Small Business

Tips to advertise your small business for free

June 19, 2020 By raadmin

Promoting your business online is important to your business’ growth in 2020. It helps to reach your potential customers, raise consumer awareness about your product/service and increase sales. But before spending the big bucks on marketing and advertising, have you considered the advertising options that are absolutely free and still powerful? Read on to learn more!

1.List your business on search engines and online directories

Registering your business with Google My Business helps people find your business easily on Google and Google Maps as well. This helps optimize your local marketing strategies without spending money! Simply fill out the registration form and get your business verified through the confirmation process. You can also look at online directories that list businesses in your industry and register for a listing as well.

For example, we have a Google listing where potential customers can easily click on the maps to get directions, call us or view our website:

2.Get involved on social media

Using social media is a good way to connect with your customers. Keep in mind that the goal of using social media marketing is not to shove your product/service in their face, but to create and maintain meaningful relationships. To do this, you should post relevant content related to your business/product or brand by telling stories that engage with customers. You should also interact actively with them (e.g. by replying fast, posting polls, etc.).

3.Get involved with the community

You can get on the local community’s good side by getting involved, e.g. raising awareness of a problem, donating to charity. It’s possible that customers will support your business because you stand for something that they are interested in and you make a difference in the community.

4.Host a free workshop

Hosting a free workshop that gives out advice (related to your industry) can deliver promising results. Doing this shows that you are a leader and an expert in your field and builds awareness about your business as well. At the end of the workshop, you should call to action by encouraging attendants to try your service/product and giving out contact information. The next time when someone needs the product/service you offer, they will turn to you or your company for a solution.

5. Encourage customers to leave online reviews

Many people read online reviews before purchasing from a local business, especially on Google, and they are more likely to trust your product/service if they see a good rating from past customers. Make sure that you ask your happy customers to leave you an online review!

For example, customers gave us reviews on our Google listing:

Don’t forget to share this post! Or check out some of our latest articles:

Unhealthy remote work habits to avoid

Tips to create a work from home schedule that works for you

Effective ways to increase your market share

Top tips to increase your customers in 2020

Unhealthy remote work habits to avoid

May 29, 2020 By raadmin

Working from home can give employees a lot of flexibility, but at the same time high-achieving workers can easily fall into the pitfalls that can affect their mental health:

Never taking breaks during the day
Not getting enough sleep
Not keeping in touch with friends and family
Checking work email & notifications frequently outside of work hours
Working through lunch (and even dinner)
Spending too much time getting distracted or on breaks

And many more!

Here are some common WFH bad habits and how to fix them.

1, Not separating work from home life

This is a pretty common problem for many remote workers. Checking work emails many times a day outside of work hours, taking calls and meetings when you already finish work, or just working in the bedroom and getting distracted by your bed or TV. This is not a hard problem to fix. Simply try to schedule your workday and let your colleagues know your regular working hours. Try to keep all your work-related calls and meetings in your work hours too. If you get distracted by your bedroom, try to work outside of your room (maybe move to the dining room?).

2, Expect yourself to achieve high standard work every day

It’s so easy to feel guilty when you have an unproductive day! And we’re here to tell you that’s OK. It’s totally normal that you get super productive some days or weeks, and then not get as much work done other days. We all have the same experience. Our advice for this is: accept the fact that you have ups and downs – some super productive days and some “off” days. Take time to recharge, or be distracted, try to see what you can learn from these “off” days, and move on! Your mental health will thank you.

3, Allow yourself too much flexibility

Sometimes, when you work from home, you may come up with ideas like: “I’ll take a break now and come back to finish work later in the evening” or “I will just take a break for fifteen minutes” but then turn out taking a whole 3-hour break. If you do this, chances are you will only get extra stress later and your work-life balance will probably be ruined. The answer to this is simple: create a structured schedule for work and stick to it! For example, if you decide to work 9-5, clearly mark it on your calendar and actually work 9-5. If you want to take a break for thirty minutes, set a timer and strictly get back to work when the thirty-minute break is over.

It is extremely important to take care of your mental health because it affects many aspects of your life: work performance, relationships, marriage, parenting, and so on. This doesn’t only affect yourself; it also helps people around you: family, friends, colleagues etc. You will also ensure your colleagues feel comfortable doing the same as well.

