Posted on by — 1 Comment

4 Common Resume Mistakes to AVOID

Screen shot 2013-03-21 at 3.00.16 PMThe average employer or HR department spends approximately 35 seconds on each resume or CV before deciding to toss it in the “NO” pile or read on. Some employers are not even doing this, opting for technology to search your CV for them.

Resume Mistake #1: No Goal

The most important part of your CV or resume is your goal or objective. People often dwell on spelling and punctuation errors being the most important thing, and while it’s an important consideration, if you’re really serious about a position, then checking for these should be instinctive.

Most people leave writing their objective until the rest of their CV or resume is done. Then they often write a one-size-fits-all, generic summary of the kind of position they’re looking for that’s then regurgitated for each job they apply for. Big mistake! This is the only part of your CV that tells a prospective employer what you’re looking for — use this space wisely.

Resume Mistake #2: Leaving the Reader To Guess What You’ve Done

Don’t wax lyrical about “challenging work environments” and “putting your creativity to good use” — these aren’t quantifiable objectives; save them for your interview.

For example, if you’re applying for a position as a computer engineer, tell them why you want that position and why you’re suited to it, referring to your previous work history. This will get the reader far more interested in your CV.

Also people are often too ambiguous with the actual wording they use. Don’t use vague statements like “assisted with” or “handled” — these leave the reader wondering what you actually did.

Your CV should tell employers exactly what your role was — if you wrote and distributed press releases to national media outlets, tell employers that.

But don’t fall into the “my responsibilities involved” or “my duties included” trap — these outline your job description, not how capable you were at your job.

The sentence:

My duties included writing and distributing press releases to national media outlets to publicise the national launch of Revlon’s midnight red lipstick.

would have more impact if it was written as:

To publicise the national launch of Midnight Red lipstick, I wrote and distributed press releases to various media outlets, resulting in national coverage in The Weekend Australian and the Nine National News.

Here, people can see that you’re actually (very) competent at your job.

Resume Mistake #3: Not Using Bullet Points

If you’ve worked somewhere for several years, chances are you did a lot more than write one press release.

This is where writing a three-sentence description for each of your accomplishments becomes impractical —  and if you do, your resume is more likely to resemble War and Peace than a CV — a massive turn-off for recruiters.

Bullet points are not only easier to read, they’re also space savers, great for breaking up dense blocks of text.

  • Wrote and distributed press releases, resulting in national coverage for Midnight Red Lipstick in The Weekend Australian, Nine National News.

Resume Mistake #4: Getting the Length All Wrong

Then there’s the subject of much conjecture: resume length. Some people believe a resume shouldn’t be longer than one page. And in adhering to this rule, there are many resumes out here with an overwhelming amount of 9-point text crammed into one page.

As a general rule of thumb, if you have to choose between crammed-in text and another resume page, go with the latter.

White space is your friend! Use it liberally. There’s nothing more daunting than having to sit and read a page-full of dense text that leaves no safe place to rest the eye.

See more resume writing tips here, or perhaps you need to brush up your Microsoft Word skills for resume writing? Or if you need broader assistance generally with writing a CV or resume, see the services offered by our professional partners for resume writing services.

—-

Would you rather work from home? We help many students operate their own home based business by giving them the software skills to do it. Here are some home based business opportunities from our professional partners.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Tossing Up Where to Study? We Look at TAFE, Uni and Private Facilities

online study courses
Where you study will probably change over time.

There are more ways to study, more institutions to study with and more courses to study than ever before. But with so much choice, it raises the question: Where’s the best place to study?

Study to Suit Your Circumstances

I am a university graduate and I wouldn’t swap my degree for anything else. But I’ve also studied online and completed short courses and seminars run by universities and various other learning institutions.

Each time I studied, the method of delivery — face-to-face, online — or institution I chose offered me something that uniquely suited my circumstances at the time.

As a university student undertaking a five-year journalism degree, it was necessary to gain entry into the competitive media industry where a tertiary education is essential.

But when I decided to study again — this time an online course on becoming a freelancer — it provided me with the flexibility of studying when and where I wanted while I was still a full-time employee.

That said, I don’t believe an institution like TAFE or university is necessarily better than a private institution. For instance, I would NEVER study a language at university! I would much rather private tuition.

