13 Jul 2024
As June rolls around, the anticipation of summer brings excitement for us at InterTax but we also sense the touch of anxiety that business owners are feeling. Balancing the demands of your business with the desire to enjoy the sunshine can be challenging, and it makes sense. You have a lot going on. We’re here to help you enjoy the best summer you’ve ever had, and in this article, we’re pleased to share five ways to prepare for the summer, ensuring both your business and personal life run smoothly.
1. Organise Your Finances
Before diving into summer activities, take some time to organise your business finances. Review your cash flow, update your bookkeeping records, and ensure all invoices are up-to-date. Late payments can disrupt your cash flow and create unnecessary stress, so consider implementing a more efficient invoicing process. This will help you stay on top of your financial situation and avoid any surprises during the summer months.
Tip: Consider using bookkeeping software to automate invoicing and payment reminders. This will save you time and reduce the chances of late payments.
2. Plan for Staff Holidays
Summer is a popular time for employees to take holidays. To ensure your business continues to operate smoothly, create a holiday schedule. Encourage your team to book their holidays in advance, allowing you to plan for any necessary cover. This will help prevent staffing shortages and ensure everyone can enjoy their time off without disrupting business operations.
Tip: Use a shared calendar or project management tool to keep track of holiday requests and ensure there’s always adequate cover.
3. Streamline Your Operations
Efficient operations are key to a stress-free summer. Evaluate your current processes and identify areas where you can improve efficiency. Implementing new software or tools can help automate repetitive tasks, freeing up your time to focus on more strategic activities. Streamlined operations will not only improve productivity but also make it easier to manage your business while enjoying the summer.
Tip: Look into tools like project management software, CRM systems, and bookkeeping software to help streamline your business processes.
4. Schedule Downtime
While it’s important to keep your business running smoothly, it’s equally important to schedule some downtime for yourself. Taking regular breaks and enjoying summer activities can boost your mental health and productivity. Plan your time off in advance and communicate it to your team and clients. This will allow you to recharge and return to work with renewed energy and focus.
Tip: Consider setting up an out-of-office email response to inform clients of your availability and ensure they know when to expect a response.
5. Let your Clients know
Summer is a great time to strengthen relationships with your clients. Send out a newsletter with updates on your business, share useful tips, and let them know about any special summer promotions. How about a summer drinks reception at your offices? It’s a great way to keep your business top-of-mind, even during the slower summer months.
Tip: Use social media to share behind-the-scenes glimpses of your summer activities, showcasing the human side of your business. This can help build rapport and trust with your clients.
Final Thoughts
Preparing for summer doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By organising your finances, planning for staff holidays, streamlining operations, scheduling downtime, and engaging with clients, you can enjoy a smooth and enjoyable summer season. Taking these steps will help you make the most of the summer months without sacrificing your business’s success.
Enjoy the season while keeping your business on track. With a little planning and preparation, you can achieve both. Reach out to book a free call with our team Here’s to a productive and enjoyable summer!
11 Jan 2024
Pricing your services correctly is one of the most difficult parts of being a small business owner. On the one hand, you understandably want to price yourself competitively, but you don’t want to sell yourself short, either. Profit, cash flow and confidence are all important considerations when pricing your services, so here are five key steps to help you get it right.
Step 1: Calculate Your Costs
Even if you have a very capital light business, there are always costs associated with running your own business. There are two types of costs: direct and indirect.
Direct costs are the costs that go directly towards providing services for your clients, such as project materials or project-specific software, employee wages and your own wage.
Indirect costs are more general costs that are necessary to run your business, such as:
● Rent
● Internet
● Phone Contract
● Devices
● Marketing costs
● Website
● Accounting services
● Legal services
● Insurance
You need to make sure that you charge your customers enough to cover all of the above expenses and make a profit on top of that.
Step 2: Identify Your USP
Your unique selling point (USP) will help you to price your services appropriately. If you’re competing based on price, then affordability will be the name of the game. However, if your USP is based around quality service or your specific expertise, you will be able to charge significantly more. If your clients are investing in you because you’ll add value to their business, then they will be much less likely to question you on price.
