have clearly documented processes in place - for consistency, efficiency, and so that you can delegate more responsibilities to your team.

Nine steps to establish great systems:

1. Identify your key systems.

Focus on documenting your most critical processes first. These may be customer focused, those where only one person knows how to perform the task, the tasks currently causing the most friction, or those preventing you from being paid on time.

​2. Develop a standardised approach to documenting your systems.

Document processes from start to finish in a concise, logical, and visual way. Start with diagrams or flowcharts, as they’re easier to digest, then embellish each step with text. Where necessary, include ‘how to’ guides, checklists, and templates (such as welcome letters or customer response email templates) within each system to ensure consistency and efficiency.

3. Break down each step into bite sized pieces.

If an overarching process requires touch from multiple team members, ensure the process includes the necessary communication points (so ‘Person B’ knows it’s time to do their piece), and that it’s clear which role has overall responsibility for completing the process.

4. Clearly label and store your procedural documents.

Your team needs to be able to access and execute procedures fast. Online document storage is best (the trees will thank you).

5. Identify the best person to draft each process.

If it’s a finance task, it’s likely someone within the Finance department should draft the system. This need not be a highly onerous task for the business owner, however, taking time to review these will save time and reduce rework in future.

6. Test the process!

Unless it involves learning how to use software, a new team member should be able to pick up a procedure and perform a task with little or no support.

7. Team training.

Include relevant procedures in new team member induction and make it clear to your team that they’re expected to follow the system. If mistakes are made, blame the system, not the person… and improve the system.

8. Review the process!

Regularly review and update your systems to ensure they’re still best practice. Empower the team to ‘own’ the systems they use and encourage them to drive improvements. Resist the urge to dictate how things must work, as those using the systems will have a better understanding of improvement opportunities.

9. Consider what can be automated or streamlined.

Technology is moving at a rapid pace. Encourage the ‘techies’ in your team to suggest automation opportunities, apps, or software solutions that could help your business scale better. A small investment could lead to a massive time saving - time is money!

“Speed is useful only if you are running in the right direction.” - Joel Barker

We can help you review and improve your critical business processes. Get in touch!

Use the Fresh Start Effect to achieve positive change

Have you heard of the Fresh Start Effect?

Around the world, people usually start each new year by setting goals and making positive changes. 

The reason that the new year can be such a great time to make changes is that the date provides a clear ‘temporal landmark’. Temporal landmarks give us an opportunity to step back, survey our lives and figure out what things we’d like to tweak.

At new year, we set goals to harness the energy of a resolution and create what’s known as the Fresh Start Effect.

It is important, however, to make sure that you understand what you’re trying to achieve, and create goals that are more likely to succeed.

Making changes or starting something new is easier with these techniques:

Making a public commitment

Announce your new goal on social media. If your friends and family get behind your goal, you’re more likely to be accountable and more likely to succeed.

Join a group

If you want to pick up a sport, start a new hobby, or pick give something up, consider joining a group. Again, this is a great way to create accountability. If you’re worried about letting down other people, you’re more likely to commit or show up!

Be specific

When you’re setting goals, be exact. If you want to make your business more efficient, know what this means in practice. For example, implementing the right apps to help automate some of your core processes requires research about what is going to suit your business the most. Set your goal with dates and times in mind about what you're going to research and when. And put them into your calendar.

Talk to us about automation

If your Fresh Start for 2020 involves implementing automation, talk to us. We can review you business processes and identify the automation opportunities, helping you choose the best apps to drive your business efficiently.

Contact us here.

Planning for seasonal dips in income

Seasonal dips in income can be highly challenging when you’re a small business. But there are proactive ways to predict, plan for and overcome these dips in revenue.

The key to dealing with seasonal dips is to know when they’re most likely to occur, and to have measures in place to spread your income and revenue pipeline over the course of the year.