Online Study Benefits

I didn’t choose online study merely because of the flexible delivery — I was more than able to attend night classes at TAFE or uni if I’d desired. I chose online study because, having worked in the industry for several years already, I’d been exposed to much of the industry know-how and I was quite practised at working independently; face-time with the teacher and fellow students simply wasn’t necessary.

Studying with Peers

Sometime later I enrolled in a two-day seminar about building a successful freelance business. I had been freelancing for sometime by this point and I was seeking something that fostered interaction with fellow freelancers while I learned the low down, (semi) dirty tricks of the trade.

Stretching out your Study

And most recently, I completed a short course in investigative reporting; again at a university. What attracted me to the course was not the institution, but the teacher: a gold Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist. In this instance, I opted to attend the classes over a series of weeks rather than one intensive weekend, it gave me the chance to experiment with the things I was learning — accessing public registers like electoral rolls, seeking information from government departments through the Freedom of Information Act, and so on — so I could seek guidance if I ran into difficulties.

***

So if you’re tossing up between online or face-to-face study, university or TAFE or a private institution, it’s not a matter of who’s the best or what’s the best method; it’s really a matter of what your circumstances are and what you’re hoping to achieve.

If you’re a motivated, self-starter we offer a number of online courses designed to help you develop and grow your skills across a range of pursuits, when and where you want.

Posted on by

The Superannuation Guarantee Changes: A Blessing or Curse?

Australian Government Superannuation Guarantee Changes
Is paying more super good for business?

From 1 July this year, Australia’s compulsory superannuation guarantee is about the get a much-needed boost: an increase from 9% to 9.25% and will continue to rise incrementally to 12 percent by 2019-2020.

There are currently 3 million Australians aged over 65 — a figure expected to increase to 8.1 million by 2050, a report commissioned by the Rudd Government highlighted in 2010.

The report also estimated that by 2050 the ratio of working-age people in Australia compared to those aged 65 years and over would drop markedly from 5:1 to 2.7:1.

By increasing compulsory superannuation contributions to 12%, an aggregate $500 billion will be added to the existing pool of superannuation savings by 2050.

Are the Super Guarantee Changes Good for Business?

For business-owners, this means that from 1 July you must increase the amount you pay into your employees’ superannuation to 9.25%.

While on the surface, the increase to compulsory super contributions seems like a great coup for employees, it’s also drawn much criticism.

Unlike the Paid Parental Leave Scheme, the Government has no involvement in this super scheme, so businesses won’t receive any form of assistance from the Government when the superannuation guarantee changes take effect.

For a business that spends $1 million on salaries, wearing the 0.25 percent increase will add an additional $2,500 to their super contributions, which would grow by another $2,500 come 2014, assuming their wage bill remained at $1 million.

Detractors fear that employers will forgo giving their staff a pay rise to meet the increase to super contributions instead. And for low-income earners, the boost to their superannuation — a pool of money they cannot access until retirement-age — probably won’t offset the loss of a pay rise.

***

But making changes to the superannuation guarantee in order to increase the pool of money for Australia’s future would certainly seem to be a wise investment; after all, we’ve earned an international reputation for our innovative approach to retirement income that countries the world over are emulating.

For more information on how changes to the superannuation guarantee affects you you can visit the ATO website or the Future Tax Website.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

The Skinny on Resume Writing

Basic do’s and don’t on resume writing

Resume writing to perfection
There’s an art to resume writing but it’s not rocket science.

The job market is tough; that much is true. But if you’ve been sending out your CV with very little response, the job market is only one part of the problem. It’s more than likely that your resume isn’t doing you any favours.

Keeping resume writing simple

Resume writing is about showing prospective employers why you are the best fit for a position and their organisation. It’s not about listing all the jobs you’ve ever had in the past — a café owner looking for a new barista is probably not interested in the three years you spent working in a corporate law firm.

When it comes to pointing out your experience, there are some basic do’s and don’t’s to resume writing. A resume shouldn’t be like a laboured novel; nor should it be so subtle in pointing out your experience that the reader is left to work out exactly how your experience applies to the position they need to fill — recruiters don’t have time for that.

