You may ask why does Cafe Books specialises on the hospitality industry? The reason is that business is progressively becoming more complicated and it is simply too hard to be an expert is every industry. Cafe Books have chosen to specialise in hospitality because we enjoy working in hospitality and we are tired of seeing poorly qualified bookkeepers working in such a demanding industry. It is time that cafe and restaurant owners had a bookkeeping service that provides them with real support and value to make the most of their opportunities.

The advantages of working with a bookkeeper who is an industry specialist include the following;

• Industry specific accounting knowledge so that your accounts reflect the real performance of the business and are comparable to industry performance indicators
• Understanding of GST and it application to the industry, awareness of the difference between GST and GST free status of purchases and sales
• Knowledge of leading industry Point Of Sale systems including Redcat, Macromatix and Macro Solutions
• Knowledge of Industrial Awards including the Restaurant Industry Award 2010 and the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010. Including employment terms and conditions and pay scales.

Many industries such as accountants specialise in disciplines such as taxation and audit, Cafe Books acknowledges that the bookkeeping industry must also specialise and provide people with specialist industry knowledge to ensure clients get the most from working with their bookkeeper.

For more on making the most from your business our specialist Newcastle Bookkeepers have the skills to help you make the most out of every decision and ensure that your bookkeeping problems are solved quickly. For a complete list of bookkeeping services contact Craig on 0448 712 303.

However, the increasing development of “Cloud” applications provide an opportunity for small business owners to track business activities and improve productivity and profitablity. Some applications that can assist small business owners include project management tools such as Basecamp, work flow / invoicing tools such as WorkflowMax and Freshbooks.

Online accounting programs have been around for a few years now and systems like Xero and Saasu are starting to make in-roads into the market share of traditional accounting systems such as MYOB and Quickbooks. Quickbooks has an online solution and MYOB’s system is due for release later in the year.

We have invested quite some time to learn these systems and have clients currently using them with great results. The main benefits of these systems is that there are no large upfront software costs and secondly any interested party can view information, the client, the accountant or the bank manager. All they need is a login code and a computer with internet access. Xero and Saasu have posted security statements on there website which state that the security of these systems is akin to the online banking systems provided by the big banks.

Existing business may be reluctant to transfer financial data from their existing “inhouse” systems to the online world, but new business startups with tech savvy proprietors are giving consideration to these online systems.

The emergence of online accounting systems may pose a few challenges for the profession such as preserving the duty of confidentiality, particularly where third party information will be disclosed outside the client firm, in the form of an external server somewhere in the world. Nevertheless it is a significant advance in the way accountants will process client information in the future, possibly only matched by the emergence of systems like MYOB and Quickbooks in the 1990’s.

The best Australian restaurants were in 27^th place Quay Restaurant Sydney, 46^th Tetsuya in Sydney, 67^th Marque in Sydney and Melbourne’s sole representative Attica came in 73^rd. Sydney’s foodies will certainly be claiming bragging rights over Melbourne for this year.

The leading restaurants in the world were 1^st Noma from Denmark, 2^nd El Bulli from Spain and 3^rd The Fat Duck from Britain. In a surprise to many and a dent to French pride, there are no French restaurants in the top 10 with the highest ranking French restaurant being Le Chateaubriand at 11^th. Spain can claim to be the world’s best for this year with four entries in the top 10, just ahead of the “fast food continent” the United States with 3 in the top ten.

For a complete list go to http://tinyurl.com/23ryx2t

Bookkeepers providing BAS services will need to be registered as a BAS Agent. They will need to comply with specific standards relating to their education and experience and also satisfy the fit and proper person test.

The Tax Practitioners Board (TPB) is the new body responsible for administering the Act. The TPB has broad ranging powers to make orders under the Act including (but not limited to) the issue of a written caution, ordering the suspension of a person’s registration or in the case of serious breach applying to the Federal Court to impose a civil penalty, which for an individual may be a fine of up to $27,500.

It is important that bookkeepers understand their responsibilities under the Act and commit to satisfying the standards to become registered as a BAS Agent.

Downloads

Tax Agent Services Act 2009 Download Tax Agent Services Act 2009

Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009 (Draft) Download Tax Agent Services Regulations 2009 Exposure Draft

Tax Agent Services Act 2009 Explanatory Memorandum Download Tax Agent Services Bill Explanatory Memorandum 2008

Andre Rieu is currently winding up his Australian tour and I was fortunate to go to one of his concerts, a first for me! As far as my musical “pedigree” I am not an aficionado when it comes to classical music, I play guitar but my skills are equivalent to the weekend hacker at golf.

Before I start my babble perhaps I should provide a little background information for those of you who don’t know who Andre Rieu is. Andre Rieu is a classical musician who produces enormous stage shows that have to be seen to be believed. Andre Rieu is the all time highest selling musical act in Australia and has been unfairly labelled by the “stuffy musical elite” as presenting “Classical Music for Dummies”. But he certainly knows his market and what to sell to them!

