Author: Steve Slisar

Steve Slisar has been training people how to use computers since 1994, opened a training centre in 1999 in Dee Why and by 2005 had 3 training centres and created over 35 individual courses that include Screen videos with audio commentary, training workbooks for those who prefer to read to learn, and exercise files that are used with the tasks in the workbooks so you get practical experience in the software you are trying to learn. Now the creator of 5 of the most popular online MYOB training courses in Australia.
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Why Aren’t The Phones Ringing or Leads Coming Through?

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Researching the Market is a Crucial Part of Every Business Strategy

EzyStartUp business startup and admin training coursesIn a previous post, Is Your Charge-Out Rate a Marketing or Business Strategy?, I talked about Mark the painter, who charged a really low day rate that ultimately proved to be unsuccessful, because he couldn’t carry out the volume of jobs he needed to for it to be profitable.

When I asked Mark why he chose such a low day rate, he said it was because no other painter could possibly compete with him. Sure that’s probably true, but obviously, for good reason!

What Mark really should have done was to research the market to determine precisely what other painters are charging, and for which services.

Cost of bookkeeping for a contract bookkeeper using Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks OnlineDetermine the industry average

A good starting point is to determine the average price for your industry. Be diligent and look at as many businesses in your local and surrounding areas to ensure you’re getting a clear picture of what people are charging.

It’s really hard to justify charging much below the industry average, even if you’re trying to get new business.

As I mentioned in the last post about day rates, low prices is a numbers game. Unless you’re able to turn work around exceptionally quickly to justify taking a cut on your profit margin, then it’s probably not worth it.

In our work with National Bookkeeping we discovered that bookkeeper charge out rates fall into some distinct categories based on their knowledge, experience and how they prefer to work. These rates are a great guide to help you become comfortable with your own hourly rate.

Give customers savings in other areas

Rather than reducing your rates to get new business, try to give customers savings elsewhere. You can do this by providing something your competitors aren’t, which is why researching the market thoroughly is a crucial part of your business strategy.

If you determine that your competitors charge a call out fee or a fee to prepare walls, this is a good place to start reducing or eliminating those charges in order to make yourself more competitive.

How are people finding you?

If potential customers are finding you via your website, it’s important to have a good call to action that contains reasons for people to make contact with you. Then make sure you highlight the reasons to call.

Competitors copy so keep changing your offers

Believe it or not, one of the most challenging aspects of your market research and the OFFER you make to potential customers is that your competitors will also be researching what you are doing and if they feel it is a good offer they may copy it — so you may want to have a couple different offers and discounts and change them regularly to stay unique.

Use WordPress, a Blog and Social Media posts to keep your business looking fresh online and as well as attract the attention of potential customers — we cover all of this in our Digital & Social Media Marketing Courses.

***

You can learn how to research the market by enrolling in the Market Research Module of our Business StartUp Training Course as a stand alone mini course. Visit our website for more information or to enrol.

Blog Ref:#699

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Is Your Day Rate a Marketing or Business Strategy?

virion Digital Marketing Manager

I RECENTLY MET A PAINTER during a residential renovation I was involved with in Newcastle (an extremely valuable experience that will help us add to our property investment courses.)

We got talking about how he wins new clients and he said:

I advertise on social media that I’m available for $150 a day because no one can compete with it.

The price he chose is insanely cheap, and he knew other painters wouldn’t be able to compete with this as a day rate. However, there are downsides to this. Such a cheap day rate also means that he’ll be stretched financially and that he won’t be able to hire anyone else to do the work. He’ll need to be paid daily and likely can’t afford to provide any sort of credit (like 7 day terms etc).

Continue reading Is Your Day Rate a Marketing or Business Strategy?
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MYOB or WordPress for your new business website?

I recommend WordPress (and our online courses) over MYOB Atlas website builder any day

Is MYOB doing too little of too much?

I recommend WordPress (and our online courses) over MYOB Atlas website builder any dayEvery business needs a web presence, and it’s become a lot cheaper and easier to get one. Where it once could cost many thousands of dollars to have a web designer get your business online, you can now build your own website yourself, quite cheaply.

That’s due to the number of cheap open-source content management systems that have come the market, like WordPress (by far, the market leader), then there is Wix, Squarespace, and even Google Sites (part of Google’s G Suite productivity apps for business). Our online WordPress Training Courses include the basic creating and editing of website pages and blogs posts to more advanced features only available to WordPress Site Admins. 

You might find it interesting that MYOB offers a website service and it makes me wonder whether MYOB has the single focus on building the best accounting software for small business or jumping into any and every new technology it can to see which one sticks.

MYOB is also into websites

About five years ago, MYOB, in partnership with Google, launched a website creation tool called Atlas as part of an initiative called “Getting Business Online.” Atlas enables MYOB customers to create a business website, get a domain name, connect an e-commerce site, and social media platforms for $30 a month. 

Learn about domains, DNS, hosting, Websites and WordPressI put together a series of emails which explains in a logical order how domain names, hosting & websites work…
and it’s free so check it out if you want to learn on that technical stuff!

