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So what do Accountants do and why do you need others like bookkeepers?  Well there are a few types of Accountants and the definition of bookkeepers can be wide and varied, but who do you need to help you with your business?

Tax Accountant (definitely need one) will assist with:

• Business setup
• Taxation compliance
• Just about anything tax related

A Management Accountant (that’s me) will help you analyse your business results and work with you to understand your business, the drivers and how to improve them.

A bookkeeper will help keep all of your bookwork organised and recorded accurately.

Sometimes you will find a bookkeeper who can do what a management accountant does, an sometimes you will find a tax accountant who will work with you to understand your business.  But in my experience this is a rarity rather than the norm.

I wanted to distinguish these roles to highlight what expectations you should have when engaging their services.

As I mentioned before a tax accountant will handle your taxation requirements and although some will assist you with understanding your business, most are so busy “doing” compliance work that they are unable to spend the time with you (and it can be mighty expensive) to discuss your business.  So most tax accountants can really only help you out with tax in relation to your business.

A management accountant on the other hand, can help you to understand your business because they work with you on the operational side to see what is happening.  They will not understand the taxation implications of things and should in all cases refer you to your tax accountant.

A great bookkeeper is a godsend and can be worth their weight in gold.  How do you find one?  Well I find that if they love to be organised and love paperwork, then they are passionate about bookkeeping.  That’s what you want,someone that is passionate about your bookwork.

So who do you need in your business?  Definately a tax accountant and perhaps you want to understand the numbers in your business, then you need a management accountant.  A bookkeeper is a must if you hate paperwork, give the task to someone who truly enjoys it.

So how do we interpret our business reports? The easiest way to understand reports is to understand the different components that make them up. Let’s start with the profit and loss report:

Revenue

If you run a service-based business, you provide services to clients and the income that is generated is revenue. If you’re a product-based business such as a wholesaler or retailer, then the income you generate from the products you sell are classified as revenue.

Some other examples include: interest received, insurance proceeds, traineeship or apprenticeship employment incentives.

At no stage do any items that appear in the profit and loss include GST. All items are GST exclusive, as GST is not your money; it belongs to the tax office. You are simply the collector of that money.

So to further define, what is NOT revenue? Some monies that are received are not classified as revenue and as such would appear on the balance sheet instead. This could be an injection of funds by yourself (capital introduced) or your bank (in the form of a bank loan).

Expenses

Expenses relate to items that you have purchased or services received that relate to the running of your business and the generation of the revenue.

Obviously they need to relate to the operation of your business and be utilised for your business. Legitimate expenses vary from industry to industry. For example, an accountant would not be able to claim a lawnmower as an expense because that would obviously be a personal expense unrelated to their business.

However, a garden maintenance man would have every reason to claim a lawnmower as an expense (whether this was fully expensed or actually depreciated as an asset would depend on their tax situation).

The key is that expenses claimed must be related to your business.

Some monies that come out of your bank account do not appear on the profit and loss statement at all. Examples of these include drawings to you, loan repayments, credit card payments, purchases of assets over a certain value, car payments, payment of tax, super and so on.

The treatment of these expenses in your books are dependent on certain tax dealings and thus can differ between businesses. If you wish to know more about your individual situation, ask your tax accountant about how it should be treated in your books.

So why, apart from the above, could you be making a profit but not have any money in your bank account? The other factor relates to accrual versus cash accounting, which means that you invoice someone and the revenue from that sale will show on your profit and loss but your customer has not paid yet.

The other side of the equation relates to invoices from suppliers. If you enter those into your accounting system and they have not been paid yet, they will appear as expenses on your profit and loss report but you have yet to pay for it. If, on the other hand, you only enter items (both sales and expenses) in your accounting system AFTER they have been paid then this factor does not apply. However, this method will not generally give you the complete picture of where your business is at.

And what if you have a loss? This basically means that your expenses (spending) are greater than the revenue you have earned. Scary I know, particularly if you haven’t looked at it before. You may have had an inkling that you were making a loss and been burying your head in the sand about the whole thing.

