A lot of business owners feel uncomfortable with the financial side of what they do. Not because they are not smart, but because nobody ever explained it to them in a way that made sense.
That discomfort is worth addressing. You do not need to love numbers to run a successful business. But you do n...
Starting a business is exciting and overwhelming in roughly equal measure. There is so much to think about that it is easy to skip over a question that actually matters a lot in the early stages.
Should you focus on building profit, or on managing cashflow?
The answer depends on where your busines...
One of the most effective ways to improve cashflow in your business does not require you to win more clients or raise your prices. It just requires you to get paid faster for the work you are already doing.
Accounts receivable, the money your clients owe you, is where a lot of cashflow goes missing...
A lot of business owners think they are managing their cashflow because they check their bank balance each morning. That is a start, but it only tells you where you are right now. What you really need is to know where you are heading.
Managing cashflow well comes down to two things: monitoring it p...
Choosing the right structure when you start a business in New Zealand is one of the most important decisions you will make, and it is one that is worth revisiting as your business grows. Each structure has different implications for how you are taxed, your personal liability, and how the business ca...
A lot of business owners avoid setting a budget because it feels like a lot of work for a document that goes out of date. That is understandable. But a budget that is too vague to use is usually the result of building it the wrong way, not a reason to skip it.
A good budget is not about pinning dow...
For any business that carries stock, stocktake is one of those tasks that gets dreaded well before it arrives. But does it have to be?
Hereā€™s why you should approach stocktaking as a necessary and positive part of your business.
Whatā€™s the point of counting my stock?
A stocktake is a mechanism to...
Most people start a business because they are good at something. They are a great tradie, a talented designer, a brilliant chef. The financial side was never the point.
But once you are running a business, the numbers are not optional. They are the feedback system that tells you whether what you ar...
Your accounting system is good at telling you what has already happened. It shows you last month's revenue, last quarter's profit, where the money went. What it cannot do is tell you what is coming.
That is what a cashflow forecast is for. And the business owners who use one well do not just feel m...
Most small businesses in New Zealand run on a collection of software tools that were set up at some point and have not been reviewed since. Some of them are working well. Some are creating more work than they save. And a few gaps probably exist that nobody has got around to addressing.
A periodic r...
Cashflow is one of the most consistent challenges for small business owners, whether you are selling goods or services. And one of the most powerful levers for improving it is something a lot of business owners have not heard of.
The working capital cycle.
What is the working capital cycle?
Your ...
What is AIM provisional tax?
The AIM provisional tax regime was introduced on 1 April 2018 to simplify provisional tax for small businesses in New Zealand.
Since its introduction, the regime has worked well for all sorts of NZ businesses. Sole traders, new limited companies, growing companies, and...