Because they’ve partnered with Google, the sites promise to “rank well on Google search,” but there’s no flexibility to manage your SEO or integrate with any SEO tools. In fact, for your $30 a month, you don’t get much flexibility at all — not in the choice of themes (they’re limited), adding corporate branding, to connect email marketing services, template changes, and so on.

Carmel Crane ERP Specialist National Bookkeeping_3_comp
Learn more about ERP system from a specialist

MYOB wants to be the ERP platform for small business

Back when the internet was still fairly new, MYOB used to have a partner program in place with hosting companies to help their clients run multi-user programs in the cloud. When MYOB realised they could be earning that money themselves, they shut the program down and did what they have often done — disregarded their partners and their businesses completely. 

MYOB have gained a bit of a reputation for this sort of thing — starting up, and then abandoning, partner programs. Over the years, perhaps due to the complexity of their software, they’ve tried to establish themselves as the enterprise reporting planning (ERP) software of choice for mid-size businesses, but they’ve struggled with already established specialist brands. The MYOB Atlas website creation tool is another example of just that.

The cloud, focus and commitment

 With established platforms like WordPress, which is easy and cheap to use, and highly customisable, this might just be another missed opportunity for MYOB. These website design platforms are built around the concept of open source software and WordPress is surrounded by thousands of theme and plugin developers which provide the integration for some pretty advanced features in an easy to use interface. We made the change to WordPress after going with a Site Builder program which ended up closing down and no longer being supported – it’s a huge waste of energy and resources when you have to start all over again!

Unlike MYOB, Xero realised early that online software is about being a specialist in a given field, so they integrate with lots of different specialist platforms and systems so small businesses can connect the applications they need. I’ll be writing about some of these Xero integrations soon.

Ref:#714

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The Perfect Job; the Ideal Employee

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And the online training to help you get there

the perfect administrative executive assistant office manager learn online courses training
Do you have the skills needed to be the perfect office manager, administrative or executive assistant?

I WAS BROWSING THROUGH my contacts on LinkedIn and found an advertisement by a company that was looking to hire people.

They were in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) space and their headquarters were in Europe.

However, the ad looked like it could be for any company including trades, professional services etc.

Here’s what the ad contained:

Executive Assistant / Office Manager

Overview

The Executive Assistant / Office Manager will be primarily responsible for helping to keep everyone (and everything) working at peak performance. We’re a growing company, and there will be new and interesting challenges every day. Ideal candidates are curious and interested in learning more about what we do, and always interested in learning new skills and taking on new challenges.

Tasks

  • Manage all aspects of office administration
  • Coordinate team schedules and events
  • Manage executive schedules
  • Handle payment of invoices and associated bookkeeping
  • Order supplies and equipment
  • Arrange travel

Skills

Required

  • Excellent verbal and written English communication skills
  • Strong organizational and time management skills
  • Ability to work with minimum supervision, prioritizing work as needed
  • Strong knowledge of office applications, including Word, Powerpoint, and Excel

The training you need

Apart from the soft skills like good time management, communications, speaking and writing the software skills you can learn to apply for this job are:

Microsoft Office Applications:

Office Admin and Bookkeeping:

Organisational and Time Management:

My thoughts on this ad?

Why I’m sharing this ad is that I reckon it encapsulates “the perfect” administrative or executive assistant, or office manager. What I mean is that anybody possessing all the skills and capabilities listed above would be well qualified for almost any job in this area — for pretty much any type of company.

And they wouldn’t be limited to any particular industry either. Any intelligent person who is a quick learner would be able to pick up the nuances for various different industries and apply their skills as necessary.

Online courses to help you

The other positive thing about this ad is that it reinforces the fact that so many of our EzyLearn online training courses are geared towards people who want to do office administrative-type roles or office management positions. They are also perfect for people wanting to run their own business in any industry.

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At EzyLearn we offer online training courses to help you up-skill and find employment. Choose from our range of cloud-based online accounting software courses, to business start up and management courses, to marketing and sales courses, or update and further your skills in a range of Microsoft Office programs (Excel, PowerPoint, Word) or social media and WordPress web design). 

 

 

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Ray White’s Amber and LJ Hooker Compete with Purple & Jim’s Real Estate Play

Woodrising a sign for Toronto Ray White Amber Agent

Real estate agents are seeing purple!

Woodrising a sign for Toronto Ray White Amber AgentTHE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY IS undergoing substantial disruption. Only the real estate agents and agencies that decide to innovate will make it out the other side.

A big part of that means letting go of the traditional model and embracing a new, transparent real estate sales model, but many agents are still reluctant to change.

And that’s a mistake.

Disruption to the real estate industry coming from many sources

Although much of the disruption is coming from technology companies, such as REA Group and Domain Group in Australia, as well as the tech giants Facebook and Google, other established players, recognising that the timing is right, are entering the fray too.

