notch above bookkeeping

Practical Positivity

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Stay safe. Do what you can with what you have. Control what’s in your control.

A framework to help business owners to see their situation through a different lens and move upward.

Help as many people as you can through this period with any spare resources you have, whether that’s time, money or love.

This will not last forever, nor for very long and we will get through this… together… and be stronger on the other side.

  1. MELTDOWN. If you need to have a meltdown, do it. Negative emotions will never go away, only fester. Don’t be ashamed to have a cry and a bit of a panic.
  2. ESTABLISH A BETTER VISION OF THE FUTURE. You and your clients have possibly got quite a negative vision of what’s to come. Armageddon, recession, etc. This needs to change. Start to vision the other side.
  3. SCENARIO PLANNING. Produce a cash flow forecast for the next 3 months. Imagine the worst scenario in terms of sales, then plan for it. Maybe you get no revenue for the next three months? The reality will be much better, but plan for it anyway. This will be a dip. It won’t last forever.
  4. CUT BACK. Cut on any costs that are maybe excessive. You need to be careful with this bit. Don’t strip back operations completely, only those that seem excessive. I don’t mean staff here AT ALL if it can be helped.
  5. GALVANISE YOUR TEAM. Communicate your better vision of the future. They are on this mission with you. They have probably had the same panics that you’ve had. Explain that you’re going to get through this together. The reason we’re cutting back (in the step above) is to preserve your team.
  6. BUILD BACK INTO THE FOUNDATIONS. This is where we look at things you may have been neglecting. Systems, processes, getting your pricing right, marketing. Whatever it is you need to do, build back into these key systems. Some of the peripheral things (maybe small jobs on your to-do list), they aren’t important in times like now. Work on the fundamentals.
  7. SET UP AS A LEADER. This is your time. If your team are working from home, get them fired up, have daily calls, keep everyone positive.
  8. EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES. What opportunities do you have now to give value to your clients or customers? For your clients, this could be digitisation of your product. It could be new products, new markets.
  9. MARKETING. Don’t be aggressive with selling. Start to build relationships. Be there for your community and the clients or customers that you serve. Invest in long term nurturing processes.

Final Thoughts

These are times when we need to stay calm and rely on reliable news sources and information from State and Australian Government websites. What you see on social media may be panicky and unreliable information – stay away from this!

There are still deadlines we will need to meet for you so that you can receive the Government Stimulus Package amounts that you are entitled to.

Got any questions? Just contact us for further clarification on the new subsidy on 1300 015 130.


Back to more coronavirus updates

Source James Ashford

Eliminate the time wasters

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Start by identifying the time wasters

According to a variety of workplace surveys, the biggest time wasters include email, meetings and visiting personal sites online.

Office chit-chat round the proverbial water cooler is also seen as a colossal waste of time. This is not exactly a revelation.

Before you can identify what activities are adding value to your business, your personal life and, more importantly, what activities are not, you need to know how you actually spends your time.

Keep a Time Diary for One Week

A time diary is like a food diary. Evidence has shown that people who keep food diaries are better able to lose weight and keep it off if they know what foods they eat and in what quantities.

By keeping a time diary, you can see what tasks you perform daily and the duration of those tasks.

Keep a time diary for a week to ten days. There are mobile applications that allow users to record tasks and the duration of those tasks using either their smartphones or tablet computers. But if you are looking for a low tech option, an analogue time diary using a pen and paper works just as well.

Analyse the Time Diary and Categorise Tasks

By analysing your time diary, you can get some insight into what tasks are eating up your day and if the outcomes of those tasks actually warrant the time allocated to them.

How much time do you give over to answering emails and what types of emails do you receive? How many meetings do you attend, with whom and who initiates these meetings? How much time do you spend on bookwork tasks such as capturing data to your accounting system? Besides work tasks, you also need to account for your personal time.

