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.

Click on the below buttons to access free Resources developed by Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO to help your business scale and grow profitably

And Wayne is always posting about new grants, funding options and other resources on LinkedIn that can help your business scale and grow profitably.  Click on the below links and connect with Wayne or follow A Real CFO on LinkedIn.

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

I have been writing these briefing notes for my small and medium business clients for a while now.  And this has to be a new low in Federal budgets for small business.  The 2024-25 Federal Budget Strategy and Outlook (the main budget paper) mentions “small business” just 27 times out of 440 pages.  The 2023-2024 equivalent budget paper at least mentioned “small business” 46 times.

This shows how much the current Federal Government thinks about small business.

And this makes a mockery of Anthony Albanese’s statement at the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) national small business summit on 4 April 2024, where he said “I’m here because the Government that I lead respects and values every one of Australia’s 2.5 million small businesses – and the more than 5 million Australians employed by them.”

The Labor Government has a funny way of showing respect to small business.

Read below to see the new 2024-25 budget announcements potentially impacting your small or medium business.  And in particular there was nothing nestled I could see in respect of a startup looking for a government cash injection.

Small and medium business instant asset write-off

For small businesses with annual turnover of less than $10m, the instant asset write-off of up to $20,000 per eligible asset has been extended to assets which are first used or installed ready for use on or before 30 June 2025.  Note the legislation for the 2023/2024 year instant asset write off has yet to be passed.

Energy Bill Relief Fund

The Energy Bill Relief Fund will be extended which will deliver up to $325 in electricity bill relief for eligible small businesses from the Federal Government..    You don’t need to do anything to apply for this as it will appear on your bill.

Continued Funding for small business programs

The Federal Government will continue to fund the NewAccess for Small Business Owners

Program; the Small Business Debt Helpline; the Cyber Wardens program; improving payment times;, adoption of einvoicing; Energy Efficiency Grants for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises program.

The “New” Defence Industry Development Grant Program

Depending on which budget paper you read there is up to $183.8m available for small and medium business under the “new” Defence Industry Development Grant Program.  But I expect this just replaces the existing Sovereign Industrial Capability Priority Grant program.

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.

Click on the below buttons to access free Resources developed by Wayne Wanders, A Real CFO to help your business scale and grow profitably

And Wayne is always posting about new grants, funding options and other resources on LinkedIn that can help your business scale and grow profitably.  Click on the below links and connect with Wayne or follow A Real CFO on LinkedIn.

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

The 2023 Startup Muster measures and publishes the progress, challenges and opportunities within the Australian startup ecosystem.  It was based on a survey of over 1,100 people in the ecosystem including 585 founders.

Some of the things I found interesting include:

• Founders seem to have less enjoyment with their startup – possibly indicating the current economic conditions.
• The top 2 events in founding a startup are identifying a compelling opportunity and solving a problem they were experiencing.
• The biggest missing skill set in a startup remain marketing, sales and business development.
• The Research and Development Tax Incentive is the 3^rd highest funding source after the founders own money and family and friends.
• 54% of startups surveyed have not received any grant funding and 62% are not planning to apply for grants. Which seems to go against the big pot of money potentially on offer under the National Reconstruction Fund.
• Startups on average have less than 10 months of runway, which is surprising as it often takes more than 10 months to close a founding round. When you add to this that 34% of startups have no financial forecasting, I sense an impending cash crunch in the startup sector.
• Average age of founders in the survey is now 46 with the number of founders aged under 40 decreasing in the last 5 years. But conversely 24% of incubators and accelerators are run by universities.

To read the full 2023 report click here

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Here is another example of the impact of product and labour constraints and interest rates on Australian Businesses.  According to the ABS, there were 16% less new businesses opened in 2022-2023 than in 2021-2022.  And at the same period business closures were up 21%, nearly wiping out the growth in new business.

If you want help to improve your your businesses chances thriving and surviving in these uncertain times contact me below.

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Here is another example of the impact of lockdowns, product and labour constraints and now interest rates on Australian Businesses.  According to the ABS, there were 150,282 business exits in the December 2022 quarter.  This is 27% higher than the December 2019 quarter.  And this follows on from the September 2022 quarter there were 127,255 business exits which was nearly 44% higher than the September 2019 quarter. 

Overall in 2022 business exits were 23% higher than 2019.

Wonder what the stats will look like in the March 2023 quarter as the post Christmas let down occurs?

If you want help to improve your your businesses chances thriving and surviving in these uncertain times contact me below.

Contact Wayne Wanders for your FREE Business Survival Session

If you read the Women’s Budget Statement released with all the other October 2022-23 budget papers you will find the term “gender pay gap” mentioned 47 times.

With this amount of focus, you would think that the Budget actually had some real, concrete ways to tackle this issue.

But if you read what the Government is proposing you see a large number of motherhood statements that in my view will do little, if anything, to move the needle on this issue.