Understanding seasonality in your sector

If your business is seasonal such as pool supplies, or a ski gear specialist, you’ll be used to the peaks and troughs, but many 'non-seasonal' businesses experience times during the financial year where sales and revenue peak – and, on the flipside, where sales and revenue experience a pronounced dip.

When income is low at certain times of the year, it makes for challenging times.

So, what are the key ways to plan for this kind of seasonality?​​​​​

Forecast your seasonality

It’s vital to know WHEN you’re most likely to experience any seasonal dips. Looking at bench-marking reports for your industry is one way to predict the seasonality in your niche or sector. But you can also use your own accounting data to great effect. Look back through your profit & loss reports and spot where the peaks and troughs have occurred over preceding years.

Charge a premium in peak time 

One straightforward approach is to apply premium pricing for your products/services during the busy season. By increasing your pricing, you boost your overall revenue, giving you more working capital to see you through the leaner months when sales and income are at their lowest.

Offer additional peak-time services

Offering added extras and other additional service lines during peak time is another way to maximise the season. In the months where customers are most engaged, look to upsell these premium services and offer more value. Satisfied clients will be more inclined to pay for added extras, giving you an increased revenue stream from the same number of customers.

Target other markets

Exploring other related markets is another useful tactic. When you’re experiencing downtime, look for other ways to monetise your existing assets, products or services. For example, if you’re a hotel where sales peak in summertime, offer discounted conference space in the winter months to boost revenue.

Diversify your products/services

If one product/service has a known seasonal dip, look at adding an additional product or service to offset this downtime. For example, a a ski resort could promote bike-riding or hiking breaks during the warmer summer months to keep revenue constant. Likewise a pool maintenance firm could establish an outdoor fireplace business for the colder months.

Have a regional e-commerce strategy

If you’re dependent on a small local market, broadening your marketing and e-commerce strategies can help to attract a wider customer base – and bolster sales. Paid advertising through Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter can easily target new geographical markets, bringing in new customers and giving your revenue a much-needed uplift during seasonal troughs.

Talk to us about planning for seasonality

f your business is struggling with seasonal dips, and the resulting impact on cashflow, come and talk to us. We’ll help you identify the timing of your seasonal downtime, and come up with a clear strategy for stabilising your income across the year.

Get in touch to start beating those seasonal dips.

How to make your out-of-office email work harder when you're away

There are a few essentials your out-of-office message needs to contain. Before you try anything fun with yours, make sure you have the essentials covered.

Check that your auto-response has:

• A title that lets your recipient know this is an out-of-office message (some email services will do this automatically)
• The dates you’re out of the office, and the date you’ll be back in action
• Whether you can be contacted, and the correct contact details. Be really clear about when you’d expect to be contacted. You’re on holiday, so it’s fine to reserve this option for emergency use only
• Who they can speak to in your absence, what they’re responsible for, and how they can get in touch

So, here are a few ideas:

• Share your favourite post from the company blog
• Add a sign up for your newsletter into the text
• Add a link to your Instagram account so that they can follow along with your holiday adventures
• Spice up your message with a gif or some well-chosen emojis
• If your company supports a charity, use this space to share some information about the work they do at this time of year

Or, if you’re ready to really take things to the next level, try a humorous message. Done properly, this is a great way to brighten the day of the person getting your bounce-back. Of course, you’ll need to consider all of the people who could be emailing you during this time, and how they might respond. If in doubt, play it straight.

Here’s some clever out-of-office message inspiration from Grammarly:

Heading out of the office? Don’t let your business affairs slide. Book an appointment with us to make sure you are covered for the holiday period.

Talk to us about how we can help.

Making data meaningful for your business

Raw data describes the facts and figures that a business processes every day. Over time, every business hoards a certain amount of data and it only becomes meaningful to a business after it has been processed to add context, relevance and purpose.

For example, in a restaurant, every order will be recorded. However, a restaurant won't learn much by looking at each one in isolation. Analysis of the orders will reveal trends and patterns, such as peak dining days or biggest-selling menu or bar items. Knowledge of the business comes from the relationship between the singular pieces of information. That restaurant owner may know to do their biggest stock order on a Wednesday by analysing their covers and establishing that sales increase by 38% on Thursdays.