Once you’ve decided to acknowledge the losses, the first thing to do is check unusual item lines in your profit and loss. Perhaps you bought several computers worth $5000 and they have been mistakenly classified as an expense on your profit and loss report rather than classified as an asset in the balance sheet. You can also ask your accountant or bookkeeper to run a practised eye over your line items.

What if you’ve corrected mistakes in your line items and are still making a loss? Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world. At least you know what’s going on, so you can take immediate action to avert financial ruin. Of course, it’s not a desirable place to be, but you can always get yourself out of losses.

It’s important to have a look at how losses are being funded. If your expenditure is greater than your revenue, these expenses are being funded by creditors, loans, personal cash injections or credit cards. I have seen more than one business fail when trying to sustain losses. It’s a situation that requires immediate action.

So what do you do? Talk to a professional – your bookkeeper, accountant or tax accountant – preferably someone who understands your business and what you are trying to achieve. The sooner you can take action, the sooner it can be rectified.

Remember that business is about making money, not losing it!

The balance sheet is a complete snapshot of your business’s wealth. In simple terms, it works on the accounting principles of assets less liabilities = owners equity. But what we will do is explore the balance sheet’s components to understand it better.

Firstly, a reminder of the components of the balance sheet:

Assets

• Bank accounts
• Debtors (i.e. monies owed by customers)
• Office equipment
• Buildings etc

Liabilities

• Credit cards
• Bank loans
• Creditors (i.e. suppliers owed)
• GST obligations
• PAYG obligations
• Super obligations

Equity

• Capital introduced (i.e. monies put in by yourself)
• Drawings (funds withdrawn from business for personal use)
• Profit (loss) to date

So, assets are resources controlled by the business and expected to provide future benefits for your business.

A bank account is an asset as long as it is not in overdraft. If it is, it should really be in the liabilities section. However if it is an adhoc occurrence, it will probably be shown in the assets section as a negative.

If you invoice clients/customers on credit, then you’d have a figure in the debtors section if these invoices remain unpaid. As soon as they are paid they are removed from this figure. So, basically this figure will show you at any time the total figure outstanding for customer invoices.

Assets such as office equipment, cars, buildings, leasehold improvements are basically items that have a life greater than one year. The business can benefit from them for many years, this is why they are capitalised (i.e. made an asset) rather than expensed (in the profit and loss). However they are expensed each year with depreciation or amortisation. This represents that the value of the asset is declining as the asset gets older. Assets get depreciated at different rates depending on the method of depreciation chosen and also the type of asset and thus perceived life existence.

Liabilities are commitments you have made that involve you owing money and/or other assets to another entity, be that a credit card company, lease companies, bank, ATO, trade creditors, family, friends, employee deductions and superannuation.

The obvious liability items are credit card debt, bank loans etc. The not so obvious ones are due to obligations that you incur if you have employees and/or are registered for GST. Firstly, when paying employees, rather than paying the gross wage you pay the net wage and thus you are subtracting the tax out of their wage to submit later to the ATO on their behalf. This may be monthly or quarterly. Tax deductions from an employee’s wage gather in a liability account on your balance sheet until such time as you pay this debt to the ATO, usually through your BAS payment.

The same applies to GST. When we spoke about the profit and loss report I mentioned that this will always show revenue and expenses exclusive of GST if you are in fact registered for GST. Therefore whenever an entry is created in your accounting software for a sale or expense, the applicable GST will be spirited off to a GST payable or GST collected account in the liability section of the balance sheet. Again this collects here until such time that you pay your BAS.

Superannuation also calculates with each payroll processed. Thus the expense occurs in the profit and loss and the obligation arising from this appears as a liability in the balance sheet, until such time as it is paid.

The balance of your business (after subtracting your liabilities from your assets) will be the equity that you have in that business. In other words, the interest the business owner has in the business after all debts have been settled. Usually this is a positive figure meaning that the assets you own are a greater value than the liabilities you owe. Sometimes it can be a negative figure which shows that the liabilities you owe are greater than the assets you own. Not a fantastic position to be in because you would be too highly geared by debt.

So what are the components of equity in the balance sheet?