Together, these businesses are changing the way real estate in this country and across the world is bought, sold and rented. If real estate agents aren’t proactive about this change, they’ll end up being reactive. And they’ll miss out.

One of the Case Studies in our Digital & Social Media Marketing Courses centres upon a McGrath agent based in Sydney’s Cammeray. This agent, Derek, comes to realise his own personal brand is as powerful with local residents as the McGrath brand because he is a hard-working agent and his vendors love him.

Via the virion Digital Agency we were able to help Derek create a website and social media campaign to further hone and build his brand as a property expert.

Jim’s to cut agents’ grass

Jim Penman's Jims Group getting into low cost low commission real estate agency model - tradies might pass on vendor sales leads - AFRTake Jim’s Group, the franchise group known for mowing lawns and fixing broken antennas. Last week, they announced their intention to enter the real estate fray with a new, low-cost service for both agents and homeowners.

The division, which is being headed up by a Jim’s Group veteran and the former sales director of low-cost real estate service Hello Real Estate, will charge agents a flat $1,800 a month franchise fee.

Homeowners will also be able to suggest how much commission they’d like to pay the agent to sell their home. (It’s understood there’ll be a threshold for how low commissions will actually go.)

Jim’s agents will work remotely from their home offices — or their cars — as most Jim’s franchisees currently do, and they’ll have substantially lower overheads so they can provide the same service to homeowners as a traditional real estate agent, only for less.

As an existing and trusted franchise group in Australia, they won’t have to overcome the same barriers like name recognition and trust that new entrants to the market — your Purplebricks, say — did. (Of course, the Purplebricks service is also quantifiably different to the proposed Jim’s service.)

Agents who don’t think Jim’s will make a serious dent in the industry may be right. But that misses the point; the franchise model is about giving business owners a cushion between them and flying solo. Plenty of people work in franchises — real estate is the most franchised industry in this country — but not all of them do. There’s plenty of room for independent agents to take this idea and operate their own agency the same way — and keep their $1,800 franchise fee while they’re at it!

Proptech sector friend or foe?

That brings us to the biggest source of disruption in the real estate industry: the proptech sector. In Australia, agents need to be cautious of

  • REA Group,
  • Domain Group,
  • Purplebricks,
  • BuyMyPlace,
  • Facebook and
  • Google.

But they also need to be wary of any new entrant that puts an “Uber” spin on the sector. (Domain recently opened up its developer APIs to encourage tech startups to use their data to create disruptive new services.)

At the moment REA Group and Domain are focussed on moving closer to the transaction, but they’re also heavily investing in tech to ward off any disruption from tech titans Facebook and Google, which they consider the biggest threat to the real estate industry in this country, and the world. (eBay-owned Gumtree also shouldn’t be excluded from this conversation.)

Would you advertise with a competitor?

Mortgages

Both real estate groups have acquired (or launched through partnerships) their own mortgage broking businesses — Domain’s Domain Loan Finder is a JV with online broker Lendi; REA Group acquired mortgage broker Smartline, and launched its own white label service in conjunction with NAB, called realestate.com.au Home Loans.

Trades & Everything Else!

They each also own stakes in tradie sites Oneflare (Domain) and hipages (REA), connection services Compare & Connect (Domain) and Beevo (Domain), property data and mapping firm PriceFinder (Domain), real estate CRM MyDesktop (Domain) [read more about the best real estate agent CRM’s], and property inspection app Homepass (Domain); Domain will also launch insurance comparison service Domain Insure and real estate agent training and education program Domain Academy.

And REA Group is busy building robots and virtual assistants, which can respond to customer enquiry — requests for Section 32 documents, schedule inspections, and so on.

Neither Domain nor REA are likely to bite the hands that feed them by introducing a real estate agency service or cutting agents out of the picture entirely — this year, REA Group posted revenue of $633.5 million from its Australian operations, of which $538.2 million was derived from agents advertising on its site.

Agents need to innovate NOW

But by owning the real estate “ecosystem”, they make the role of the real estate agent much less vital — and ripe for a new service to come in (like a Jim’s Real Estate) and say, “hey we can do it better.” Before long, that’ll become the “traditional” real estate model, just as the classified websites that usurped newspaper classifieds are now considered the “traditional” model of buying and selling stuff online.

To stay ahead of disruption, agents need to educate themselves. Continuing professional development (CPD) is a mandatory part of staying licensed in every state or territory. Provided agents undertake recognised training and keep their CPD points up, they can study anything relevant to the business of real estate.

Digital marketing is a fundamental part of real estate. Agents who understand how to market themselves online to get new business and demonstrate transparency about how the process works will stay ahead of the curve. Derek Farmer used educational videos and blog posts to explain the buying and selling process, and share market news and analysis.

This makes a sales agent an indispensable source of knowledge and a trusted advisor to buyers and sellers throughout the process, which can’t be replicated by a robot, virtual assistant or app. Virion also helps agents create a digital market strategy for their business, and to fill up their website or social media pages with content that provides information to buyers and sellers they’re currently getting from … Domain and realestate.com.au!

