All Hail Content Marketing!
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Business Growth, Cloud Software, Events, Sales and Marketing, Solutions.Recently we had a new client join us in the tech/marketing space that we thought stood out! It’s called Hail, a platform for you to collect and collaborate on your content. And it seems as though the timing is spot on for them. Many of our customers talk to us about their needs around their marketing (and often sales but that’s another story) and how they can get their message out there. Who will create the material? How will they deliver it? How can they present themselves as the experts they ARE in their industry? The answer is often, Content Marketing.
p: 03 377 0700
fp: 0800 SIDEKICK
m: 021 708 255
Book a time with me here:
Thanks too to Concentrate for their images regarding the stats of US tech co’s
Fee Funders – Innovative Client Payment Solutions
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Business Growth, Cloud Software, Small Business, Solutions.
Meet Fiona Ashford – or Fi – from Fee Funders. Fee Funders take all the stress out of business by giving your customers a spread payment option while paying cash to your business in advance. And what is best is that they are free for Business Owners. We interviewed Fi to find out more about her too-good-to-be-true service.
So Fi, how does Fee Funders work? Fee Funders provide a win/win for the cash-flow of businesses and their customers by allowing the business to offer customers a spread payment solution. The business receives 100% of customer invoice paid to them, whilst their customer spreads payment over 3, 6 or 9 months. This means the business achieves upfront cash-flow at no cost. Fee Funders manage all the payments via direct debit. Their customer pays a competitive flat interest rate of 1.85% per instalment + a $65 set up fee. And the business owner is paid 5 days after we receive the first customer payment. It’s quick, easy and fabulous for the cash-flow of businesses and their customers. We also pride ourselves in being exceptionally friendly and efficient to deal with and funding applications are online taking only minutes to generate. What clients do you work with? Our financial products assist companies such as Accountants, Goods Suppliers, Signage, Web, IT Services, Dentists, Engineers, Coaches, Entertainment providers, Health and Safety Companies, and multiple other industries. Basically we can help any business who’s fee’s/invoices to their customers are between $2,000-$25,000 and who would like a way to offer spread payments while still getting paid up front. There are only a handful of fee funding companies in NZ. Fee Funders is the ONLY one who extends our services beyond the accountancy and legal professions. What is the number one benefit clients get from using you? Definitely Cash-flow. Cash-flow is critical for any business – regardless of size or industry. Chasing payments is time consuming and costly. When your customers pay through Fee Funders you know that you’ll be paid. As you can imagine, the accounts staff love us because we make their job so easy and reduce their workload! Increased sales is the 2nd best benefit. Our clients tell us that they sell more by having the option to spread payments. You have an app! Tell us about that. Yes – we like to make it easy for our Clients and so a mobile i-phone app that quickly works out the repayment amounts is something that many of them use in the sales process. We also have a great online “quick quote” app that’s available to our clients which shows installment and interest charges for amounts and payment terms. It only takes about 2 minutes for a business to generate the funding application and Direct Debit confirmation online -it’s that quick and easy! If you could give one piece of advice to business owners, what would it be? Make it easy for your customers to pay you! What gets you out of bed in the morning? Other than getting the kids to schools on time, have you ever met someone who just so obviously LOVES their job? – I’m lucky enough to be one of those people. I love our clients. I love our product. I love the solution we provide and the lives it changes. I feel very blessed to be in this position. I also love the continual financial up skilling I get from learning about our other specific financial products we have available through www.fundersgroup.co.nz. If you think you could do with better cash flow options for your business, you have nothing to lose for contacting Fi at fiona@feefunders.co.nz or free phone 0800 333 729. www.feefunders.co.nz
Xero Add-on Focus: GeoOp
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Cloud Software, Contractors.
This handy online business software is responsible for revolutionising the Trades and Services Industries. Recently, we caught up with Scott to find out more about GeoOp.
Tell us a little bit about GeoOp…
The tool that started the revolution. Equipping field staff now!
GeoOp is the APP that replaces inefficient, paper based systems with a simple way to accurately create, assign, cost, quote & invoice jobs while in the field.
What are the main benefits tradies will see with GeoOp?
