4 Things You Can Do To Make Sure That You Are Following The Tax Rules

4 Things You Can Do To Make Sure That You Are Following The Tax Rules

When it comes to accounting and bookkeeping, it is very easy to make mistakes, especially if you aren’t very experienced. Unfortunately, even small mistakes can have big consequences when it comes to tax time, and the Australian Tax Office (ATO) won’t hesitate in penalising you.

Accountants Australia advise that it is therefore very important to make sure that you do everything in your power to follow the Australian tax rules, even if they seem complicated. There are a lot of different ways that you can do this. Four of the simplest things that you can do to make sure you are keeping up with your tax obligations include:

  • Use an accountant!

If you are a new business owner or you don’t really understand what is required of you when it comes to keeping records for tax time, then you should consider at least speaking to an accountant. A decent accountant will know the Australian taxation system back to front, and they should be able to make sure that you don’t make any mistakes. If you are somewhat short on money and don’t think that you can afford to employ an accountant regularly, then at least speak to one once or twice to give you an idea of what you need to do.

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The Power of Google AdWords for Business Success

The Power of Google AdWords for Business Success

If you run a business that wants to become an online success story, then you have to make Google AdWords your best friend. By definition, Google AdWords is a comprehensive online advertising tool/service that allows people to display ad copies to users. In other words, it makes marketing much easier than it has ever been, especially when it comes to targeted audiences.

Google AdWords marketing enables advertisers, marketers, and websites to get measurable results from their ad campaigns, and is integrated seamlessly with the search engine. What makes it practical is the fact that unlike television ads and industry directories, it helps you get measurable results that can further improve your ad campaigns in the future.

Quality Leads

SMEs to large organizations today use Google AdWords to increase their online presence. As a paid advertising platform, Google makes sure that your advertisement copies get high rankings in local and international search directories on its search engine.

For instance, when you type ‘best Irish bar in Melbourne’, three paid ads will appear on top of the search results, typically highlighted in yellow. Most of the time, people will find what they’re looking for by clicking one of the three links, which increases the conversion potential by many folds. Unlike organic results, this allows you to gain qualified leads and increases the revenue potential.

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How SEO Can Take Your Business to New Heights of Success

How SEO Can Take Your Business to New Heights of Success

When it comes to online marketing, a crucial aspect for the imminent success of a website, business, or ecommerce store is the SEO strategy. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is basically the actions and steps that improve the visibility of a web page or website in the search engine’s unpaid results. This is also known as organic or natural SEO.

SEO not only incorporates technical elements, but creative elements as well, that improve search engine ranking, boost traffic, and drive awareness. Let’s take a look at some of the ways SEO helps drive business success on the internet that can translate to real time growth!

Traffic Potential

When your websites, its pages, content, Meta data, and other elements are optimized for search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, you will be awarded with a higher ranking. Depending on the keywords that are used, your website or web pages may make it to the first page of search engine results. As a result, your visibility increases, which increases the potential of traffic.

Let’s say that you recently posted a blog on ‘How to Start a YouTube Channel’. Now practically speaking, your goal is to get this post on the first page of search engine results. Provided that you use the right keywords, Meta data, and write a quality post, your post will be able to climb the search engine rankings ladder naturally.

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Having An Effective Branding Strategy

Having An Effective Branding Strategy

When any business starts to think about its corporate branding, it must first understand what exactly makes a branding strategy successful. This applies whether that business is new or an existing one that needs to overhaul its brand.

Successful branding of a company helps everyone involved with it to have greater confidence in its products and services. This confidence should be felt throughout the business, from the CEO, the management, the staff and crucially the customers of that business. With confidence being an intangible, it is difficult to measure the level that exists in relation to a business. Discussions with staff and their feedback will give some indication internally of how confident they are in the business they work for, and how much the brand helps that.

In respect of customer confidence, there is a much clearer measure of its level and that is via sales data. When customers have faith and confidence in a brand, they tend to buy more. If your branding strategy is working then sales performance will reflect that.

To create a successful branding strategy for your business, the first task must be to carry out research within your industry, which should include looking at your competitors. Obviously, customer research will be a part of this initial process to help you form a full understanding of the market you are entering, and to subsequently determine how to position your brand within it.

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3 Advantages of a Buy Sell Agreement

3 Advantages of a Buy Sell Agreement

There are many agreements needed in business. In fact, commercial lawyers would tell you that almost every contract is an agreement of some kind and all are important parts of running a business. But when it comes to the Buy Sell Agreement, some businesses don’t have one and this can really complicate matters. What is a Buy Sell Agreement?

It is a document that details what will happen should one partner suddenly die or be incapacitated. Other names for the document are Business Succession Agreement and Business Will. Having it in place will enable the business to continue running smoothly when and if a partner dies or has a stroke so that they are mentally incapacitated.