Agents should create their own property ecosystem

Domain and REA are doing their darndest to keep people on their sites for longer. They’re sewing up the entire property buying and selling process with complementary services (insurances, connections, mortgages) and they’re pushing more and more into content (videos, journalism, content marketing); Domain is particularly innovative in the content space, thanks to its Fairfax roots.

As a result, buyers and sellers are coming to agents forearmed, and again, the role of the agent is diminished. But agents can stay in home buyers and sellers minds by creating their own property ecosystem: start a website, fill it with good quality content, use a CRM to manage your lists of buyers, sellers, tradespeople — who have become one of the most important players in the sales process — and pump messages out your database regularly.

Finally, look at introducing a different fee or commissions structure for certain types of property or across the board. This is where the industry is heading and fighting it will only leave you in the same position the newspaper industry was in with the advent of online classifieds; cable TV providers with the rise of VOD services; music labels with streaming services, and so on.

***

Visit the EzyLearn website to learn more about our continuing professional development (CPD) training courses. To create your own property ecosystem with a digital marketing strategy and content, visit Virion’s website for more information.

 

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Is Xero Better than MYOB for Bookkeeping Businesses?

MYOB or Xero online accounting course training videos

Bookkeeping Incumbent, MYOB Versus Cloud Innovator, Xero

MYOB or Xero online accounting course training videos

MYOB HAS LONG BEEN the preferred accounting software of choice for accountants, but a lot of small business owners have now come to prefer Xero. It’s easier to use, and they can access it anywhere — their desktop PC, tablet or smartphone.

Meanwhile, the rise of cloud-based accounting software, which was pioneered by Xero, has made it a lot easier for bookkeepers to base themselves from home.

Throw in other technological innovations — cloud storage, bank feeds — and a remote Xero bookkeeper has become the more appealing choice for businesses, too.

Continue reading Is Xero Better than MYOB for Bookkeeping Businesses?
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Staff Can do their Own Microsoft Excel Needs Analysis?

No Training needs analysis needed for beginners intermediate advanced excel courses

Save time, save money, get better skills, re-skill now

No Training needs analysis needed for beginners intermediate advanced excel coursesIN A PREVIOUS POST I wrote about how most staff and students overestimate their Excel Spreadsheet skills.

When it comes to Excel skills, a needs analysis can cost money and take a huge amount of time, when in reality, staff can simply do their own needs analysis when they do their courses.

A lot of EzyLearn’s students are re-skilling or up-skilling because they are sent from rehab and retraining companies. This may be because they’ve been injured at work and need to move to a different area of the workforce. In these situations, many aspects of the person’s needs have to be assessed to make sure they can work in an office, as opposed to out in the field where they use to work.

In this situation a needs analysis and learning plan are very important; however, when it comes to ensuring all your staff are simply up to speed at an advanced or intermediate level in Microsoft Excel can be much simpler.

Enrol into all Excel Training Courses with EzyLearn for the same price (but usually much less) than going to a physical training centre. You receive ALL skill levels and students can start at the level they “think” they are at and simply do the beginner levels if they realise they need it.

After we shifted to delivering online courses, we discovered that by bundling all our Excel courses together for one low price, companies could forgo spending many hours and many hundreds of dollars in conducting needs analysis for their staff, only to find that their employees’ skills weren’t quite at the level stated.

Give staff comprehensive training

ezylearn-training-course-workbooksWe’ve bundled all of our Excel training courses into 9 half-day short courses — each taking 4 hours to complete — so that, regardless of a student’s skill level, they can access all of the course content from beginner right through to advanced. 

Companies can let their staff do their own needs analysis, while giving them comprehensive Excel training at the same time.

Many students who enrol in our Excel training courses for the intermediate and advanced modules often report that they’ve learned lots of new skills by also taking the beginner modules, while beginners usually always continue training right through to the advanced stage.

The great bonus of giving intermediate Excel users access to beginners courses is that most of them go through these and find they have a much more rounded level of skills using Excel.

Excel has real-world case studies and scenarios

EzyLearn Online Course Case Studies real world scenarios examples for Xero, MYOB, Excel, Digital Marketing CoursesOur Excel training courses use real-world examples so students can apply their new skills to tasks and projects you mightn’t ordinarily consider using Excel for — working out how much money a property investor can borrow, for example.

Even if your staff only require rudimentary Excel skills, by providing them with comprehensive Excel training for a fraction of the cost of in-person beginner training, you’re creating a workforce of highly skilled employees for your business.

When you choose the lifelong learning approach for your staff, they’ll have access to all Excel courses for life so they can access them whenever they want or need them.

Lifetime Access lets students up-skill at their own pace

Ezy Learning Lifelong training platform for Xero, MYOB, Excel, Digital Marketing training coursesWhen you enrol your staff in our Excel training courses, choosing the Lifetime Access option means your employees can up-skill at their own pace. This is especially useful for employees who may only require rudimentary Excel skills in their current role, but who are later promoted or give more responsibility, requiring great Excel knowledge.