Prioritise Tasks Using the 80/20 Rule

What tasks are worthy of your time? The Pareto Principle, or 80/20 Rule, was popularised by Timothy Ferriss in his book “The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich.”

Ferriss, a serial entrepreneur, claimed in his book that he was able to reduce his workweek from 80 hours to just four, while increasing his income tenfold by using the Pareto Principle, an economic theorem, which states that 20 per cent of the inputs produce 80 per cent of the outcomes.

The 80/20 Rule helps you identify the tasks that are worthy of your time. These are the tasks you should prioritise because they yield the most benefit to you personally and professionally.

The 80/20 Rule Made Easy

Consider the clothes: what percentage of your wardrobe do you wear regularly? Most people wear 20 per cent of their wardrobe 80 per cent of the time, and 80 per cent of their wardrobe just 20 per cent of the time.

Much of your wardrobe is just taking up space and in no way adding value to your life. Applying the 80/20 Rule to your clothes, you could safely eliminate most of the clothes in your closet without affecting your sartorial success.

For example, answering customer queries is a time-consuming, low-yield task, while creating a FAQ document is a high-yield task that pays dividends in time that you might allocate to other high-yield tasks like planning for the future. Making time for forward- planning, you might then scale up your business as it grows and more likely avoid burnout.

But for many business owners, getting a jump on forward-planning seems a lofty aspiration when they’re so far behind with her bookkeeping that they often have to make decisions about their businesses relying on incomplete data or financial information that is weeks, sometimes months out of date.

Forward-planning aside, the books can be such a mess that they often run into cash flow problems because they have no idea what revenue is coming in and when to expect it. It is this lack of insight into cash flow that often spells trouble for business owners.

Are you drowning in paperwork? Cash flow problems keeping you awake at night? Looking for a Xero Certified Bookkeeper to help you? Learn how Notch Above Bookkeeping can solve all these problems, and more.

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Notch Above Case Study

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Meet Nicole

It’s 8:30 pm. Nicole has just arrived home from work.

Nicole owns a services business and she started at the office at 7:00 am this morning. Because it’s a school night, Nicole’s partner has already put the kids down for the night.

Her day consisted of two meetings, writing 15 emails, taking 24 phone calls, and troubleshooting a variety of issues, including recovering two disgruntled customers, once loyal repeat customers, threatening to take their business elsewhere.

Nicole has worked six weekends in a row, and the last family holiday was two years ago.

She hasn’t been to the gym in a week, and Nicole is sure that her friends are about to write her off after she piked on drinks, at the last minute, for the fourth time.

She has to submit her quarterly BAS in a couple of days. She is weeks behind in her bookwork so she is trying to make it up after hours. She now has three hours of capturing invoices to look forward to before she can truly call it a day, go to bed, and start this cycle of madness all over again tomorrow.

Nicole learns the following about how she spends her time in a week:

  • A third of her work day goes to dealing with email queries from customers and her team.
  • A third of her workweek is given over to attending meetings with her team. Nicole initiates 80 per cent of these team meetings.
  • Nicole spends at least three hours a day on the weekends catching up on bookwork tasks. In the week that Nicole kept a time diary, she spent more time dealing with email than she did enjoying personal time with her partner, kids and friends. While she spent heaps of time meeting with her team, she did not enjoy facetime with any of her most loyal repeat customers in the week that she kept a time diary. The diary also reveals that Nicole pulled out of a barbecue on the weekend so she could issue invoices. Why? Well, the week that Nicole kept a time diary was the same week she was preparing her quarterly BAS, and she was way behind on her bookwork.

Nicole’s experience is not uncommon.

In the beginning, her business was tiny and Nicole could very easily do it all. But in the last two years, her business has quadrupled in size, yet Nicole still tries to run her business like she did when she started. Because she tries to do it all, the day-to-day tasks blind her to the big picture, which she, as the business owner, should be focused on.

Nicole has made the same fundamental mistake that many overworked, time-poor small business owners make: confusing productivity with effectiveness.