Watching an Andre Rieu concert is an incredible experience. Even my kids love it when the orchestra start playing Bananas in Pyjamas. But I also watched the concert and saw a unique business perspective, and not in terms of the fact that he has sold millions of DVD’s and CD’s. Andre Rieu currently has 4 DVD’s in the Australian top 20 charts. Pink only has three!

When you listen to orchestral music you are confronted with a wall of sound, 50 or more instruments all playing at the same time. It takes great talent to put all this together into a great piece of music. But what I noticed was each instrument played a unique part in the performance and if you listen to each instrument individually many would bare little resemblance musical piece being played. The combination of playing the right note at the right time, at the right tempo produces a result that is truly magnificent.

Is your team playing the right note at the right time?

Great teamwork is crucial to an orchestra just as it is in business. Great teamwork relies on having the right person in the right seat. Don’t ask a percussionist to play the piccolo. Too often we make the costly mistake of squeezing the wrong person into the wrong role and then wasting time training them. Dedicate time to recruiting the right person and developing the skills they have, not on developing the skills they don’t have! In terms of working on an individuals skills, prolific author Marcus Buckinham says, “work on what was left in, not what was left out”.

The other observation that I made was how much fun Andre’s orchestra was having. If you have watched an Andre Rieu concert, you will notice that everyone is having a great time laughing and joking around. Not the usual high-brow classical concert! How can these people, who play the same pieces of music, night after night, continue to produce outstanding performances and remain enthusiastic. The answer is PASSION.

When Andre Rieu introduced his orchestra, he made special mention to the one thing that drives his orchestra to produce these amazing performances, ”they play from the heart”. His team love what they do, they are passionate and they give so much night after night and enjoy themselves.

Have a look at your team, do they genuinely love what they do? Are they passionate? Successful people often have an enthusiasm that drives them to go above and beyond the call. They are passionate about what they do. Contrast this with the clock watchers and the ones that couldn’t care less. To produce great results you must have passionate people.

Small business can learn from watching Andre Rieu and not just about his music. Small business people can learn to:

Ø Recruit the right people in the right roles,

Ø Give them the correct equipment to play the right note at the right time, and

Ø Develop people with passion.

Finally if you still don’t know who Andre Rieu is, click on this link to watch one of my favourite pieces of music. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yBmJbC3woo

Every time I go to a McDonald’s restaurant and order a meal I am always asked the following question, “would you like to up-size that?”. For the record, I generally say no, but think of how many times that question is asked in every McDonalds restaurant across Australia. More to the point think how many people actually say yes and pay the extra $1 or so. How much extra McDonalds earn every day from simply asking “do you want to upsize that?”, $500,000, $1,000,000, $2,000,000? The bottom line is that it really doesn’t matter, what matters is that McDonalds train their staff to up-sell and it works and it makes a lot of money.

Think in terms of how it can work for your business. Using the following assumptions, you sell to 700 customers every week and they spend on average $20 per visit. Simply by increasing the Average Customer Sale by $2.00 will result in an increase in weekly sales of $1,400 and an annual increase of $72,800. There are many strategies you may use to increase the Average Customer Sale, such as “spend $22 and get a widget free” or suggestive Selling “special” products which will increase the Average Customer Sale.

Taking the assumption one step further, let’s dare to dream for a moment. Imagine if you increased the Average Customer Sale by $4. The impact is that gross income would increase by $145,600 per annum. This may be an optimistic outlook but before you say it can’t be done, let me say that it is and with great success, just ask McDonalds, KFC or Harvey Norman.

But it is not an easy strategy to follow, training your staff to upsell or upsize is not natural to most people and hence may not feel comfortable doing it. It is important to identify the products that you upsell, training staff to “ask the question” and making sure that the products offered are considered valuable and that you don’t harass your customers in the process. Good luck.

Passion is the difference that makes me go the extra mile. Call it commitment, call it what you want, I call it passion. Passion drives me to continually look for better outcomes, either in life or in business, it is the difference when times get tough and I need to dig a little deeper. Passion is a focus that continually drives me not only to do those things that I like to do but also the things that I need to do. The difference between success and failure is often an accumulation of those 1% moments, those little moments that make the difference between a good job and a great job. Passion often makes the difference when it comes to those 1% moments.

In essence my response to my client, was, “I’ll tell you why passion is important to me. I love what I do and I am committed to my clients and passionate about my business. To get the most out of life you need passion, without passion there is no persistence, without persistence there is no performance. Without performance we are all just spectators on the stage of life. I choose not to be a spectator”.

That is why passion is important to me. Why is it important to you?

Our parent company Real Balance Business Consulting provides a financial control service that is the most comprehensive “in-business” financial solution for business people. It is like having a GPS for your business. The key difference between our financial control service and a standard bookkeeper is that bookkeeping is only one part of our total solution. Our financial control solution includes comprehensive financial reporting and business and strategic planning. With Real Balance on your team it is just like having a qualified financial controller on staff to help you get the most out of your business.

