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Can’t pay your tax?

Business owners not being able to pay their tax is an all too often occurrence, but hey, it may not be as disastrous as you think. The worst thing you can do in these circumstances is to do nothing.  Yes, I know that getting credit from the IRD is all too easy, but it will cost you plenty because not only will the IRD charge you interest and hefty penalties as well that keep on coming like a steam train.  Over a longer period the addition of penalties and interest can ne...

Interim accounts: a vital business tool

Your annual financial statements have their uses, but by their very nature, they are far too historical to be of any use in managing or improving your business.The most valuable financial accounts you can get your hands on are interim accounts prepared periodically — monthly for larger businesses or quarterly or bi-monthly for smaller businesses in line with your GST return periods. There is a strong correlation between the availability of interim accounts and business survi...

7 ways you can use your annual financials to improve your business

The availability of your annual financials is a wonderful opportunity to review your business performance. You can discover how to improve your business as well as refresh your enthusiasm and drive in the business. Here are seven ways you can use your annual financials to improve your business.1. Sales Your sales figure is a veritable goldmine of information about your business. The increase or decrease over the previous year doesn’t tell you much, so drill down further and work out the reason...

Trade, Services & Professionals - Setting your Charge Out Rates

High, low or somewhere in the middle?  Where to pitch realistic charge-out rates is a common question facing trades, service and professional businesses. In fact it’s probably one of the most difficult areas of business. You have to be careful not to underprice as this will reduce profits, but at the same time, overpricing could turn customers away. Setting charge out rates is just as important as marketing and delivering a fantastic service.   You can do these two things excellently...

Cut Those Costs & Reduce Your Outgoings

Trying to reduce your outgoings can be a daunting prospect when you’re stressed by falling turnover and running out of cash. Hindsight being such a wonderful thing, you probably realise by now that you should have put the equivalent of three months overheads aside for that rainy day, arranged for the preparation of monthly financials and prepared a budget and cash flow forecast to predict your current predicament but what can you do now to alleviate the pressure? Follow these tips to alleviate...

7 Reasons to Trade as a Limited Company

It costs a few hundred dollars to form a limited company but despite that, many thousands of Kiwi’s continue to start businesses as sole traders or even worse, partnerships. In more than 30 years of looking after small businesses I’ve seen so many unfortunate and unnecessary situations and countless examples continue to crop up, so here are a few I’ve seen in the last year or so. Outstanding GSTIt’s a fact that the IRD in NZ are rubbish at collecting tax, so much so that many business ow...

6 Marketing Myths that can Derail your Business

Marketing is a vital business activity yet generally misunderstood by many business owners. You may be fantastic at what you do but unless you can market yourself or your business you’re unlikely to succeed as a business owner. Marketing is the same as advertisingFar from it – advertising is just one type of marketing, whereas marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. Marketing generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, busines...

Keeping Your Sales Funnel Topped-Up

Whilst many businesses enjoy regular recurring income, many need to be proactively seeking new orders and new customers at all times. In good times you can just sit back and wait for the business to flood in, but not when economic conditions are difficult.Unfortunately, many business owners had gotten used to the good times and forgotten how to proactively drum up more sales. This year, more and more business owners seem to be acting sooner to ensure the funnel which is their sales pipeline is k...

Getting to Grips with Marketing

Other than mastering the complexities and tricks of the trade of your own trade or profession, there are really only two key business skills you need to master to get on in business, one being an understanding of finance/financial systems and the other, getting to grips with marketing. Marketing is certainly not advertising, as many business owners think, and it goes way beyond the dictionary definition. In a way everything you do in your business (assuming that you do it right) is a contributio...

Saving Money with Vehicle Financing

It’s tempting to put off replacing your work vehicle but there comes a point when reliability and maintenance become a nuisance and expensive which means the depreciation suffered on a newer model look more palatable. I don’t know about you but I think depreciation is downright nasty and more often than not, the most overlooked motoring cost. I recently met a Holden V8 owner who had paid $65K not quite 4 years ago who was complaining that his car was now worth under $20K – the deprecation ...

Take Control of your Finances Now

Unusually I was channel-surfing the other night and came across a repeat of that show where they try and sort out people who are still spending money like it’s going out of fashion despite already being deeply in debt. Fascinating in a terrifying sort of way, it should probably be compulsory viewing as a warning to the rest of us as to how finances can get horribly out of control. Running your finances wisely is vitally important whether you’re in business or not. Good Debt/Bad DebtWhilst th...

Simple Business Systems

I’ve said this before (and no doubt I’ll say it again) but I’m always surprised at the lack of simple systems utilised in owner-managed businesses. Using the word “systems” can be off-putting because people immediately think it’s going to be too complex, too costly or too time consuming but a system can be very, very simple. For example, it could be a referral system whereby: A new customer or client is always asked where they heard about the business and recorded on a register of re...