The pace of business in today’s technological times requires businesses to be able to react quickly to changing demands from customers and environmental conditions. The ability to be able to compile, analyse and act on data is increasingly important. In some instances, a high volume of data may need to be accumulated and analysed before trends and patterns emerge, like a particular season’s most popular dish.

When you aren’t compiling accurate business data, you can only rely on gut feel and assumptions about past performance to inform your future business decisions.

If your business is already using cloud software for accountancy, project management system or CRM, it’s likely that you’re sitting on a goldmine of data. If properly utilised, this data can greatly aid running a successful business. You'll have valuable insight into your sales, expenses, profit and staff efficiencies that can help you answer critical questions and drive smart business decisions.

Every business is unique, but here are three quick tips to help you drive data in your business.

Three steps to ensuring data is meaningful for your business:

1. Data is only powerful if there is context – can you stop to answer these questions?

• What is your primary objective (business or personal)?
• What is happening in the business?
• What isn’t happening?
• How can you influence what happens?

Figure out what you’re currently trying to achieve before anything else. It’s important to periodically go back and ask yourself these questions and what goals develop from the answers, as answers evolve over time. You may have started out with your primary objective as running the best restaurant in your area. However as time has passed, your primary objective might now be to take time away from the business to spend more time with your children.

​2. The only way your data can help you drive your business is if it’s accurate and organised appropriately – ask yourself:

• Are your financials up-to-date?
• Do you have any unreconciled transactions?
• Are you tax compliant?
• Are your staff trained on what systems and processes to use for different parts of your business?
• Are your cloud systems being correctly utilised?

The worst thing you can do is to attempt to analyse incorrect data and attempt to make decisions for the business based on it! Tools like Spotlight Reporting can help you with the reports you need for business decisions.

3. Understand what the data necessities are and what the niceties are.

• What would you most like to understand about your business?
• What figures pinpoint success for you?
• What are your objectives over the next six to twelve months, and two to five years

Remember, to focus on what truly matters and build from there. If you want help with the process, we can accumulate, analyse, report and advise on your data; or show you the tools to use.

Talk to us about how we can help.

Have you got a strategy for a financially stress-free holiday period?

Christmas holiday breaks are a time to spend with family, friends & have a chance to recharge for the year ahead. We look forward to warmer weather and finally setting up an out-of-office email for the break. However, for business owners, this time can be stressful without careful cash-flow planning.

Even if you do continue to operate through the holiday shutdown season, your customers' financial behaviour may not remain the same.

It can be pretty disappointing to work hard all year only to find that once you have paid staff, overheads and creditors, you have little or nothing left in the bank to cover your own time off.

The strategies and tips shared below are generalised, however, we are here if you need to budget and prepare a cash-flow forecast. We can also help if you need assistance in applying for short term finance to get you through the break.

Why is cash-flow planning particularly important at this time of year?

Staff leave needs to be covered in addition to your normal fixed overheads like rent, creditors and tax compliance. The budget and forecasting process ensures you know your numbers and are prepared. If you are shutting down, you won't be driving revenue during this period and sales may take time to get started again in the new year.

Here are some simple strategies that can help:

Decide your Christmas and holiday break dates

Confirm these with staff, customers and suppliers.

Budget and plan for annual leave 

Remember the pay rates may be higher than standard hourly rates, also factor in statutory public holidays.

Decide

If you are going to pay out leave in full at the beginning of the Christmas break or continue to pay as usual throughout the break.

Review your work in progress (WIP)

Plan to complete jobs or services that can be invoiced and paid before Christmas (remember if you don’t invoice and get paid before Christmas, you may not see the money until mid to late January).

Capacity planning

There is often a rush to get everything done before Christmas, whether it's the kitchen benchtop installed or the beauty treatment before the break, so make sure you have the capacity to maximise on this.

