Hello.
My name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yor the Order KERNI Whoalbury and a waddery woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through.
As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow.
Let's get into it.
She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Hello, and welcome back, my friends.
I'm Victoria de Bayn, the owner of several successful businesses, and I'm joined as always by one of the hardest working side hustlers.
I know, miss Jess Garci. Hello. I'm so excited.
I'm really excited for today because Jess, what are we talking about.
It's our first end of financial year themed episode and we're talking about your favorite time of year.
I get really excited about end of financial year because I feel like it's such a good time to reset, refresh, get stuff going and what a better time to release this than with enough time for you guys to get prepared. Like, it's not going to be dropped on June thirty, because that's way too late. We're giving you enough lead up so that you can get stuff organized. But also this isn't the only end of financial year episode we'll be dropping because.
In a couple of weeks. Yes, we have a very.
Exciting accountant joining us so that we can get all of his tips and tricks as well, So we're not just preparing you with one app but multiple, So you're welcome in advance, absolutely.
But today we're talking all about specifically small business stuff, so some changes that are coming to SUPER this year, which might be handy for employers to know whether or not you need to get an accountant. Which look at us doing that right before the accountant episode, it's almost like we did that on purpose.
Oh my gosh, she need an accountant? I mean at the end of the day sometimes no. So we'll go through that, yeah.
And then after the break, we've got a list that VD is put together with five things that you should be reassessing at this time of year before we get into the brand new financial year. But before we get to that VD, what is the ATO flagged that they're going to be focusing.
More on this year generally, So if you've listened to us, she's on the money episodes around tax before, you've probably heard that. Every single year, the ATO outlines and makes a list of things that they're going to be paying closer attention to this year for the next round of tax reporting. And we're going to touch more deeply on this in our upcoming community Q and A with our
tax accountant. So don't worry, we won't be giving specific tax advice today, but generally this year, what they're focusing on is record keeping, which I'm not surprised. I feel like some of us are getting a little bit slack
when it comes to keeping records. And as I always say, keep your receipts, whether that is the physical copy of the receipt or you snap a photo, save it in your phone, like just make sure you've got record of it, because I feel like this is where money just like seeps out of your business, Like if you're not keeping track of the little things they actually add up, like you might go, oh, Jess, just keep that. That was
a laptop I bought a new laptop. It was two grand, but like you're spending a couple of hundred bucks maybe every single month that office works, and on printing and on things that you can claim, so like, don't let them slip away, because they're as big as the laptop at the end of the day.
Absolutely.
The next is they're really focusing on rental property income and deductions because a few people have been taking the mickey when it comes to deducting things that maybe shouldn't be included in their rental properties, so being super aware there. And then number three is they're keeping an eye on
capital gains from crypto assets, property and shares. So obviously they are always going to be looking at capital gains in general, but I think that they're peeling their eyes a little bit closer when it comes to crypto nowadays because it isn't as trackable and now it's actually easier for them to do a little bit of a deep
dive into your digital history. So I would be keeping your finger on the pulse when it comes to making sure that you are even keeping track of your crypto because just how many times have we heard from people in the She's on the Money community that are like, I bought crypto, but I don't know where it is.
Yeah, you got to keep an eye on it.
They're like, oh, I bought a wallet, or I downloaded a wallet and I bought some crypto.
I don't know where it is, or I can't remember my password.
Like be on top of it because if it's making money, you might owe some tax.
Oh, owing tax is good because it means you're making money, and that's what we all.
If you can't find your password, like, that's not going to feel good paying tax for money you can't access.
What about that guy, Sorry, I'm going on a full segway, the guy who the like one chance at the password? I think so he bought like a bunch of bitcoin when it first dropped for like real cheap, don't know how much was, but insanely cheap, and then it ended up being worth like twenty million dollars or something. It
must be nice. But the whole problem was I think you're right, he couldn't remember his password and he had it like stored on a hard drive that he got rid of and sent to like the tip or something, and so he must have tried to get in his account, couldn't for some reason, and then his one chance at finding it was gone. And apparently he was like going to the tip, like searching, trying to fold at the tip every day. I did there, I don't remember.