Having this document means the partners have agreed to buy out the share of the person who has died or become incapacitated. The funds that are paid will go to the family of the deceased and can really help them in their time of need. However, they may go to another person that is specified in the document.

It is important to have advice from a legal professional in drawing up such a document. What should it contain?

  • The value of the agreement – what should be paid? This can be defined through an independent valuation, a specified formula or an agreed value that is revised periodically.
  • The trigger for the payment – usually death or incapacity of some kind.
  • In what way the payment will be funded – there are many possibilities.
  • Tax consequences.

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A Grey Area in Property Contracts

A Grey Area in Property Contracts

When buying a property, few people fully understand every aspect of the contract, partly due to the terms that are used in it. This is why it is essential to have your property lawyers go over the contract and explain everything to you. Even then, they may miss something thinking it is obvious because they are used to it, whereas to the first home buyer especially, it may not be the least bit obvious.

One term that may seem obvious when given due consideration is often missed in amongst all the other terms and that is buying “as inspected’.  If the term is hidden amongst a lot of other jargon it can be less than clear – or people just don’t think about it. Even if they realise it means that the property they purchase will be in the same condition it was when they inspected it, they may not realise what the ramifications are.

In actual terms, it means that if something was broken or not working properly when you looked at the home, you can’t expect it to be fixed when you sign on the dotted line – or even before then. If the floors were in a dirty state or the flyscreen was torn when you inspected the property and agreed to buy it, the seller has no legal obligation to clean or fix it.

According to Clause 6. 1 (b) 2 of the General Conditions on the property contract all the seller is required to do is move their possessions, vehicles, chattels and rubbish from the property, leaving the property ‘chattels’ in place.

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7 Tips on Consumer Law for New Business Owners

7 Tips on Consumer Law for New Business Owners

The advent of the Internet has allowed many people to start up business buying and selling. These people are often not trained in business, so don’t know all the laws that govern them. Without commercial lawyers to help them they can easily break a consumer law without realising it, but ignorance is not considered an excuse, so they may still find themselves in trouble.

Since many of those Internet businesses are to do with selling goods of some kind to the public, here are 7 tips on Australian Consumer Law (ACL) that you may not have known, if you are a new start-up business.

  • If a customer finds a small defect or flaw in the good they purchased, they can ask for a refund, repair or replacement. Most will want the former, but in fact, your customer must accept the free repair if it is offered to them. It is only if the flaw makes the product dangerous or unsafe, if the product is different from what was advertised or displayed, if the product can’t be fixed easily or if the person would not have bought the product had they known about it, that your business must replace or refund it.

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The Most Important Part of a Business Plan

The Most Important Part of a Business Plan

Any financial planner will tell you that to start up a business, you need to draw up a business plan. But as important as the plan is, it is the financial section of it that is the most important. Without this section, all the rest is basically just a concept – an idea. Without the financial planning – that includes estimates of cost and income, no lender of finance will be interested in offering you a loan.

People with a dream of starting up their own business are often more interested in the other parts of the plan. Where their business will be located, what kind of tools and equipment they will need and even what colour scheme the place will have. These things are of great importance to the prospective business owner, but not to the bank manager. A financial advisor is the best person to help you with the financial part of your business plan, so lenders can see it is going to be a viable business; one that won’t go broke in the first year.

How is a financial plan different from accounting? While accounting is an essential part of any business, it uses numbers from the past. Until you actually start your business there will be no figures to use in accounting. While the financial plan looks similar to accounting figures, it is a forecast of the future you expect to see for your business. However, the figures used won’t be totally accurate because they are based on research, your own knowledge of the market and what you expect and hope to see for your business.

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Legal Guidance for Ecommerce Businesses in Australia

Legal Guidance for Ecommerce Businesses in Australia

As Australia is witnessing a boom in the ecommerce industry, whether you are just starting the business with a new brand, or whether you’ve been a retailer but are now taking your business online; you need be aware of the legal issues that surround ecommerce. There is no doubt that ecommerce has an exciting rate of success and growth, and it offers a great future for your business. However, playing by the rules will just make things safer.

While there are many advantages of ecommerce, the complex legal issues can make your ride to success a bumpy one and have you calling in commercial lawyers to help you. Different countries have different rules; which is why, as a business in Australia; it is important for you to know what to expect and what applies. Keep in mind that the law is fluid, which means that it is subject to change with time. Therefore, you must remain up-to-date all the time so that you can continue to reap the fruits of success.

To know if you can conduct electronic business in different parts of Australia, check the legislation regarding electronic transactions in the following territories:

  • Australian Capital Territory
  • Western Australia
  • South Australia
  • Northern Territory
  • New South Wales
  • Queensland
  • Victoria
  • Tasmania

First off, prepare to take the necessary steps to ensure that everything you do meets the officially permitted requirements for establishing and running online businesses in Australia. If necessary, talk to good lawyers for professional legal advice and prepare accordingly. Here are some simple details to point you in the right direction:

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