We are proud to say that Good for Business has achieved the Xero Gold Partner status. We want to take this opportunity to say a big Thank You to all our clients, partners and supporters for your trust in us.

“Good for Business is really proud to have achieved this important milestone in a relatively short period of time. This is a real testament to the trust that our clients put in us and Xero's support in the growth of our practice. ˮ - Stewart Kearney, Partner.

Good for Business exists to provide business advisory and accounting support to empower business owners with clarity and confidence. Together with Xero we have an amazing cloud technology that helps us work with our clients in ways never before imagined.

We are grateful that you are part of our journey and we look to working together in the future.

There is a lot more to being a business owner than having money, this can be a very hard lesson for new owners to realise.

This is the first of 4 articles dedicated to those of us who dream to be in control of our own destiny. We have access to capital, life experience and a dream to work for ourselves in a collaborative environment.

Often the first step into business for ourselves comes from a small push from our environment, you don’t like your current role, you have an opportunity offered to you, or you just want more. More Life balance, more money and more opportunities.

FIRST question you should ask yourself – what is the emotional commitment?

Why am I looking at buying / setting up a business? This is an emotional question, you are testing your own assumptions. My suggestion before you make the jump from paid employment to self-employments is find a Black Hat ( some one who looks at all the worst outcomes) and talk your reasons through with them. Get an independent opinion, and then write down the Pro’s and Cons of what you are planning.

Remember, one of the most trying parts of being an Entrepreneur / Business Owner is that you no longer have a team around you who are there to give you feedback.

“Make your decisions with your heart, and what you will end up with is hear t disease" Harvey McCall, Swim with the Sharks.

SECOND question – have you done a market validation?

Market Validation is a term used to describe the process of collecting information that will help you understand what the Critical Drivers of the market are, what your Unique Selling Point is, who your competitors are and how your competitors compete.

Before jumping in feet first take time to research your opportunity, learn about the market, key people, life cycle of the market and your product, barriers to entry and exit.

In summary don’t just believe what you are told, validate it yourself.

THIRD Question – have you done a financial evaluation?

As an accountant and business advisor one of the more challenging tasks I have is to get investors with an opportunity to STOP them jumping to the bottom line. What am I going to earn?

This is not the place to start, it is the place to finish, after you have worked through the tough questions of, Is this what I want to do? (Question 1, Emotional Commitment) and, Is there a market for me to invest in? (Question 2, Market Validation).

Building financial models & budgets is easy, there are some great tools available like, Xero & Spotlight Reporting. But don’t be fooled! without putting the hard yards into market validation your financial modelling could be based on poor assumptions, out of date numbers or a changing market place that has a reduced gross margin or a changing volume.

Well I hope that I have caught your interest, in our next blogs we will

look at some of the more relevant topic under each of the questions.

This is a condensed version a presentation I made to the Auckland Chinese Medical Association (ACMA) consisting of a group of about 100 doctors. Although directed to doctors it applies to business owners and entrepreneurs too.

Good evening, on a scale of one to ten, one being least happy and satisfied, and ten being most happy and satisfied - how would you rate your current state of accounting and finance, and by that I mean from the administration of your accounting and finance to having the right financial tools and information to make meaningful decisions so that you achieve your goals? Now ponder that for a while....

Now having given yourself a rating, whether that is 3 or 5 or 8, why is your rating not lower?

Let's move on. Working with many, many clients including business owners, entrepreneurs and professional service providers like doctors, there are two observations that I would like to make, and this is supported by research.

The first observation is known as the Intensity of Demands. The demands you face are relentless, consistent and high pressure. For doctors, you face demands such as patient care, facilities management, financial management, quality of information, safety and people/HR. The demands are real.

The second observation is called The Myth of Indispensability. By this I mean, because you are so highly qualified, motivated, dedicated and intelligent, you feel like you need to do everything, that you are indispensable. Perhaps rightly so, and I am sure you are more than capable although some of the things you do are beyond your skill set or training.

My challenge and my question to you is...are you under enough stress without trying to be an accountant at best, or book-keeper at worst?

My advice for my clients around the intensity of demands and the need to do everything yourself is simply this.

One, seek expert help. Around accounting and finance, get expert advice and support so that you have the right information and tools to make meaningful decisions to help you achieve your goals and to regain control over your accounting and finance.

Two, embrace technology. Around accounting and finance, the technology at the forefront is XERO - a simple, beautiful, cloud based accounting software. With more than 450 tools that integrate with XERO you now have the accounting and /or business tool(s) equivalent to a Swiss Army Knife on steroids. Powerful tools to help you take control of your accounting and finance.

Let me wrap this up with a story and a show of hands. Can you raise your hands if you use a GPS? (Perhaps not surprisingly, about 70% of doctors raised their hands).

I use GPS exclusively. I visit clients a number of times a week and I use the GPS to get from point A to point B. The reason I use GPS is simple. It gets me to where I want to go with the least amount of stress, with the least amount of time and with accuracy and efficiency.

Like the very advice I give to my clients and which this story illustrates - GPS is an' expert' tool as well as a technological tool. Could I have done it without the GPS? Of course, I could - but why would I not use the GPS if I could save time, stress less and gain more control?

It is a no brainer.

Thank you for your time.

Many groups use jargon to define an area of expertise

Accountants are no different than many other groups when it comes to using specialist jargon. The use of jargon is probably not going to change as the systems that use the jargon like banks, share markets and IRD are comfortable with the jargon.

What this means is that you need to spend some quality time with your Accountant & Business Advisor or on YouTube to understand the rules of Accounting and Business Reporting.

Here are a couple of questions you might like to consider:

Debit and Credit - Why are Debits and Credits the basis for all Accounting transactions?