Don’t forget to share this post! Or check out some of our latest articles:

Tips to create a work from home schedule that works for you

How to engage with customers during COVID-19

Effective ways to increase your market share

Top tips to increase your customers in 2020

Tips to create a work from home schedule that works for you

May 8, 2020 By raadmin

When you start working from home, you may find yourself struggling with building and sticking to a working schedule. Working from home is very different: you may start off your day without commuting to work or chatting with your colleagues, then you may get caught up in your to-do list and realize you have worked through dinner! Or you may find yourself distracted by your surroundings and procrastinate as a result. This blog will walk you through some tips to create an effective work-from-home schedule that will help you stay focused and maintain a great work-life balance.

1, Build a morning routine

Unlike working in the office, remote working now allows you to have some time before work instead of commuting. You may choose to sleep in a bit more, but we recommend that you should spend some time on a morning routine. You can go out for a jog, do yoga for 30 minutes or sit down with your family for breakfast. Having a morning routine before work allows you to spend time with your family and take care of your physical and mental health. You can also squeeze in some housework in your morning routine, so you don’t have to worry about it later during the day.

2, Make a schedule and set alarms if necessary

You may get caught up in your work and work through lunch, or you may forget important meetings if you don’t stick to a schedule. This tip is simple: make a schedule. You can use free and easy tools like Google calendar and note down what you need to do throughout the day, or you can choose to opt-in a fancier tool like a project management software. If you have trouble sticking to the schedule, try setting alarms. Make sure to leave some time for breaks in your schedule as well.

3, Schedule catch-ups with colleagues

Working from home can be lonely. By catching up with colleagues, especially those that you don’t see often, you can get more connected with them. Try a virtual coffee or lunches with them, get to know them better, and stay updated with what’s happening in the company.

4, Take breaks

It’s obvious that you should take breaks during the day, but it’s not easy to remember to do it once you focus on work. Leave time for breaks in your schedule and set alarms for them. To relax during your break, you can try cooking up something quick for lunch, doing a quick workout or calling loved ones. You may enjoy a five-minute break every hour, or a longer break after working for four hours straight – the choice is up to you, just do whatever you feel comfortable with! By taking breaks, you are allowing yourself to relax, prevent burnout and boost creativity.

5, Take some time for yourself

It’s important to set your work hours so your colleagues know that they shouldn’t contact or set up a meeting outside of your work hours. When you finish work, make sure to take some time for yourself. You can catch up with some friends, whip up your favourite dish, or watch a movie with your family. Some great activities to relax are drawing and painting, meditating, writing, going for a walk, singing and dancing.

Effective ways to increase your market share

March 13, 2020 By raadmin

Expanding your market is a good way to increase your market share. Utilizing the right methods will keep your company growing sustainably in the long term. Here are a few effective ways to get you there.

Increase engagement with customers

By engaging more with your customers, customer loyalty will increase. In other words, your customers will remember you better, will come back and buy your products/services and refer it to their friends and family. To do this, you can communicate with them more on social media and email. You can post new content regularly and encourage your audience to comment. Sending personalized email newsletters is a good idea too. Sending a feedback form after they use your product/service will also help increase engagement.

Run a referral program

Finding and approaching new customers takes time and effort. Using a referral program can save you quite a lot of time and attract customers naturally. You can offer a discount or a free sample if your customer refers their friends and family to your company. Take rideshare companies, like Uber for example. By giving customers a discount on their trip when they introduce someone new to the service, they have quickly gained a broader market.

Investigate in wholesaling and retailing

If you’re a wholesaler, consider opening a retail outlet. Or if you only sell through retail channels, investigate entering the wholesale industry. You will definitely reach more audiences in no time. Take a look at this business.gov.au page.

Exhibit at trade events or conferences

Build connections, demonstrate new products and develop stronger relationships with new markets by presenting your business at trade shows. See what trade events are in Australia over the coming year.

Employ smart hiring practices

Companies with high market share usually have the most skilled employees. Attracting and keeping top talents at work can reduce turnover and focus more on core tasks.

To do this, offer competitive salaries and benefits. Providing flexibility at work is also a great way to attract talent. Simply offer more flexibility in how and where people work, you will see a huge difference in productivity. Especially if your competitors are still expecting their employees to work 9-5 every day, your flexible working conditions can be appealing.

NEXT STEPS:

Stay tuned for more blogs that can help you manage and grow your small businesses! Check out some of our past blogs in the meantime:

Top 3 small business challenges and how to solve them

5 Powerful ways to improve your small business marketing

Top tips to increase your customers in 2020

January 30, 2020 By raadmin

To effectively grow your business, increasing your customers is important. But it’s not easy, especially for small businesses not having a huge budget for promotions and advertising. We are here to guide you through 2 key ways to not only attract new buyers but also make your customers happier.