I don't know if I sing through brubbishuldn't be like, yeah, want to join me?
Worth twenty meal, I'll pay you one off. I'll pay you a meal, like straight off the top. I'm not missing out so funny, but yeah, check in on your stuff is the moral of the story. Save you passwords away safe. Oh my gosh.
All right, so back into the episode, because I feel like too many of us would actually go on a complete tangent talking about crypto. Absolutely, there are two topics this week that I want to take a little bit longer on. I've obviously mentioned the three above. Actually, Jess, can you hear that?
I can hear a little something something in the background.
What is it?
It's a little sweet baby. Yeah.
Harvey has joined us for a recording. He is in his carrier on my chest asleep right now, and we thought, great, what a time to record a podcast of his asleep. He's decided to be a very noisy sleeper. But we will continue on and do the episode. So if you hear a little squeak here and there, I promise it's not Jess.
He's just very passionate about tax.
Yeah, he hears tax and he's like, Oh, it's me.
I'm dreaming of tax.
Anyway, back to this the sharing economy income issue. So at the moment, the sharing economy, I feel like it's really up and coming. We've still been talking about it for a long time, but the ATO is convinced that many people in their sharing economy are not properly declaring their profits and their gains. So if you work through Uber or air Tasker, or any of the many sharing economy platforms that exist now which allow you to rent out your personal assets or like your personal services, you've
got to keep an eye out. Especially this year, the ATO is now receiving reports directly from companies like Uber and like air Tasker, which they're then going to use to highlight datam matches.
Yeah, and remember, if you're using one of those platforms, it's your responsibility to set aside the tax. Because I know, if you're a small business owner and maybe it's your first year selling stuff, or if you are someone who's ubering or door dashing or whatever. You don't have someone taking out your tax the way you do when you're
an employee. So if you haven't been thinking about that, it might be a bit of a nasty shock at tax time when you have quite a substantial tax bill, because you need to be setting aside, you know, thirty thirty five, forty five, whatever your tax bracket is percent because at tax time it's your responsibility to payment.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Similarly, if you rent out a property or like part of a property on Airbnb or stays, you're going to be under the spotlight this year. The ATO has numerous third party sources of data which it can use to identify if you're actually receiving rent and they're on the lookout at the moment for mismatches with tax return data
that you're reporting. So they now have complete access to being able to review your banking transactions and they might go, oh, my friend that's coming from Airbnb, can we have a chat?
So I think it's really important to just be on top of it.
And then the big one JESS is work related expenses. So the ATO recently claimed that there was an eight point seven billion dollars shortfall between the tax individuals are expected to pay and the tax that they are actually paying.
That's crazy, that's so much money of money.
And the ATO believes that work related expenses claims are the biggest element in that quote tax gap and have signaled that they're going to be looking really closely at the deduction this year, so I would expect them to focus in particular on a couple of things. So first is deductions from work from home expenses.
I feel like after COVID, a.
Lot of us just kept claiming a few things that maybe we shouldn't have been and the ways that they can be claimed changed last year with the introduction of that new sixty seven cents per hour fixed rate, and then they've enhanced substantiation requirements, So you've got to prove it, my friends. And we expect the ATO to check claims pretty thoroughly, because don't forget, they've got AI working for them now, so it's not all just manual. They just chuck it in and I'm pretty sure AI could whip
through everybody in Australia is really quickly. But they're going to be particularly looking at verifying whether taxpayers have a record of all they're working from home hours over the entire year in the form of time sheets or diary or like copy of their work rosters and such. So they're going to go, oh, Jess, you said you worked from home. Yeah, how have you been working from home? Yeah?
And I mean it's easy for you because you've got an employer who will write a letter that just says, just works from home, full stop, end of story.
But if you've got one of those.