And remember, the majority of companies today outsource the recruitment process to recruitment agencies that receive thousands of CVs and resumes on a daily basis for their large portfolio of clients. Even those companies that still  handle recruitment themselves will have extremely busy HR departments; even in large companies, often there’s only one person reviewing the abundant CVs they receive.

35 seconds to make your mark

When it comes to resume writing, you have to get them in quick! Being time poor and exceedingly busy, most recruiters only spend about 35 seconds on each CV or resume.

This means you have 35 seconds to convince a recruiter that it’s worth reading your CV further or, better still, getting you in for an interview.

You’ll achieve this if you:

  • Get to the point, but don’t be arrogant — this is a massive turn-off.
  • Don’t over-embellish: if you didn’t actually do something, don’t say you did — you will get found out.
  • Are concise: don’t cram your resume or CV full of interesting (to you) but ultimately irrelevant previous positions (like dog walker in 1982), achievements or interests (ferret racing is better kept to yourself).

But don’t see the minimalist approach as an opportunity to get fancy with the design of your CV.

Unless you actually are a designer of some sort, just use a clean template that clearly highlights why you’re the right person for the job. I once received a CV formatted like a crossword puzzle to list the person’s experience and education; clever perhaps, but the CV after that was easy to read and it was that person I called in for the interview.

To avoid the daunting task of resume writing from scratch each time you decide to change employment, you should get into the habit of updating your CV on a regular basis.

Need more help?

EzyLearn is in a great position to help you with your resume writing because we understand the employment market and the needs of employers. We also have team members with top quality resume writing skills and experience in creating quality resumes for administration and bookkeeping positions in particular. Other related blog posts: Finding a Job Using LinkedIn

If you’d like to share your job hunting experiences with us and others, please visit us our Facebook page — you can also let us know here if you need help with resume writing. We can also help you brush up your Microsoft Word skills for resume writing. 

Social Media and Digital Marketing online training course_comp

Are you in business as a bookkeeper, tradesperson, retailer, trainer or real estate agent and want to stand out from the crowd? We can teach you the online marketing techniques to help you do just this! Check out what’s included in our comprehensive Social Media and Digital Marketing online training courses.

 

Posted on by — 2 Comments

LinkedIn Profiles: How Useful Are They, Really?

What is the power of a LinkedIn profile?

how useful is a linkedin profile online learning social media training
We scrutinise the power of a LinkedIn online social media profile.

THERE MAY BE SOME debate over whether having a LinkedIn profile actually helps professionals make valuable connections with other professionals, but the same could also be said of traditional networking.

As a writer, I probably should network more, but personally, I don’t find much value in it. In the past I have either fallen prey to someone wanting publicity for their pyramid-scheme-type business or I’ve turned into a borderline stalker myself; harassing someone who perhaps only gave me their business card out of a feeling of social obligation.

Besides, a business card tells you nothing about how competent or capable that person is at their job. For writers and journalists, I’ve always found it pretty easy to validate their claims on Google; for other professionals: not so much. Until LinkedIn, that is.

The Professionalism of LinkedIn

LinkedIn may not connect you with the recruiter of your dream job, but Twitter doesn’t guarantee you’ll become BFFs with Mariah Carey, either. What LinkedIn does, however, is give you an online professional profile.

And it’s the rather perverse nature of today’s digital society that makes an online professional presence invaluable; LinkedIn itself can act as your calling card, demonstrating how others endorse you and your work; it can act as your resume; and it can help you to actively find the right job.

The Power of a LinkedIn Profile

Any time you meet someone, you can pretty much guarantee they’ll Google you. Whether they’re prospective employers you’ve interviewed with, people you’ve met in a professional setting (clients, industry alums) or even colleagues, you can bet at some point or another they have Googled you.

What that Google search turns up can totally change the way they interact with you.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve LinkedIn-stalked a fellow writer only to discover their LinkedIn profile is not so impressive, after all. From this point on the entire dynamic of our relationship has changed immediately; suddenly I feel I’ve got the power.

On the other end of the scale, discovering the meek-mannered, unassuming but otherwise seemingly-unimpressive editor I chatted to with extreme ease is actually a former Vanity Fair staffer or contributor to The New Yorker adds another dimension to our relationship — usually, I’m putty in their hands.

***

And it’s in this context that, yes, a LinkedIn profile does work. Whether you’re using LinkedIn as a job-hunter or a networker, your LinkedIn profile tells people everything they think they need to know about you.

