Colin Porter
Improve your cashflow cycle by retraining your debtors
If you’ve effectively taught a client that they have 60 to 90 days in which to pay you, it is then very difficult to get them to start paying on time. To avoid this, make sure you and your client both agree to the credit terms when you set a new account up. This may […]
Keeping a tight leash will discipline debtors
While it’s a vital part of good cashflow management, chasing late payments is not something that most business owners enjoy. What can you do to get your clients to pay on time? And what can you do when you’re stuck with a customer who won’t settle their debt? Prevention is cure The first way to […]
Three rules to find the right customers for your business
When you start a business, it isn’t just about what you do well that ensures your path to success, but your customers. Don’t fall into the trap of accepting any client because you’re desperate for business: if you are careful and patient at the beginning, it will pay dividends for your business and your reputation […]
Navigating business in an uncertain economic climate
Every business is a boat on the economic seas. Although bigger boats have a better chance of riding out storms, the small ones can have as much of a chance if navigation is mapped out with care.
Look outside your office to help your business
Since when does working hard solely mean one should be cooped up in their office, chained to that desk and computer, focused like crazy on the business at hand?
Is it time to review that business plan?
Too many businesses have written up their business plan and dusted their hands. Full steam ahead, right? Yes, but make sure it’s only to the next stop.
Bosses: Cap your pay
While it’s true that the hard work we’ve put in to get our business off the ground warrants monetary appreciation, it’s important to find that limit of self-pay that stops you from eating into the business itself.
Chasing finance: Keep it real
The search for that much-needed dough to kick-start a business plan into fruition can prove to be a difficult and stressful task, with many business owners making detrimental choices out of desperation.
Business emails: Legal matters (Part 2)
Legal ramifications associated with emailed correspondence are often overlooked, but the growing instances in which emails are used to drive legal disputes suggest we should be paying more attention.
Business emails: Legal matters (Part 1)
As emails fly back and forth between your business and clients, partners, friends and family, it’s easy to forget one thing: emails are often used as evidence in legal proceedings.
ASIC: Ensure you remain compliant
ASIC is a necessary body to have, ensuring companies are kept in line and consumers, investors and creditors are protected, but it’s the compliance aspects that can easily catch businesses out.
Personal Property Security: It’s in the Ts & Cs
The potential benefits with the PPSA are indeed obvious, but, as with anything relating to assets and property, the devil can be in the details.
Business events: just be cool
You've got to get to the (succinct) point quickly, have kits of info ready to go for those who want to take it with them, and then… nothing.
Jetpack invention a lesson in courage
Most people are not smart enough to invent a jet pack. I’m talking about a personal jet pack that actually flies.
Importing game means ‘eating your own dog food’
It's a disgusting notion, and in a way confirms our worse fears about imported food: that the handling practices overseas are subpar, and diseases lurk within the polished exterior.
Starting with trust, again
Much like the whims of the stock exchange, politics and business alike are susceptible to rumours and dissent in the ranks.
Never-say-die in raising capital
I recently heard a great line that got my mind ticking over: “When you're not paying for the product, you are the product.”
The tortoise or the hare approach
Having been conditioned to believe that things like '7 minute' abs are possible, who could blame us for expecting to see our 'brilliant ideas' to be implemented overnight, and to see results quickly?
Best Practices: Invoicing to get paid
A good invoice is your first step to making sure you get paid. Issuing an invoice should be the first thing you do after you have supplied your goods or service. Here's what your invoice should contain…
Be the glass half full this year
“Back at work(?)” they say, bug eyed, and waiting for you to say something negative. Words to the effect of “Wish I were still on the beach” coupled with a grimace or a strategic eye-roll tend to suffice.
Shifting the blame wears thin
Sometimes to simply stay viable, unpopular, if not heartbreaking changes are necessary. That’s part and parcel of business, politics, and life.
Smash December targets with a plan
Before all that good stuff comes along, it seems the list of things to do – and inevitable dilemmas associated with annual close downs and the like – gets longer and more complicated each year.
Obtaining finance no magic formula
I’ve been fortunate enough to be my own boss for twenty years. Let me be the first to say that there isn’t a business owner in Australia, nay the world, who hasn’t fought in the battle of obtaining finance.
Be a little less judgemental. It’s good for the soul.
I naturally gravitate towards the strictly business topics for my blog, but this week there’s an issue on my mind which is a little more wide reaching.