Rather than enrolling them again, your staff will still have access to all the Excel course content so they can go back and refresh their skills as they need to. And that’s all for just one low price!

***

So stop wasting time, and start learning for less. Visit our website for more information about Microsoft Excel training courses and to enrol.

learn to use excel online training course videos cheap best

 

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Accounting Software or ERP System?

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Are you BIG enough yet?

I’VE BEEN IN BUSINESS since my early twenties but it wasn’t until my late twenties that I had any clue about how larger companies use and pay for software. I was going through the process of selling a water filter business that I’d been operating in Sydney’s Dee Why when I had the pleasure of meeting the owner of Fountainhead Water Company, Mark Darling.

Fountainhead used a specialised accounting system for the bottled water business which did everything from receipts for each delivery to capturing bottle deposits, tracking rental coolers and more — and Mark was paying hundreds of dollars per month for this software. It was a far cry from purchasing the MYOB software for a couple hundred dollars and NEVER upgrading (no payroll at the time).

Continue reading Accounting Software or ERP System?
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How Bookkeepers Can STOP Losing Out to Accountants

Junior level 1 bookkeepers good cheap local bookkeeping services - Natbooks

Or is it just BAS Agents who are losing out?

THE BURDEN ON Australian small businesses to stay compliant with the ATO is immense. A lot of that is to do with the Government not distinguishing between a small business with upwards of 20 staff, and a micro business which may have 5 or fewer staff — sometimes even no staff.

All of this compliance — bookkeeping, activity statements, payroll, superannuation, and so on — is costly and time consuming, so most business owners outsource this work to a professional contractor. Before the Government changed the tax laws, it was bookkeepers who small or micro business turned to.

Continue reading How Bookkeepers Can STOP Losing Out to Accountants
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Announcement: Use NPV, IRR & Financial Functions in Excel to Invest in Property

Microsoft Excel Training Course can help you halve your mortgage

Microsoft Excel Training Course can help you halve your mortgageMicrosoft Excel: helping to forecast returns and manage investment property finances

I WENT THROUGH SEVERAL different spreadsheets (which are incorporated into our Microsoft Excel & Property Investment online training courses) when I had to calculate borrowing capacity and expected return for an investment property in Newcastle recently. Microsoft Excel is a great tool for managing your investment property portfolio finances and to help students understand financial literacy we recently created some new training content for our Advanced Microsoft Excel training courses, which covers common calculations that investors go through when they look at potential debt or equity investments in new startup businesses. 

Determine the NPV of a project

Net present value (NPV) is a core component of investment budgeting. It’s a comprehensive way to to calculate whether a proposed project (such as a home renovation) will add value to the investment or not. 

An NPV formula involves many financial concepts in the one formula:

  • cash flows,
  • the time value of money,
  • the discount rate over the duration of the project, and so on.

Any NPV greater than $0 represents a value-added project, with $0 representing your break-even point. A negative dollar figure suggests the project won’t add value or deliver any return on investment.  There are two ways to calculate NPV of an investment in Excel — by separating out the component cash flows and calculating each step individually, or by creating an NPV formula in Excel to do that for you. I can tell you from the Applied Finance degree I did with Kaplan that Excel makes it a LOT easier.

Determine the IRR of your investments

The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is a metric used to measure the profitability of a potential investment. IRR is a discount rate that makes the net present value (NPV) of all cash flows from a particular project equal to zero. IRR calculations rely on the same formula components that NPV does. In general, the higher a project’s IRR, the more desirable it is to undertake. You can also use IRR to rank multiple prospective projects you may be considering for an investment property, assuming the costs are equal among each project. The one with the highest IRR would be considered the one that should be undertaken first. If this all sounds a little complicated you may never need to worry about it but rest assured the companies in your superannuation fund who work hard on making money every year will be using these regularly. 

New Excel 2016 training course content for Lifelong learning

We’ve updated our Microsoft Excel course content to the latest version of Excel, but we also include all versions of Excel software in our training courses. When you enrol in Excel 2016, you’ll also get access to the content for Excel 2013, 2010, 2007 and even 2003 if you need it. Because we create our own course content, training workbooks, exercise files and videos, we can (and do) update them regularly. We’ve also just updated our Xero training courses to the latest version of the Xero software.

When you enrol for lifetime course access, you get free access to all of these versions forever. You’ll learn how to use Excel to manage your investment property finances in our latest Goal Seek, Data Consolidation and Solver advanced Microsoft Excel training courses. Visit our website for more information or to enrol.

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How to Use Google Search and Maps to Get More Business FREE

EzyLearn Digital Marketing Courses Google Adwords Training Courses

Plumbers, electricians, Carpenters, handymen and builders can get free leads and prospects using Google My Business, Sites and MapsGoogle My Business, Google Site & Google Maps – ALL FREE

DURING A HOME RENOVATION project for an investment property I was involved with recently, I needed to find lots of different tradespeople in the Newcastle area — and quickly.