• Capital introduced (i.e. monies put in by yourself)
• Drawings (funds withdrawn from business for personal use)
• Profit (loss) to date

If you have introduced your own funds to your business (i.e. not borrowed) this will show in here. Likewise any withdrawals of funds you take of a personal nature can show up as drawings (this can depend on your tax structure – see your tax accountant). If you withdraw more funds than the business can handle, you can literally kill it. This can be a component of when you are making profits but there is no money in the bank because you have withdrawn it and then some. If that’s you – just stop! Live within your means, but don’t bankrupt your business.

You will also see the year to date result from your profit and loss, as this is what the business is contributing to the wealth of the business. Therefore if you take your profit and loss result at a certain date and look at this figure in your balance sheet as at the same date, these two figures will match.

In summary, assets provide your business with future benefits (to derive income), which are first utilised to meet the obligations (liabilities) of the business BEFORE business owners can receive their remaining entitlements. As a business owner, you are obligated to pay your liabilities but not obligated to entitle yourself as the business owner. Good practice, for sure. Obviously we all need to pay ourselves, but we just need to make sure we don’t take it too far!

So, numbers are a fairly concrete thing, right? They are black and white. What if I told you I don’t believe that?

Numbers can change so easily – for worse or for better. Some you feel in control of and others you don’t. Wouldn’t it be nice to feel in control of your numbers? But how do you GET in control you say? Well, it’s all about attitude.

When it comes to sales, you either get the sale or you don’t. However, there are lots of variables aren’t there?

Take a retail shop for example. You only get a sale if someone is actually in the shop (physical or virtual). Once they are in the shop it’s your job (physically or virtually) to make sure you can convert the sale, have a happy customer and then “cha’ching!” the sale.

The retailer’s attitudes as to what a sale is and how to make it happen can depend on how many of those sales are made or lost. Think about a shopping experience you’ve had. Those shops that encompass superior customer service in their sales process are more likely to convert you on a sale.

You wouldn’t buy from a grumpy, unfriendly assistant, would you? You’d probably walk out shaking your head, go to the next shop that has what you’re looking for and (if met with better customer service) buy the item there.

Customer service is just ONE example. Other examples are systems and processes, environment and marketing.

From this example, you can see that the opinion you have on what converts to a sale can determine if you actually make the numbers. So if you change your perception of what leads to a sale, you can certainly change your numbers.

This also applies to expenses. Take bank charges for instance. A necessary expense or penalty for mismanagement? Obviously, some bank charges are unavoidable, but what about those that occur because we mismanage our funds and incur fees because of this? If your attitude is that bank fees are a necessary expense, this number will never change for you.

However, if you realise that you can change this number then you can take steps to reduce costs. This could mean researching to see if your current bank is giving you the best deal. It can also be about putting systems in place to ensure that you’re never overdrawn, miss a payment or use another bank’s ATM as these can be very costly. A recent example I came across was a person withdrawing funds from an ATM five times in one day. This incurred five fees, when he could have avoided this and just paid a single fee. It turned out that this was a regular occurrence.

So it’s up to you, what is your opinion with regard to bank fees? Are they a necessary expense or an item you can change the meaning of?

Let’s look at another common expense, wages and salaries. Are these a necessary expense?

This depends on your business model. Let’s say you have employees that come to work each week, and have been working for you for a while. They were given a job description when they started and continue to do those same tasks. Have you ever reviewed these tasks to see whether they are still relevant? Are your employees working on tasks that help your business on a day to day basis as well as helping you to grow the business?

It can be easy as a business owner to get stuck in the “doing”. Are you productive during your work day? Or do you jump from one task to another, struggle to delegate and operate in a messy environment?

If you expect more from your employees, it’s important to lead by example. Sometimes it is necessary to clean up our own act before we can expect our employees to clean up theirs.

What does this have to do with changing the meaning of the wages and salaries you pay? Well, it might be the same number in black and white but if you and your employees can become more productive and focus on your business and its growth, then the “value”of this expense has indeed changed. You could also change your model by using contractors and outsourcing certain tasks but we’ll discuss that in another post.

These are just a few examples of how you can indeed change the meaning of your numbers. As you can see, in some cases, if you change the meaning, you change the actual number and in others, you change the “value” of that number!

