There is no doubt business and life have been a rollercoaster for the last year or so and this has made any sort of planning pretty hard to do. But the end of any financial year is a great time to plan, and with some pretty helpful cash splashes in the recent Federal budget, this is the perfect time for business owners to be looking to the future.  

Below are three key areas we are talking to clients a lot about at the moment:

1. Grow and evolve your business using tech 

From the start of Covid, governments around the world have attempted to keep economies moving forward. The 2021 federal budget announcement was no exception with great incentives for businesses to adopt new technologies. 

Tech not only helps you grow but can make your business so much more efficient – removing the roadblocks to scale. You can read more about implementing new tech and our guide to making it stick here. 

2. Know your bottom line [inside out] 

Growth can be good but it doesn’t always result in profit. Now is a great time to look at how efficiently your business is being run to help improve the bottom line. We have found that the strategic implementation of business software tools has helped a number of our clients to automate their business management, reporting and marketing systems, and they have reduced costs and saved sometimes tens of thousands of dollars in the first few months.  

3. Protect your wealth 

Protecting your wealth is about ensuring your business and your money is safe. There are three key areas to protect: 

  1. From the ATO 
  2. From creditors 
  3. From yourself 

Protection from the ATO means that you should review and put strategies in place to minimise your own or your business’ taxation liabilities. It’s amazing how much difference a good business structure can help with tax minimisation and asset protection, which in turn will help protect you and your business against creditors. 

Protecting yourself means having a savings plan to ensure you have something to retire on and ensuring all your wealth isn’t tied up in your home and/or business. Structuring can again help minimise tax implications and leverage retirement benefits. 

Top 5 tips to help you plan for the year ahead 

  1. If you have a business plan, then get it out and review it – starting with a review of the 3 key areas above. If you don’t have a plan, then you can download our  One Page Plan template here.
  2. Identify your growth opportunities by workshopping with your team all those things you want to do but never get around to doing.  The key here though is focus – so prioritise the top 3 strategic opportunities to focus on. 
  3. Review your systems and identify waste that is slowing your business down and holding you back. To identify waste in your business, download the ‘7 deadly wastes in a business’ ebook here.
  4. Don’t ignore your personal wealth plan or asset protection – start by knowing what amount you need to retire and reviewing your current exposure to debt and risk generally. 
  5. Put your budget in place. An old-school tool but still incredibly useful to sanity check and challenge your plans for the year ahead. To ensure your team has buy-in with the plan, get them involved.  

Need help? 

If you need help, get in touch with our business advisory team and we can work with you to put a plan in place to cover these three key areas. 

Email us now at oneplace@businessdepot.com.au or give us a call on 1300 BDEPOT and ask us about our business services.