Flexible, you know jobs where you're like, oh, I work from home a day a week, and then you're telling the atos three like, you might end up in a little bit of a pickle because you almost guarantee your employer is not going to be very happy to back you up on something that's not entirely true. Well, I don't want to get into water because they're claiming that you're in the office on their tax returns. True, one of us is not making sense here, so let's just
make sure that we're on the same page. They're also going to be looking at deductions for occupations, so costs like rent and rates and mortgage interests are all going to be under the spotlight as they're actually not allowable unless you are running a business from home. So I know historically a few cheeky business owners have been claiming mortgage or payments because they're quote working from home, but
they have a warehouse down the road. So we need to be really careful because that's not how you do it right. That's just not on my friends. And then as always, just things like mobile phone and internet costs are going to be looked at. Claims for work related clothing and I know dry cleaning and laundry always comes up every year, people like.
Did you know you can claim it?
Yeah, if it's got a logo on it and was provided by work, and even then you've got to substantiate it, so be careful. Things like overtime meal claims and union fees and subscriptions, and then you know motor vehicles are
going to be looked at again. So I think it's really important to just make sure that you're doing it right because incorrectly claiming deductions under the rule that allows US taxpayers who have incurred work related expenses of three hundred dollars or less in total to make a claim without receipts means that you need to be extra careful because if you get audited, they're going to go, Jess,
We'll wear are your receipts. You didn't have to submit that when you submitted your tax return, but we are well within our rights to audit you and ask you to prove those costs.
Yeah, and at the end of the day.
Just don't claim things you're not paying for, like tax system. I don't know about you, Jess, but I'm very grateful to have in place. I feel like we are very, very lucky. Let's not take advantage of it because the ATO actually believes that lots of taxpayers are claiming they're three hundred dollars when they didn't incur any expenses at all.
Yeah. The rule isn't that you can just claim up three hundred hundred bucks, like because you want to, like, you still have to have spent the money.
You can claim up to three hundred dollars without having to go through the rigmarole of like getting receipts and submitting them. Yeah, but after that you do that doesn't just mean us a free three hundred bucks to claim.
No.
And as someone who has been audited and everything was all fine, it was just because I worked multiple jobs and claimed lots of things. But at the time it was like, oh, that's a flag. I feel like a lot of people just assume that, Oh I'm a small business or I'm just a small little fish in a big pond. They're not going to come after me. They will.
No, I'm miss jessic Riccie got got.
Well they can get me good because I haven't. But they got you.
They made you anxious, they did. They may be very stressed even though you had receipts. It's like when you drive past the cops. I don't know about you, but like I'll be driving completely like normally, completely legally, yeah, and I would just like have a little bit.
Of a the cops are there. They're going to get me, you know. I'm like, did I murder somebody?
Know?
Are they going to pull me over? Why would they pull you over? Victoria? Like, because you're looking real sas now? Driving fast? Should I turn off my radio?
Literally?
Now?
I know that all of those things can sound very overwhelming and very complicated. So there's probably a lot of people listening right now, VD going should I just get an accountant?
I mean you could. They are tax deductible.
We love that, and you've got the receipt because if you pay an accountant, you can claim it the next year in your tax return, which is kind of attractive. But yes, there is a reason the ball is seventy five percent of Australians actually use a tax agent, and that's because tax is not that simple. So we're gonna like do a community Q and a session with our accountant very soon. But I think it's really important to
remember that the tax system isn't there to confuse you. Yeah, Like doing it online yourself is completely possible, and it'll just take a couple of hours for you to go through in DIY. At the end of the day, they want to make it as simple as possible. We just need to make sure we're doing the right thing. We're not claiming things that we didn't incur and we're not taking the absolute mickey. I think it's just really important
that we're doing the right thing. And if you feel like you need help, a tax agent is and can be a really good idea.
Yeah, and the ATO website has some awesome resources for anyone who is doing their own tax return, like they release every year. There's a comprehensive list of what you can and cannot claim based on your industry list all the limitations. So if you're wondering, can I claim my laundry? Can I claim this? Can I claim that? Like they outline it, They're not expect you to just take a
punt in the dark. So use that website, use Google, like you'd be amazed at what you can do by yourself without one hundred percent, And like, why not have a crack.