Another item that can be imperative to your success in business is your cost of sales (COS). So can this figure be improved upon? Absolutely, you just need to work with what you have. Your business type will influence which approach you take for this component of the profit and loss.

Cost of sales for retailers with products

Let’s assume that your cost of sales is normally 50%, 60% or 70% of sales. How can you improve this? A few examples come to mind:

• Buy in bulk for supplier discounts
  • Depending on the type of product you stock, this may not be an option. If you stock perishables, you need to consider this option carefully based on other factors such as the ability to sell before the use by date
• Negotiate pricing with your suppliers for a lower cost (particularly if you have many distributors for the same product)
  • I recommend reviewing this each year, even if you do not have many distributors. You would be surprised what you are able to negotiate!
  • Play distributors off against each other. If you prefer working with one, get prices from others and ask to match
• Take advantage of seasonal supplier discounting
  • Some stock items have a seasonal life, for example fashion or homewares. Wholesalers who are still holding stock towards the end of a season will discount heavily to move the surplus stock. If purchased, these savings can then be passed onto the consumer by giving the same discount but still maintaining the margin you normally have. You could sell the item at normal price, but as it is a seasonal item it is often more prudent to pass on your savings to increase volume of sales.

• Increase your sales price, thus decreasing the COS % of sales
  • But we have a Recommended Retail price (RRP) I hear you say! That’s okay but how about adding a small amount such as $1 to your items? When you think of the volume of items that you sell, this can be worth a significant amount of money. Remember that the extra $1 has not cost you anything at all and is pure gross profit. If $1 is too much, why not make it $0.50? Or for those of you who can go higher, try adding $2 to $3 and go lesser on other products that are more price sensitive. You would be surprised – not all consumers are price driven, most are willing to pay a little more for convenience and service.
• Reduce wastage
  • This can be quite a large factor for the hospitality industry. A cafe/restaurant is not only made by the margins they have but also their ability to purchase extremely efficiently and minimise and/or eliminate wastage. Often it is about educating staff to ensure they are aware of the costs (and thus lost profits) of every perishable item that is potentially wasted. This alone can be a major component of the COS of some cafes/restaurants. A lot of the time, this wastage is not being tracked and thus owners are unaware of the impact this is having on their business. Tracking this and its costs can provide the owners with extremely useful information to improve their COS.

You can use one or several of the above ideas, depending on your business or industry type.

Cost of sales for a manufacturer

These can be reduced in a few ways. Often efficiencies have a part to play. Some examples include:

• Negotiating a better deal with your factory
• Doing larger production runs (if plausible) to decrease per unit cost
• Working with the factory to improve efficiencies within the production run to decrease per unit cost
• Transferring production offshore (whether we like it or not, this is a more viable option for most manufacturers)

Cost of sales – services

For those of you in the service industry, cost of sales (in its traditional sense) is not normally a large component of your business, but depending on your structure it can be. Some ways to reduce cost of sales include:

• Negotiating contracts with subcontractors
• Implementing and improving systems to ensure that every dollar of subcontractor expense is utilised to its most efficient level
• Transferring the services work offshore. Again, this is not something I necessarily agree with, but there is no doubt it does improve margins for the services based industry. Even the accounting industry is getting involved with this (don’t worry I’m not planning on it and you may want to ask your accountant to make sure they’re not either!)

The mere mention of a financial plan can send business owners into a tailspin. It doesn’t have to be this way, it can be as simplistic or as complicated as you make it. A financial plan will help you determine what revenues you can, will and/or need to achieve based on the expenses you will incur. They can be in the form of budgets, forecasts or cashflow forecasts depending on what you’re most comfortable with.

Perhaps one of your goals is to increase your client base by five clients a month. If this is achieved, this will increase your revenue figure for each month by say the average client monthly figure. However in order to achieve this, there would be certain expenses incurred, such as marketing campaigns, mailouts, advertising, prospect entertainment etc.

Therefore an estimate (budget) of these associated expenses would need to be taken into account as well. Will extra staff be required when these clients are onboard? Or are there other expenses such as extra travel costs to be incurred? You can see how looking at your goals and breaking them down will help you determine both the revenue and expenses they may generate and the impact they will have on your business. This brings us to the budget.

