Many small business people wonder whether it’s better for them to buy or lease capital equipment for their businesses. Your options regarding leasing or buying depend upon the nature of your particular business, but there are nevertheless a few guidelines you can follow to help you decide what you should do. If you have the money available, and the item is really necessary to your business, then it will usually… Read more
Provisional tax is often a source of confusion for new business owners as well as a source for frustration for owners of existing businesses. This article gives a brief overview of some aspects of the system to help which may be of assistance to all business owners. What is provisional tax? The concept of provisional tax is based on payments of tax being made while income is still being derived.… Read more
Small businesses can grow in boom times as well as periods of difficulty by working smarter and taking advantage of opportunities. Put these following effective tips into practise to help grow your business. 1. Utilise new technology Modern technology can save you time, improve productivity and reduce your operational costs. Make use of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media tools to market your business. Dropbox is a cloud-based service… Read more
“How much should I spend on marketing?” Most small business people ask me this question at some stage. Many small business people find working out how much to spend on marketing a tricky exercise to calculate. Generally there are five ways to work out a marketing budget for the year. Remember that these are marketing budgets, not advertising budgets. Marketing covers everything you do in your business that creates awareness,… Read more
Help grow your business through collaboration, expansion, improved marketing and some of the following quick tips. 1. Improve your customer service Businesses with good customer service retain consumers and attract new business through word-of-mouth. Even if you think you’re already providing good service, make it a priority to provide refresher training to frontline staff at least once a year. Alternatively, hold regular meetings to discuss any issues as they arise.… Read more
Risk and Reward Superannuation: decisions, decisions If you have (or had) funds in foreign superannuation schemes, let us know. Recent changes to legislation and further impending changes may affect you. I transferred my Australian super to KiwiSaver. Is it taxed here? Transfers from complying superannuation funds in Australia into KiwiSaver won’t be taxed in New Zealand on transfer. However, future earnings on these transfer funds will be taxed as normal… Read more
As dedicated teleworkers, we are always interested to try out new ways of communicating without the pain and time cost of a commute. So when Google replaced its “talk” products with “hangouts” for video calling we were keen to take a look. Despite being pretty happy with skype, we thought we would try out using “hangouts” to do the same things. So what did we think? Hangouts is a very… Read more
Risk and Reward Mixed Use Assets – taking note If you own a holiday home and rent this out commercially, there are new rules around how tax deductions are calculated. In order to accurately work out what these will be, there are some crucial points that we will require from you. You will still need to keep your normal records for income and expenses, but as well as that you… Read more
Scheme swapping across the ditch The Australian government recently announced that they have made changes to legislation that will allow New Zealanders to transfer their retirement savings from KiwiSaver into a compatible Australian scheme and vice versa. This legislation is the result of an arrangement between the New Zealand and Australian governments and removes an obstacle between the two countries, providing the ability for people to take advantage of employment… Read more