By Hilary O’Dwyer, CEO, Titian Consulting This month’s focus is all about how to navigate the current world of rising costs in our business, and my 2 Minute Takeaway speaks about examining our base costs to really understand what we can and can’t run our business without. We’ve all felt the pinch of the increasing cost of living – groceries, utilities, transport; the price of everything is going up. I’m sure that the thought of another interest rate rise is making many of us feel sick, with some even wondering if the next one might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It is critical at t ..read more

By Hilary O’Dwyer, CEO, Titian Consulting I want to go back to basics and look at your books and what is in them. What is the difference between your profit and loss statement; balance sheet and cashflow? I’m going to start with the balance sheet, something that is often overlooked but is the first thing that lenders ask for! When we talk about our business, we normally talk about our profitability;  revenue or cash. And they are important metrics; but they aren’t everything. Our balance sheet is a snapshot of our business on any given day. In some ways, it’s a barometer of the health and ..read more

By Hilary O’Dwyer, CEO, Titian Consulting In my latest 2 Minute Takeaway, I spoke about GST. Which seems pretty basic but it’s surprising how little some people understand about it and how it works. What I speak to assumes that you are already registered for GST. GST is a sales tax and that means that the ATO add this onto the price of most goods and services.  They have pushed the admin onto businesses, meaning they make businesses charge it to their customers; collect it and then pay it over to the ATO. What you owe the ATO is done on a self declaration basis. GST operates in two direct ..read more

By Hilary O’Dwyer, CEO, Titian Consulting Happily, most of us have had a bit of a break over the holiday period and may still be in go-slow mode and not yet back at our desks or making the magic happen for our businesses. While we are in the summer phase, it’s a great time to reflect on what is ahead in the coming year. With the speed turned down on the day to day for a lot of us, I have been reflecting on the first half of the financial year and looking ahead to the second half and what that is going to look like for my business and that of my clients. I think it’s clear we have a lot of head ..read more

Do you know how much Annual Leave your business has accrued on the books? If you don’t, and one of your long term staff members leaves you could be in for a nasty shock. This is a particularly significant issue due to the ‘Great Resignation’ of the past year or so, and also as we shut down our businesses for a week or two over the Christmas/New Year period and wonder if we should be forcing our staff to take Annual Leave during this time. The great resignation – what annual leave do you owe? The post In The Media | The Great Resignation – What Annual Leave Do You Owe? appeared first on Ti ..read more

By Hilary O’Dwyer, CEO, Titian Consulting It’s always a frantic push getting ready for the break over Christmas. Sometimes I wonder if the mad rush is worth it as you get to the break absolutely wrecked! Before we get to set our OOO, there’s heaps that can be pre scheduled leaving those last few days of December freed up for whatever last minute situation occurs. And there’s always something! I’ve already started to schedule in the final payrolls for December with the various teams. Some businesses are getting hit with 3 fortnightly pays this month with the last one falling on the 30th Decembe ..read more

By Hilary O’Dwyer, CEO, Titian Consulting Having got yourself to the point where you’re on top of your BAS because you know when it’s due and roughly how much you will have to pay, the next challenge is to know where the cash is coming from. There is one extremely effective tip that I use in my business and almost insist my clients all use too. And that’s a separate ATO bank account. And a savings account! The psychology is simple. If you see it, you’ll spend it. I am literally blind to what is in my ATO bank account. And my savings account. What is in my main trading bank account is what is a ..read more

By Hilary O’Dwyer, CEO, Titian Consulting Thanks to the craziness of the last few years for businesses, especially small business, the ATO has not chased anyone for outstanding BAS, but this time is now over. Over the past two years with the impact of the pandemic hitting businesses, the ATO focussed on delivering the relief available such as JobKeeper rather than chasing money owing. Of my clients who have outstanding amounts, they hadn’t been approached by the ATO and it seemed to be that so long as something was getting paid regularly, no one was doing any chasing. Now that things have sett ..read more

I took some time out on my recent NZ trip to put together a new #2MinuteTakeaway that I think will be relevant to a lot of businesses and families due to the shifting work landscape as we emerge from Covid. People are reassessing their work/life balance, my family included! I have used my own business budgeting knowledge to navigate how this new working arrangement might affect us, so watch my new 2 Minute Takeaway to see how we have put that into practice. https://titian.consulting/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Titian-Consulting-2-Minute-Takeaway-OCTOBER-1080x1080px.mp4 The post 2 Minu ..read more

I was recently in Auckland for a 5 year anniversary party with Simon Rudd at Reward Recruitment, a proud occasion celebrating his achievements in growing his business to the success that it now is. During one of the dinners, talk turned to the labour market in New Zealand and the challenges it is currently facing, challenges which equally apply to the Australian market. Someone made a comment about how it could take up to four years to return to the pre Covid levels of available labour. I found this very confronting, thinking about the difficulty everyone is currently having with attracting an ..read more