The number of phone calls you make, the number of emails you send, and the length of the meetings you attend are not indicators of how effective you are as an entrepreneur.

A hamster running on a hamster wheel is certainly being productive, but effective? No. The hamster is running, but going nowhere.

Nicole is certainly keeping very busy, but by trying to do it all she is spreading herself too thin and sacrificing her personal life on the altar of her business.

But all is not lost for Nicole.

To get her life back she needs to know how and where she spends her time, prioritise high-yield activities, eliminate or automate low-yield tasks, delegate the tasks she doesn’t have the time or expertise to complete, and very importantly, teach her team and her customers how to do without her.

How we help

Notch Above Bookkeeping is a team of certified Xero bookkeepers and BAS Agents. Based in Brisbane we help small business clients right across Australia prepare their BAS returns and streamline their bookkeeping processes, payroll and accounting records. Read more here or call us today on 1300 015 130.

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How precious is your time?
small business bookkeeping notch above bookkeeping brisbane

How precious is your time?

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Time-saving tips for savvy business owners

According to the World Bank, the average Australian lives for 82 years, the equivalent of 718,000 hours. That is a long time.

Or is it?

On average, a person sleeps for 7.5 hours a night. That means we spend a third of our lives asleep! We fill up the remaining waking hours (some 493,000 hours) getting an education, having a career, exploring the world, maintaining friendships and relationships, and raising children.

Some aspects of our waking lives consume more of our time than others.

A person’s education can take up to anywhere from ten years to 24 years, or a quarter of a lifetime. Australian employees spend on average 32 hours a week working, which equates to 27 per cent of a salaried worker’s waking hours or 66,560 hours over the course of 40 working years.

On average, Australian small business owners work considerably longer hours than employees. According to a study published by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, 50 per cent of Australian small business owners work longer than 40 hours a week, with a quarter of small business owners averaging 50 hours or six-day workweeks.

For 18 per cent of small business owners, a 60-hour workweek is not uncommon. A 60-hour work week leaves just 55 hours a week, or a meagre seven hours a day to live and love.

While reducing a life to hours might seem like a depressing exercise, it just goes to show how precious time is. The good news is that if we can identify the time-wasters in our lives, we can either eliminate these tasks, automate them, or get someone else to do them, freeing us up to grow successful businesses, all while living enriching lives.

Notch Above Bookkeeping has your business up and running with Xero quickly and accurately. We can help you install the software, configure your security settings, import your business data (chart of accounts/suppliers/debtors/employees) as well as set up your invoicing, payroll and taxation requirements.

Contact Notch Above Bookkeeping today to get Xero, the world’s easiest accounting system setup and working for your business and saving you time so you can concentrate on making the most of work and personal life.

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Why it’s time for small business to fall in love with remote bookkeeping

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Big companies have long adopted remote working as an acceptable or even equal way of doing business.

And it can work for you too.

Handing over your bookkeeping to a remote business has tremendous benefits and with the technology that’s now available, it’s easier than ever for a small business with a limited budget.

We’re here to tell you it is possible. In fact, Notch Above has always existed as a virtual office. We’ve never had a physical office and we continue to grow each year without one. Here are three ways your small business can thrive by adopting a virtual office or remote working.

#1: Productivity tends to go up

Many studies and research have shown that employees tend to be more productive when working remotely. You’ll spend less time commuting and getting stuck in traffic. You also have the freedom to work from anywhere you choose, whether it be a breezy park or a bustling coffee shop.

The caveat here is that you need good software, technology, company policies and proper training to build a good virtual office.

We use a combination of systems in my business to communicate, collaborate and get things done. We use Skype for interaction, Dropbox for storage, GoToMeeting for group sessions and webinars, SnagIt for creating training videos and Screencast for sharing video libraries with staff and clients.