8 Vital Things You Need To Know about Your Business - Each and Every Month

Just how much do you know about your business? No, not about what you sell, or how you make or deliver your products and services, I mean the really important things that determine whether you’re going to make it through to retirement or maybe even successfully selling your business. These are my top eight favourite things each and every one of us business owners should know about our businesses: Whether you’re Exceeding your Current Break-Even PointWhilst all the other things listed in this...

Adding Value Made Easy

Before you get out there and start doing business you need to decide where your products or services sit in terms of your value proposition. Simply put, you have four main choices, low price low value, low price high value, high price low value or high price high value, as can be seen on the graph below:...

Nick is proactive and easy to get hold of

Nick has been to visit us more in 3 weeks than our last accountant ever did in 5 years. He really found out about our business, is very proactive and very easy to get a hold of. I can text him and he calls straight back. Nothing is too much trouble. George O'Keefe - Hawke's Bay Funeral Services...

Attentive to our business needs

We have always found Nick to be particularly attentive to the needs of our growing businesses. As a result we came to rely on him as a trusted friend and adviser and miss his support and dry sense of humour! Sara Watson - Corbiz Ltd...

Nick is professional and easy to work with

Meeting Nick and asking him to help me with the accounting and business development of my company has proved to be a winner. After some rather ugly and turbulent years I took back control of the business of which I am an equal partner. This business needed some stability, planning and growth. With Nick on board I have been able to settle into getting accounts up to date and have begun a business development process. To help defray his costs, Nick secured a grant from the Ministry of Economic Dev...

There are no silly questions for Nick

I was referred to Nick Roberts by my ANZ Bank Manager following a business review meeting back in May 2012. I was told that Nick was experienced in Business Development and being new to running my own business I was excited and thrilled that an accountant could not only help me with my tax and GST but advice and direct me in any future developments that came my way. Firstly was the need to set-up a program so that I could effectively monitor both income and outgoings so to establish which items ...

Nick is your man for excellent advice

I met Nick soon after I set up in business, having been recommended by one of Nick's satisfied clients. Nick soon set me on the right track & prepared my annual Financial Statements & Tax Return with the minimum of fuss & bother. He also made sure I paid the minimum tax whilst staying on the right side of the IRD. Later on, when I became too busy Nick was able to look at my business objectively and immediately able to pinpoint several easy ways by which I could increase my profit without increas...

Saved us valuable time and money

Nick is an excellent accountant and has saved us valuable time and money looking after our affairs, and we can recommend him without reservation. In particular, Nick was instrumental in achieving a very favourable outcome with a particularly difficult tax situation. Our company had been set up by a firm of Swiss lawyers as a tax scheme on behalf of the Russian owners and acted only as agent to a Bahamas based company, the idea being that the majority of the profits would be transferred to the Ba...

There is nothing Nick fails to add value to

I have known Nick Roberts for a great many years, certainly in excess of 15, and Nick acted as senior partner and point of contact as our appointed Accountant and Auditor during the period that my wife and I developed a successful Professional Engineering services company (of Limited company status) from a family business into a headcount of 38 full time staff. Nick provided accounting, taxation and business planning support at each growth stage of the company. The business grew to a point of pr...

Down to earth business advice

If you're looking for a great accountant and some down to earth business advice, then as a result of his International experience, Nick Roberts does things differently. Nick is a fellow Business Mentor from Business Mentors NZ and: Always comes up with a solution to a problemIs friendly and easy to understandHas many years’ experience in tax and can therefore pinpoint areas for saving tax yet also point out the dangers of a short term approach to saving tax which will give rise to problems lat...

Nick has a passion for what he does

Nick has a passion for what he does. Upon working for us now for over 2 years we cannot be happier with his professionalism and his knowledge in his field. He is the best accountant I have ever had and I could not be happier. He does my end of years, daily GST and adjustments, liaises with me on tax information, gives me advice on investments generally, shows me what I have to think about and meets with us face to face. Very happy customer. Lisa Lomas - Magpie Hawkes Bay Motel...

Nick is reliable, honest and of the utmost integrity

I have known Nick Roberts since 1986, when he originally joined the firm of Chartered Accountants of which I am a partner. Subsequently, Nick was made a full partner of our firm and later became managing Partner. I consider Nick to be totally reliable, honest and of the utmost integrity. During his time as a member of our firm he showed exceptional leadership qualities and communication skills which were recognised by his fellow partners who elected Nick to be our Managing Partner. I always foun...

Nick is the best Accountant I have ever used

Nick is the best Accountant I have ever used. In addition his business knowledge was in valuable throughout our start-up and initial growth. Nick is a top guy in both business and personal life and I have great pleasure in recommending him to any future business or client. In addition, I cannot speak more highly of Nick's professional business knowledge and the help he gave our business and me. Nick can offer any business or individual well-grounded, sound advice in all areas of accountancy, bus...