GPS functionality ensures visibility in the office and time saving on the job. GeoOp takes advantage of the mobile devices already in the hands of trade & service staff. Join the revolution today.
Where do you operate?
GeoOp is a global solution, headquartered out of Auckland, New Zealand. We have a Melbourne office in Australia with a range of support and sales staff, and have sales offices setup in London, UK and Denver, US.
Most of our customers are located in NZ, Australia, US and the UK.
What are your thoughts on Xero? How does your software integrate with it?
Xero are a key partner for GeoOp. We integrate with Xero to allow our customers to access and integrate their accounting and stock information to make our already amazing solution that much better.
What is one piece of advice for business owners in your industry? Can you share any lessons learnt from business struggles or challenges that you’ve overcome?
Don’t be scared of change! Embracing a new way of working can be tough, our industries we market to have been working with pens and paper for decades and change can be frightening. But once a trades or service business revolutionises the way it works by implementing GeoOp, the work/time required to adopt a new way of operating pays itself back in spades with the efficiencies gain in day to day work.
Why do you like to recommend our Sidekick service to your clients?
Sidekick are like us, they’ll revolutionise the way you work and will help you reach your goals in business.
Our favourite superhero is Batman because he made sure he has a trusty Sidekick… who is yours and why?
Iron Man because he’s constantly upgrading and staying ahead of the technological curve – Something we strive for + he’s kinda cheeky.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvZiVcuOYBY
Like what you see? Get in touch with GeoOP on their website today! Or see the app for yourself on the Apple App Store, or on the Google Play Store.
Xero Add-on Focus: Deputy
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Cloud Software, Small Business, Solutions, Startups.
This online business software is putting an end to staff roster issues and endless hours of administration. We recently caught up with Kristin from the Deputy team to tell us more about their cool system.
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How to Keep Investors on Your Side
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Business Growth, Cloud Software, Contractors, Small Business, Solutions, Startups.This is a featured Blog from our friends at SeederBoard.
Raising funds for any business is notoriously difficult. Any number of factors can slow things down or get in the way, preventing you from taking your business to the next level.
Once you have completed endless elevator pitches, a frantic search for due diligence paperwork, then working out a fair term sheet, you might finally close the fundraising round.
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Choosing a Cloud Application – Guest Blog – Link Solutions
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Business Growth, Cloud Software, Small Business, Solutions, Startups.No matter what background you’re from, you went in to business to do what you love. Not to spend your time on admin. Reuben Sweeney from Link Solutions talks about what your cool, new-age business needs to consider before choosing the cloud software you think will save you time and money.
It’s tempting sometimes to feel like we’ve reached a higher plane of existence with the rise and prevalence of cloud-based business applications built around the Xero ecosystem. You’ll hear it called The New Economy in comparison to the ‘old’ way we used to do business. Globally New Zealand businesses are pioneering the use and development of cloud-based business applications. New Zealand is consistently at the top of the global list for ease of starting a business and thanks to products like Xero, Unleashed, WorkflowMax, Vend and GeoOp it’s easier than it ever has been to start your business globally with competitive systems, lower overheads and less risk.
With over 380 add-ons, the Xero ecosystem is busy with industry-specific niche applications that will do 90% of what you need them to do all for a small monthly fee.
In the next five years we’ll continue to see the number of applications available increase but some of the slower names disappear. It’s important when researching cloud apps for your business that you consider not just what the product can do for you (feature/functional fit) but where the product is going, what are their priorities, what is being worked on and how often is it being released? It’s easy to fall into the trap of picking one app over another because one will do 92% of what you need it to when the other only does 91%. It’s easy because that’s the way we used to select business applications back when the platform choice was for life and the apps were static. In a cloud environment it’s not the strong that dominate the weak but the adaptable that will dominate the static.
For the first time as users we’re able to cheaply and easily retrieve business information from our cloud-based business applications and have the minimum expectation that the information is live, timely, mobile and accurate. That’s awesome for a lot of things like planning, forecasting and decision making. These apps are allowing our businesses to act and react quicker than our competitors and quicker than we ever have been able to in the past. That’s just the beginning. These are first-generation apps that will quickly become a minimum standard.
