• Are you in Danger of a Business Implosion?

    | Categories: Business Growth , Business Tips , Implosion , KPIs , Revenue

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      Recently the world was transfixed on a catastrophic event where several people lost their lives due to the implosion of a small submersible vessel called The Titan.  Some people called the people involved heroic explorers, others called them silly for taking such a great risk. Which camp are you in? Either way, what I’d like to talk about is risk, and how to manage it by becoming a world class company and avoiding a catastrophic event. What can you do to insulate your business against risk? The following are the 6 Key Process Indicators (KPI’s) that greatly reduce risk and and help your business…

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  • Did You Realize That Your Service Business Has Inventory?

    | Categories: Business Growth , Business Tips , Inventory , Service

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    What’s that you say? What have I been smoking? No, really, I’m not kidding you here. Service businesses really do have inventory they are trying to sell. Now before you think I’ve really gone off my rocker, let me explain… A service has two main things to sell: Time Knowhow And hey goofball, anytime you provide a service, you are selling both of these finite items. Let’s define what these mean… Time: You do know that there are only so many hours in the day, right? You can’t add any more (unless you have some magical power). The only thing you can do to expand…

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  • Are cash flow problems draining your business revenue?

    | Categories: Building Strategy , Business Coaching , Cashflow , Revenue

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      It all depends on which world you’re in… What’s that you say? That doesn’t make sense to you? Well, it might if you think about it a little. When we experience cash shortages, our behavior changes, and sometimes it’s not always for the better. Let me introduce you to two different worlds: The Cost World The Throughput World The Cost World In the Cost World, we are very focused on costs. We look at every single expense and try to reduce it. We also tend to be obsessed with allocating all costs against the production of income.  But isn’t that a smart thing to do? After all, that…

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  • Are you sure you know how to customize your offering for customers?

    | Categories: Building Strategy , Business Tips , Service , Target Market

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      Lots of people talk about how unique their products and services are. Many times when I listen to them, I start yawning. Boring… Why? 2 main reasons: Sellers tend to look at their offerings from their perspective. How much did this cost me to produce? What features and benefits should I offer? Sellers can be lazy. They don’t have a clear sense of their market demographics, and they don't do the market research to validate the characteristics and size of their markets. What does that mean? Well, it usually translates into sellers becoming product pushers. And when sellers do that, they make it…

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  • Top 10 tips to save money on your software subscriptions

    | Categories: Expenses , Profit First

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    Software Subscriptions (SAAS products) are a major expense for many (if not most) business owners.  And it’s no longer just one or two subscriptions - most businesses now have 10 or more active software subscriptions. And prices can be really expensive - I’ve got one that costs us around $1000 a month! Most offer different pricing and payment plans, and many offer the choice between monthly payments and annual payments.  There can be considerable savings by paying the subscription annually instead of monthly.  But not all savings are really worth it. Here are my top 10 tips to managing your SAAS subscriptions. Know…

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  • Are you giving away $20,000 of free money? CEBA Loan Forgiveness Deadline approaching fast!

    | Categories: Canada , CEBA , Interest , Loan

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    (updated for announcements made 14 September 2023) If you participated in the Canadian governments COVID business loan program (called the “Canadian Emergency Business Account” or CEBA for short) then you benefited from a loan of up to $60,000 of cash during the pandemic. But like all good things, they come to an end and these loans have an important deadline coming up.  While the loan itself is not due until 31 December 2026 (extended from 31 Dec 2025), if you repay most of the loan by 18 January 2024 (extended from 31 Dec 2022) you will qualify for up to $20,000 in…

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  • The problem of wandering bottlenecks, and how to settle them down

    | Categories: Building Strategy , Business Tips , Finance , Marketing , Operations

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    Here’s an interesting fact: Every organization has 3 main functions: Sales and Marketing to generate opportunities,and close deals. Operations to produce and deliver the goods/services sold Finance/Administration for accounting, HR, and other admin functions. Knowing this allows us to understand how work flows through the company. In fact, it’s linear. It must pass through all 3 functions in that order to generate money/profit. Are you aware that every business has a bottleneck, or constraint? That is a mathematical certainty. Why? Because if your business does not have a constraint, you’d have infinite profits. And even Apple doesn’t have that (although some think they are close)... Your…

