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| Dec 22, 2023 | How your business can secure an Export Market Development Grant | article-article-body
More Australian businesses are exporting than ever before and small business exports alone make up nearly 40% of all total exports from Australia.
In fact, many companies are now skipping the phase of testing the Austra... |
| May 12, 2014 | Why do partnerships bust up? | I talk to many business owners about partnership disputes and conflicts.
Much like romantic relationships, the big bust-up is often preceded by smaller misunderstandings which compound and magnify over time if not dealt with properly.
Solut... |
| Jun 12, 2013 | Seven reasons why you shouldn’t be afraid to raise your prices | It’s usually at this time of the year when business owners sit down and start working on next year’s budget. For most businesses, one of the key budgeting challenges will be how to grow sales and profit.
One of the fastest and easiest ways ... |
| May 29, 2013 | The ins and outs of investor agreements | In my last blog, I addressed the issue every new business owner faces of where to obtain their start-up capital. I focused in particular on issues to consider when utilising family and friends as investors in the business.
This week, I’d li... |
| May 15, 2013 | Five top tips to getting start-up funding from family and friends | Start-ups typically have limited access to external funds to support getting their business off the ground. Formalised channels that established businesses can access are often not available.
Banks and investors typically want to manage the... |
| May 1, 2013 | Three top tips to producing a better budget | Most business owners struggle with producing a budget. There are a couple of reasons for this. How many of these statements have you made when sitting down to set your own budget?
I can’t predict the future
I don’t know if my everyday activ... |
| Mar 21, 2013 | Eight gaps that first-time start-ups need to plug | I recently had the pleasure of being involved in judging the StartupSmart Awards and was asked to review entrants’ submissions.
There’s a multitude of talent and ideas out there, being brought to life by brave business owners (many of them ... |
| Feb 20, 2013 | The race to stay relevant is on | One of the biggest challenges for businesses today is remaining relevant. Innovation and the rate of change have never before been this rapid and the impact is significant on business.
We’re constantly seeing this speed of change in technol... |
| Dec 20, 2012 | Five key things that fast-growth businesses do well | But it’s perhaps more useful to look at the common characteristics of fast-growth businesses, rather than the rate of growth itself.
Start-ups that manage to scale quickly generally do one of three things, according to Marc Peskett, directo... |
| Dec 12, 2012 | Biting the management bullet | There’s a point on the growth path of every start-up, when the founder of the business needs to make the decision to bring management talent into the business.
Business owners typically bring a specific skill set to their start up business.... |
| Nov 28, 2012 | Taxing times for start-ups with global ambitions | With the increasing globalisation of business, more and more SMEs are doing business overseas either directly by establishing a presence in another country or more commonly over the internet.
When dealing overseas, SMEs need to be aware of ... |
| Nov 20, 2012 | Five key reasons why start-ups fail | In a lively speech delivered last week, former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull covered everything from hard hats and fluoro vests to the embracing of “creative destruction” in his critique of Australia’s start-up scene.
His spiel also in... |
| Oct 3, 2012 | Taking stock of your first quarter | We’ve just come through the first quarter of the financial year, and every business owner should be looking at how their business has performed, what has worked and what hasn’t and how they can use that to their advantage as the year rolls ... |
| Aug 8, 2012 | Why it’s time to get serious about grants | It’s a new financial year and that means new cash injection opportunities for start-ups.
Right at the top of your list should be the grants available to support the growth and development strategies of your business.
Changes to the Export M... |
| Apr 4, 2012 | Five key lessons start-ups can take from Facebook | There’s a wealth of information available to start-ups to help you identify the steps, strategies and tools you should use to establish your business and grow it in the initial years.
Some of the most engaging insights and best learning com... |
| Nov 30, 2011 | Positioning your business for venture capital | My last article titled Four ways to get a cashed up start-up outlined the different sources of funds available to start-ups.
This week I want to delve into one particular source that many start-ups and small businesses often don’t adequatel... |
| Nov 2, 2011 | Benchmark your way to success | Call it curiosity or just plain competiveness, most business owners want to know how their business compares to others in the industry, but don’t know how to go about it.
The best way to find out where you sit on the performance ladder is b... |
| Oct 19, 2011 | Five steps to creating a blockbuster start-up sequel | Once your start-up has been established, business is humming and the primary offering you launched with has become a success, the challenge is to find the next big thing.
While you’ve been successful and found what works for you so far, you... |
| Sep 7, 2011 | Keeping the spring in your step | The first year or two for a start-up can be incredibly rewarding as you establish and build the business. It can also be busy, frustrating and lonely for a business owner.
Staying positive, focused and motivated to excel is important for yo... |
| Aug 24, 2011 | Setting your sights on value | If there’s one target every small business should have in their sights, it’s business value. Too often I come across business owners that focus on profits or revenue.