Step 3: Market Research
It’s important to know how much your competitors are charging, because this will tell you how much prospective clients are willing to pay. Seek out your competitors via Google as well as marketplaces such as UpWork and Fiverr. Remember, however, that the latter sites often feature many providers willing to sell themselves short in order to get started. Pay attention to their target customers, level of experience and location.
Remember that if you’re providing something that your competitors lack, you will be able to charge more than they do, so long as you are able to properly articulate this added value.
It’s also a good idea to try and get some feedback from your network or even conduct a focus group to gain insight around pricing.
Step 4: Consider Hourly vs Flat Fees
Some small business owners charge by the hour whilst others prefer flat fees. The correct path often depends on your industry and also your level of experience. If you know exactly how much time a certain project will take you, then a flat fee might be best, whilst if you’re unsure then it may be better to go down the hourly route.
If you’re just starting out, then you may get faster at your work as time goes on. In this case, flat fees make sure that you’re not punished for becoming more efficient!
In order to calculate an hourly rate, consider the amount of hours you want to work per week and multiply that by 52. Then, subtract holiday and sick time to calculate the amount of hours you’ll actually work.
After that, calculate your billable hours – i.e., the amount of hours that directly generate revenue. Billable hours represent time spent on client work, whereas non-billable hours are the ones spent on admin, marketing, paperwork, and the like.
Next, divide your total expenses by your billable hours. This will give you a break-even hourly rate. Then, multiply this figure by your desired profit margin to find out how much to charge per hour.
Conclusion
After reading this blog post, you should be able to calculate the cost of your services and figure out whether hourly or flat fees make the most sense for your small business. Remember that good quality clients will be willing to pay a fair price for a great service, so be confident about the value that your small business adds and don’t sell yourself short.
Book a free call with us by visiting our website here.
20 Dec 2023
Adjusting your goals and expectations to what’s within your possibilities will ensure your success. Not to mention, it can help you avoid unrealistic planning frustrations.
Having reasonable goals can be a driving force behind individual, team, and company success. If you precisely determine what you’re aiming at and do it early on, your efforts will have a clear direction and appear more meaningful.
However, setting goals isn’t without its challenges – poor orientation, succumbing to perfectionism, and lack of motivation are among those that are quite detrimental.
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of steps that will help you determine and set optimal goals while avoiding the common pitfalls.
Step 1. Back Your Goals Up With Solid Planning
The importance of thorough planning can’t be overstated.
A goal without a plan is, in essence, just an abstract idea you can’t act on. That’s why the first thing you should think about is exactly how you’ll achieve your goal.
The most effective way to make a plan is to start with the big picture in mind and go more and more into details.
Start with a general road map – setting a certain finish line and marking every bump and turn down the road. Then take a look at the individual stages of the journey and define the challenges you could encounter.
Keep in mind that this is a crucial step – if there are too many obstacles requiring more energy and resources than you can expend, you will do well to reconsider your main goal immediately.
Finally, once you know where you’re going and how you’ll get there, start preparing contingencies.
A good plan will take you a long way, but it would be wise to expect something to go sideways. Prepare to adjust your tactics accordingly.
Step 2. Be Clear and Specific
Setting goals includes envisioning a certain point in the future. However, it would be best if you didn’t stop at a general, low-resolution picture.
You must define all of the details of what you want to achieve.
For instance, aiming to increase your company’s sales is a low-resolution goal. It could be a good starting point, but if you want to ensure you’re progressing in the right direction, you should consider the specifics.
Exactly how much of an increase would you like to see in your sales? How would you want your business to change before and after you’ve reached that goal? Would you be willing to make sacrifices to get there and what would that entail?
There’s plenty of details to flesh out when setting your goals. If you do it right, all your efforts will become focused on the specific necessary tasks and the progress will become apparent.
Step 3. Establish Milestones
A common mistake in planning goals is that people tend to aim for the grandest achievement, disregarding the smaller but vital victories.
This approach can become draining very soon – you might be overwhelmed by how unattainable the set endpoint seems. To avoid the fatigue and discouragement, make sure to have several smaller goals set as milestones.
Reaching the milestones will give you that precious sense of achievement and progress and motivate you to keep going.
Good Goals Are the Way to Success
Aiming for something you can realistically achieve and having a good plan of getting there will set you on the right path.
When you’re convinced your goals are the right ones, pursue them with determination. Great results will follow.
