Accountant's Minute

Welcome to Accountants Minute. The aftermath of the Banking Royal Commission has clearly established that the “buck” finishes with the board of directors or management committee. Important corporate governance principles are being reinforced in the horror expressed by ordinary citizens about some of the breakdowns in corporate culture, combined with the resignations of some of the...

Welcome to Accountants Minute. Are you a “me too”?  Your clients are competing in a competitive world.  Accountants are no different. Things are changing all the time. All types of businesses, including accountants, need to be differentiating their services to make them look different, to be able to offer the products/services that the customers are looking for – your...

Welcome to Accountants Minute. Corporate governance mentoring helps small/medium enterprises. The new legislation for Early Stage Innovation Companies and Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Companies has highlighted the need for directors of companies to review their knowledge of company director’s duties. Directors of small/medium enterprises, which aspire to raise capital as Early...

Welcome to Accountants Minute. Accountants, you need to communicate or perish! SME clients are being bombarded by communications from all types of people, including your competitors. Accountants need to develop a communication strategy or your opportunity for new work, work in the business advisory services space, or indeed any other type of work, will perish over the next few years. Have...

Over $3 billion per annum is made available by the Australian, State and Territory governments for small/medium enterprises and businesses with turnovers up to $50 million through a range of grants. Accountants and business advisers also win from grants.  Why?  Small/medium enterprises love accountants being proactive and advising them of grants for which they could probably apply....

Welcome to Accountants Minute. Seminars are a great marketing tool for accountants and business advisers because they’re a great way for you to educate your clients and prospects on the services you can provide. For many years, SMEs have been asking for a wider range of services to be made available to them to assist them to add value to their businesses. We’ve listened to those survey...

A number of surveys over the last 15 years have identified that small/medium enterprises want more services than just taxation from someone – without really specifying who the “someone” is! There is no guarantee that “someone” is the SMEs current accountant or advisor.  This is because many SMEs have a belief that their current accountants are only interested in preparing annual...

Welcome to Accountants Minute. This week I want to talk to you about the “Big 6” – the “Big 6” products that we have on offer for you. Products about which we believe your small/medium enterprise clients will want to learn more. Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising This is a new opportunity because this legislation is brand new. All you need to do is look out for clients who have...

There are tremendous opportunities for accountants and business advisors if you make a positive commitment to offer a broader range of commercial services to your SME clients in 2018. WIN! For SME clients! SMEs have been identifying that they would like to receive additional commercial services in survey after survey for the last 15 years. In the surveys SMEs identified a range of services...

Welcome to Accountants Minute. Surveys conducted by major companies over the last 15 years have all indicated that 75% to 80% of SMEs are looking for a wider range of commercial services to be provided by their accountants/business advisors. Have you had a discussion with your "A Class" clients to ask them what type of services they are looking for? Many of these clients are probably going...

The recent announcement of the first group of Crowd-Sourced Funding Intermediaries has clearly signified to the small/medium enterprise community that, at long last, Crowd-Sourced Funding Equity Raising has commenced in Australia. Crowd-Sourced Funding has joined Early Stage Innovation Companies as the two very significant corporate vehicles for small/medium enterprises to be able to raise...

Crowd-Sourced Funding Equity Raising is in the final launch stage before being available to Australian small/medium enterprises which could benefit by being able to raise capital from the public. Now is the time for proactive accountants to identify clients who might be classified as a “Crowd-Sourced Funding Equity Raising Company”. Crowd-Source Funding Equity Raising is brand-new in...

You might ask – where are the opportunities to create “new income streams” from other than compliance work? The opportunities include: Personal Property Securities Register I have recently completed a series of workshops for the Entrepreneurs Program (Australian government). When I asked the directors and officers attending the workshops whether they knew anything about the Personal...

WHY? Because SMEs love Government Grants, they are able to access services that in the normal course of events they might not have worried about, but when they can access these services for around a 50% discount, invariably many of them are far more interested. The Governments of Australia, Federal, State and Territory Governments contribute about $3 billion each year into the fund that pays...

From my point of view it is preferable that the “someone” be an accountant. Surveys conducted over the last fifteen years by MYOB, CCH and various other organisations have all identified that a significant majority of small/medium enterprise operators want to access services that will contribute to “adding value” to their businesses. Most small/medium enterprise operators agree that...

A tremendous opportunity for small/medium enterprises is about to occur in Australia whilst at the same time a potential new income stream will be available for accountants and business advisors who grasp the opportunity to assist their small medium enterprise clients to participate in this tremendous new opportunity for their businesses. For accountants, an additional benefit is that your...