We’re already starting to see the emergence of the second generation of apps from companies like Unleashed and Vend. In the new new economy (which it will no doubt be named) it won’t be enough for an app to simply input, organise and regurgitate/dashboard business information to users. They will need to be smarter because the user expectation will shift from demanding information at our fingertips to demanding only relevant, actionable information about our businesses.
The apps that survive the transition (and have already started) into the 2nd generation aren’t the apps that are fighting for the last 10% of function or fit, or the apps that are going beyond and delivering features and functions you didn’t know your business needed. They will be the apps that bring you as a user and based on your user role (organisational roles) relevant, actionable information specific to your identity.
Imagine a world where like an individually tailored newspaper bites of relevant, targeted information are headlined, distributed and announced throughout your business. Instead of a retailer asking ‘what sales have we done today?’, logging into their Vend from Costa Rica and finding out they’ll receive a headline like ‘You’ve sold more of product range X in the last week than you have sold to date’. Wow. The difference is subtle but deep. One is starting to tell a story, asking you questions of you and the other is giving you an answer.
We’re seeing the start of this transition in products like Vend where instead of saying ‘What do I need to order for my store?’ you can have one staff member draft a stock order based on your minimum stock order quantities for each product, have a manager edit and approve it and have an email order automagically delivered straight to the relevant supplier. A product like Unleashed lets you achieve a similar result but for a warehouse. ‘What do I need to order?’ become ‘What’s in my Low Stock Alerts?’. A product like WorkflowMax turns the question from ‘How close am I to budget for this project task?’ to ‘These are the project tasks approaching budget with X% remaining’.
This subtle change in questioning will define those applications that survive the transition into the 2nd Generation of cloud based business applications. Think about what 2nd Generation business applications might look like as you think about what apps might suit your business.
Save yourself hours of app research by calling Link Solutions on 0800 159 672 or emailing contact@linksolutions.co.nz
Reuben Sweeney
021 774 413 reuben@linksolutions.co.nz
Top Tips For Tradies
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Business Growth, Cloud Software, Contractors, Events, Small Business, Solutions, Startups.Sidekick’s National Powered Up Businesses Roadshow brought together hundreds of trades people that wanted a better, easier way to manage their trade business.
We spoke to Andy Burrows from Trades Coach after the event to compare ideas of where trades businesses struggle.(Link to his fantastic blog).
Three issues that we both found important were:
Cash flow, time and cost management-especially for multiple jobs, and blowing the budget.
1. Cash flow
After a long project is over and you have finally been paid, looking at your bank balance can feel great! But if you are a tradie that looks at the $70,000 then thinks you’ve got enough cash for a new ute, you are not working your cash flow correctly.But firstly how well collecting your payments? And if you aren’t getting paid on time, do you know exactly who owes you what?
Options: Payclip– BNZ have a device that plugs in to your smartphone to collect payments for small jobs right then and there. So if you did great work on your maintenance call out and the owner is home, why not get the money now?
Xero: With Xero your debtors are automatically loaded into a projected graph on your Xero dashboard, once you send your invoice off. This means you not only can see in advance when you are due a big pay week, but you can also see which invoices are overdue for payment/who to chase up. Send an invoice from your mobile on the job too, you could charge them for it but it will only take a minute or two.
Now, on top of all of this you need to figure out how much of that money is yours to keep, and how much you need to keep your business growing smoothly and your suppliers paid. Trade businesses have fluctuating income so prepare yourself and make your profits where you can, which leads me to issue two and three.
2.Time and cost management for multiple sites, long hours.
So no brainer, you were busy working on the job, and what time did you finish that job last Tuesday again? It can feel like a chore doing your paperwork which might make you put it off, throw it in the direction of your wife, or get sick of it real quick.This is especially for trades that have multiple small jobs to do like maintenance or plumbing. How are your job quoting systems? Are your staff measuring their time well?
Training your staff and subbies alongside a good system means accurate and quick quoting for your staff, and faster payments. You are also teaching your staff good management, which could benefit them in their trade future. You can learn it together.
GeoOp– It’s quite good if you have an admin lady that answers calls and delegates jobs. She can type the job out as she receives them, and drag and drop them (on the computer) to the staff, who get text alerted with all the details. For the lucky tradie that’s nearest or almost finished, a mobile GPS will lead them to their next job.