The old phrase — first impressions are lasting impressions — is out. It’s online impressions that are the lasting impressions.

If you haven’t already, we welcome you to connect with EzyLearn at LinkedIn.

learn online training Xero courses videos for less

Our Xero online training courses include EVERYTHING for ONE LOW PRICE. Furthermore, if you select our Lifetime Membership option, you’ll have LIFETIME access to our ongoing course updates. All EzyLearn courses are accredited by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) and can be counted towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points. Find out more about our Xero online training courses. 

 

Posted on by

The Cash and Assets Cycle: Monitor the Perpetual Late Payers

Screen shot 2013-03-21 at 2.50.23 PM

There’s a regular cycle your business goes through every week, month or quarter. It’s a cycle that maybe you pay little attention to—it’s so simple, so entrenched in your business operations you hardly even consider it—but it’s time you took a closer look at what is called: the Cash Conversion Cycle.

What is the Cash and Assets Cycle?

As the name suggests, the “cash and assets cycle” starts with cash in the bank. This 5-step cycle then progresses through to purchasing stock; selling and invoicing that stock; offering payment terms (say 14 days, 30 days or cash-on-delivery) and finally, receiving payment. And so it goes, rinse and repeat.

Monitoring this cycle is vitally important to the success of your business—and your livelihood. But perhaps you’re wondering why.

Isolating the Late Payers

We’ve previously talked about why you need to keep on top of your bookwork so you can isolate any potential late-payers—called debtor management.

By keeping the cash and assets cycle in mind, it’s possible to see the real implication late-payers can have on your business.

With invoices left outstanding, you can’t start the cycle again—that is, purchasing more stock—and without stock, you’re left with nothing to sell and (obviously) no money coming in. You have literally reached a standstill and all because you didn’t monitor where you were in the cash and assets cycle.

Keep an eye on your cash and assets cycle and you’ll come to notice those perpetual late-payers, enabling you to put processes in place to better manage these customers.

These processes could involve things like requiring payment upfront, adding administrative charges, or when everything else has failed, debt collection.

But monitoring your cash and assets cycle, regardless of how easy it is to forget about, is essential to ensuring your cash and assets keep cycling. The setting up of professional invoices and payment terms are just some of the areas covered in our MYOB online training course.

Posted on by

Prepaid Legal Services: The Long and the Short of It

ID-100129847Many of the bookkeeping business owners who have completed our online MYOB training course may or may not be familiar with the Privacy Act reforms due to be enforced next year. Many businesses that collect their customers’ personal information will need to review their privacy policies and practices to ensure they’re not in breach of the Act.

But reading through and interpreting statutes can be tricky; ensuring you’re in compliance with them, even more so.

For large organisations, this is usually the responsibility of their in-house legal team or the firm they have on retainer; for small organisations, there often isn’t an in-house legal team never mind a firm on retainer.

Gaining traction in the Australian marketplace, however, is the trend of prepaying for your legal service—a trend, mind you, that’s been in existence in the US for over forty years.

Perth-based Prepaid Legal, which has been operating in Australia since 1998, provides prepaid legal services to individuals and an array of different business types, while relative newcomer, LawPath, is only available to businesses.

Prepaid legal services are a lot like private health insurance; you select, from a range of plans, one that suits you; pay a monthly premium (on average between $24 and $36 per month); and, according to the terms set out in the legal plan, you have access to one of the service’s “preferred lawyers”.

Prepaid legal services give small businesses and individuals who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it, access to legal advice for the cost of the low monthly premium.

But a prepaid legal plan doesn’t guarantee access to the same lawyer, or in some cases, even the same law firm. Instead, you’re assigned a lawyer based on their availability and the requirements of your matter.

For some businesses whose legal requirements only involve quick consultations or reviewing and preparing simple legal documents, a prepaid legal service like this could work.

Of course prepaid legal services are really only useful if you use them. As a business owner you should consider how often you would enlist the service of a lawyer throughout the course of your business day-to-day and look at what value a prepaid legal service would bring to your business.

If you are used to receiving information about our MYOB Courses you might also know that we have introduced a Small Business Course to our online training courses and in it we have a section about the legal structures a business can take.