And, of course, we use the full suite of cloud-based Xero for our clients. Here’s just a few practical examples of the typical work we do…

  • Bank reconciliations can be time consuming and stressful, especially if you’ve left them to the last minute and your BAS is due! Outsourcing your reconciliations gives you more time to building your business or have more time for family and friends where you’re able to relax.
  • One of the easiest ways to develop strong business relationships is to pay your accounts on time, every time. Outsourcing your accounts payable to a remote team, means you’ll be able to build trust effortlessly. We generate a report of what’s due, you give the approval and we do the payments.

Tick, another item off your list.

  • Paying your employees on time is vital to team morale and loyalty. Working remote through cloud-based Xero, we will ensure your employees are prioritised. You receive notification on what to pay, we provide you with a bank payment file and you simply upload it to the bank and we’ll send out the payslips. It really is that simple.

Can you picture your business running this efficiently? It is absolutely achievable and we access your accounts remotely and work virtually without stepping inside your offices. Our clients love this option because we can get things done faster, better and in real-time. On top of this, we do offer onsite meetings if needed.

#2: Your employees are happier

In addition to being paid on time, a remote working policy gives your staff freedom and flexibility to work when and where they choose. By catering to their different lifestyles and growing families, you’re giving them a good work-life balance.

The biggest benefit to keeping your staff happy is that they’ll stay with you longer. Every business owner knows how valuable a good employee is to the company. A high staff churn rate is a nightmare to manage for any business owner. Losing a capable staff member means money going down the drain to hire and train a new employee.

#3: Your business can save money

A business can save on operating costs such as electricity, water, gas, office supplies and rent. By cutting on overheads, you can afford to invest in good software and technology to enable remote work.

A study by PGI found that a business can save an average of $11,000 a year for each employee if they worked remotely half of the time. Personally, I’ve saved a lot by choosing to forgo a physical office over the years. I’ve also managed to hire the right people who are dedicated and driven to serve our clients due to this.

The benefits are two-fold – it works for the business and the employees. People love being able to save time and money on petrol, public transport tickets and work clothes.

Virtual offices are the future

It’s not just a growing trend. Virtual offices are everywhere nowadays. If you’re not offering it in your business, you may be missing out on good talent who are looking for that flexibility.

And it’s not just for your staff. It also extends to your contractors and service providers, who are looking to reduce cost and commuting time. If you’ve always done bookkeeping face-to-face, try hiring a remote bookkeeper and see how much time you save and how easy the working relationship is.

Fall in love with remote working. We promise that you’ll never look back.

Free Bookkeeping Systems Check-Up

Take our quick quiz to find out how to get more cash and time back in your life.
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Specialising in Xero bookkeeping, Notch Above is a Brisbane bookkeeper and BAS Agent that offers Xero setup, as well as training and ongoing support. Notch Above can take care of all the bookkeeping tasks you would rather not do, like bank reconciliations, supplier payments, payroll services, debtor control and BAS returns. Call us today on 07 3355 6041.

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How Small Business Owners Strike A Work-Life Balance In Business

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I always like to reflect on my business, especially around this time of the year as Christmas approaches. As a small business owner it’s a perfect time to take a breather and ask the most important question:

“Are you happy with your work-life balance?”

I would put this question above dollars and cents because I believe when your life is balanced, you can excel further in business. But I know firsthand that striking the right balance requires commitment and effort. All too often, business owners forget to take care of the biggest asset in their business – themselves!

Here are my 4 tips to staying sane and happy while running a business.

1. Set a goal to find balance

Although it sounds counterintuitive to add another checkbox to your growing to-do list, you need to make this a high-priority goal. This is because you will easily fall back into your old habit of overworking, worrying too much and saying “no” to doing new things.

Make it a goal to stop working when time is up, or when you’ve done all you can for the day. Commit to activities you love and do it more often. You should ask yourself every now and then, whether you are happy with your work-life balance. If not, do something about it. Over time, living a balanced life becomes second nature to you.

Therefore, before you leap into the new year with open arms, promise yourself that you will try to preserve your sanity by balancing your work with other beautiful things in life.