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  • Is Your E-Commerce Business Profitable?

    | Categories: advertising , Business Coaching , Business Tips , Cash Management , E-Commerce , Inventory

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    Well, is it? If you are struggling a little with that let’s talk about how to turn that around. Online businesses have two main challenges: Inventory Management Promotion/advertising Management Really both of these areas stem from the same core problem. What’s that you say? Allright, I’ll just say it again. In order to have a successful online business, you only need to solve one problem. What is that one problem? Cash Management! So what are you thinking at this point? You probably want to ask, “Ok smarty pants, why do you think that’s the problem?” Fine, I’ll tell you… Inventory Management What is the definition of inventory? Most…

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  • Who is your ideal client/customer?

    | Categories: Customer , Building Strategy , Business Coaching , Business Tips

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      Have you ever asked yourself this question? There are several reasons this is important: Do you like your customers? Some we really like, some we tolerate, some we dread every time the phone rings. So in other words, some customers suck up energy and some give us energy. Which can you do your very best work with? Duh… The Pie Is Usually Big Enough I love pie, don’t you? Let’s compare your market segment(s) to a pie. Every market pie has a certain size. It’s impossible to serve the entire market (or eat the entire pie). It’s too big, or at least it should…

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  • Does Reviewing Your Financials Sound Really Intimidating?

    | Categories: Building Strategy , Business Coaching , Business Tips , Cash Management , Future Financial Planning , Profit First

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      It’s ok, you can be totally honest with me. And I will be honest with you, too.  Most business owners hardly ever look at their financials. There are several reasons for that: The financials are not very accurate It’s difficult to read the financials because they are so messy looking It’s difficult to understand how those financial results ended up on the financials The info on the financials is too old to be useful How in the world can you implement our Profit First Cash Management System (PFCMS) without accurate financials? Answer: It’s almost impossible.  Let’s look at your financials one by one. You good with that? Let’s…

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  • How should I store my business documents

    | Categories: Building Strategy , Business Tips , documentation , Operations , Productivity

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    Cloud storage is now easily available to everyone.  This gives the advantage of knowing that your files are backed up and being able to access them from anywhere.  You shouldn’t be storing important files on your computer alone or on memory sticks.  But just throwing files randomly in a folder isn’t helpful either.  You need to be able to organize them so that each file’s purpose is clear without having to open it and so that you can quickly find files when you need them. To organize files well, you need both an organizing folder structure as well as a file…

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  • I Don’t Get No Respect…

    | Categories: Business Tips , employment , Operations

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    Do you remember the comedian Rodney Dangerfield? That was his signature line. “I tell you, I don’t get no respect. When I was born, I was so ugly the doctor took one look at me and slapped my mother.” Do your people respect you? Are you getting the results you need from them? Do you sometimes wonder about their commitment? You might ask yourself this question. How do you feel or how do you typically respond when someone tries to exert control over you? I like to watch people walking their dogs. Sounds strange? Maybe it’s because I love dogs. I noticed that…

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  • Try this hat on for size!! (How to increase your company throughput…)

    | Categories: Profit , Business Growth , Business Tips , Cashflow , Operations

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      Instead of living in the “Cost World” try living in the “Throughput World.” If you are focused on the speed and amount of throughput in your business (while maintaining costs) you are assured of making more money now and in the future. Why is that? It’s because you are looking operationally and systematically at things you can do to improve throughput, which ALWAYS results in making more money. And if you really want to do a deep dive into this area, pick up a book called “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt. It will completely change your perspective about business!!  In our next…

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  • Are cash flow problems draining your business revenue?