I also wanted to look up trade tips that would help me solve a few renovation issues, and it made me realise just how important Google Maps and local searches are.

This is in addition to local classifieds and online services like Gumtree and Airtasker.

Create a free website with Google Sites

A local painter and handyman named Mark helped me with many aspects of the Newcastle renovation project and we talked a lot about the ways he could increase his profile in the Newcastle area to grow his business. 

I created him a simple website for free using Google G Suite’s Sites application, and also set up Mark’s Google My Business Account, so he would show up in local search listings and on Google Maps — all of which is free with a Google G Suite account. (A G Suite account costs as little as $5 per month, per user.)

By the way, I suggested that he shouldn’t take a photograph for his website after he’d just gotten a buzz cut, but he did it anyway! 😉

Google is a cheap and easy way to get online

Using the productivity tools contained in Google G Suite Course is a great way for businesses to get organised with great SPAM filtering email, calendars and scheduling, tasks and to do lists and much more, and using Google Sites enabled Mark to get online cheaply and easily. And because you’re using a Google product (Google Sites) to create your website, it’s a simple way to make sure you’ll be discovered in Google Maps and local Search results. 

Although WordPress offers greater functionality, and is a more robust content management system, it also requires more technical skills to ensure your website is able to be discovered in Google Search and Maps results. It’s also a little trickier to integrate with Google G Suite and other productivity apps. (We offer training courses in WordPress for this reason.)

***

If you need help setting up your Google G Suite account, and would like to learn how to set up a Google Sites website to increase your online presence for your business, we cover Google G Suite in our Digital and Social Media Online Training Course. Visit our website for more information or to enrol.  

EzyLearn Online Courses Google Adwords TrainingFREE Google courses for EzyLearn students

If you’re interested in doing a Microsoft Excel, Xero or MYOB course, then you’ll be thrilled to discover that we give away some Google courses as a free student inclusion.

Our newest FREE course for EzyLearn students is Google Adwords, the paid way to get traffic to your website.

 

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Save 48% off Excel, MYOB and Xero Training Courses

EzyLearn Last Dasher Sale November 2017 for cheap Xero, Cheap MYOB and Cheap Excel courses

EzyLearn Last Dasher Sale November 2017Now almost half the price and twice the speed!

I HAVE JUST BEEN THROUGH a gruuelling experience with our hosting company, technical people and course creators to make sure that EzyLearn continues to be the first choice for Bookkeeping and Marketing Courses.

Our servers are now twice as fast and have more storage so existing students should experience some nice and fast access speeds — unless you’re in an NBN area that drops out all the time (sorry Telstra, I love you BUT the access speed is no different from what it was over here in the NSW Lake Macquarie area!)

In case you weren’t aware, I was recently heavily involved in a renovation of an investment property in Newcastle (which I really enjoyed and has given us a whole lot of extra content from real world experiences with local tradies like electricians, plumbers, chippies, painters and more) but am now back on the tools (the internet and software tools, that is) and keen to continue improving every aspects of our courses for existing AND new students.

We’ve coming up to the crazy, silly season once again that is Christmas, and I thought I’d push our marketing up another notch to help those who want to learn more to improve their lives and businesses in 2018. I hope I’m not too early in thinking like this but it’s a great time to think about what’s important in life and go and get it.

New people, new experience and MORE new content

I’ve spoken with some fantastic people who’ve joined us in the accounting software space and they have some tremendous experience in the ERP (Enterprise resource planning) side of accounting — that is accounting software as used by mid size companies. From this, we’re going to share some great information, tips and experiences to help those businesses who either deal with larger companies as clients, or who are at the stage of ramping up their accounting as a mid size business.

We’ve also just gone through the upgrade of training materials for Microsoft Excel 2016 and Xero Courses, including the new Xero Cashflow Course, and I’ll share some of that information with you as it gets published on our LMS.

If you are an existing Xero Course student you can access this course for free as part of our EzyLearn Updates policy.

There’s much more news to come, but for now please take advantage of and share our current “LAST DASHer SALE!” with your friends. And do subscribe to receive our updates!

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Invoice Late and Say Goodbye to 7 Days

Get paid in Nett 7 days with Xero and Quickbooks Accounting Software Training Courses

Not invoicing quickly sends a message to your clients

Get paid in Nett 7 days with Xero and Quickbooks Accounting Software Training CoursesI MENTIONED IN A previous post about why you should quote and invoice customers on the spot if you can.

You’re more likely to get the job or get paid on the spot or pretty soon after if you do and it helps you

  • prioritise your work schedule (ideally using something like Calendar in Google’s G Suite)
  • keeps your cash flow healthy, which is important if you’re a tradie who goes out purchasing materials before you start a job
  • Sends a message that you are efficient and would like to be paid promptly

If you don’t invoice quickly your clients could forget what the invoice was for, call and ask questions about it because it’s no longer fresh in their mind and even put it off “Until the next payment cycle”, which is sometimes just an excuse for “some time in the future”.