If you’d like to speak to us about how we can support you with your accounting needs, book a free consultation here.
4 Dec 2023
Introduction
As we approach the end of another incredible year, it’s time to reflect, celebrate achievements, and set our plans for the future. At InterTax, we’re proud to work with small business owners, and whether you’re a creative entrepreneur, a passionate freelancer or a proud business owner who feels that maybe 2023 could have been better, an end-of-year review is a great way to reflect on what worked, what didn’t work, and what’s next.
In this article, we’ll share our ideas for conducting a year end review for yourself, and of course, if you need our support with the financial part, we’re here to help and ready for your call.
Celebrate your wins
Do you remember your first sale? How about the moment you hit the VAT Threshold? Every win in business deserves celebration, and the end of the year is a great way to look back on just what you achieved – even if it wasn’t planned, and even if seems like a tiny win. Celebrating your wins is a morale booster, it keeps you motivated and focused, and your wins are probably closely connected to the reason you are in business in the first place.
Learn and evolve
Ok, 2023 wasn’t a walk in the park. And just like life, running a business can be a bit of a rollercoaster. Your end of year review gives you a great opportunity to assess what worked well and what can be improved for the future. Take a look into your numbers and see where things went brilliantly as well as those areas that might benefit from a change of strategy. Your numbers tell a story, and the insights you glean from a review can have a meaningful impact on your decisions for the future.
Set goals for the future
And we’re not just talking business goals, we’re talking personal too. Your business’s success isn’t just about spreadsheets, Xero, and profits, it’s about building a business that meets your personal goals. Did you really have the year you hoped for personally? What could be better next year? Your bookkeeper can help you make sense of your numbers so you can focus on how they help you achieve your life goals.
Take control of your finances
Many business owners simply don’t review their finances, but as you’ve read this far, we’ll assume you’re not one of those people. It’s easy to bury your head in the sand when it comes to your finances, if everything’s paid on time, it can be tempting not to look any deeper, but taking some time to conduct a year-end-review is a great way to start as you mean to go on. what ever happened up until now, having a view of where you are right now, means you can take control of your finances for the future. A solid financial foundation is the backbone of your business, and we’re here to help.
Seeking support is never a sign of weakness. You do you’re thing, and we’ll do ours. Reach out to your bookkeeper as your go-to partner for all things financial, and we, for one, would love to support you in conducting your own end-of-year review, to discuss your goals, address your concerns and discuss new ways you can grow your business in 2024. Whether the calendar year end is the same as your financial year end or not, this time of year is a great time naturally to sit and take a look at exactly what’s going on behind the spreadsheet.
As we wish 2023 farewell, we’d love to raise a toast to you and your business and a new year of exciting growth.
Book a discovery call with us here and find out how we can help to kick start your 2024!
16 Jun 2023
You take your car for an MOT or go to the doctor for a regular checkup to make sure you’re in good health – why not do the same for your business?
All businesses go through good and bad times. It’s important to keep an eye on the health of your business, so you can spot any potential problems early on and prevent them from turning into a full-blown crisis.
So, how do you go about performing a business health check? Here are some key areas to focus on…
1. Your finances
This is probably the most important area to check up on. Keep an eye on your income and expenditure, make sure you’re staying within your budget, and keep tabs on any outstanding invoices. It’s also a good idea to regularly review your pricing strategy to make sure you’re still competitive.
It’s also of the utmost importance that you understand your cash flow and cash ratio. This will help you to spot any potential financial problems early on, so you can take steps to address them before they become too serious.
2. Your products or services
Make sure you’re still offering products or services that people actually want or need. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and keep doing things the same way, but it’s important to be flexible and adapt to changes in the market. Regularly review your offering and make sure it’s still relevant.
3. Customer Retention
Are you still attracting new customers, or are you losing more business than you’re gaining? It’s important to keep a close eye on your customer retention rate, as this can be an early indicator of problems with your products or services. If you’re losing too many customers, it’s time to take a look at what you’re offering and the quality of your customer service, and see how you can improve it.
4. Employee morale
Happy employees are productive employees. Keep an eye on employee morale and see if there are any areas where you can make improvements. Regular team-building exercises and social events can help to boost morale, as well as ensuring that your employees feel valued and appreciated.