A budget can allow you to estimate what your revenues and expenses will be. Usually this requires quite a bit of detail, like a profit and loss statement. Often your existing profit and loss (say from the previous financial year) can be used as the basis of your budget. You’d need to adjust it for likely expenses to occur as well as any changes to revenue based on the goals you have set. Once you have determined your budget you can then track your budget to actual profit and loss, on a monthly basis.

Most accounting programs allow for budget figures to be input on a monthly basis to allow for this reporting to occur. These figures (or differences in budget vs actual) can really show you how you are tracking on the goals that you set for your business.

You need to be prepared for unexpected events such as losing a major client, which would have a substantial impact on your profit and loss and thus the budget vs actual report. I recommend that your budget is revolving so that you can alter the figure to take into account any unexpected events. I’m not saying you need to change everything but it is logical to adjust for major impacts.

Forecasts are useful for determining figures for your budget as well as sales projections. They are often a more detailed report that focuses on specifics such as sale per product or sales per program.

For instance you may have 100 products for sale in your business and historically you have sold a certain number of units over a certain period of time. It would be easy to determine your generated revenue based on historical figures.

However, if you’re introducing five new product lines, you need to account for the impact they will have on revenue and cost of goods sold. Perhaps one product is an update on an existing item? Once introduced, the obsolete items would need to be reduced in price to sell all stock. You could forecast sales of the new products while adjusting the existing products for the new lines if applicable. This is where forecasts by item are useful for determining the whole business sales figure for inclusion in the budget.

Cashflow forecasts are fantastic in assisting with managing that ever elusive beast, but they require a lot of work to maintain. Some accounting programs can do this for you but unless you utilise all aspects of the program the reports are not complete. Often Excel or specialised cashflow programs are best for this type of reporting, but again it requires maintenance and a complete picture on what is happening in your business financially. These can be tricky so I recommend working with a professional for these, but you need to make sure you stay involved as you know your business best.

Keep your goals in mind when creating these reports. They will provide the useful information you are looking for while keeping you on track and accountable.

A marketing plan is vital to achieving your financial objectives. Say for example that you want to increase your sales by 10%, how are you actually going to achieve this? By increasing the number of units sold, market share, new programs or services, or improving customer awareness?

You need to devise a plan to achieve your goals, based on your marketing objectives. Let’s start with your marketing strategies.

Marketing Strategies

There are a broad range of strategies that you can use to achieve your objectives. They include:

• Defining your target market
• Product positioning
• Pricing
• Promotion
• Distribution

Your target market needs to be defined so that you can tailor your message to the right market, otherwise your marketing will be a waste of time. You need to be crystal clear on WHO you want to target. A target market of “anyone who wants to pay me” will make your marketing results dismal, because it is too vague.

One of the best ways I have seen to really hone in on your target market is to analyse your demographics and psychographics and come up with an ‘avatar’, like a real person. Her name might be ‘Jane’, she’s over 35, married with two kids, running a business, time poor and constantly worried about how to manage her cashflow. When you’re crafting your marketing message, keep Jane in mind and anticipate what problems of hers you can solve.

From this perspective, you should be able to develop your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Why would Jane hire you instead of someone else in your field? What makes you unique? You must convey the benefits derived from your product or service, because people buy based on ‘wants’ not ‘needs’. Put yourself in Jane’s shoes when tailoring your marketing message. What kind of ‘pain’ would she be feeling on a daily basis? How can you fix that pain with your product or service? Craft your marketing message by targeting the kind of emotions she would be experiencing.

In terms of product position, what are the features, names and packaging of your products? Are there any services involved? Do you provide guarantees?

What price will the market bear for your product/service? Make sure that your mark-ups cover all costs and leave you with a healthy profit margin. What about wholesale pricing? Will you give discounts for bulk purchases? How about credit costs?

How will you promote your products/services? How will you create customer awareness and promote the benefits of your products/services? Will you use advertising, sales promotions, direct mail or public relations (in the next section I go into more detail about the various marketing tools available).

What are your distribution methods for your products/services? Who are the distributors and/or retailers? Where are the physical stores? Are there fulfilment houses for online stores? What transportation methods are used and is any warehousing necessary?

