BiziNet™ - The Leading Nationwide Business Magazine

SMB Digital - free-to-attend 30-31 March at ICC Sydney.

Big buzzwords like Artificial Intelligence, Digitisation and Automation are all well and good for big corporates with big budgets, but the perceived complexity and strain on resources required to make them work can relegate them to the Too Hard Basket for smaller companies.

Cutting to the chase; when it comes to technology, SMBs need to know what will give them their best bang for their buck and what will maximise their impact and reach with customers.

Bruce Gleeson, FCA, FCPA, RITF &
Mark Marlow, RITM, FIPA

The financial and mental health effects that Covid-19 and subsequently the Delta variant have had on many businesses in my opinion will only be fully understood over the next 1-2 years as we see the long-term tail effects playout. And whilst in NSW we are rejoicing as we move beyond Freedom Day it is critical that business owners maintain focus as financial stimulus is withdrawn by the Governments and there is transition back to a normalisation of capital cycles and debt recovery processes that were well and truly disrupted during Covid.

Your business is at an important crossroad. How do you determine the best route forward if you are to achieve your goals of business growth, profit and personal lifestyle?

For many business owners the COVID crisis and business lockdowns have provided a catalyst to critically review how their business operates so they can improve profitability and performance. Others have preferred to bunker down and wait for the crisis to end, relying on government assistance and hoping that they can recover when business picks up.

At the time of this write up, the New South Wales (NSW) State Government is looking to bring in the United States (US) property tax to phase out stamp duty and land tax. The current system of the state property taxes consisting of stamp duty and land tax is not perfect but has the following concessions. In stamp duty, there are concessions for first home buyers. In land tax, there are the exemptions for a principal place of residence, primary production farmland, church/religious, charity and retirement/aged care properties. Strata investment unit owners do not pay land tax if under the current land tax threshold.

As a speechwriter, I often hear clients say they don't know how to begin or what to include in their speeches and presentations. There is no standard formula for creating a speech for every occasion, whether online or in person, but the following tips will give you ideas on what to do the next time you need to speak to a group.

The pandemic has forced a large portion of our population to sit at home for months on end, forced to spend excessive amounts of time in front of computers, tablets and on their phones. Has this resulted in a change in consumer behaviour? The outcome has been a boom in online retail. But who actually benefits from this massive shift to online spending? Are you a business owner eager to get a slice of the digital pie? There quite are a lot of nuances in e-commerce and success in the digital realm is often not as straightforward and simple as it looks.

Isn't it frustrating when "gate-keepers" within organisations make it impossible for you or your sales team to reach the real decision makers? It's common practice for the receptionist or PA of the high-profile and well-guarded decision maker to simply 'block' your attempts at identifying them and any chance of reaching them.

The challenges associated with the pandemic continue. Many businesses with which we engage are struggling to know what the future may hold. One of our key roles is to connect businesses to assistance and to identify meaningful data that can be used to generate influence and advocacy among those in government.

During lockdown the NSW Government has provided guidelines around what essential services are. As an NFP(Not-for-Profit) Community transport service provider, Stryder is just that - an essential service that continues to help those in need.

This month I would like to talk about cybersecurity issues and financial crime in small business environments. While it may seem like small businesses are small fish for criminals, this is not always the case. In fact, small businesses are often easy targets. The major types of crimes that small businesses face in their daily operations include identity theft, stealing of private information, money laundering, and fraud.