You don't have to press submit. If it all becomes really overwhelming and you're like, oh, I cannot do this, then maybe go see a tax stage yet, But like, why not go and give it a crack instead of just assuming that you can't do it. I also love those websites, yes, because they sometimes trigger your memory into being like, ah, I did actually incur that. Let me sort through my things and find that receipt. So definitely refresh yourself if you haven't.
One hundred percent now VD Something that I know I, as an employee, have been looking for to this new financial art is the increase in maybe one of your favorite investments, which is super.
You're getting more super Jess, I'm paying you more super Slay for me you win superanuations going up zero point five percent, which doesn't sound like a lot. But superanuation used to be nine and a half percent, which at the time I was like, yes, slay, this is great. It's now eleven and half percent from the first of July this year, which is very, very exciting. So employees,
I would be checking your super and making sure. I don't know if employers are going to be very happy with me saying this, but like making sure that you're negotiating and that it doesn't come out of your take home salary. Yeah, because some employers are going to be switching that point five from your take home salary and going well, Jess, actually you signed an agreement with me that says that you get paid a seventy thousand dollars package.
So the percentages have changed and I'm now allocating more of that package to your superannuation and you'll have lace take home pay.
Yeah, and that I don't think is fair.
In this economy, we are trying to increase our super because it's not enough, and you know what else is not enough? Usually our pay is at the moment like we are in a cost of living crisis. Stand up for yourself and have that conversation. So if you have a package system at work, I would be making sure that maybe you renegotiate.
If you or not packaged.
Make sure that your employer isn't taking it from your salary just because they think that maybe you won't check. And that's how it happens, Jessica. No, it's going up point five percent. Of course it gets taken out of your salary, doesn't though.
No.
And then for employers, make sure that you are paying your employees the correct amount and know when that changes and when you need to start implementing that.
Also, if you're an.
Employer, are you paying yourself super?
How many times do small business owners lax on the super thing and then get all the way down the road and find that they don't have a nice little super balance to see them through retirement. You work so hard as an employer and as a business owner that you're not setting yourself up for the future. Like if you sit business owners down, and I could just sit you down, jess be like, why do you do what you do?
Come up with a million things like.
You're passionate about it, you enjoy it, but at the end of the day, you're doing it to increase your income to put yourself in a better position, not paying yourself, super you'r doing the opposite. Yeah, and you're wasting heaps of time to ultimately end up in a worse off position.
Yeah.
Absolutely not one out of ten cannot recommend no hate hate hate.
But let's go to a really quick break because on the flip side, V, we're going to get your hot take on the five things that all us small business owners should be reassessing at this time of year before we start the new financial year.
So don't go anywhere, coffee, tim, Welcome back everybody. Okay, what are the five things that you think end of financial year is the perfect time for small business owners to be reassessing your coffee consumption. That's not your coffee consumption. Never questioned how much coffee you have.
Pump it straight in, straight into my games.
Now I'm a mum ten million coffees, thank you. Otherwise we are not showing up to work. But the end of financial year, I feel like is a really good time. It's kind of like year New me, but like you get to do it every six months. Yeah, so we can have the real end of year and then we can have the financial end of year, and we can use this as a time to either pivot our businesses, or we can pivot ourselves. Like there's no such thing
as too late to implement something. But the end of financial year is honestly the perfect time to reset, review and recalibrate. So I've written down five things because like that's what I got to in my list, and I was like, yeah, five will do. Five is also not overwhelming, so we can look at all of them. So we are going to review our objectives. We're going to look at business growth. How fast are you growing now? Like
what does growth actually mean in your business? You might not think it makes a lot of sense because you're, you know, eighteen months in and you go, oh, should I be reviewing this v And you might say, but being I am assult trader, Like what's the point?
Absolutely, because it can motivate you.
It can show you where you've come from and where you're going and what that looks like, how much are you going to grow your business in the next year?