At all times our clients know how their business is performing as we maintain a consistent regime of keeping their accounts up to date, monthly reporting and business planning. The real value add for our clients is that we “get right into” the business and understand what the business is all about and how we can make our contribution.

In addition to the standard accounts and payroll functions we provide our clients with detailed analytical support to help with pricing decisions, product/service choice decisions, cash flow management and inventory control. We believe that good financial control goes well beyond entering invoices into an accounting system. Financial control makes sure that those invoices are entered in the right place to start with, and then interpreting that information, assessing and applying it to the business.

As a CPA business our clients know that we comply with strict ethical and professional guidelines and as such we are the only financial control firm in Newcastle that is truly accountable for the performance of our work.

Real Balance has redefined what business owners should expect from their bookkeeper. Our Financial Control service is focused on working in the business with our clients, we are on hand at all times which takes the pressure off as they know they can call us at any time. Business people should not just settle for a bookkeeper they should demand Financial Control.

It is never easy when a customer decides that they no longer wish to work with you. Unfortunately, it is part of business. Your main aim, over the course of time, is to make sure you gain more than you lose!

Some of the reasons why customers make “change decisions” are price, quality, availability of goods and in some circumstances simply due to a clash of personality. Regardless of what you think the reason, don’t get angry. Ask the question, why don’t you want to buy from us anymore?

Take the time to call the customer by phone or personally visit them with the objective of understanding what it was that persuaded them to leave you. There are two factors at play here, 1. What is the customers need? 2. How did they rate you product/service experience?

It may be that the customer’s needs have changed and your product no longer satisfies there need. This decision may be a cause for concern or it may not. If the customer has chosen to pursue a “low cost” strategy yet your products satisfy a “high quality” strategy, it is evident that the two strategies are no longer aligned and you may need to accept that you are unable to meet the customer’s needs. It is important to understand what segment of the market your products satisfy and to ensure that the delivery of those products meet the customer’s needs.

However, if your product strategy and the customer’s strategy are aligned and yet the customer no longer wishes to work with you, you have a problem and you need to  understand why. The best place to start is with those customers who have dumped you! And this leads to the second question, how did they rate your product experience? Don’t let your ego get in the way, ask the question, and seek to understand why your business was unable to meet the customer’s needs. Was the quality acceptable? Was the pricing competitive? Where your staff pleasant to deal with? Don’t be afraid to ask questions that have have “painful” answers for you.

Your objective is to understand how you can do your job better.

But what makes a “great coffee”? The most talented baristas will tell you about the beans, the temperature of the milk, the frothing and grinding. But this post is not about the “science” of making a great coffee it is about what makes a “great coffee experience”. A “great coffee experience” involves so much more than the caffeine high. It includes the atmosphere and ambience of the surroundings, the food temptations, the service and of course a great coffee made by skilled baristas.

The best cafes and restaurants generally excel in each of these. They make fantastic coffee, offer good healthy meals or light snacks, a warm and friendly atmosphere where you can enjoy a little escapism even if it is just for a brief moment in time and finally excellent service where the staff know your name and in my experience know the name of your children! Diversity in the experience is what separates the great cafes from the ordinary ones. They fundamentally have “four bows in the arrow”, one day you may go and the coffee may be below expectations but will probably still receive outstanding, personable service or a great meal.

At Cafe Books one of our favourite “coffee experiences” is Hippo Espresso at Warners Bay. Hippo Espresso is a great social place to catch up with friends or for brief business meetings. Hippo offers everything, the Baristas are very talented, the coffee is perfect and consistent. Hippo Espresso provides a complete menu with healthy eats and light meals. The staff are warm and friendly and the African themed decor takes us away on our very own African Safari. Where is your favorite “Coffee experience”?

Contrast this with the franchise coffee shops in suburban shopping centres! Many of these provide very basic customer service as speed is the key, their interior decoration is clean and tidy, but certainly no escape experience! Some offer healthy fresh meals and quick eats whilst others offer “bulk” produced cakes and desserts and of course the coffee! Depending on who you talk to or which survey you read some of these franchise chains don’t even do coffee that well. Some have been described as having an “unpleasant flavour” and “bitter aftertaste”, ouch … not good if coffee is your business! Yet these businesses do well but that is a topic for another day.

The bottom line is that regardless of whether you own a small franchise coffee shop or an architect designed cafe it is crucial that you identify your strengths and focus your energy on these areas. This becomes even more important if your only strength is “the coffee”, every effort must be made to make your coffee the best it can possibly be and ensure that your customers come back time after time.

If you fail to impress your customers the first time, every time you may not get a second chance to impress.

For more on making the most from your business our specialist Newcastle Bookkeepers have the skills to help you make the most out of every decision and ensure that your bookkeeping problems are solved quickly. For a complete list of bookkeeping services contact Craig on 0448 712 303.