Marketing Tools

Once you have determined your approach, it’s time to choose the marketing tools you will use to assist you in achieving your marketing and financial objectives.

All tools have monetary and/or time costs associated with them. Some will give you more ‘bang’ for your buck or leverage your time more efficiently.

Some tools include:

• Advertising
• Awards
• Direct mail
• Exhibitions
• Internet marketing
• Media relations/publicity
• Newsletters
• Articles
• Seminars
• Sponsorships
• Cold calling
• Joint ventures
• Blogging
• Social media

The trick to implementing tools is to concentrate on a few and give them your full attention. Pick the tools that resonate with you. For example, if you prefer talking to writing, create videos to convey your marketing message on your website. Use the tools you feel comfortable with, and you’ll be more likely to stick to your marketing schedule.

Marketing Calendar

The final step to your marketing plan is mapping out all your marketing tasks on a calendar. By mapping everything out on a large wall calendar, you’ll be able to see at a glance exactly what marketing task you should be working on. You can slot in specific promotions and work backwards to determine when each task is required in order to stay on track.

Have you linked your financial plan to your marketing plan? If your goal is a 10% increase in sales, you can sit back and hope that it just happens out of the blue, OR you can align your financial plan to your marketing plan and take specific actions to achieve your goal. Sure, some growth happens organically, but wouldn’t you rather have a plan in place to know exactly what you should be doing everyday to grow your business?

My best tip is to take action and loads of it! You’d be amazed at what you can achieve when you focus on your marketing every day! So, what marketing task will you work on today?

Organisational Chart based on current and future requirements

How do you know when it’s time to hire more people or outsource tasks? That’s where your resources plan comes into action.

For most start-ups, when you first begin business you have to wear many different hats. You are the sales person, chief marketer, bookkeeper and even the cleaner!

Of course your hope is not to continue with all of these roles in the future. If you determine your organisational chart, you can in fact see where your “many hats” exist and map them out for your business.

Task Analysis

One of the best things to do is look at the tasks you are handling now or are still on your to-do list. If you refer to your marketing plan and financial plan, what tasks are required to move your business forward, to reach your goals, to implement those plans and achieve your financial objectives?

There are probably tasks that you procrastinate on continually because you hate doing them! If there’s a way to plan for additional resources to complete those tasks, make it happen. You will be a much happier business owner.

Maybe your marketing plan is overly ambitious for your skill set? What skill set do you require to make it happen? Make sure it’s budgeted for in your financial plan and you’re partly on your way to achieving your marketing plan.

Once you’ve collated all necessary tasks, analyse them carefully and see if you can identify a batch of tasks that are similar and thus suited to a particular skill set. From those identified skills, what experience, qualifications, personality and attitude are required to fulfil the roles and responsibilities of that position?

With this information, you have the making of job descriptions and then you can decide on employment type (i.e. subcontractor, full time or casual employee).

Organise departmentally

If you think about large organisations, they consist of many departments, but they all started off small at some stage. It may have been a long time ago, but many roles were conducted by just a few people. Rather than waiting until you are big enough to departmentalise, set the roles and departments in place now to clearly identify what positions you will require in the future.

Depending on the stage of your business there are a few departments you can start planning for:

• Operations
• Sales/marketing
• Finance
• Customer Service
• Product Development

As I mentioned earlier, you’re probably handling the above functions yourself, however sooner or later you’ll need to outsource if you want to achieve your goals and objectives.

Financial, marketing and resources plan intrinsically linked

It’s great to plan but if you don’t have the resources required to execute your plan, there’s not much point. So, based on your marketing plan and your financial objectives, what resources will you actually require to achieve your objectives?

It could be as simple as requiring some admin assistance to allow you to concentrate on money-making tasks.

Perhaps you’ll need some sales staff (or distributors depending on your model) or maybe it’s time to engage the services of a fulfilment house?

The beauty of resource planning is that it literally ties into your financial planning as well. If a new staff member is required, what will their salary be? Remember you need to budget for this. If you need a fulfilment house, what are your options? Even with commission-based sales staff or distributors, what will their rate be and how will that fit into your financial plan?