1, FOCUS ON EXISTING CUSTOMERS

Target your best customers with offers

Identify the customers who generate the most profit for your business or who have the most potential for additional sales. Actively engage with these customers to gain more sales. Find out how you can utilize the 80/20 rule in business.

Research what else you can sell

Conduct online surveys or ask customers directly to discover what other products or services they might be interested in. For example, if you own a convenience store, ask staff to informally question customers at your checkout and to take note of what else they would like to be able to buy. Add some of these suggestions to your product or service line.

Investigate creating a customer loyalty scheme

Building a loyalty system with points or loyalty cards is a great way to encourage more frequent purchases and track your customers’ buying habits with the data you collect. For example, if you run a winery, keep a record of your customers so each time they visit they can gather credit towards a free bottle of wine. This can also help identify sales opportunities.

Create a customer database to target offers

Collecting customer emails or addresses enables you to contact them with special offers, new items or useful information. For example, if you had your own taxi business, you could email discounted fares to customers at slower times of the year.

Train staff on ways to improve sales conversions

Ensure your business has friendly, helpful staff that are well trained to take advantage of converting enquiries into sales. Run in-house sales sessions or employ a sales consultant.

Offer incentives for your staff to sell more

Help your staff on-sell to existing customers by offering incentives. For example, if you operated an adventure tourism business with multiple activities you could offer bonuses for selling certain products or increasing the average sale. Learn to build a strong team and stay connected to your staff.

Build a community through social media

Start a Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter campaign (whichever is most relevant to your business) and talk about your business and its customers to increase the profile of your business and encourage additional purchases. Social media is growing rapidly and taking advantage of these platforms can really help grow your business. Creating and sharing content that adds value also helps building a community through social media.

Identify any cross sell opportunities

List the products or services your customers have previously bought and then match complementary items that you could sell to them. Contact them with offers. Always encourage customers to consider buying a higher net margin product or service.

Review your business plan

Go over your business plan to evaluate and update anything that’s recently changed. Check you’re still on track for your growth goals and make any necessary adjustments.

2, FIND NEW CUSTOMERS (WITHIN THE CURRENT MARKET)

Use direct marketing that gets results

Measure the response rates to each area of your direct marketing campaign, whether it be email advertising, direct mail, or online click-throughs. Invest more of your marketing budget into what gets results. For example, if you’re an electrician, consider doing a mail drop in your local area, advertising your services.

Find ways to generate word of mouth

Build up positive word of mouth referrals by getting testimonials from customers, encouraging regulars to refer their friends or family to your business, speaking at events, and networking inside chambers or business associations. For example, if you own a travel agency that offers escorted tours to Europe, get feedback from your customers and ask to use some of their quotes on your website.

Create exclusive offers

Create an introductory offer for new customers only. Sacrifice your regular profits to gain loyal customers that will buy again on a regular basis. Consider what the Australian Government’s business website has to say about finding new customers.

Increase your profile through online directories

To increase your online presence, list your business on the most popular online directories, such as Yelp or Google My Business listing. Alternatively, use these resources to uncover potential new customers (especially through industry directories).

Increase web traffic by improving your search engine optimisation (SEO)

SEO will help increase your website’s traffic leading to a growth in your customer base. Spend some time determining your site’s keywords and keyword phrases so it attracts the right traffic for your business.

Purchase search keywords to improve your online exposure

Consider paying for search engine marketing (SEM) so that when customers search for your business products your web address is more likely to come up than others. For example, if you’re a Lawyer catering to small businesses, you might find there’s a lot of competition so think about paying for an ad that appears on the first search page.

Use Instagram to display your business

Instagram allows you to visually tell the story of your business and its offerings through images. When potential customers like your product or service images (which can be linked to your other social media accounts), you might get an avalanche of views.

Create regular blogs

Keep your content fresh and updated by writing regular blogs about your business, your people, and successful case studies. Regular blog content can be important for increasing your SEO and driving traffic to your website.

Run demonstrations or workshops to educate clients

Run demonstrations, workshops or events to showcase your business to existing or new customers. For example, if you’re a martial arts instructor going it alone, create a series of workshops to show potential clients the skills and benefits of learning through you.

Network by joining business associations

Networking with like-minded business individuals is crucial to managing the right business contacts in your industry. Uncover potential customers by attending industry events.

