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Yearly planning; Sales targets, financial performance, net profit

I’ve taken the time over my summer break to reflect on last year and to check in with intentions and goals that I set at the beginning of last year. It doesn’t really feel like work. I get a real kick out of it and enjoy the process. I especially look at the financial performance of my business and there are 2 things that I do each month to help me to reach my sales targets. […]

A Business Journey in Children Years

I was pregnant with my first child when my ex husband and I bought out his business partner in his Takapuna hair and beauty salon. That salon was the beginning of my long passion with all things business. At the time I devoured everything I could about business, marketing, staff and HR, leadership. I wanted to […]

What a day learning to row taught me about high performing teams

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to be part of some training on high performance teams through my BNI chapter. The training consisted of learning how to row an 8-person skiff, finishing with a race between 3 teams of 8. This was an amazing challenge to be a part of that tested me both […]

Xerocon 2018

This year’s successful, Vegas-themed Xero conference in Brisbane really was as amazing as it looks in the pictures (yes, that ball pit swimming pool was real!). Accountants and bookkeepers from all around Australia and New Zealand attended – final delegate count was 3702. […]

Catch 22 For New Bookkeepers

For new bookkeepers it can be hard to get some practical accounts experience. You can’t get a job without practical experience and you can’t get practical experience without a job. It can be a bit of a catch 22, right? You may find another bookkeeper who is willing to take you on without experience, but it […]

The Difference Between Bookkeepers and Accountants

I get asked a fair bit by people I meet – “what actually is the difference between bookkeepers and accountants”. Seeing as the NZ Bookkeepers Association conference is coming up, I thought this would be the perfect time to differentiate between the two; There is a distinct difference between bookkeeping and accounting and it’s important […]

Social Media Influencers & Other Taxable

Ages ago, I read an article by Rachel Klaver from Identify Marketing where she was interviewed for an article about bloggers and other social media influencers getting free stuff in return for endorsements to their followers. She’s also featured in this Stuff article. This piqued my interest as some bloggers I know get sent gifts/contra all […]

Are you a micro business?

We hear the term SME quite a lot when talking business, and most of us know that SME stands for Small to Medium sized enterprise. I wanted to know at what point does a small business become a medium business? What I found in my search was an article from the MYOB blog which brought another classification into the mix. Did you know that there is actually a third category called a micro business? […]

Did Your Business Perform The Way You Wanted It To Last Year?

We are now a month in to the 2018/19 financial year. You should now have a pretty good idea of how your business performed last year. It’s probably a good time to ask yourself some key questions: How’d you do? Did you make the money you wanted? Did you work the hours you envisaged? Did […]

Do you have a cheaper rate for data entry?

When I owned my bookkeeping business I was once asked if I had a different rate for data entry work. The inference being that that particular task was worth less than the bookkeeping rate which I had quoted.
The thing is though, with bookkeeping it’s never just data entry.

The end result of working with a good bookkeeper is meaningful data with which you can make sound business decisions. It’s data which tells you the story of your business; the health of it, the results of your past decisions, and the predicted future of the business. It’s also staying compliant with the IRD and meeting your tax deadlines. It’s data that tells you how much money you’ve made and how much money you can take out for yourself (shareholders) or for reinvesting in growth. […]

Business mentor or business coach – what’s the difference?

I call myself a business coach but I am also often referred to by my clients as a business mentor. Everyone seems to have their own definition around these words. I’m fine with either. I am a coach, a mentor and a consultant at different times and for different needs. And sometimes I’m all three in the one session. […]

4 reasons that end of year holidays are so crucial

It’s just another day, but the start of a new year seems to bring with it such promise of hope for us. This time is so crucial for me for four reasons. […]

Do I know you?

I used to have a policy of not accepting friend requests unless I had actually physically met them at least once. That changed a few years ago and here’s why. […]

Minimise fraud by hiring well

A quick video on how reference checks and police checks can save you a whole lot of grief! […]

Tips for Effective Networking

I love networking but I’ve had to learn how to do it, and I’ve learned to love it.

I’m probably considered outgoing and approachable by most who meet me, but I can be a little introverted at times, and so networking was something that didn’t come easily at first.

Fake it ’til you make it has long been a favourite of mine and it applies well to networking. I don’t mean be fake. Quite the opposite in fact, you need to be authentic and genuine. […]

Welcome to the last day of the month

Welcome to the last day of the month. How’d it go? What goals did you achieve and what did you learn as a whole?

Are you making the time to look back and review, and to set goals for the coming month?

Did you know that next month is going to be awesome? It’s time to set your monthly goals. […]

Show up and play, and win!

Today I won a prize thanks to MYOB. It’s not the first time this has happened to me. I won the prize(s) because I showed up and played the game. And life and business is just like that. Sometimes what it takes is to show up and play. Make the effort, consistently. Play the game of life, the game of business. […]

Define Clear and Specific Goals

The clearer we can get with our goals the better we can prioritise our time and our resources towards actually getting to a position that we want to be in. So often we are so head-down in the daily doing of our business that we don’t have any idea where we’re actually heading. We have never taken the time and devoted the headspace (see what I did there) to figuring out what we’re actually trying to achieve. If we’re striving for success in business then what does success look like? If we’re at Point A and we’re heading towards Point B, what does Point B look and feel like? […]

Don’t underestimate how valuable you are

It‘s not uncommon to assume that everyone else knows all the stuff that we do. If we know it then everyone else probably does as well, right?

Value what you do. There are so many people or businesses out there who need the skills and experience that you bring. Do not underestimate how valuable you are. […]

Business systems to capture business information

I don’t think anyone would dispute that as a business owner you need meaningful business information in order to make good business decisions, yet I see many business owners flying by the seat of their pants, so-to-speak, making significant business decisions without having much in the way of relevant and meaningful business information.

In order to get meaningful business information, you need to have good business systems in place to capture the information accurately and efficiently. […]