Want to push your business to the next level? We’ve shared 10 hot questions to ask yourself as a business owner, with advice on how they will drive your growth and success. Running a busy and successful business means you often don’t have the time to step back
A business without a plan is like a ship without a rudder. Read our guide to writing a business plan and find out the major benefits of having a detailed roadmap to follow. Your business plan is the sat-nav that keeps the company moving in the right direction. Having
Keeping your business operational is a full-time job. It’s a balancing act that requires you to keep a multitude of plates spinning – which has become even more challenging for many businesses in these pandemic times. But what happens if those plates stop spinning? Sudden unexpected threats can catch you on the hop. What if
A crystal ball would be very handy in business! But the good news is that quality forecasting can be just as useful, giving you an informed view of the future of your business and finances. Using forecasting to help your decision making is a way for savvy business owners to plan for different scenarios. Looking
Have you achieved your start up business goals? Here are 5 important questions to ask yourself before you take the next step in your business journey. Founding, managing and growing a business is a BIG commitment. For most business owners, it will take years to build a customer following, turn a profit and create a
Money in, money out. Cash flow is one of the most important measures of your business's health. But how do you monitor it? It sounds simple to track sales on the one hand and expenses on the other – then compare the two. But a massive 65% of failed businesses say they closed because of
Most of the business owners we work with on our Business SAVY improvement programme want to grow their business: increase their income and the value of their business to create financial security in their lives. Even though they may be clear on what they want, they cannot achieve this because of one or more of
It’s expensive to invest in a new website, payment platform, project management software or automation. Should you take the plunge? We can help you weigh up the costs and benefits. Are you considering investing in a new way to make your business more productive or streamlined? With a tight labour market, everyone’s time is at
The Business Garden Designs Ltd* is a busy landscaping business created around six years ago by two brothers, Rob and Tim*. Servicing the greater Auckland area with residential landscaping, they currently have three permanent employees and use contractors regularly. The Issues When Rob and Tim first came on board as UHY clients they
In our experience, many small businesses don’t know which key performance indicators (KPIs) they should be tracking, how to access the relevant information, or what those metrics actually mean. Tracking specific metrics and financial KPIs allows you to see how you're performing against your targets – so you can take action to improve performance, sales,
You've had your initial business idea and written a plan. But do you know WHY you're creating this business, or HOW you’ll deliver your end product/service? What will the company's underlying purpose be and how will your core values drive the business? To get these crucial elements ironed out, it’s a good idea to write
Business budgets and cashflow forecasts are only for the bank, right? It’s just accounting jargon that doesn’t really have anything to do with the day-to-day running of your business, right? Wrong! As accountants we do like talking about business budgets and cashflow forecasts – guilty as charged! But what many small business owners may not
The beginning of a new calendar year is an excellent time to review the year just finished and reflect on what worked, what didn’t, what you’d like to change and new things you’d like to implement. For the second year in a row, Covid had an inescapable impact on many businesses, with some thriving, others
We explain how scaling up your business is a great way to keep pace with the current financial environment. We are all living in a low yield/high asset price environment due to structural shifts across the world which has seen central banks willing to print enormous amounts of money to prop up the system. The
In today’s modern economy staying connected and “on trend” makes an increasing difference to your business’ presence in the marketplace. This is also true of your relationship with your accountant. Are you well connected? Can you collaborate? Do you share or sound board ideas off one another? Can you look at your live accounting data
If you were to visualize your business in 10 years’ time what would it look like? Specifically: How much revenue will it generate? How many staff will you have? Where will your premises be located and how big will they be? What products and services will you offer and what
The Business Established over 15 years ago, 123 Consulting Ltd* are financial investment advisors who provide investment advice to both private investors and corporations. The Issues We began working with 123 Consulting Ltd six years ago. The business was not performing to its full potential despite there being steady demand for their consultancy
The Business The Plumbing Company Ltd is owned by husband-and-wife team, Matt and Susan, who employ 4 additional staff. The business provides both residential and commercial plumbing services. The Issues Although demand was steady, in recent years Matt and Susan became frustrated by the business’ lack of growth. They knew they wanted to
The Business Smith Family Ltd* is a successful family business which has been designing and manufacturing commercial retail fittings for over 30 years. It is headed up by husband and wife team, Bridget and Tom, and their daughter is also a manager in the business. The
The Business XYZ Ltd* is a niche business in New Zealand’s competitive creative industry with around 10 fulltime staff. We began working closely with them three years ago, when a new shareholder bought a 1/3 interest in the business. The Issues XYZ Ltd had a talented design team but were weak in several fundamental
Ever wondered what questions to ask your accountant? UHY Haines Norton Helensville Manager Arpita Khanwalkar explains why your Accountant can be your best resource in helping you to achieve your goals. Many of us believe that our visit to the accountant is a ‘once a year’ thing. Clients visit us, sign their accounts/tax returns, briefly
If you are in business one of the most useful things you can do with your bank accounts is set up a separate account for tax. Setting up a separate bank account and regularly putting money into it will ensure you can pay your tax bills on time and avoid costly penalties and interest. For
UHY Haines Norton’s Business Improvement Manager Michael Jamieson is often asked how to create a business budget. Here he shares his top three tips for developing a business budget that will help with both planning and control of your business’ finances. A good budget tells you how much you spend running your business, if you
Every business owner understands how important it is to have healthy cash flow, and this year that has become even more essential as COVID-19 continues to impact on businesses of all sizes. We asked UHY Haines Norton’s Business Improvement Manager Michael Jamieson for his top three tips to improve business cash flow. Review your invoices
Employing remote workers can be a great strategy for growing your business. If the nature of your business does not require hands-on labour, it may be worth considering allowing the flexibility that working remotely provides. And with the continuing spread of coronavirus around the world, businesses are being urged to develop continuity plans to help
In May the government introduced a new R&D tax incentive to encourage businesses to spend more on research and development. Because it applies to the 2019/2020 tax year, any R&D expenditure incurred from 1st April 2019 could qualify for the tax incentive if it meets the eligibility criteria. We recommend that businesses document and keep
In recent years there have been as many as 50,000 new businesses starting up in New Zealand each year. Statistics New Zealand reports that while around 80% of business start-ups usually survive their first year, in the longer term often just a quarter survive to celebrate 10 years in business. While no two businesses (or
If your business carries stock of any kind, good inventory management is important to prevent over-ordering, out-of-stocks and wastage. The key to having enough stock on hand to efficiently service orders lies in actively managing your inventory. We recommend taking a critical look at the amount of cash you have tied up in stock. Taking