With GeoOp, you can utilise your staff’s time and increase your turnover, which means you or your admin can think about marketing, fliers, and getting the guys to drop them in a few nearby mailboxes. Ah, carrying on, but last thing-its integration with Xero pushes invoices, bills and receipts through to the front desk so there’s no double entry. There’s so much to cover, so you may as well utilise a free half hour demo- Vanessa on 021 278 1798 can get you one.
3. Back costing and budget blow outs
Back costing helps you estimate your profit properly. You deserve to make a profit for the work that you do, so charge out accordingly. Once you get in to the habit of back costing you can see how far off you are from your job estimates, and your quotes will adjust to your expectations. At the PUB, about 1/3 of tradies back-costed, so there’s lots of room for improvement.Do you know how to set your budgets? Shaun our CA is passionate about budgeting for success, and will give you a free consultation to talk about how you are setting yours. Call him on 021 644 547. Andy Burrows trades coach blog if you want to check it out.
Thanks for meeting us at the PUB!
8 Tips For Xero Users Before Year End
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Business Growth, Cloud Software, Solutions.You’ll be aware that the financial year is ending as we speak. There are a few things you might need to be aware of. We’ve put together some quick things you need to know as a business owner at this time of year. If you have any questions, feel free to call us on 0800 644 547, we’d love to help you out.
1. Reconcile your accounts
This will give your accounts a fresh start for the year ahead. Reconcile from the dashboard. If you need help charting your accounts to your transactions and you have free phone support in your accounting package feel free to call us.
2. Review Your Receivables
Now this is something you need to do before March 31st as if any of your aged receivables are bad debts, you must write them off as a bad debt expense before then end of this financial year.
To write off a debtor as a bad debts expense, you must determine if there is no reasonable likelihood that the debt will be paid. A clear indication of a bad debt is if a debtor has become bankrupt or has gone into liquidation. In other words, you should only write off a bad debt if you have no hope of receiving the money. We do this so you don’t have to mark bad debts as income for the year.
To review your Aged Receivables Ledger in Xero click “Reports”, then “Aged Receivables”.
3. Have your accounts payable up-to-date
In your Xero ledger, make sure you have your accounts payable up-to-date. Create a list of your bills owed and upload these into Xero Files or manually enter these as money going out as at 31st March 2014.4. Finish off your end of month billing
Complete any outstanding jobs that need to be invoiced out and send them off.5. Complete your March Payroll
Complete your March payroll and enter the payroll tax due for March but payable in April, as an Accounts Payable Invoice. If you use one of the payroll packages that integrate with Xero such as Smart Payroll, then you only need to make sure you have finished the final March payrun.6. Got Stock?
It’s important to set yourself a reminder on the 31st of March to put aside some time to do a stocktake. It’s in your very best interest to do this task, because if you capture the balance of all of your stock on that date, we’ll be able to work with accurate margins and data going forwards.7. Beware of IRD Spam!
There seems to be another round of IRD spam hitting many of our email inbox’s at the moment.Do NOT click on any links if you receive an email from the IRD, it’s more than likely unsolicited mail. There are a few tell tale signs that the email is spam:• Poor spelling and grammar.
• The email often refers to your individual return as an IR4, where in reality an IR4 is for a company return.
• The IRD will very rarely contact you regarding a refund, and even more rarely will they do so via email. • If you have a tax agent (that’s someone like us) the IRD will always contact them directly, rather than go straight to you.
It’s best to err on the side of caution here, the spam email will commonly ask for some form of bank account or credit card details.
14 Things You Can Do Today To Get Your Business Flying in 2014
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Cloud Software, Company News.We’ve compiled this sweet and simple list of 14 top tips to give you the best start to 2014. Follow even just a couple of these and 2014 can be an improvement on 2013. Have some tips you’d like to add? Send them in, we’d love to hear from you!
1. Use Xero add-on software to help you.
We can’t stress this one enough, there are screeds of helpful software that can help your business. Most add-ons are really cheap with fixed monthly fees, they all plug automatically into Xero, and many have fantastic help centres. Click here for the full list.