Posted on by — 3 Comments

Monthly Bookkeeping and Debtor Management

ID-10096058

We have previously talked about how to account for bad debt, but what about the ways you can manage your debtors to avoid things turning bad, so to speak, in the first place?

Much of your debtor management comes into play when you or your bookkeeper is doing your books.

It might be a good idea to find a bookkeeper who can chase up your accounts receivable every week rather than stress about it all month!

Continue reading Monthly Bookkeeping and Debtor Management
Posted on by — 2 Comments

Starting A New Business? What Tools Do You Need to Succeed?

ID-10075456

It’s often said that the majority of new businesses fail in the first year. Some people even go as far as to say that 90 percent of new businesses fail within their first twelve months of operation, but is this statement really true?

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics it’s not. The number of new businesses that fail in the first twelve months is closer to 30 percent, or 3 out of every 10.

However, just because a business survives its first year or even the second or third, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a successful one.

If a business isn’t able to pay the owner a wage that equaled or exceeded what they could have earned elsewhere as an employee, it’s not successful.

Further, if that business hasn’t generated a profit or positive cash flow, it’s still not successful.

Nor is a business a successful one if it hasn’t had enough working capital to service their debt, pay taxes and suppliers, and so forth.

New businesses are incredibly risky; and even if you have a great idea for a start-up or years of experience in your particular field of expertise, that doesn’t guarantee success.

Ensuring a new business is fail-safe requires a solid business plan. A business plan is like a road map—it shows you exactly what route to take in order to arrive at your destination—and without one you’re literally driving blind.

If the idea of writing a business plan seems a little daunting, you’re not alone. It’s one of the key components to running a successful business, but it’s also the most often overlooked, which is why we are now offering a Small Business Management course.

Among the subjects included in the course such as, researching the market and creating a marketing action plan, you will also learn how to write your very own roadmap to success—a business plan.

So if your New Year’s Resolution was to start a new business in 2013, then join us online with the new Small Business Management Course, which was especially created by Maggie Richardson from the Australian Small Business Centre for Australian Small Businesses.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Has Starting a Business Always Been Your Dream? Start a Bookkeeping Business

ID-10078682At some point in our lives and careers, many of us have toyed with the idea of starting our own business, but for a good few people it remains just that: an idea; albeit, a wistful one.

But for those of us who do seriously discuss our desire to start a business, there never seems to be a shortage of detractors. Suddenly it seems everyone is an expert on starting a business, or more specifically, why you shouldn’t

“Most businesses fail in the first year” and other tales of woe involving friends and friends-of-friends that “lost everything” in a start-up gone wrong serve as cursory warnings for why you should leave the enterprising to the Richard Branson’s and stick with what you know—because for whatever reason, you’re just not the enterprising type.

But while it’s true that starting your own business is no walk in the park, there’s still no reason why, with a good business plan, you can’t be the next Richard Branson or—ladies—the next Lorna Jane.

Of course, starting your own bookkeeping business can also prove to be a good first-step into the world of self-employment. At last count, there were over 2.1 million businesses operating in Australia; 96% were small businesses and over 1.3 million were sole traders.

In fact, it’s the sheer number of sole traders operating in Australia that makes operating a bookkeeping business so lucrative: sole traders are time poor and outsourcing their bookkeeping allows them to focus on the many other hats they’re wearing in their business.

And because the internet and accounting software like MYOB has made it possible to work from home, you can easily operate your bookkeeping business from your home office, freeing you of the costly overheads associated with running a traditional bricks and mortar business.

Working from home also means that you don’t have to dive straight into your bookkeeping business; you can test the waters first by working part-time hours while also maintaining your current employment.

As you build your up your business and accumulate more clients, you can then decide whether you want to make it your sole source of income or keep it as a side-project.

Whether it’s full-time, part-time, or a side-project, starting your own business is both a rewarding and exciting experience. So turn that idea of starting your own bookkeeping business into a reality—find out the tools you need to succeed with your own bookkeeping business.

Posted on by — 4 Comments

What Do You Need To Start Your Own Bookkeeping Business?

Starting a Bookkeeping Business is Low RiskID-10093149

If you’re already employed as a bookkeeper or have graduated from our MYOB training course and starting your own business is something you’ve always dreamed of, then turn that dream into a reality.