Funnily enough, the Women’s Budget Statement actually hits on what I consider to be one of the largest contributors to the gender pay gap.  And this is what is called in the Women’s Budget Statement “industrial segregation”. 

This refers to:

• The unequal distribution of women and men in certain   For example the high proportion of women in what I call the caring industries, Health Care (75%) and Education and Training (73%), relative to the low proportion of women in Construction (14%);

and,

• The unequal pay between different industries. According to the ABS the median weekly earnings in August 2021 was $1,057 for health care workers, $1,250 for those in education, but $1,305 in construction (a 23% premium to the median in health care).

You can see this from the image which was copied directly from the Women’s Budget Statement.

My conclusion from this is that we, as a society, seem to pay less for workers in the caring industries than we do for other industries.

So to make meaningful change to the Gender Pay Gap, we need to increase the pay rates of those in the caring industry which will proportionally impact more women than men.

Now we see in the budget, the Government tasking Fair Work to evaluate pay in the Care and Community sector to help close the gender pay gap.   

Sounds like the right thing.  But here is the really annoying part.   Guess who is the biggest employer in the health care and education space?  Governments

And who indirectly funds the bulk of the child and aged care workforce?  Once again various governments.

So the politicians could make meaningful steps to close the Gender Pay Gap just by looking at the pay rates for the people they employ / subsidise.  They don’t need Fair Work to make a determination, they can make the decision on pay rates.  Just like every other employer who decides that they need to pay above award rates to attract and retain staff.

But instead of actually doing something to close the Gender Pay Gap, in my view the politicians keep on deflecting to business owners, with somewhat meaningless motherhood statements. 

Does this mean the politicians mouth platitudes about it, but have no real intention of closing the Gender Pay Gap?

If you want some help, 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

As part of the 2022 Federal Election, the Labor Party promised a “Better deal for small business”.  Sounds great but Labor’s policy document at the time was very light on detail, and in my view this continues in the budget announced last night. 

For example in the Treasurer’s speech the word “business” was mentioned just 3 times.  In the key budget paper, Budget Measures (Budget Paper 2), “Ukraine” is mentioned nearly as many times as “business”.

Here are some of the positive points for small business in the budget announcements:

• $15m to extend the small business mental health and financial counselling programs.
• $62.6 million over 3 years to support small to medium enterprises to fund energy efficient equipment upgrades. The funding will support studies, planning, equipment and facility upgrade projects that will improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions or improve the management of power demand
• Strengthening unfair contract term protections.
• Hopefully more workers through the provision of 480,000 fee-free TAFE and community-based vocational education places and 20,000 university places and the increase the 2022–23 permanent migration program from 160,000 to 195,000 (assuming the increases can actually be filled).
• Exempting eligible electric cars from fringe benefits tax.

On the other side here are some of the negative points for small business in the budget announcements:

• The election promise to help reduce power bills is gone with forecasts for electricity and gas prices to rise sharply over the next 2 years (as much as 30% next year).
• Reductions in spending on external contractors, consultancies, advertising, travel and legal services may adversely impact revenues of selected businesses.
• There was $197.7 million over 4 years taken from Entrepreneurs’ Program which includes Commercialisation grants.
• The Temporary Full expensing provisions (effectively 100% asset write off) that were planned by the previous government to finish on 30 June 2023 have not been extended.
• No money that I can see to help business around cyber security.
• No changes to R&D funding.

In addition to the above there is:

• $15.0 billion allocated over 7 years to establish the National Reconstruction Fund (NRF) to support, diversify and transform Australian industry and the economy through targeted co-investments in 7 priority areas. These priority areas are: resources; agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors; transport; medical science; renewables and low emission technologies; defence capability; and enabling capabilities.  The co-investments includes loans, guarantees and equity investment.  How much the NRF will apply to small business is still to be determined as appears to be focused on large projects..
• $1.9 billion Powering the Regions Fund. This will provide dedicated support to transition regional industries to net zero.

Overall, from my perspective, a budget that forgot about small business.

If you want some help, 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

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

According to ABS data released today, inflation is the highest it has been since 2009.

This will place pressure on the Reserve Bank (RBA) to raise interest rates to bring inflation back towards its target range of 2-3%. 

But this will be a huge balancing act for the RBA as increase interest rates will in my view:

1. Reducing the spending capacity of borrowers, putting pressure on consumer demand, which will constrain the growth of our economy.
2. Put more pressure on already struggling small and medium business owners who only survived the last 2 years on the back of debt.

The RBA will need to balance out whether it acts to put the inflation rate back towards its target range now, and at the same time hurting the growth prospects of the country, or let it ride a bit longer. 

Although, historically the RBA tries to avoid rate changes in an election cycle as a rate increase in early May, just before we go to the polls, may hurt the current government.

If you want a confidential discussion on your business situation, or help to work out your labour rate reach out to me below.

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Contact Wayne and arrange a free, no obligation Discovery Session.  At the end of this Discovery Session, you will have multiple ideas on how to grow your business profitably faster.