Stock-take

Do you need to order in goods now to be able to complete work in progress? Check that there is stock on hand available.

Making an arrangement with the Tax Office

if you find you can not make payments, it is possible to apply for an instalment arrangement. There are costs associated with this, however it may provide a solution that gets you through the holiday period. Talk to us, we can help.

Talk to us about enhancing your financial support

If you can’t make ends meet, now is the time to organise short term financial relief like an arranged overdraft of loan, rather than hoping it will come right. Please let us know if you need any help with cash-flow forecasting, budgeting or finance applications.

Get in touch to improve your cash flow.

Finding the balance

Looking for a little more work-life balance?

Sometimes it seems impossible when you are in the thick of it. The following ideas might help provide some light at the end of the tunnel.

Prioritise

Work often dictates to us, rather than the other way around. Create a list of all the things that need doing and categorise them. For example, work out the tasks that are ‘important but not urgent’ and ‘urgent but not important’. Task or project management tools like Trello can simplify your workload and and help to prioritise your time.

Delegate

Letting go can be an opportunity for others in the team to shine. Alternatively, bring in a contractor to help clear the load and you may find they bring in new ideas, create opportunities or streamline the process. Don’t limit yourself to what’s on at work - think about what would help at home too, such as a meal kit delivery to simplify the end of the day.

Book it in the diary

We are all guilty of putting off an exercise class or a coffee catch up because work takes over. These events are important for your mental and physical health and may give you space for creative thought or the ability to think with more clarity. Plus, you’ll return to work feeling more productive. Book it in and consider joining a group so you are more committed to turning up!

Use the technology to help you

‘Always on’ technology such as smart phones are designed to make life easier but we’ve ended up busier than ever. So choose the apps and tools that can reduce the stress. Whether it’s for communication and meetings, or your filing and accounting. An app could save you time and allow you to get on with other things - read more on apps. We can help with the right accounting software solution to reduce the paperwork.

Share with your network

Are there individuals in your network who face the same challenges or can help you achieve your goals? Set up a monthly breakfast to catch up, support and learn from each other. You’ll go back to work with new inspiration.

Do what you love

At the end of the day, your work is ‘part of’ your life not separate from it, so if you enjoy it, you’ll feel you have more ‘balance’.

Get in touch to talk about how we can help you achieve balance in your business.

What’s in the forecast?

When we set out on a fishing trip or hike, we always check the weather forecast.

It’s no different in business. The forecast tells us if there’s bad weather (poor cashflow) in store based on the direction we’re heading.

Your forecast will tell you:

The difference between a business forecast and a weather forecast is that, when the business forecast is showing bad weather, you can do something about it to make the sun come out. The forecast will tell you what’s going well and what’s not, so you can make adjustments to reduce the impact of bad weather.

Just as you wouldn’t go fishing without checking the forecast, you shouldn’t run your business without an annual forecast. So, don’t live in your raincoat, waiting to get soaked - take control and talk to us about getting your forecast done so you know what to expect.

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” - Alan Lakein

We’re here to help you, every step along the way. Get in touch!

Choosing a new business bank account?

A business bank account is an essential requirement for any business. But with so many banking providers out there, how do you know which business account to choose?

The key is to know what you require from a bank account, and to choose a bank that understands the banking, financial and funding needs of your business.

Choosing an account that fits your business needs

Whether you’re a new sole trader or an established limited company, it’s advisable to maintain a clear divide between your personal and business money. So it’s vital to open a business bank account, giving you a separate account to handle your business transactions.

The choice of available accounts can be baffling, with the big corporate banks and high-street providers offering a range of accounts, and new digital challenger banks also adding to the available options for business owners.

When looking for a business account, consider:

Talk to us about selecting your ideal bank account

If you’re in the market for a new business bank account, come and talk to us. We’ll help you understand the key requirements you need from your account, and the banking providers that are most suited to delivering the right flexibility for your business.

We’re here to help you, every step along the way. Get in touch!