You can see how your financial plan, marketing plan and resources plan are all interrelated. You need the marketing and resources to achieve the financial plan, and vice versa.

Map your resources based on your marketing calendar

In my article about achieving goals with a marketing plan I showed you how to create a marketing calendar to schedule and keep track of your marketing activities. You can also use your marketing calendar to map out when you’ll require extra resources to achieve the goals set out in your marketing plan. Your marketing calendar will show you when major promotions are being held and what resources you will require to implement these promotions.

A mentor of mine once said “you can’t actually manage your time, you can only manage yourself”. Wise and logical words. So what tools do I use to manage myself, my time, my team and my business?

Managing myself

I use a Blackberry phone that synchronises with Microsoft Outlook on my laptop. This means I have access to my calendar, emails and contacts when I am out and about at appointments. It is very useful to have this information at my fingertips. Not only can I answer emails on the fly if I have time between appointments, but I also have access to my calendar to make further appointments with clients. It’s also very handy to have all my contact details available if I need to make some phone calls.

I have never quite got the hang of an electronic to-do list (or task list) as I tend to work better with good old-fashioned pen and paper to write down my tasks. I use a few things to manage this: I have my trusty red Kikki-k diary which not only looks beautiful but is functional as it has a week to a page. I don’t use this diary for appointments but for tasks that need to be completed on a particular day. I love the feeling of crossing things off as it adds to my sense of accomplishment!

I use an online software system called Backpack (http://getresponse NULL.com/click NULL.html?x=a62b&lc=eovP&mc=f&s=hGH6y&y=J&) for my marketing calendar (I’ll discuss this aspect later). I also use the reminder systems to email me reminders of particular tasks that are extremely important to my business but not time critical. I find that I pay more attention to the reminders in my inbox than if I were to write them in my diary. I know this because in the past I have simply crossed tasks off in my diary and transferred them to the next day. This cycle would continue until eventually a task got crossed off and not re-written, clearing it from the forefront of my mind but keeping it in my sub-conscious to nag at me forever.

I’m also an information lover. I am constantly reading books, listening to mp3’s and coming across useful information on the internet. To keep track of it all, I use an online system called Evernote (http://getresponse NULL.com/click NULL.html?x=a62b&lc=eovf&mc=f&s=hGH6y&y=9&). It has many uses but I mainly use it as an electronic filing cabinet. There is a feature called “clip to Evernote” for your browser that allows you to “print” an interesting website page or part of a page to Evernote and then tag it appropriately. Later, if you’re looking for information that you found about Facebook for example, you search for the tag ”facebook” and peruse the notes that appear under that tag to find the article. I also use it to keep a list of books to buy that I come across.

Managing my business

For managing the bookwork of my business I use MYOB, but only because I am a professional partner of that software due to the nature of my business. I am also a professional partner of QuickBooks, which we use for clients’ accounting too. However, if I was not a professional partner of either of these I would most definitely use an online accounting system called Saasu (http://getresponse NULL.com/click NULL.html?x=a62b&lc=eov8&mc=f&s=hGH6y&y=F&). Not only is it simple to use but you can also give your accountant/bookkeeper access to either do the work for you or to check what you have been doing. It has payroll, foreign currency and you pay a flat fee each year that includes all updates. The best thing is you can try it for free to see if you like it!

I also use Zohocrm (http://getresponse NULL.com/click NULL.html?x=a62b&lc=eovj&mc=f&s=hGH6y&y=R&), a free online customer relationship management tool to manage my marketing funnel database of leads, prospects, clients and where they are in that process. I use this as a follow up mechanism for each stage of marketing to be done.

My marketing calendar and tasks however are in Backpack (http://getresponse NULL.com/click NULL.html?x=a62b&lc=eovP&mc=f&s=hGH6y&y=J&). This is a great online tool that allows you to create pages for your strategy and plot the particular tasks associated with that strategy into the calendar so you know exactly what you should be doing to achieve your marketing goals. The calendar then synchronises with your chosen calendar (i.e. Outlook, Google etc) so you can see these tasks at a glance beside your normal calendar when planning your weeks.