Starting a bookkeeping business is one of the few low-risk start-up options, because a bookkeeping business, unlike other bricks and mortar businesses, can be operated from your home-office, eliminating many of the costly overheads that eat into your profits.

In fact, many of the overheads related to running a home-based bookkeeping business involve items you probably already have or are inexpensive to source, such as a laptop, mobile phone, internet connection, and a designated work-space.

But like any business, just because you have previous experience or the zeal to make your venture a success, doesn’t necessarily guarantee success—a business plan does. This should be the first thing you do.

  1. Writing a business plan lays out things like what services you will offer, pricing structures, and how many customers you will need to turn a profit. But it also forces you to do market research and compare your services and prices with your competitors. Our Registered BAS Agent has created a bookkeeping business template that you can use if you start your bookkeeping business with us!
    Market research, no matter how experienced you are in the industry, can help you establish a point-of-difference from other bookkeeping services and aid in the setting of your rates. Many small business courses like our Small Business Management course cover writing business plans as well as other strategies to ensure you manage your business efficiently.
  2. Contacting an insurance broker to find out what kind of policy you will need should be your next port-of-call. Rather than calling many different insurance companies and going through their product disclosure statements yourself, a broker can do this for you and find the best policy at the best price.
  3. You’ll also need to contact an accountant to discuss the ways to maximise your business tax deductions—this could also serve as a good way of drumming up some business, as many sole traders still take their shoeboxes full of receipts and bank statements to their accountant to sift through come tax-time!
  4. It’s also wise to consider ways you can grow your business using low-cost marketing strategies. Many small-business owners make the mistake of thinking that as a small business, they don’t need to worry about marketing, leaving it to the big guys instead.

But some of the biggest companies in the world started out as a start-up in someone’s garage or home-office! As a small-business owner, there are many marketing lessons you can learn from big business.

Believe and you will achieve

If you’ve been dreaming about one day starting your own bookkeeping business, then what are you waiting for? We now have the training, coaching and mentoring support to help you start a bookkeeping business and work from home as an independent contractor working your own chosen hours. We’ve teamed up with a registered BAS agent and business coach to compliment the small business management course and provide you with the support and training you need to start a bookkeeping business without joining a bookkeeping franchise and paying ongoing franchise fees.

National Bookkeeping Business Plan Template
Get a bookkeeping business plan created by a registered BAS agent and get started fast

Become a National Bookkeeping Licencee

If this is something that interests you explore the “Start a bookkeeping business” opportunity with National Bookkeeping and get franchise like support without loosing a percentage of every hour you work. We can help you succeed in your own bookkeeping business by give you the training you need.

National Bookkeeping is designed to help ordinary people start a bookkeeping business as an independent contractors working from home as a virtual assistant with the help and support of existing businesses.

 

Posted on by — 1 Comment

The Marketing Lessons All Small Businesses Can Learn From Big Businesses

ID-10069551We regularly receive tips from the academic board of our small business management course and they’ve recently shared something about marketing.

[quote]One of the biggest mistakes a small-business owner can make is to think that advertising budgets and marketing strategies are the playthings of big business.[/quote]

By borrowing some of the strategies some of the biggest businesses do well, there are many marketing opportunities small business owners can utilise to generate some organic business leads—and many of them are low-cost!

  1. Web Presence – Face it, whenever you speak to a potential new client, the first thing they do is Google you. If you don’t turn up in Google, or worse, what does is out-of-date or uninformative, you’ve already lost some of your credibility and you haven’t even done business with them yet!
    Your website should clearly outline what services you offer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it! Design a website that shows off your personality and sets you apart from your competitors. Our WordPress course can give you the skills you need.
  2. Email Marketing – Is a great low-cost marketing option providing you do it right! Many companies—big and small—make the mistake of bombarding their mailing lists with too many advertising emails, most of which are irrelevant and often result in the click of an “unsubscribe” button.
    The trick, here, is to divide your mailing list into categories based on your client’s interest and business needs, and then tailor EDMs or newsletters to each category. The messages with the best cut-through are quirky and informative and act simply as a touch point with your customer that isn’t blatantly spruiking your business or rehashing your sales pitch.
  3. Social Media – If you’re going to use social media for your business, great! But if you think that by just starting a facebook page and then arbitrarily updating it with photos or your latest special offers when you feel like it will work, well you’re wrong!
    If you’re going to use social media for your business, make sure you deliver value to your social media friends and followers. Special offers are great, but after a while people tire of them. Keep your content fresh and interesting, and above all, regular!
  4. Google training coursesOnline Advertising – The thing about the internet, particularly search engines like Google, is that they’re terrific if you know what you’re looking for. If you don’t, however, it’s like running into a crowded Allianz Stadium on grand final night and calling out, “where can I find my car keys?”
    This is where online advertising comes in. Search engine advertising (also called Search Engine Marketing or SEM), like Google Adwords, is a cheap way to get started so that anytime someone searches on google using your keywords, your ad will appear with a link straight to your website.