Create a targeted marketing plan

Outline a specific marketing strategy that’s aimed at new customer segments. Then develop a precise advertising plan to build awareness and encourage purchases. For example, if you’re targeting truck drivers, create a billboard theme that plays on words and back that up with occasional radio adverts.

NEXT STEPS:

Stay tuned for more blogs that can help you manage and grow your small businesses! Check out some of our past blogs in the meantime:

New year resolutions for small businesses

Top 3 small business challenges and how to solve them

5 Powerful ways to improve your small business marketing

New year resolutions for small businesses

January 23, 2020 By raadmin

Happy new year! As 2020 begins, right now is a good time to reflect on your business’ progress over the last year and plan the year. Don’t forget to make New Year’s resolutions for your business to grow and reach new heights this year. Here are some resolutions that can be helpful for small businesses in 2020:

1, Give your business a financial health check

Many small businesses were hit by cash flow problems last year. To avoid the same fate, take a serious look at your business’ balance sheet and its profit and loss account. Consider whether you have sufficient headroom and is there anything you can do to improve? For example, do you need to spend more time chasing late payments, or could new financing facilities provide an answer?

2, Boost your marketing efforts

Marketing is always an important part of operating a business. Good marketing attracts customers, keep them loyal and encourage them to recommend your service/product to others. In other words, it raises company profits and reputation. If your company hasn’t focused on marketing, then you should do it now.

Customers are important – always do your research to see what they look for in a product/service. Keeping up with trends is also important to market your product/service better.

3, Make your customers happier

This year, why not talk to your customers and see what you can do to make them happier? Happy customers will keep coming back and refer to friends and family members to you. By listening to them and collecting feedback, you will know what you need to do better.

4, Stay updated with tax laws, regulations, and deadlines

Make sure to talk to your accountants to ensure that you are up-to-date with all tax laws and regulations that may affect your business. Ask them for filing deadlines and set up alerts and reminders for the year.

Action plan: Talk to our expert accountants today for advice! Give us a call or book a consultation on 07 3367 0852.

Top 3 small business challenges and how to solve them

November 28, 2019 By raadmin

1, Finding and approaching the right customers

This is the problem that many businesses face. Even big firms still spend a lot of time and energy coming up with strategies and plans to find and attract more customers every day. For small businesses, it might be more difficult considering the scale of operation and tight budgets. Having a great product or service is not enough to let customers find and trust your business. Your team must go out and actively look for potential customers using a variety of strategies.

No matter what your strategy is, it is crucial to consider who your ideal customers are. Mass targeting doesn’t work on a tight budget, so you need to be careful about targeting the right consumer. Get started by crafting buyer personas: what they do, where do they spend time online, what are their buying behaviors, etc.

Here is a persona template for you to get started:

2, Raising brand awareness

Brand awareness is extremely important for every business to grow. It represents how familiar your customers are with your brand and how well they recognize it. Raising brand awareness helps your customers remember your brand better, build trust over time and increase your company’s value. In other words, once your customer is aware of a brand, they start to recognize it, make a purchase, prefer it to other brands, and trust the brand more overtime. This means that they will be likely to make more purchases in the future and recommend the service/product to their friends and families as well.

Here are a few ideas to boost your brand awareness:

Offer freemium: Offering a free basic product/service line and only charging for products at the premium level is a very popular (and effective) strategy for software companies like Hubspot, Typeform or Hootsuite. This gives consumers a free chance to experience the product/service before purchasing, and the company will get free advertising when consumers use it.
Co-marketing: Partnering up with another company can help you get a better reputation and awareness outside of your circle. Unlike co-branding, co-marketing doesn’t involve releasing new products/services and are easier to plan, launch and manage. It provides a win-win situation for both companies to reach a wider market, learn more about customers and earn better attention.

3, Hiring talent

Hiring talented people remains one of the biggest challenges for businesses, according to the Conference Board Annual Survey. Hiring new people is a complex process that requires a lot of time and money. It is easy to just send out a job description, screen applicants, and make a decision. But how do you make sure that the candidate is the right one for the job?

To answer this question, companies can create a candidate persona, which is like the buyer persona described above, but for candidates. This persona should showcase the ideal traits and skills suitable for the job and align with the company culture. Finally, don’t forget to measure the results to better tailor your hiring strategies in the long term.

