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e-news | December 7th, 2007 |
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Business News |
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Business NewsIntroduction of a ‘BAS Easy’ option for small businessSmall businesses with an annual turnover of less than $2 million will be eligible to select the new BAS Easy option when filing their returns. The new Labor Government has promised to bring in BAS Easy, under which small businesses are given the choice between two methods, known as the business norms method and the snapshot method. Under the business norms method, the ATO issues a business norm for each category of business, which a small business then applies to sales and/or purchases. Under the snapshot method, a business takes 2 snapshots per year of their GST sales and input tax credits. Each snapshot covers a 4 week period. The 2 snapshots are averaged and the resulting ratio of input tax credits to GST is applied to all other periods. Further features of BAS Easy include removing the requirement of annual reconciliation and limiting the auditing powers of the ATO to cases where a taxpayer is suspected of fraudulent activity. How to stay the course and winThose looking to unleash the full potential of their business may gain insight by reading the feature in December My Business by Gloria Jean’s co-founder Peter Irvine. ‘Where there is no vision, people lose focus,’ he says, before warning against negative mindsets, with research showing one in 10 people will be negative about anything you propose. It often seems more as these people are generally the noisiest. Just get on with the job you are confident of achieving as “The moral of the story is — don’t live in other people’s mindsets.” Instead, get good advice which comes in many worthwhile forms: consultants, people with experience and objectivity, teaching CDs (listened to during car journeys); spending item with positive people for positive input. Developing a ‘yes’ face shows a display of confidence. Teamwork is vital, so get the right people to make sure you head in the right direction. Remembering one definition of insanity is “To keep doing the same thing in the same way while expecting a different result,” Peter’s next message relates to the importance of marketing, and focusing everything that you do on your core idea. Time wasting on the internetNew research has confirmed that the internet is a major source of time-wastage for many employees, including pornographic material and social networking websites. More than half (55%) of the human resources (HR) decision makers polled in the Clearswift survey had caught employees wasting time on the internet, or had disciplined employees for wasting time on the internet. Pornography was found to be a particularly prevalent time-waster: 60% of respondents had either found staff accessing pornography or disciplined staff for accessing it via the internet. A large majority (79%) of HR professionals reported blocking access to social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Despite these policies, 68% of surveyed HR decision makers reported leaving monitoring to the IT department. Businesses encouraged to carry out a website health checkThousands of businesses may be breaking the law without realising it, according to an Australian intellectual property law expert. A partner at law firm, McCullough Robertson, Malcolm McBratney, said recent developments in intellectual property law indicate businesses will be liable for infringing copyright on their websites, even if they’re unaware they are doing so. “If your website contains links to other sites which breach copyright, you might be authorising infringement even if the sites are not hosted in Australia or the infringement occurs abroad,” Mr McBratney said. “The design, logo, images, photographs, artwork and written content on your website are all copyright material so it is essential your company owns the material or obtains a licence before using it. “I am sure there are thousands of websites in Australia that are infringing copyright and in many instances the operator of the website would be unaware they are doing anything illegal.” Mr McBratney also warned businesses to ensure their websites do not contain any defamatory material, even if somebody else posted it on their site. “If your site enables users to comment or contribute material that is defamatory, you may be liable for republishing it, even if you don’t know of or review the content,” he said. “The risk of this is particularly high if your website enables users to contribute content through discussion forums or blogs. Reducing your Christmas email stressEnd of year holidays can be a bitter sweet experience. It’s great having time out of the office with friends and family but less pleasant having to return to face reams of emails. But there are ways you can reduce the email load. Office productivity expert, Donna Hanson, says that you should start by customizing your Out of office message. Senders then know that you are absent and who they can contact as an alternative. Pre-warning your clients about the office closure or your absence also helps. This can be facilitated by a footnote on outgoing emails. For those with the capacity and need (or desire) to check work emails from home, it’s best to set a daily or weekly designated time period for greater