Don’t forget—Apple Inc, once a little start-up in Steve Jobs’ garage—never launches a new product quietly, so why should you launch your business quietly?

If you create a good marketing plan and stick to it, you’re guaranteed to see results. If you’re unsure what goes into creating a marketing plan, we cover marketing strategies in our Small Business Management course.

Posted on by

How Do You Account For Bad Debt?

ID-100108221

One of the things we cover in our MYOB Training Courses is how to deal with what is, unfortunately, becoming a rather common accounting issue—bad debt.

If you provide your goods or services on credit, it’s likely that at some point, particularly during times of economic volatility, you will encounter a customer that is unable to pay for the goods or services rendered.

Most of the time, many customers just need more time to pay, however, there will also be those customers that never will pay. And in the case of the latter, the debt will need to be written off.

For a debt to be considered bad and written off you need to show that all the necessary steps have been taken to recover the debt, but there is still no likelihood of the debt ever being recovered for one of the following reasons:

  • The debtor has died leaving no assets or insufficient assets
  • The debtor cannot be traced and no assets discovered
  • The debtor is bankrupt or in liquidation and insufficient funds exist

Once you’ve reached this point, however, is when things start to get complicated. Often how you record the income for your business will determine how you account for a bad debt, particularly if you’re using accruals-basis accounting.

While there may still even be instances where, even though you’ve written off a customer’s debt as bad debt, it may later be paid to you—often in another tax year and affecting that year’s income.

This is what makes the accounting treatment of bad debts complicated. While you’ll learn about how to account for bad debt in our MYOB Training Courses, if you’re unsure you should always consult your accountant to help determine the best course of action for your business or the business you’re representing.

Posted on by

Why Is a Code of Ethics, Conduct or Practice Important for your Business?

ID-10095040

As a journalist, I choose to act in accordance with the Code of Ethics set out by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), of which honesty, fairness, independence, and respect for the rights of others underpins the code.

This means I strive to ensure that every story I research and write about is honest, fair, independent, and respectful to the rights of others—even this blog post! And over the years, most of the organisations I have worked for, have too, upheld the ethos of the MEAA Code of Ethics.

Of course, just because a particular industry or trade union prescribes a set of guidelines, doesn’t necessarily mean each organisation or practitioner within that industry will uphold them—case in point: News International’s involvement in the phone hacking scandal in the UK.

And usually, until there is a breach of ethics like that of News International’s, it’s rather easy to forget why a code of ethics is necessary, particularly since compliance to the code is often voluntary, or at least, highly malleable.

But by submitting to a code of ethics, conduct or practice, you’re establishing yourself as an authority in your field; you’re telling your customers, clients and employees that you have integrity.

If you’re a bookkeeper or operate your own bookkeeping business, your clients are entrusting you with one of their most prized possessions—their livelihoods, and a code of ethics illustrates to them how you and your business operate.

But there are other reasons to adopt a code of ethics, aside from professional status. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, for instance, instituted a “values-led business” code by donating 7.5 percent of profits to charity, while other organisations value a work culture grounded in a strong ethical framework that promotes high staff retention, greater customer loyalty, and increased productivity.

For all the different reasons an organisation or business would have to adopt a code of ethics, the outcome never deviates—a code of ethics ensures accountability.

If you choose to submit to the Australian Association of Professional Bookkeepers’ Code of Professional Conduct, you’re communicating to your clients what they can expect from you, and, in turn, what you can expect from them—conduct that is ethical and lawful, confidential, objective and independent, and competent.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Teleworking – How Does It Affect Your Work-Life Balance?