2. Outsource what you’re not good at

It could be anything from bookkeeping to marketing. Ideally, you should focus on growing your business and other things you are good at. We’ve relieved many businesses of their bookkeeping work, so they can concentrate fully on their products and services.

I also outsource tasks that I have no time for or expertise in such as website updates and marketing materials. Although I’m great at finance and bookkeeping, my team does my accounts payable, so I can focus on strategic work such as cash flow forecasting with my clients.

The key takeaway here is you need to start asking for help. Nobody is great at everything. With just 24 hours in a day, you need to use it wisely.

3. Set time to recharge

It doesn’t have to be a month-long holiday in the Caribbean – though that sounds ideal – it could be as simple as 15 minutes to meditate, sip your coffee or call your loved ones far away. Try to set aside some time every day to spend with your family and friends or to do what you love. Watch your favourite show, pick up a hobby or go for a quick weekend getaway.

In fact, “balance” is one of our key values at Notch Above Bookkeeping. I encourage my team to go on holidays to avoid burning out at the office. For myself, I make sure I focus 100% on my family and friends when I’m not working. We need to switch off from work every day, regardless of how busy we are.

4. Surround yourself with good people

This covers your staff, family and friends. It takes a village to raise a child, and a business is almost like a baby. Hire the right people who will help and contribute to your company. For your business to thrive, you need to find people in your life who will support you through thick and thin. And always remember to show how much you appreciate them. What better way to show your gratitude than during Christmas?

Happy Holidays!

Free Bookkeeping Systems Check-Up

Take our quick quiz to find out how to get more cash and time back in your life.
Start the Quiz

Specialising in Xero bookkeeping, Notch Above is a Brisbane bookkeeper and BAS Agent located in Alderley that offers Xero setup, as well as training and ongoing support. Notch Above can take care of all the bookkeeping tasks you would rather not do, like bank reconciliations, supplier payments, payroll services, debtor control and BAS returns.

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Take The Stress Out Of Your Day With These 6 Productivity Tips

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After ten years of running my own business, I have learnt the importance of working on your business, rather than in your business, for it to flourish.

While the benefits of doing so are immense, I know it can be difficult to incorporate it in our daily lives because we tend to get bogged down by day-to-day operations such as attending to clients, managing staff and admin work.

However, productivity doesn’t require any natural talent. Increasing your productivity only requires discipline, patience and a mindset shift until it becomes ingrained like a good habit.

I’m not saying I’ve got it down pat but I’d like to share a few tips on how I manage my time as a small business owner. I’ll also share how I handle overwhelming days because let’s face it, we all get those occasionally.

 

  1. Always plan for the next day

You don’t have to plan it in detail such as hour by hour. The point here is you need to know what you need to do the next morning before going to bed. This saves a lot of time and will make you more geared to start the day.

Usually, I will take 10 minutes to work out what my top priorities are for the next day. Then, I will set the first thing I need to do when I sit at my desk to start work. This routine really helps me become more productive in the morning as I am not wasting time recalling things or finding something to do.

 

  1. Tackle the hardest task first

This tip traces back to Mark Twain, who said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”

The concept of eating the frog means tackling the task you dread the most first thing in the morning, when you are fresh and before you are bogged down with other tasks and issues. This way, you can deal with any bad result or news earlier in the day and, hopefully, resolve it by the end of the day.

If there is a task that requires a lot of brain power or a couple hours of concentration, then I will do it first before tending to other smaller and easier tasks.

 

  1. Switch off any distraction and block time

I work from home, so I’ve made sure that my family understands not to interrupt me when my office door is closed. I will block some time to do a specific task and limit distractions and interruption. I try to focus fully on the work at hand and not check emails until the current task is completed.

 

  1. Tend to emails and others quickly

After I’ve finished my main work, which is usually a couple of hours, I will spend around half an hour responding to emails and messages. I resolve small issues instantly, delegate when possible, group similar tasks together and schedule time to do them later.