Late invoicing is a pain for clients

During a recent renovation in Newcastle, I encountered a handyman named Paul. I asked him at least three times to invoice for the work he’d done before he finally sent one through.

When the invoice did come through it was in Microsoft Word format so I understand why it took so long — he would have been better using Xero or QuickBooks Apps on his phone!  On top of this, he then said to me, “Can you please pay me quickly because I’ve run out of money!”

I chased him for an invoice so I could pay him quickly, after all, I believe that if you charge a competitive price and do a good job for professional services that you should be paid quickly.

I prefer to pay quickly because I don’t have the debt over my head and I want people to work for me in the future — it’s a form of goodwill from a customers perspective but not all customers are like that.  Some customers see you as just another “Creditor” and are accustomed to string their Creditors out as long as possible.

Chasing someone for payment or an invoice or even a quote takes time and management — you have to note it in your diary, calendar, todo list or a report from your software program, and it starts to bring in feelings of resentment, particularly if they’re not feeling the best one day. Make it easy for customers to pay you and get your invoices out quickly.

Don’t invoice using Microsoft Word

When Paul finally sent me his invoice as a Word document there were a few problems I recognised:

  • First, it takes a long time to update a Word template, and it’s easy to make mistakes — leave the customer name, invoice number, date or other details unchanged, for example, which messes with your bookkeeping come tax time.
  • It’s easy to accidentally delete or change details in a Word document. It’s even easier to delete or change details in a Word document on purpose.
  • Paul had to get onto his computer to create the invoice
  • He doesn’t have a system of keeping track of who owes him money
  • It’s more complicated to make a note of and keep track of which Word Document (um, I mean “Invoice” has been paid)
  • Most people recognise a Word document and don’t think you’re very organised.

You definitely shouldn’t send invoices or estimates to customers in an “editable” Word document. It becomes a game of “he said, she said” if something goes awry, and that just further impedes a quick payment from your customer.

Don’t invoice late, then ask for prompt payment

When Paul followed up with a call asking me to pay the invoice promptly (and after I asked him no fewer than three times to send it in the first place), I paid it promptly because I happened to be available and organise payment.

However, the practice of doing this causes so many negative effects that it’s something every business owner should avoid. Here are some problems with asking for prompt payment after sending a late invoice:

  • If the first call you’re making to a client or customer after working with them is to ask them to pay you quickly, your business processes are wrong. Your first call, after working with a customer, should be a customer service call not a credit management one.
  • It builds resentment in the customers mind because they haven’t done anything wrong.
  • It makes you look desperate and, even if you are, it’s not your customers concern.
  • It stays in your customers mind for the next time they want to use you or someone else who offers a similar service.

Get set up on Xero and start being more professional immediately

in person and one on one training online learning course videosUse cloud-accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks so you can quote and invoice on the go quickly, securely and easily. For help setting up QuickBooks or Xero for your business, visit our website to learn more about our Xero or QuickBooks training courses.

 

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3 Little Mistakes that Cost Thousands

online training learning tradesmen carpenter painter plumber electrician turning quote into sale

How tapping into your Smartphone can win you work

I RECENTLY WROTE about a Tradie Charging Too Little. In this I covered the four tell-tale signs, as told to me by a tradesperson friend of mine, that your prices are too low. But there are other business mistakes that owners, particularly tradespeople, make that can wind up costing them thousands in lost revenue — and when I say revenue I don’t just mean from existing clients but also past clients and new prospects! Continue reading 3 Little Mistakes that Cost Thousands

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Excel Spreadsheet Skills Overestimated & Needing Analysis

EzyLearn Online Courses logo - Microsoft Excel 2016 training & support

Excel Course Needs Analysis Checklist Waste of TimeNeeds Analysis a Waste of Time

IN LARGER COMPANIES a Needs Analysis can be a powerful tool for delving into a problem and coming up with a solution.

However, when it comes to Microsoft Excel Training, asking students to complete a needs analysis can be a complete waste of time.

Why? Because most students overestimate their skills — not because they’re being dishonest, but because they will have come across many terms before and, because they can use certain jargon in conversation, they tend to think they know how to do the associated skill.

Sometimes a needs analysis is also irrelevant because many people are unaware of all the wonderful things Excel and other programs can do.

When we put our training courses online, we realised that instead of wasting time doing needs analyses — which aren’t accurate most of the time, anyway — we could bundle all of our courses together and cover every skill level, for one low price.

Typical Excel Intermediate Course Scenario

As a Microsoft Excel Intermediate Trainer, one of the most awkward moments I remember when doing face-to-face training was when I started going through one of the very first exercises with a new group of students, only to realise that 40% of the people in the room had no idea what I was talking about.

It’s worse in a face-to-face group training environment because everyone else in the group will now be disadvantaged. When we used to conduct these classroom style Excel classes, we would ask people to go through and supplement their lack of knowledge by reading the Excel Beginners workbooks.

Online Excel courses are even better — you can get everyone to start from scratch and they can all be on the same page.