ID-10090542We are constantly refreshing the content of our MYOB training course so that you can benefit from all the new information that is always coming in about being a bookkeeper, running your own bookkeeping business — or doing the books for someone else’s business.

We have previously discussed the benefits of teleworking to both the employer and the employee, and while the benefits  of, for instance, reducing the home-office commute and increasing workforce participation, are hard to ignore, there are some downsides that could adversely affect your work-life balance.

High-speed internet, smart phones, tablet devices and cloud accounting software like MYOB Account Right Live may make it so much easier to connect with work from the comfort of your own home, but it’s also making it increasingly difficult to switch off.

Study Proves We Work More from Home

A study conducted by Dr Carolyn Axtell, a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield in the UK, found that many workers often worked an additional 15-20 hours per week merely because they could remotely access their work from home.

In addition to the self-reported “voluntary” additional work hours, in a separate study carried out by the University of Toronto, workers also reported that it was often expected of them to check emails, take calls and log into work outside of office hours, including when on holidays.

But the additional work hours and interruption to workers’ recreation time, according to Dr Axtell, can significantly impact a person’s health as well as their relationships with friends and family.

Poorer quality of sleep and psychological stress brought on by an increase in phone calls, emails and texts out of work hours were among workers’ main complaints, while Dr Axtell also found many employees felt they became less productive working from home.

Productivity levels, according to Dr Axtell, tend to level off among employees that are working long hours and, over time, even drop when tiredness and stress impairs performance.

You need to take time out

Quiet timeTo combat stress and losses in productivity, managers and employees alike, need to implement protocols to enable teleworkers to switch off.

Working to time—rather than task, taking regular breaks, sticking to a work routine and maintaining usual sleep and work patterns are among the top tips teleworkers can adopt to avoid overwork. By switching off gadgets at the end of the day and notifying colleagues, managers and clients of when you are and are not available will ensure you’re not stressing about returning an email during your holiday!

Want to work hard, start a business

I’ve written several blog posts about starting a business and in particular starting a bookkeeping business (because a large number of our students enrol into our MYOB Training Courses) and the fact that we are so well connected to the Internet and each other almost makes us work as though we own the business.

If you are looking to start your own business or want to learn the skills required to manage a small business remember that we have just launched our Cert IV in Small Business Management. Enrol today and enjoy a massive discount for a limited time only.

 

Posted on by — 1 Comment

ANNOUNCEMENT: Are you thinking about starting a business this year?

small business course and business plan

Starting a Business

The first step in the process of starting a business is making the decision, but what happens next? It’s the idea. The great thing about being human is that we are always full of ideas. It doesn’t matter what level of education or even your age we all have ideas and we all have desires so the first step of starting a business is pretty simple.

The most important step however is action, how you develop your idea into a product or service that others are interested in or need. We provide online training for Australia’s most popular accounting software, MYOB so it’s clear there is a demand for bookkeeping skills in small businesses. If you have accounting or bookkeeping skills and qualifications and are interested in starting a business you might want to explore a Small Business Course that has now been loaded on our Learning Management System (LMS).

The Small Business Management course covers all the aspects you need when starting a business and the first subject covers “Originate and Develop Concepts“. The rest of the course goes through all the skills you need to create a business plan for your new business so it is a great course to do if you are thinking about starting a business. It’s also a good course if you want to elevate your skills in your current work too.

Our small business course is designed by Maggie Richardson from the Australian Small Business Centre and the good news is that she’s helped over 1,000 people build business plans to turn their ideas into reality. You’ll also be happy to learn that businesses are more successful when they operate to a business plan. If this is your year to start a business come and join us online with the Small Business Management Course.

National Bookkeeping Business Plan Template
Get a bookkeeping business plan created by a registered BAS agent and get started fast

Start a Bookkeeping Business

If a bookkeeping business is something you’re interested in then you’ll be excited to learn that our Registered BAS Agent and Course Creator, Jacci has completed Maggie’s Small Business Management Course and created a business plan for a bookkeeping business that you can use as the basis for your own plan – most of the hard work has been done.

Just change the details for your own circumstances and you’ll have a plan that will help you get clients and stay on track to make a profit and enjoy the benefits of choosing your own hours and working close to home.