 

  1. Automate whenever possible

There are plenty of apps that make our life easier. All you have to do is find the right one. When it comes to accounting, I’ve found a gem in Xero. Features such as importing emails into my contact list and scheduling invoices are heaven sent when it comes to saving time.

 

  1. Schedule meetings back to back

I like to schedule my meetings in the afternoon because that is when I need a change of activity after actively working in the morning. Usually, I try to schedule 2 or 3 catch-ups or meetings on the same day so I reduce traveling time, oh and hair and makeup time. (which is not essential when working from a home office)

 

What to do when it gets overwhelming?

Like a lot of things in life, your daily routine may not always go according to plan. There will be days when it gets stressful and overwhelming that you wonder how you could possibly finish everything on your to-do list.

When I feel overwhelmed, the first thing I will do is take time to update and prioritise my to-do list. Having things written on paper helps me calm down and feel more in control.

I will look at my to-do list and find the top three things I must get done first based on importance and urgency. No more than three because your brain will start to feel overloaded and stressed. After finishing the three things, pick the next three priorities you must finish. This goes on until you’ve cleared your work.

Also, I will question everything on my plate.

  • Can this be delegated to someone else? If somebody else can do the job better than me, I will get them to tend to it.
  • Can this task be automated? Small tasks can usually be automated given the right app or software.

Finally, always focus on finishing one task rather than trying to multitask. Jumping from one screen or document to another will only slow your brain down. Keep in mind what you need to finish and don’t allow yourself to get distracted. You’ll get more done this way.

That’s the gist of it. How about you? How do you manage your time and stressful days? I’m happy to have a “Next Actions” chat with you on how some productivity apps can assist with your day. Book in now or all our office on (07) 3355 6427

Specialising in Xero bookkeeping, Notch Above is a Brisbane bookkeeper and BAS Agent located in Alderley that offers Xero setup, as well as training and ongoing support. Notch Above can take care of all the bookkeeping tasks you would rather not do, like bank reconciliations, supplier payments, payroll services, debtor control and BAS returns.

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3 Easy Steps To Identify Work Time Thieves

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On average, Australian small business owners work considerably longer hours than employees. Is this you?

According to a study published by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, and Research,

  • 50% of Australian small business owners work longer than 40 hours a week
  • a quarter of small business owners averaging 50 hours or six-day work weeks
  • For 18% of small business owners, a 60-hour work week is not uncommon.

A 60-hour work week leaves just 55 hours a week, or a meagre seven hours a day to live and love. While reducing a life to hours might seem like a depressing exercise, it just goes to show how precious time is.

The good news is that if you can identify the time wasters in your life, you can either eliminate these tasks, automate them, or get someone else to do them, freeing you up to grow successful businesses, all while living enriching lives.

 

So how do you identify time wasters?

  1. Keep a diary for a week of all the daily tasks you perform and the duration of these tasks.
  2. Analysis the time diary and categorise the tasks. This will give you some insight into what tasks are eating up your day.
  3. Prioritise the tasks using the 80/20 rule. Work out which 20% of your tasks result in 80% of your results.

This will help you identify the tasks which are worthy of your time. These are the tasks that you should prioritise because they yield the most benefit to you personally and professionally.

Try putting these three simple steps into action and see how much time is freed up for value added work or work you actually enjoy doing. I would love to hear your feedback on how these steps benefit you? If you would like further information on this download our e-book here.

Specialising in Xero bookkeeping, Notch Above is a Brisbane bookkeeper and BAS Agent located in Alderley that offers Xero setup, as well as training and ongoing support. Notch Above can take care of all the bookkeeping tasks you would rather not do, like bank reconciliations, supplier payments, payroll services, debtor control and BAS returns.

Like us now on Facebook.

Follow us now on Twitter.

Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Visit our Website.

4 TIME SAVING TIPS FOR SAVVY BUSINESS OWNERS

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