What's the plan?
Are you actually going to be growing it by staff members or are you just growing it by the amount that you charge? Because now your quality is better and you have a better reputation, and you should be increasing your fees consistently. Jessica, We've spoken about this before because for me, increasing fees should happen regularly. It shouldn't just be like one day you wake up five years into business and go been charging the same thing for five years.
I need to shock my clients and increase it. Now, that's just going to cause you a whole heap of issues. What number you choose is entirely up to you. We're going to have a look at your financial targets. What's the magic number that you're aiming for? Is there a magic number? Or are you so shocked at what you've already achieved this year that now it's time to set some bigger and better challenges. Set it and then work backwards to determine what you're able to achieve.
Also a little tip for anyone who's got a side hustle or their sole trading in addition to their full time job. Now is a good time to assess how much you have made in your side hustle or small business, add that onto your salary and check whether that's going to bump you up a tax bracket.
Oh yeah, you could be boogier than you.
Thought you were, because if that's the case. We're putting this episode out now so you have time to maybe make some deductible purchases that you need to make for things like that to drop you back down attacks brush.
She's a genius, but that's really important as well. Not only do you make deductible purchases, just you could put some money in your super and that would bring down your taxable income, wouldn't it.
We love to see it.
Oh, we love super so sexy does so much for us. The next thing we're going to review jess personal aims. Why are you doing it? Because I feel like so many times we lock ourselves into these businesses and we lock ourselves into these ideas.
What do you want to get out of this?
Are you still.
Getting out of this business?
What you want?
Is it sparking joy? Are you happy? If you are not, what are we changing? Maybe business isn't for you. And I'm not saying that because you know when it.
Gets hard throwing the towel. That's not what I mean at all.
I've just spoken so many times recently to small business owners who go, I wish I hadn't started, like it's not for me.
I didn't realize how much work. It was.
I just wish i'd stayed in my salary in payg job. Yeah, well you can go back to that.
Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that.
No, absolutely not. And maybe you go, oh, I've actually realized that this side hustle thing v it is for me. I do not want to work for somebody else. I actually need to take charge and really turbo charge this because I'm over it. I give it six months before I have to quit my job because I'm so passionate.
Yeah, so what are we going to do the next thing?
Sexiest thing, Jessica.
We want to review your actual versus your budget. So what did you actually spend and what did you budget? If you didn't budget, what are we budgeting for next financial here, jess because that's super important. How are you tracking against your revenue and your profit targets every month? Do you have revenue and profit targets every month? If not, now might be the time to go, all right, well, I have this side hustle and ultimately I'd like to make one thousand dollars per month. How am I going
to work backwards and make that happen? And vice versa? Like if you're making one thousand dollars a month and you're like, wow, I didn't see this coming. How do you do it? How can we scale that? What does that look like? Are you ahead? Are you behind? Are you right on track? So, depending on where you are in relation to your budget, this is actually going to determine where your decision making needs to change in the new year, which is kind of helpful. You're like becoming
your own business mentor, and that's genius. Yeah, we're going to look at our cash flow. So cash flow is different to your budget, and you need to always remember that reviewing inventory levels like how much stuff have you got or work underway is important at this time of year because you might be able to move some of it before the end of year and put some extra dollars into your bank account or make some extra plans.
Like maybe you're running out of stock. You know, you've been so busy that you haven't had time to stop and reassess.
You go far out.
Actually, by the time I order new stock, it's going to be two or three months before that arrives. Yeah, like maybe I need more sooner than I thought I did, and that could be a stumbling block later down the track. That actually puts you backwards. Let's review our debt. What debt have we got? Have we got a business loan? Who owes you money? Is the important one? Chase them up? Fell up your following up our invoices, and we are
not sorry to follow up our invoices. If you're feeling so awkward about emailing a client, do you.
Know what you did?
You just got an assistant, Jess, we love, we'll love an assistant. And back when I couldn't afford an assistant, what did I have, Jess?
Fake assistant?
I did?
I had a fake assistant. Before I had.