5. Your own stress levels
As the owner or manager of a business, it’s easy to get burned out. Make sure you’re taking some time for yourself, both inside and outside of work. If you’re finding it hard to switch off, it might be time to take a step back and reassess your workload. Do you need greater time freedom? Is it time to delegate, or install systems that will make your business more efficient, thus taking pressure off of you?
6. Scalability
It’s important to keep an eye on your scalability and make sure you have a plan in place for the future. How prepared are you for scaling up? Is your business attractive to investors? Is your business model repeatable, or would systems begin to break down if you expanded to another location? Getting an idea of your business’s scalability will help you to make big decisions about the future of your company.
Final Thoughts
Spotting potential problems early on is the key to keeping your business healthy. Even if it seems like everything is going well, it’s important to regularly perform checkups to make sure that everything is on track. By performing business health checks, you can prevent small issues from turning into big problems.
Would you like to learn more about business health? Book a free consultation here.
15 May 2023
Hiring a business consultant/advisor does require an investment, but doing so will actually save you money in the long run – not to mention time which, as we all know, is money, too. Let’s take a look at the top five ways in which a great business consultant/advisor can save you time and money whilst taking your business where it needs to go.
#1 – Budgeting
Business consultants/advisors can help you budget your money and maximise your profits. A good business consultant will know how much of a client’s resources are needed for certain activities and ensure that they are being used efficiently. This means that you can spend your money wisely, without wasting any of it.
A good business consultant/advisor can help you prepare budgets, monitor actual expenses against budgets and review account performance over time. With this knowledge at their fingertips they are able to provide valuable insight into how much income should be generated in order for the business to remain profitable.
The good news is that a business consultant/advisor will do all of this for you, freeing up your time so that you can focus on the core aspects of running and growing your business. Furthermore they won’t just help you create a budget – they’ll hold you accountable and implement strategies to ensure that you stick to it.
#2 – Allocation of Resources
As mentioned above, a good business consultant/advisor will know how much of your resources are needed for certain activities and ensure that they are being used efficiently. This means that you can focus on the core aspects of running and growing your business whilst the consultant takes care of allocating your money where it needs to be.
#3 – Streamlining Processes
A business consultant/advisor isn’t just a financial expert – they will be able to help you streamline your processes and improve efficiency. This is key in helping you save time as well as money, allowing more of both to be invested into the core aspects of running and growing your business.
In addition, a good business consultant /advisor will be able to implement new processes and systems for you, which means that you can focus on the tasks at hand without worrying about training.
Having a system in place is often all it takes to save time and money because everything runs like clockwork – no more wasted time searching for documents or inefficiently completing certain tasks. Furthermore, a good business consultant/advisor will be able to spot and implement opportunities for improvement in this area, which can often save you even more time.
A better system also means that your employees are happier because they know exactly what needs to be done and when it should be completed. It’s not only about saving money but allowing them to spend more time on adding value to the business.
#4- Measuring Performance
A good business consultant/advisor will also be able to monitor and measure performance so that you can identify opportunities to improve your business.
When a good business consultant /advisor reviews your performance against budgets or other key measures, they provide valuable insight into which areas of your business need more attention, whether that’s due to underperforming resources or inefficient processes . They’ll then work with you to determine the best way forward.
This will not only save you time and money in the long run, but it’ll allow your business to grow at a much faster rate because you’re leveraging your resources properly.
#5 – Custom Solutions
Yet another benefit of working with a business consultant/advisor is that they offer custom solutions. This means that you get the exact service package for your specific needs, rather than having to go through lengthy processes trying to figure out what exactly you need in order to improve your bottom line.
One size does not fit all when it comes to business consulting/advisors. A good business consultant /advisor will tailor their services to your specific needs and provide a bespoke package for you, which may include anything from creating budgets, improving processes, implementing new systems or helping out with HR issues.
Summary
Working with business consultants/advisors can be beneficial in many ways. Their experience and expertise will allow them to quickly identify potential problems or areas for improvement which are often missed by managers who do not have the same level of financial insight or expertise. In addition, business consultants/advisors will be able to implement new processes and systems which can save you time as well as money in the long run.
Book a free consultation here, to discuss your needs and how we can help you save time and money.