5 Powerful ways to improve your small business marketing

November 7, 2019 By raadmin

As a small business, we understand how other small businesses struggle with managing a budget for marketing strategies. A small budget doesn’t mean that you can’t get creative and succeed with your marketing campaigns. Our blog is here to guide you through some powerful tactics to utilize your marketing game and not spending too much money.

1, Profile your target market based on certain characteristics

Conducting research about your market is not enough, you need to identify your target audience and classify them into groups based on characteristics. Some common (and effective) ways to segment a market are:

Demographics (Age, gender, income, education, social status, occupation,…)
Geographics (City, country, living area,…)
Psychographics (Lifestyle, personality, attitude, values,…)
Behavioral (Benefits sought, purchase usage, intent, occasion,…)

It is also important to keep in mind that your target market should have a need for your product/ service and be willing to pay for your offer.

2, Create and share content that adds value

By publishing content that brings value to your audience, your brand will attract people and gain more audience overtime. You don’t even need to attempt to sell your products, sharing knowledge and value-added content is enough to give people a reason to follow and listen to the brand. Consider sharing content that is relevant to your business and your followers as well.

3, Level up your Google My Business profile game

You see Google ratings and business profiles everywhere, but did you optimize this yet? Filling out your Google My Business profile now to take a big step in local marketing. Make sure to include important keywords to optimize your SEO. Additionally, putting up some nice photos would improve your credibility.

4, Get listed in online directories

Getting on directories will drive traffic to your site and increase awareness. Depending on your industry and product/service, you will find different online directories that are suitable for your company. Many of them are free or have paid options but the basic one is usually free.

5, Leverage micro-influencer marketing

Micro influencers (those with small reaches) are often cheaper than highly regarded celebrities. Research has shown that these influencers usually communicate and engage with their audience more. In other words, they are perceived as trustworthy and influential among their followers. Working with them can form a strong community around your brand and build better awareness. For instance, you can easily use tools like TRIBE or Scrunch to connect with micro-influencers based on your product and desired audience.

Minimum Wage Increases, What They Mean For You

June 14, 2019 By raadmin

The Minimum Wage Panel on 30 May 2019 handed down its minimum wage decision for 2019.

From the first pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2019, the National Minimum Wage will increase to $740.80 per week, or $19.49 per hour.

What this means for you:

Employers who pay their employees at the National Minimum Wage or Modern Award rates of pay will need to apply the increase in the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2019;

Employers who currently pay above National Minimum Wage or Modern Award rates of pay are not obliged by this decision to increase their rates of pay, but need to ensure their rates remain at least as beneficial, once the increase is applied; and

Employers who pay under enterprise agreements must ensure that the base rates in those agreements remain at least equal to the new minimum Modern Award rates. If you pay any of your employees under annualised salary arrangements you will need to conduct an audit of those annualised salaries against the new Award rates and working patterns to ensure the annual salary compensates for award entitlements.

If you are an employee unsure of the award rates for your line of work, you can check out the award calculator HERE

Need Help?

If you need help with updating your pay systems for these new rates, don’t hesitate to contact our expert accountants!

ATO Waving Penalties For Unpaid Superannuation Payments

March 15, 2019 By raadmin

The ATO will be waiving penalties for the hundreds of businesses who have admitted failures to pay superannuation to their staff after a ‘botched’ amnesty.

An amnesty was rolled out in May of 2018, which offered employers who failed to pay super entitlements stretching back to the 1990s a “clean slate.” Unpaid super is estimated as being worth up to a whopping $6 billion a year in Australia, with the government hoping this initiative would encourage employers to pay their workers super entitlements.

While the policy has been dumped, the amnesty for employers will still run for 12 months. Anyone failing to use this amnesty as a time to declare their past wrongdoings is warned they will face penalties in the future to the sum of half the money owed, on top of the unpaid super.

Employers who have already made claims to the ATO are being treated as though they had voluntarily reported themselves under current rules. This means they must repay unpaid super as well as interest to the employee and an administration fee per employee of $20 per quarter.

To be eligible for the superannuation amnesty, businesses will need to:

Not be subject to an audit of your Superannuation Guarantee (SG) for the relevant periods
Voluntarily disclosed amounts of SG shortfall or late payments that have not been previously disclosed for any period from 1 July 1992 to 31 March 2018
Made the voluntary within the proposed 12-month amnesty period (24 May 2018 to 23 May 2019)

If you are unsure whether you are meeting your superannuation requirements effectively, give us a ring on 07 3367 0852 or email us at mail@raaccountants.com.au