Jess, A fake assistant would follow up on behalf of me and be like, Hi, so sorry, I work for Victoria and I'm just chasing this debt that you definitely haven't paid. And then they'd say check with Victoria, and I'd be like, I did I have Victoria?
No, I never let that pat out of the bag.
And to be honest, if you're a client of mine from like twenty fifteen and you've heard.
That, no you haven't.
But that was because I was really anxious and I really hated following up debtors. Now I'll pick up the phone in two seconds and be like, hey, you're right, what's going on? How can we you know, follow this up and come to an agreement because I need you to pay your debt the end of the day. That's how it should be. But if you can't, I totally get that, adopt a fake assistant. Maybe you've hired a fake assistant this phone year, Jess, and.
Put a hard deadline on it. I would say, like, I feel like when you're having those emails like now, is a really good time of you to say, hey, please ensure this is paid prior to the end of the financial year, because a lot of businesses will also get that, they'll understand and they probably need to tidy things up on their end as well before the end of the financial year. So if you even just expressing hey, like I need this done prior to efy like you might have a bit of luck.
And hopefully people are paying. If they aren't paying in the new financial year, you could potentially look at putting a caveat on your invoices as well. That basically says at the bottom of the invoice, if the invoice isn't paid, it could be referred to debt collectors at your expense, and that actually puts you in a more powerful position so that if you need to go down the debt collector route, you don't have to pay the debt collector personally.
You get your full sum and the.
Debt collector can add the amount that they are charging on top of that invoice, whereas if you don't disclaim that on your invoice, they'll take it out of the total sum that is payable. Yeah, I speak from experience as someone who's had to collect debts before, Jessicaret, I.
Can tell you've been wounded. I've been burned.
I've been burned, and you don't have to be because I'm learning for both of us, jess absolutely. And then we are going to look at our key expenses, so direct costs associated with raw materials and components and other bits and bobs that make up your products, typically a large expense known as the costs of goods sold or cogs, Jessica.
And catch up with suppliers if you've got them, and discuss your plans for the new year, and get them all on board, like get them intertwined into your excitement. Like I think that that is going to motivate you, but also make sure that everybody is on exactly the same page.
I'd be looking at all your other expenses. What's happening there? Are there any trends?
Are you always occurring way more expenses than you thought you would?
Jess Like?
Is admin taking you way longer than you thought? What expenses can you bring down? How can we save money? Review your bank statement? How many subscriptions have you got inside your business that you're not using?
Oh like?
Did you subscribe to the AFR and then you don't read the OFAR? Don't get me wrong, I do. Don't take it off me. But if you weren't, that's a good time to cut a subscription, do you know what I mean? Now is the time to cut things. And if you're consistently cutting things, your business expenses won't get out of hand.
Speaking of things getting more expensive, what else should we be looking at right now? You'll pricing? Love it?
So I'm not saying review your pricing because it's getting more expensive and you should lower your prices. We're valuable businesses. We are increasing our prices, Doessica. But what you need to be doing is a sales analysis. So how many units did you sell? What units sold? Or how many dollars have you had in sales? And what are the
effects of any promotions you've run. Are the promotions you're running actually helpful or are you running promotions because you're like, oh, I probably should do a sale because everybody else is doing a sale.
But it actually puts you behind.
Because sometimes we might have a product and the margin on the product's five percent, Like we're not making much at all. But maybe you were like, oh, everyone else, see my industry is doing a twenty percent off sale. Like that's actually putting you in the whole. Like that is not a good idea at all. So review these things and review them consistently so that we're always on top of it. What is the effectiveness of your sales team if you have one, Like, if you've got a
sales team, they're actually driving sales. So in most of your sales coming organically through tiktoks, Like, let's understand how the business is driving us forward.
Are there any interesting trends that you can see?
Is there anything different that might be impacting your sales this year versus the previous year. We're going to do a margin analysis. Yes, so I was talking about this before, but which product or service is most profitable. What could you do to improve the margins or the sales of this product? What has been the impact of any discounts they've be offered? As I said before, are you offering
too much of a discount because everybody else is? Or is a discount something that you might want to consider, like new financial year sale or something to drive a peek in sales at the beginning of your financial year.