While these measures are important, they aren’t long-term drivers of what... |
| Aug 10, 2011 | Seven steps to developing a leadership culture | For many start-ups, a lack of leadership talent is often cited as an impediment to the growth of the business.
While initially it may just be you in the start-up phase, without any employees, it’s important at this early stage to get the le... |
| Jul 27, 2011 | Eight ways to stay ahead of the competition | Many start-up businesses have a single-minded focus to get up and go.
They often don’t consider the existing competition in the market that could counter their efforts and where that competition might come from.
To counter this, it’s import... |
| Jul 13, 2011 | Finding your growth ally | Businesses looking to upscale should consider forming a business alliance as an alternative growth strategy.
Alliancing, or outsourcing as it is more commonly known, is being used more frequently as a method of addressing the ongoing need f... |
| Jun 29, 2011 | Reviewing your financial year | I’m a believer in the adage that you can’t go forwards by looking backwards. However, to ascertain your next move, you need to explore your mistakes.
To make sure you move forward with purpose and focus, it’s useful to take the time to refl... |
| May 11, 2011 | Start-ups kept waiting for long-term vision | All in all, the Federal budget contained a patchwork of initiatives for small businesses with trade and service-based businesses, particularly those who support the mining sector, being the major beneficiaries.
However, although small compa... |
| May 4, 2011 | Who is really driving your business? | Starting up or growing a business takes a lot of time, energy and effort and for business owners there are many pressures and distractions contending for your attention.
This makes it important to have a set of metrics you monitor, that hel... |
| Apr 20, 2011 | Keeping growth simple | No matter which way you slice or dice it there is fundamentally only two ways you can grow your revenue – increase prices or increase volume by selling more.
To sell more a business has three options:
Sell more of your current products or s... |
| Apr 7, 2011 | Five key steps to ensure you’re growing, not gone | It’s the natural state of business to want to grow. As the old saying goes, if the business isn’t “growing” it’s “going”.
But it’s also possible to both “grow” and “go” in quick succession. The collapse of ABC Learning Centres is one very p... |
| Feb 9, 2011 | How can you maximise the value of your business? | Small business owners typically rely on selling their business to fund their retirement.
Sadly, many of these owners will be in for a shock when they discover potential buyers aren’t beating down their doors, or offering them the price they... |
| Jan 27, 2011 | Don’t be afraid to grab a grant | There is no shortage of government money available for start-ups, but many businesses simply do not come close to accessing it.
The major Australian Federal Government departments invest approximately $3.5 billion dollars in grants. The Sta... |
| Jan 11, 2011 | Have you asked your business partner the hard questions? | Taking on a business partner has many benefits – they are a confidant and peer to share the load with, they enable you to broaden your contacts and external relationships and they allow you to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesse... |
| Dec 8, 2010 | How to attract staff with a slice of your start-up | Attracting management talent is often an expensive and difficult exercise for start-up businesses. For starters, most of them don’t usually have the cash on hand to be able to afford to pay market salaries.
Combine this with the relatively ... |
| Nov 24, 2010 | Looking beyond the banks for funding | Cashflow is the lifeblood of any business. Without it a business cannot survive. The problem for start-ups is that the flow initially goes one way – out.
Cash “in” may not happen for some time, if at all. Combine this with a lack of trading... |
| Nov 10, 2010 | Developing your business model for launch | Last week I wrote about stress testing your business idea and the key issues you need to research and test to discover whether your concept is business worthy. If your idea passes the test, your next step is to take all the knowledge and da... |
| Oct 27, 2010 | Have you stress tested your business idea? | As advisors to start-up businesses, we see a lot of people with ideas for a new business.
Generally, the idea is based on a new product or service concept, developed off the back of a limitation or frustration with what’s available on the m... |
| Oct 13, 2010 | Mapping out a smart start-up | Starting a new business or launching a new product or service is a risky undertaking. Anyone that has given it some thought is well aware of the typically high failure rates of new business ventures.
Adequate planning is often considered a ... |
| Sep 29, 2010 | New Parliament, new tax reform? | In the wake of a much anticipated election result and minority Labour government coming into power, small business is left wondering where are the promised tax reforms?
The Henry Review, delivered earlier this year, presented many opportuni... |
| Sep 22, 2010 | Start with the right structure | Selecting the right structure is one of the most important decisions you can make when starting up a business.
This is often mistakenly treated as a simple administrative decision between choosing a sole trader, partnership, trust or compan... |
| Sep 8, 2010 | Financial spring cleaning essentials for start-ups | A couple of months into the financial year is a good time to take stock and evaluate whether your New Year resolutions and good financial intensions have stuck.
Reviewing your business with our top five spring cleaning essentials in mind wi... |