To get Wayne to help you successfully navigate your way through your financial challenges to grow your business profitably faster, simply use the contact form on the left to email Wayne or call him on 0412 227 052.

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The 2022-23 budget was announced last night could be said to be an election budget with cash being given to voters.  But how much of that cash will go to small and medium business owners?  In all honesty not much.  Read below to see the 2022-23 budget announcements potentially impacting your small or medium business

My biggest disappointment in this budget is that it fails to address what I see as one of the major issues facing many small and medium businesses right now.  This is the ability to find and retain good quality staff.  A simple change to the pension rules for income (where currently for every dollar for a single person on the pension earns above $180, or $320 for a couple, you lose 50 cents of your pension), could have freed up many, many, more people willing to step in and help out small and medium business with their staff shortages.

Fuel Excise

Fuel excise will be cut by 22 cents a litre for the next 6 months.  This should reduce pressure on transport costs for your business and your suppliers.

Skills and Training Boost

Businesses with turnover of less than $50 million, will be able to deduct an additional 20 per cent of expenditure incurred on external training courses provided to their Australian based employees. The external training courses will need to delivered by entities registered in Australia.  This applies to money spent from 30 March 2022 till 30 June 2024.

For example, if you spend $100, you get a tax deduction of $120.  So, the after tax cost of that training (at 25% tax rate) is $70, instead of $75.  But when the profits are distributed to the owners, there are fewer franking credits, so the benefit for the individual owner is minimal.   Click here to learn about the Boost Smoke and Mirrors in the 2022–23 budget

Technology investment boost

Businesses with turnover of less than $50 million, will be able to deduct an additional 20 per cent of expenditure on business expenses and depreciating assets that support their digital adoption, such as portable payment devices, cyber security systems or subscriptions to cloud-based services. An annual cap of $100,000 will apply.  This applies to money spent from 30 March 2022 till 30 June 2023.

For example, if you spend $100, you get a tax deduction of $120.  So, the after tax cost of that training (at 25% tax rate) is $70, instead of $75.  But when the profits are distributed to the owners, there are fewer franking credits, so the benefit for the individual owner is minimal.  Click here to learn about the Boost Smoke and Mirrors in the 2022–23 budget

Wage subsidies for new apprentices and trainees

The Boosting Apprenticeship Commencements (BAC) and Completing Apprenticeship Commencements (CAC) wage subsidies have been extended to include new employees starting in your business from 1 April to 30 June 2022.  Under this scheme you could get up to $28,000 in wage subsidies and you can get the skills and training boost additional deductions for the training costs you may pay.

The Australian Apprenticeships Incentive System (AAIS), then comes into place from 1 July 2022, replacing the BAC and CAC scheme.  Under the AAIS scheme, employers can get wage subsidies for apprentices training in priority occupations of up to $15,000 for city employers and up to $21,000 for regional employers.  These apprentices can also receive assistance of up to $5,000.

Changes to PAYG

Businesses may get some cash flow relief from changes being made to the pay as you go (PAYG) income tax instalment system.  Firstly the PAYG uplift factor between years has been reduced from 10% to 2% for businesses with less than $50 million annual aggregated turnover.  Secondly, from 1 January 2024, businesses will be able to modify their PAYG instalments based on actual business performance.

Export Market Development Grant EMDG

For those who applied for the 2021-22 EMDG, the grant funding was severely reduced per applicant.  It appears that the government is allocating $80m more to the EMDG scheme, which hopefully results in higher grants for businesses with annual turnover less than $20 million.

Boosting Female Founders Initiative

There will funding for around another 100 applicants through the Boosting Female Founders Initiative program.

Establishment of the Regional Accelerator Program

Establishment of the Regional Accelerator Program to drive transformative economic growth and productivity in regional areas, targeted to local priorities in infrastructure, manufacturing and industry development, skills and training, research and development, and education.

Energy and Emissions Reduction

More funds were announced to support increased private sector investment in low emissions technologies including hydrogen, in affordable and reliable power, and in carbon capture and storage pipeline infrastructure.

Boosting the Modern Manufacturing Strategy

There will be further investment in the Modern Manufacturing Strategy and National Manufacturing Priorities (NMPs) to support businesses in NMP sectors to deliver high-impact projects.

Carry Over from 2021 – 2022 Budget

Also don’t forget some of the announcements in the 2021 – 2022 budget come into effect on 1 July 2022.  These include:

• Staff earning less than $450 per month will be entitled to superannuation.
• The ability to deduct the full cost of eligible new and used depreciable assets of any value, for businesses with turnover less than $50m, has been extended to 30 June 2023 (Temporary Full expensing).
• The ability to “carry-back” tax losses against previously taxed profits extended to the 2022-23 year.

Want some free or subsidised Business Advice?

Reach out to me if you are based in NSW and would like some free or subsidised business advice.

If you want some help, 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