efficiency. Before taking holidays, delete or tidy up emails and file under company or topic, making it easier to follow up. That may involve archiving older mail to a network drive, memory stick, external hard drive or virtual server. Hanson also recommends regularly emptying the deleted items bin; using flags and reminders as prompts on items that need to be completed before Xmas; and reviewing your email folder structure to ditch or archive irrelevant folders or create sub-folders for easier retrieval. Small business owners show confidenceMore than three quarters (77%) of small businesses surveyed by MYOB rated their current business performance positively, which has increased slightly since last quarter (74% in July). Despite concerns about interest rates, petrol prices and competitive activity, small businesses are predicting a good year in 2008. Around three quarters of small businesses surveyed (76%) are confident about their business prospects over the next 12 months, with around a quarter (24%) expressing that they were extremely confident. This positive outlook reflects a constant trend from previous quarters (76% in April and 77% in July). While two thirds (65%) of small businesses surveyed expect their business performance to be better in 12 months time than it is now. However while they are confident about their business prospects over the next 12 months, overall around a quarter (24%) of small businesses expect the Australian economy to perform better over the next 12 months. This has decreased by 7% since July (31%). The MYOB Australian Small Business Survey Report found that the outlook is good for employment, with 27% of small businesses surveyed intending to employ staff within the next 12 months. This is slightly higher than previous quarters (23% in July and 24% in April). Peak retail industry body the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is very confident the Christmas period will be a bumper season as consumers cash in on good cheer and prepare themselves for increased spending. According to ARA Executive Director Richard Evans the October ABS figures clearly indicate consumers are in a high-spend period and confidence is growing as they buy up big for their homes. “Although there has been an extremely slight reduction in month-on-month spend (0.2%) the overwhelming evidence is that consumers are creating growth for the economy,” Evans said. “Retailing is the economy’s barometer and year-on-year spend so far has increased a staggering 7.6%. This means our projections for Christmas 2007 are for an even greater growth of 7.6% from 2006. The stand-out categories are home-based including domestic appliances at 13.8% and furniture at 13.4%” Unravelling the tax treatment of entertainmentChristmas is the season to be jolly, but employers need to be wary of the sack full of business tax treatments that can be confusing. To demonstrate the many and varied treatments, taxation experts Peter Bembrick and Jolyon Dare of HLB MannJudd outline a series of hypothetical entertainment situations. These include gatherings of business people on-site or off-site, with or without light refreshments, with or without alcohol, with or without guests or spouses, during a workday or after hours, and away on business travel or not. As many permutations as there are, there are different treatments of Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) and tax deductions. One common denominator among businesses this time of year is the staff Christmas party. Meal entertainment costs associated with staff Christmas parties are generally tax deductible, but subject to FBT. Where costs of the Christmas party do not exceed $300 per head, these costs may be treated as minor benefits and exempt from FBT. However FBT exempt meal entertainment is not tax deductible. To gain a broader understanding about different aspects of taxation, see the summary in this month’s My Business magazine on sale now at newsagents. World first for Minister for Independent ContractorsThe association representing private contractors - the Independent Contractors of Australia (ICA) – has welcomed the appointment of Craig Emerson is the new Minister Small Business and Independent Contractors. His portfolio also covers small business, services economy and assisting the Finance Minister with business red tape reduction. The ICA says that Australia led the world with the first Independent Contractors Act that ensures independent contractors are subject to commercial law and not industrial relations law. The ICA said it applauded the appointment of Dr Emerson as the Minister to secure this principle. ICA believes this is also a world first. During 2007, ICA had extensive liaison with the ALP on its independent contractor policies. We have consolidated the three major statements they made to us. The ALP advises us that these statements are its policies. http://www.contractworld.com.au/reloaded/ica-news.php Learning to benefit with affiliate marketingThe internet is now the third largest advertising medium after newspapers and television, and its growth has given rise to new marketing techniques, including “Affiliate Marketing”. During 2006, affiliate marketing revenues increased by more than 200 per cent and web strategist, Andrew Dalton, reports that Affiliate Marketing is estimated at more than US$6.5 billion annually, of which more than AU$50 million is spent in