On your GST return – what is the difference between “Invoice Basis and Payments Basis”

Reporting – What is the difference between a Balance Sheet and a Profit & Loss.

Understanding accounting jargon is a step towards becoming a more informed business owner. When you consider how important your business income is to you financially and the critical role that your accounting subscription plays in your business then it is time to act.

By acting I mean it is time that you starting learning about accounting, reporting and lending criteria before you NEED to. From my experience, the best time to review your business and look at your options (including Borrowing) is when you are at your strongest.

It is not by chance that bankers refer you back to your accountant when you make an application for external funding. Bankers want to know that you have accurate financial statements, that you understand you cash flow requirements and have a in depth understanding of your businesses current profitability and future profitability.

True jargon and the challenges.

When was the last time you sat down with your accountant and talked about my first two years of operation as a business, when do I have to pay tax and how much? What is Provisional Tax and Terminal Tax, why do people talk about the tax burden you have to pay in Year 3 of your new business?

If you do not understand about your tax liability, then your first thing in the new Year should be to talk to your accountant, build an understanding about what your Tax liability is and how it changes.

A couple of Big Tax Dates that are coming up.

January 15th 2018 - GST for October 2017 & November 2017 is Due

January 15th 2018 – 2nd Provisional Tax payment for the year ending 31st March 2018 is due.

March 31st 2018 – End of the Financial Year

April 7th 2018 – Terminal Tax for the Year ending 31st March 2017 is due.

Our Next Blog will be on Borrowing & Your Bank

Stewart is the Founding Partner at Good for Business, Accountants & Business Advisors.

As a Chartered Accountant and MBA graduate Stewart is able to give business owners clear insight into their business built on his experience as a Chief Financial Officer and Financial Controller in some of New Zealand’s iconic companies

Accurate Information

Don’t think that because you now have an Accounting System, that you are now an Accountant it is just not that easy. Yes accounting software has become intuitive and the process is getting faster.

But do not take Accounting and your Accountant for granted, it is a complicated system that eventually is used to prepare your GST returns, Annual Income Tax and to substantiate your annual income for external lenders.

Getting your accounting right is about you working with your Accountant to prepare accurate Financial Statements (Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement).

Accounting like many Professions and Trades is all about getting it right the first time. Fixing problems is time consuming and expensive, firstly because you must find the problem, understand what has been done, understanding why the mistake has been made and then correcting the mistake.

Accounting is no different from any Trade when you understand this saying

“Measure twice, cut once”

Building your Accounting Skills.

As an accountant and business advisor my goal is to increase the skills of my clients on how to effectively use their accounting system. Typically, I will invest more time in the first six months with a new client than is financially advisable. Why then would I over invest in a new client.

The reason is really quiet straight forward if you stop concentrating on charge out minutes or return on investment. Building a relationship with a new client is critical, I don’t just want to be their accountant, I want to be their Accountant & Business Advisor. I want to understand about how their business works, what they want from their business and finally I want to find if the current accounting software is being used correctly and Accurately.

During this process of client On Boarding Good for Business focuses on building the Business Owners knowledge of Accounting, Coding, Reporting and getting the right systems in place to make the Financial Statements Accurate.

Make time to talk to your Accountant, don’t leave your questions to the end of the year, ask questions, ask for feedback on how you are managing your Accounting Subscription. Watch some of the stunning u tube clips on Xero.

You may not ever want to be an accountant, but you do want to be a better business owner, make sure you aim to increase your knowledge about Accounting in 2018.

Our next Blog will be on Accountants Jargon.

Stewart is the Founding Partner at Good for Business, Accountants & Business Advisors.

As a Chartered Accountant and MBA graduate Stewart is able to give business owners clear insight into their business built on his experience as a Chief Financial Officer and Financial Controller in some of New Zealand’s Iconic companies

“a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer”.

Accountants and Accounting are fast becoming a computer algorithm, the reason why this is occurring is to do with the structured, ruled based environment that Accountants work within. Computers are just making the process faster.

Like all businesses in our economy Accountants need to look to the future and visualizing what an accountant needs to deliver to add value to their clients.

As we all know visualising the future is difficult, fortunately for accountant’s, Business Owners specifically (owner operators) have been starting to ask important questions of their accountant.

Where has my cash gone? Why am I making a profit but I have no money in the bank. What is Gross Margin? If I want to expand where can I source money?

These are the great questions that many business owners need to ask their Accountant / Business Advisor. So here it is at last, the topic that is really becoming the centre of discussion between Accountants and Business Owners.

Are you my Accountant, Business Advisor or both?

How can you be my Business Advisor?

When I am asked by a Business Owner why would I pay you to be my Accountant, when I use Xero to do my own accounting?

I become worried about the issues that are occurring in the Financial Ledger that the business owner does not realise have flow on effects.

In New Zealand, our Tax system is woven in to the fabric of our accounting software, how we depreciate assets, how we handle Entertainment Expenses, what expenses have GST and how we remunerate ourselves. If you do not understand how your Accounting System is interacting with your add on applications you may have issues sitting in the Balance Sheet.

Accounting software uses Algorithms, algorithms need accurate information to operate accurately.

Remember. “Garbage in – Garbage out”

What this means for you as a Business Owner is before you can receive useful information from your Business Advisor about profitability, growth or strategic direction you need to give your Advisor accurate Financial Statements.

Our next Blog will be on Accurate Information.

Stewart is the Founding Partner at Good for Business, Accountants & Business Advisors.

As a Chartered Accountant and MBA graduate, Stewart gives business owners clear insight into their business built on his experience as a Chief Financial Officer and Financial Controller in some of New Zealand’s Iconic companies.