Today, 26 May is National Sorry Day.  It is a day to recognise the grief, suffering and loss suffered by the stolen generations and the mistreatment of Australia’s first nations peoples.

As a non-indigenous Australian, several things sadden me about today.

The first is that very few Australians really know the truth about our history.  

For example, many people would know about Australia’s so called biggest mass murder, which happened in Port Arthur in 1996, where 35 people were killed.  This is what appears if you google “Australia biggest mass murder”, but that is not Australia’s biggest mass murder by a long shot. 

Did you know that according to research by the University of Newcastle there was at least 9 instances of mass murders of 200 or more of our first nations people.

This same research has identified 402 mass murders (with 10,797 first nations victims) between 1788 and 1930 at the hands of the “white” person.  Just have a look at the yellow dots of the map of Australia showing where these mass murders happened and how many dots there are on the map.  And this research just looks at incidents with 6 or more victims.  Who knows how many other first nations people were murdered in this time. 

Did you know that before 1838, you could kill a first nations person in NSW and not suffer any consequences.

I hope that as part your own response from the recent referendum, you actually took the time to learn more about the history of our first nations people and actually speak to some of them.

Next I often cringe when I hear the Acknowledgement of Country from a non-indigenous person.   Are they saying this because it is part of some DEI requirement or do they actually believe it.  I expect it is the former.

The third thing I am sad about is that this is just one day.  In my view any Acknowledgement of Country should be extended to say we are truly sorry for the mistreatment of the Australia’s first nations peoples in the past and promise to do better in the future.  This way we are saying sorry on more than one day a year

If you truly want to say sorry to the first nations people of Australia, go and educate yourself about what they endured and vow that this should never be repeated.

And don’t forget National Reconciliation week starts 27 May

For those who want to learn more about the massacres here is the link to the website

Wayne Wanders is an experienced Business Advisor and Outsourced CFO who can help to scale and grow your business profitably. Wayne may also be able to assist you in preparing any grant application. 

Contact Wayne on wayne@arealcfo.com.au or 0412 227 052.

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Want a confidential discussion on your business situation, help with your grant application or to learn more about my Outsourced CFO Services, simply email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052

If you are a service business (as distinct from one selling physical products), there is a chart in today’s June quarter GDP numbers issued by the ABS that should start to put a smile on your face.

That is, that services consumption in the June 2022 quarter, in real inflation adjusted dollars, is for the first quarter in the past 2 1/2 plus years, higher than the last pre covid quarter in December 2019.

Now we wait an see what impact all the interest rate rises has on spending next quarter and the lead up to xmas

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

To ensure I help your business specifically, the best approach I have found is to have an obligation free session with you.  In this session we will review your current business in a factual and objective manner, to better understand the challenges that you face.  And this session does not need to be face to face.

At the end of this session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free sessions.

To get help you successfully navigate your way through your financial challenges so your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times, simply use the contact form on the left to email Wayne or call him on 0412 227 052.

Let Wayne Wanders, a fully qualified and experienced CFO, help you successfully navigate your way through your financial challenges so your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.

Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO

wayne@aRealCFO.com.au

On a recent radio interview, I talked about why a focus on increasing revenue can mean your business ends up growing broke.  Today I want to show how this can happen.

Business 101

Many business books and accountants won’t tell you this, but there is a really simple rule when you are trying to grow your business.  And this rule is:

Putting it another way:

Let’s look at an example of Growing Broke

You are selling a product or service for $40 a month.  It costs you $35 to deliver that product or service.  You are making $5 a month ($40 – $35) from that customer. 

Now, on average you keep a customer for 10 months.  The lifetime value of that customer is $50 (being $5 per month x 10 months).

If it costs you $60 to acquire that customer, every time you add a new customer you are growing broke by $10. 

Why, because revenue goes up by $400 ($40 x 10), but your costs go up by $410 ($35 x 10 + $60).  Their lifetime value is $50 but it costs you $60 to acquire them.

If you add 1,000 of these customers, this is what happens:

This is why many businesses end up growing broke. And that’s why ………………………

What can you do to stop growing broke?

If you have your accounting system set up to tell you this information, you can now start to make some business decisions to turn this around.

In this case can you:

• Get more revenue from the customer each month?
• Increase the time the customer stays with you?
• Reduce the costs to deliver the product or service?
• Reduce the costs to acquire the customer?
• Do all or several of these?

These are specific actions and targets that you can now pass onto your team.  You are much more likely to get a positive outcome, from these questions, than you would from a generic question of why aren’t we making money.

How do you determine your acquisition costs and lifetime value of your customer?

Unfortunately, I see very few accounting systems set up to provide the above information, hence why very few businesses actually ask these questions.

To overcome this, I have developed my unique “Bucket Accounting System”.   To learn more about my Bucket Accounting system click here

If you want a confidential discussion on your business situation, contact me below

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

Yesterday I had the experience of directly comparing the level of customer service & attitudes of a private business with a government department.

Both examples involve my motorhome which has been parked up, unable to driven for the last 2 months due to travel restrictions.

Private Business – a while ago I had reported fraud on my credit card and was issued a new one.  I had forgotten that the monthly insurance premiums on our motorhome were coming out of this credit card until I got a letter saying the insurance was cancelled for non-payment.  Rang up the insurer, explained the issue, gave them the new credit card details and insurance re-instated in less than 5 minutes on the phone.

Government Department –Whilst the inspection was done for the registration renewal, because the vehicle was parked up off the road, I just delayed paying the registration. Went the pay the registration and could not.  Rang the appropriate department and after an hour on the phone found out that the inspection certificate had expired and there was no way they would extend it, even though they knew there was travel restrictions.

The response from one, totally customer focused.  The response from the other, stuck on the monopolistic, bureaucratical rules, no consideration for the customer.

How will you treat your customers?

If you want a confidential discussion on your business situation, contact me below

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

At the end of this session, you will have multiple ideas on how your business can survive and thrive in these uncertain times.

Simply fill in the contact form below or email me at wayne@aRealCFO.com.au or call me on 0412 227 052 to organise one of these obligation free sessions.

Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO

wayne@aRealCFO.com.au