And where are you making the most money?
Have a look at that and deep dive into how you can turbo charge that aspect of your business, because I promise it is easier to sell to pre existing clients than it is to attract brand new ones.
Absolutely, And if cost of materials and things have gone up, that's going to have eaten into your margins now, so exactly where it's a great time to go, Okay, well, if the cost of XYZ material has gone up by five percent, I need to be passing that five percent onto the consumer otherwise I'm now out five percent.
Yeah, exactly.
And the other thing I would do and not get hung up on, is a competitor analysis. So what is your market doing? Do you have any known competitors? What are they doing, how do your prices compare, how do your products and services compare, How close are your offerings to those of your competitors, and how do you differentiate yourself? Even more so, we always use, you know, the example of a candle business. There are so many of them, but they are all still successful, right because we all
have different reasons and like key into your hobbit. I really like Jess, and I like a product, and I like having you in my house. Or you know, you might go to Mecca and buy your candles because you like spending a lot of money on candles. But it's one of those things where you need to do a competitor analysis. But I don't want you comparing and feeling less than or that you're not doing enough, because we're
all on different journeys. Like if you're a photographer and in your first few years of working in a business, yes, obviously a competitor is a pre established business that's been around for fifteen years, But don't compare yourself to them and expect yourself to be at that stage or at that level.
Use them as inspiration.
Every time you feel envious, go why and try and channel that into becoming inspiration instead of envy. I think so many times it goes into envy because you go, oh, wow, I wish I could have that.
You can if you work hard enough.
Yeah, and that's a very cool outcome of doing a competitor analysis.
I really like that. That's such a nice way to reframe it. Now. We did a business Bile episode about this recently on how you spend your time in the business. It was back on April twenty fourth, if anyone missed it. But I I think end of financial year is also a really great time to review how you are spending your time inside your business, right.
Absolutely, And I feel like in a financial year, as I said, every six months is a new year of some form and we should be using it. So I guess my best tip obviously, in addition to all of the tips above, I think it's more about reviewing your use of time. How much time are you spending on each part of your business? Are you working one hundred hours a week and making four dollars?
Is that how you want to spend your time?
How can we change it so that that's not always the outcome?
You might find that.
That's your reality, but you know that there's a bigger picture at play, and in a couple of years you'll be working one hour and making millions. So it's all about perspective as well. We're not saying, oh, don't use it how you want, But sometimes we find ourselves in a bit of a business whirlpool and we just keep doing what we keep doing because that's how we've always done it. But that doesn't mean it's correct. And then is it time to outsource some tasks? You know, if
your business is growing? Like could we outsource something? Could we get a VA? Could we get somebody else involved? And then also like how do we know when is the right time to hire? And who are we're going full blown into having a full time employee?
Are we're doing part time?
We're getting a casual employee, We're just getting a VA for a few hours a month? Like what does this look like? And is this reasonable for our business at this time? And I guess speaking of this, if you have one, we are reviewing our team.
We are reviewing performance to date.
This isn't because we're trying to be savage, Jess, your team members deserve a review, Like I know you and I like sitting down and going all right, Jess, what have you achieved this year? Vice versa? How have you liked working with me? What does this look like? How does this work? It's a two way street when it comes to team performance review. Have you scheduled performance review meetings with all your team members before the end of the year or before the end of the financial year,
whichever you want to do. Do you actually have formal documents to support the performance management process in your business? Your business is not too small to have formal documents. I feel like so many times small businesses go I'm too small. I know, Jess, really well, Jess. Do we do formal performance review in our team?
Of course?
But it's so helpful because it lets us slip out of this friends and getting stuff done and day to day and going all right, well, actually we've got this formal dog, let's go through it together. You've put your notes in it, I've got mine. Like, where are you at with these things? Because even though we're friends, you know, I'm the business owner and you work for me, and we have you know, gone beyond that. I feel like you deserve that from me and vice versa, and if not, now's the time.