Bundling all pf our Excel courses together means businesses can save many hours of needs analysis and hundreds of dollars, by enrolling staff in our Excel training courses.

Besides, most students report that, even though they might do our training courses for the intermediate or advanced modules, they learned lots of skills from the beginner courses, too.

Everyone Learns Something in an Excel Beginners Course

Granny flat manufactured home development for property investmentBasic / Beginners’ Excel courses take students through the different tasks that are possible with spreadsheets, introduce commonly used terms and set the foundation for more advanced features, covered in the intermediate and advanced courses.

If you’re subscribed to this blog, then you’ll know that EzyLearn use to operate physical training centres before we moved all of our content online in 2006. In those early days, we did a lot of needs analysis for the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service (now called Disability Employment Services).

Through this organisation we received Workcover students, who needed to brush up on their Excel skills before returning to work, and who often they had to change careers from physical work to more office type jobs.

Many students enrol in our courses only requiring a beginners’ level of training but proceed to the advanced modules by choice. This is because our online courses are built in a logical progression from basic to more advanced, building constantly on the new skills taught. Students also find that the Excel course content helps them in their everyday tasks and work, no matter what their field.

Thinking of investing in property? “Wannabe property investors” will find our Excel courses very helpful because they contain exercises to help you:

  • Maintain a household budget
  • Determine how much you can borrow
  • Potential returns from property investment

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Stop wasting time, and start learning for less. Visit our website for more information about Microsoft Excel training courses and to enrol.

EzyLearn Online Course CPD points for bookkeepers and marketing professionalsNeed Accounting CPD Courses?

Do you need to up-skill and complete some short courses to earn CPD points? Check out our CPD Course programs.

Online bookkeeping accounting training courses for CPD points

 

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MYOB Unlimited Offer Not Really Fair

MYOB, Xero & QuickBooks Online Courses for tradespeople

MYOB, Xero & QuickBooks Online Courses for tradespeople
Is MYOB mocking tradies in their new ad

I WAS DOING SOME research about MYOB’s large and confusing product suite recently, when I came across the word “unlimited”, followed by an asterisk.

I thought this was odd, since I didn’t think the word “unlimited” required much more explanation — doesn’t it, after all, mean inexhaustible, limitless, boundless, and so on?

It turns out there ARE limitations around MYOB’s products — and it relates to bank feeds. They are subject to a fair use policy, but the downloaded document doesn’t actually quantify what constitutes “fair use”, so our team had to go and do a little digging.

What is “fair use”?

The term “fair use” has been unusually co-opted by companies and businesses, usually telcos and ISPs, to put some limitations around their “unlimited” product plans. Traditionally, “fair use” referred to copyright, and the use of texts — be they music, films, books, etc — in a manner that is considered fair. I was involved in a VoIP telephone business when a company from the US called Fonality made a HUGE running dive into the Australian telecom market with fixed cost plans when it was still new to Aussies.

They offered an “Everything’s Included” package based on a fixed cost per line and it too was based around a “Fair Use Policy” which you had to dig really deep to find and understand. The most common example I’m aware of is for Internet access by gamers who use an incredible amount of download data compared to most people and I understand that their usage may be unfair but I also think this type of clause in a product offering is very UNFAIR — particularly on your competitors (who would probably happily match it!).

In copyright law, brief excerpts of copyrighted material may be used verbatim for the purposes of criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research without requiring the permission (or payment to) the copyright holder.

How does “fair use” apply to MYOB?

Click the image and then zoom in to see if you can see it.

In the case of MYOB’s not-unlimited bank feeds, there’s a monthly threshold, depending on the type of MYOB product or plan you’re on, and once you exceed that threshold, you’ll be charged a fee for each bank feed transaction you carry out that month.

It’s basically a reinterpretation of the “fair use” policy as it relates to copyright law, to suit MYOB’s purposes.

Although the document I was encouraged to download didn’t outline MYOB’s Bank Feeds Fair Use Policy, I managed to find it elsewhere on the MYOB site, which has been republished below (under the fair use policy for copyrighted material!).

So long as you don’t exceed the number of monthly bank feed transactions your plan permits, you should be fine, though the term “unlimited” is fairly misleading in this instance, since they have a clearly defined number of transactions they allow.

No Ambiguity with LIFETIME Access

EzyLearn Online Course Updates & Additions for latest versions of Xero, Excel & MYOB coursesEzyLearn has been in business since 1996 and online only since 2006. In 2011 we launched LIFETIME course access as an option for selected courses and we did it because we could!

We have the systems in place to track students enrolments so it’s something we feel very comfortable with and we’ve had many students ask us about it a couple years after doing their course — obviously they were thrilled that we still had their details on file and gave them access to the CURRENT course. Yes, when we offer lifetime course access it means you get to the NEW version of the software course as well as the older one. That’s part of our Update and Addition Policy.

You can learn more about bank feeds with MYOB and how to set them up in our MYOB training courses. Visit our website for more information or to enrol.