    | Categories: Business Tips , Cashflow , Profit First , Revenue

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      It all depends on which world you’re in…   What’s that you say? That doesn’t make sense to you? Well, it might if you think about it a little. When we experience cash shortages, our behavior changes, and sometimes it’s not always for the better. Let me introduce you to two different worlds: The Cost World The Throughput World In the Cost World, we are very focused on costs. We look at every single expense and try to reduce it. That’s not a bad thing unless it affects the Throughput World. In the Throughput World, we are paying attention to the speed/pace of the business, and amount of…

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  • Why is it so Expensive to grow? (How to use PFCMS as a Strategic Planning Tool)

    | Categories: Business Tips , Cash Management , Future Financial Planning , Profit First

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    Have you ever thought about this? When your business grows, cash can become strained. Why is that? Great question. That shows your interest is piqued!!   The answer is actually quite simple. When your business grows you need additional working capital. Think about that for a moment. When you hire additional employees, expand your inventory to accommodate more sales, buy additional technology or add licenses. Hey, it all adds up!! So now what do you do? Hmmm… All these things require additional funding. And more revenue doesn’t always provide enough cash flow to fund it when needed.  First and foremost, it’s not like birthday…

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  • Is there a recession coming? Oh, well let's ask our economists!

    | Categories: Business Coaching , Business Tips , Recession , SWOT Analysis

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      Such a question!! And the answer changes about every 15 minutes. Some economists say yes, some are not so sure. Isn’t it strange that we keep listening to disciplines that never have to be right? Economists and weathermen! People we love to hate!! So what should we do about this? Here are two steps you can take NOW to minimize the impact of a recession on your business. Interested? Yea, I thought you might be…  Step 1: Get out a 4 burner stove and put a pot on each burner. Yes, I’m being serious!! Each pot represents a market segment in your business. You…

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  • It's time to change your BNZ Bank Feed

    | Categories: Bank Feeds , Business Banking , New Zealand , Xero

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      Xero is changing the way that it connects to BNZ for its bank feeds.  You need to make a one-time change to ensure that your Xero bank feed continues uninterrupted.  While this change doesn't have to happen until late August, it's best to get this done now. Before you begin you do need to use the Business Banking online product from BNZ.  If you only log in using your personal banking access number then you should contact BNZ right away to get setup with Business Banking online.  If you don't know that you have business banking, then you're probably using personal…

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  • Are you ready to SWOT something?

    | Categories: Business Growth , Business Tips , Productivity , SWOT , SWOT Analysis

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      Sometimes I get a little frustrated and feel stuck. Do you ever feel that way? No? Well, then skip this article. But if you do, and you’re thinking about swatting something (leave that poor puppy dog alone…), let me share something that really helps me work through “stuff” when it starts piling up in my head and feels unmanageable. Here’s the recipe: Step 1: Find a quiet place and get a piece of blank paper Step 2: Draw two lines separating the page into 4 equal quadrants Step 3: Label the top left “Strengths”, the top right “Opportunities”, the bottom left “Weaknesses”, the bottom…

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  • Who wants game changing business advice that will 100% guarantee that your business is profitable?

    | Categories: Profit , Building Strategy , Business Growth , Business Tips , Cash Management , Profit First

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

    Did I just get your attention? I’m very glad I did!! So by now you’re asking how in the world can I make such a bold claim. I can absolutely guarantee it. How? By implementing our “Profit First Cash Management System (PFCMS)". Have you heard of Profit First? Our friend (yes, he’s our friend) Mike Michalowicz wrote a book a few years ago called “Profit First.” I first became acquainted with Mike at a conference several years ago. I was so enthralled with his presentation that I immediately bought and read his book. Then I called up his office to see what…

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  • Do you need a Shareholder Agreement?

    | Categories: agreement , Business Tips , contract , directors , dividend , shareholders

    Blog by Fuel Accountants

      Frequently we get a new client that has a great business and is running it with their “best friend.”  They have total alignment and everything is running smoothly and they can’t foresee even the possibility of things not working out perfectly. We love these clients!  But we hear ominous ticking sounds.  At some point this pollyanna-ish position will change and a dispute will arise.  Having a Shareholders’ Agreement is an absolute necessity when you are doing business with anyone other than your spouse (even then it’s still a good idea, but consult with your family lawyer as well here as local…

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