Australia. Affiliate marketing is a modern version of spotter’s fee, with sellers of goods or services online commissioning an online salesperson to do the selling. Sellers use a third party website or user to drive a visitor, lead, sale or subscriber to them. This ‘pay on performance’ model means advertisers only pay once their online goals have been met in the shape of a real and measurable action by the consumer. Advertisers decide what they are prepared to pay per desired result, whether it be Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) - paying when a sale is generated from an affiliate website; Cost-Per-Lead (CPL), with advertisers paying when a lead such as an email enquiry or subscriber is generated from an affiliate website; or Cost-Per-Click (CPC), with advertisers paying when a click through is generated from an affiliate website to their website. To learn more about affiliate marketing, read the online business strategies section in the December issue of My Business. Free business succession CDA free CD ROM addressing the vital 'how to' strategies of business succession planning is now available to business owners Australia-wide. Produced by Ernst & Young, and funded by the Australian Government under the 'Building Entrepreneurship in Small Business' program, the free CD-Rom includes a video-based introduction to succession planning and an extensive knowledge base covering 18 key succession planning topic areas. Rod Willers, Program Director of the Small Business Succession Planning project at Ernst & Young said: "The free succession planning CDs provide important knowledge to the owners of small businesses across Australia by helping to raise awareness of how to best prepare for one of the most critical times in the life-cycle of any enterprise - ownership and leadership transition. By appreciating ahead of time the requirements and benefits of effective succession planning, business owners can help maximise the marketability and sale value of their business, assisting their smooth and successful move from full-time work into a well-earned retirement - or perhaps an entirely new venture altogether." Business owners and business advisers can order their free CD-Rom by visiting www.sbsp.com.au or by calling the order hotline on 1800 048 855. Development funds for independent retailersMetcash’s $100 million revolving fund arrangement to assist IGA independent retailers’ reinvestment strategy officially begins this week boosting IGA’s already strong growth trends. Trevor Wilson, General Manager Retail Operations, said the new funding aims to encourage IGA retailers to invest in store redevelopment, expansion and refurbishment with the aim to lift the average reinvestment rate from once every 15 years to once every 7 years. “Metcash will assist retailers by providing an incentive rebate to assist in meeting forging interest burdens associated with loans – essentially it is an ongoing strategy that will see Metcash reloaning funds as retailers repay their loan,” Mr Wilson said. The strategy is designed specifically for existing stores to reinvest and continue driving IGA’s strong sales performance that can be attributed partially to existing growth strategies. “We’ve already had an increase in IGA retailers reinvesting back into their existing stores with 47 refurbishments completed this year already and another 50 proposed. AnnouncementsNominations open for Victoria’s most prestigious environmental awards.
Nominations are open for the Premier’s Sustainability Award, Victoria’s most prestigious environmental awards. There are five categories in the 2008 awards: Public Sector; Community; Small Business; Large Business; and Products or Services. The five categories awards recognise Victorian businesses, communities and individuals that demonstrate outstanding leadership and contribute to a more sustainable future for our state. Premier John Brumby said there are many companies and individuals are already achieving great sustainability outcomes within their industry. “These Awards recognise those Victorians leading the way in environmental sustainability and ensuring our natural environment is protected and preserved for future generations.” Said Mr Brumby. Previous winners of the Premier’s Sustainability Awards include Origin Energy who has more than 140,000 green power customers and Cheltenham based business Frigrite, a manufacturer of refrigeration cabinets that use 12 per cent less energy and reduce carbon emissions by 84 per cent. Frigrite’s Managing Director, John Carew, believes winning the Award has set Frigrite apart from its competitors. “Winning the Premier’s Sustainability Award has positioned us as the leading provider of low emission air-conditioning and refrigeration in the marketplace,” Mr Carew said “Public interest in green products is very high and Frigrite has benefited from the recognition that comes from winning an Award endorsed by the Premier of Victoria. “Any business that’s reducing its impact on climate change should consider entering the Premier’s Sustainability Awards.” Said Mr Carew The Premiers Sustainability Awards, hosted by Sustainability Victoria, will be presented by the Premier on 17 April 2008. The Awards are free to enter and entries close 13 February 2008. For further information on the Premier’s Sustainability Awards and previous winners, visit www.sustainabilityawards.vic.gov.au | |||