I also use a year-at-a-glance wall planner for my marketing, so I can see the entire year at a glance, not just month by month.

Managing teams and projects

As our team do not always see each other in person, we needed a way to communicate with each other on issues that may have arisen and tasks to be completed. We found our solution with Basecamp (http://getresponse NULL.com/click NULL.html?x=a62b&lc=eovU&mc=f&s=hGH6y&y=r&). Not only does it allow you to communicate with your team by project, you can also invite others to contribute or have access to the project. It is brilliant for tracking messages and their status. It saves a lot of time because you no longer have to search your inbox for related emails on a single subject. You can also assign and cross items off a common to- do list, and post information in writeboards. You can upload multiple versions of files. Everything is in one central place. It’s a great collaboration tool that can be used amongst your team.

Not all of us are comfortable using technology-based systems and yet there are some of us that use them extensively. I tend to use bits and pieces of many systems to create an “overall system” that works for me.

Do my systems evolve? Of course! I gravitate towards systems more or less depending on what projects I am working on at the time. Will I be using all of these systems in the same way next year? Maybe not, but one thing’s for sure, I will always use systems to enhance productivity for my business.

This could mean a lot of things couldn’t it? Am I asking if you’re physically present in your business? No. Am I asking if you’re engaged in your business? The answer is a resounding yes! So where am I heading with this?

Let’s start with the notion that to be present in your life, you need to be engaged in that moment at that point in time. You might be playing with your kids, chatting to your best buddy, listening to your spouse when they’re telling you about their day. Whichever situation it may be, it can be difficult to be really present, really listening and being in that moment. You may fob it off as nonsense, but next time you are in any of the above situations, take notice (almost an observation from outside of your body).

Are you really listening and engaged or are you thinking about what to cook for dinner and all those items on your to-do list? Are the thoughts running through your head distancing you from the present situation? I am guilty of this, but am trying to be more aware so that I can be more “present” in each and every moment.

As for your business, you are working “on” or “in” it every day (unless you’re lucky enough to have set things up to run without you). You are physically there but are you “present” mentally?

Do you have your mind on the job, so to speak? I’m not asking whether you worry about your business, we all do that. I’m asking whether you allow yourself to think, strategise, improve your business, allow it to grow through you?

Current or previous presence in your business is fundamental to your success. Your financial results will often be an indicator of how “present” you are in your business. Sure, other external factors can be a component of these results, but being present, being really present in your business can show up in the financials and the growth of your business. Has your business stagnated? Are you bored with its direction? Bored with the “same old same old”? Have you lost your presence? When you become bored or restless is the moment you have lost presence in your business.

Remember when I said it has nothing to do with physical presence? Well if you don’t work “in” your business but “on” your business, I’ll ask the question again – are you present in your business? Even when you work “on” your business you can find yourself very busy, but are you really present? If you are really present you are super enthusiastic about growing your business, you are open to learning from all kinds of sources about how to improve your business, you see opportunities galore and you are highly invested in yourself as the instigator of your business.

If you are present, you make sure that your marketing funnel is continually filled; you are continually developing new products, services and programs.

Let’s consider business owners who have totally automated their business so that it runs without them. A business does not become automated by systems and processes without the owners being very present to make sure it became that way. So what if you’re just maintaining the systems and processes that are currently in place, are you present? You might think you are, but unless you’re being innovative, developing new ideas, seeking improvement in yourself and your business, you are simply in maintenance mode and not fully present. I’d compare this to driving a car – once that skill is learned you can do it on autopilot and you don’t need to be present, you just cruise along (this is often how accidents happen – so do try to be present while driving!).

So how do you become “present” in your business? Look outside of your world, read a business book to stimulate ideas, learn from audios, talk to other business people. You can find inspiration everywhere if you open your mind and let your thoughts flow. Take yourself away from your business to get a fresh perspective. Hire a coach, mentor, get the opinions of others, go and relax, play golf or whatever takes your fancy. Clear your mind to allow room for new ideas that allow you and your business to grow and for you to be really present and engaged in your business.

Being present and driving results in your business is extremely rewarding, not just for your bank account but for your soul.

So let me ask you, are you present in your business?