2. Reconcile regularly.
It doesn’t need to be every day, but if you can set aside ten minutes each week to quickly go through your transactions while they are fresh in your head, you’ll be thanking yourself in the future.
3. Pay your tax on time.
It sounds simple, we know, but not paying by the due date could result in a late payment penalty. And no one wants to start the year off with a fine!
4. Establish a budget.
Before the year gets ahead of you, take some time to draw up a budget for your business. Not your scene? This is something we can sort out for you – and it’s way cheaper than you think!
5. Keep on top of your outstanding debtors.
If there is no cash in the bank, this could be a reason why. If you are having trouble managing your outstanding debtors, we recommend Debtor Daddy, it’s a Xero add-on that you shouldn’t live without!
6. Always seek advice.
Making any big decisions this year? Whether it’s purchasing a new motor vehicle or if you’re looking to employ a new staff member, don’t make blind decisions, we recommend seeking advice first.
7. Keep expenditures separate.
Try your best to keep all personal and business transactions in their allocated bank accounts. It keeps everything nice and tidy, and will save you time when reconciling.
8. Are you getting the best deal?
Take some time to review your company’s current finance and loan situation to make sure you are getting the best deal. Don’t be afraid to shop around!
9. Technology is your friend.
We now live in a technology driven world, and to stay ahead of your competition means keeping up with the rest of the world. You can pick up a smart phone, tablet or laptop pretty cheaply these days – and for the time, money, and stress it will save you, it’ll be your best investment of 2014.
10. Is your risk adequately covered?
Make sure all risks associated with your business are covered. Give your Sidekick Accountant an email for a no obligation review if you aren’t sure.
11. Sit down and set some goals.
We can’t stress the importance of goal setting enough! Be sure to set a mix of short, medium and long-term goals for 2014. Remember – if you set no goals of your own, you’ll be doomed to fill other people’s.
12. Network!
Use all opportunities to spread the word of your business. You could even look into joining or starting a networking group, it only takes as long as one cup of coffee a week and the business it could bring you in return is definitely worth that £2 or £3!
13. Review your processes, save time.
Are you using your systems to their best ability? Are you using any systems at all? Take the time to review your current processes and systems, you won’t regret it.
14. Set aside time for yourself.
We’ve left the best until last here – Go for a run, walk the dog, take the kids for a bike ride, or just do anything that gets you out of your daily routine. We know you’re busy, but spending time on your hobbies will benefit your business as you’ll come back to work with a fresh mind and a happy heart.
Would you like some help with these? Give us a call today.
Xero Add-on Focus: Vend
By aucklandnorth. Posted in Cloud Software, Company News.Frustrated with the shortfalls of your current point of sale system?
If that’s an agreeable nod we see, then boy are we are pleased to introduce you to Vend! You can thank us later… for now have a read of how the guys at Vend describe how you can revolutionise the way you run your store.
Tell us in a nutshell what Vend does?
“Vend creates point-of-sale software that retailers love. One piece of cloud software which includes everything from inventory management to customer loyalty tools. We have more than 8,000 stores worldwide using Vend and that number continues to grow every day.”
How can Vend help SME’s?
“Because Vend is cloud software, users always have the latest and best version without having to faff around with patches and updates. We take care of the technical side of things so they can focus on growing their business. All the important business data is kept secured and backed up online, accessible from wherever they are in the world. Vend also integrates with other great software which smart retailers are using, such as Xero, Shopify and Timely.”
Can we try before we buy?
“Of course! Vend offers a free 30-daytrial so retailers can kick the tyres and make sure it’s a good fit. Heck, you don’t even need to put in your credit card details. If at the end of the trial you like what you see, you can get going straight away.”
Where can we find you?
“You can find out more about Vend at www.vendhq.com, or get in touch with Paul (paulb@vendhq.com) who’s happy to answer any questions you may have.
For the more socially inclined, we can also be found on Twitter (www.twitter.com/vendhq) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/Vend.POS).”
One last question for fun, our favourite superhero is Batman because he made sure he had a trusty sidekick… who is yours and why?
“As you might be able to tell, we’re big fans of the colour green at Vend. The Green Lantern or Incredible Hulk are good fits, but Iron Man after a weekend painting the shed green would work too.”