To do it. There are heaps on Google.
I can always share mine at some point, but I think kicking off the new year with tangible targets for your team gives them more motivation.
And you know what.
Motivated people do, just make money, make more money, and we like that. We're going to be looking at rewards. Your team deserve to be rewarded. Incentives and bonuses can be a really great way of rewarding contributions that your team members make to your business. Don't forget they are working for you. They are working to build your business, and that deserves to be rewarded. They can obviously be really effective in increasing activity during slow times and really
motivating your team. I've heard from a lot of people who have said I can't afford rewards.
I can't afford the benefits for my team.
And don't get me wrong, we're all in different places to offer incentives or bonuses, but you need to make sure that your team members feel valued and you could go hejs. Obviously we're not making heaps of money as a business, and I really wish I could pay you more. How about I give you a couple of days off next month, not included any sea like there are lots of ways to incentivize your team members that don't include cash. If cash is in short supply, which for a lot
of people at the moment it is. That doesn't mean you can just not look at your team members and make them feel valued career development plans and discussions around that. Even if you have a performance review discussion with your teenage year how clear are their career development discussions? Where do they want to be in twelve months? Where do they want to be in three years? I feel like you need to be open with your team to the point where that could be not with you.
And that's not a bad thing.
And I've always said that, Jess, I would keep you every day for the rest of ever. But I also would never want to get in the way of your career development. And if I become a beautiful launching pad into a bigger, better career for you, slay like, that's amazing.
I've been part of that.
But I think that too many times people assume that by having career development discussions with their team, they have to have the career inside their business. Like I go, oh, Jess, well, where would you want to go? And at the moment you're kind of sitting at the top of what you do in my business. Yeah, so how do we have those career development discussions where you might go, well, I actually want to stay here and I really would like to do ABCDN next year. That's adding additional value to
my business. Or you might go, yeah, look at some stage, I'd like to launch into big business and take on a really corporate structure.
Great, how can I help you to get there?
Because I promise you're going to get more from your team if you're helping them to get where they want to go than if you go, Oh, but you have to stay in my business forever in a day.
That is such a good point, and it really is so true. I guess for both an employer and an employee, it's really important to be checking in with each other. Is there any other last little tipbits before we go away that you reckon? People should really be getting on top of this end of financial deseason.
Your clients and your customers. So let's review our service. Are we serving who we want to serve? Who are your most profitable customers? How do we get more of those ones who are your least profitable clients? How do we have less of those what are your service highlights? Like, have there been some like flashes of brilliance? Like have there been some things that you've been like, Wow, actually we knocked it out of the park for that client.
Just how do we do it again?
How do we do that and take that magic of that experience and give it to everybody in our business? What are the low lights? Have there been some issues along the way? How do we make sure it doesn't happen again in the next twelve months? And then maybe you could open it up as an opportunity for feedback. Now is a perfect time to get feedback and survey
your customers. Seek feedback through surveys or focus groups or interviews, or just pick up the phone and be like, hey, Jess, long time no speak.
Are you still loving working with us?
You said that ages ago, but like, has the service been the same? I'm just gathering some feedback to make sure that next year is our best year yet. And I can almost guarantee that everyone's going to be like, oh yeah, Jess, I really want to be on top of this. So go to your most important customers first, but send an email. You'll get some feedback and it will put you in the best possible position to have the best year yet.
I completely agree, and I think like the overall theme of today's episode is like we're halfway through the yard. It's a really good time to stop and take an assessment of what you've achieved, what you want to achieve. Like, let's kind of get a bit of that new financial year you me and you know, just textalk of what you've done, because like it's been six months and that's
incredible and we're so proud of you. For those of you who have been working in a business for six months or have been planning something, maybe you're just ready to launch it. I feel like I have nothing else with value to add. VD. That was an awesome episode that I feel like will help a lot of people.
So fun. All right, Well, we'll see you soon.
See on Friday.
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