The breakfast was a great success and was concluded when we proudly passed on a cheque for the amount of $1,443 to Ron Conway from Make a Difference Foundation WA.

We will keep you posted with regard to next years Golf Day.

To view the golf day photos click here.

Treasurer Wayne Swan announced the Labor Government’s Federal Budget for 2013/14 last night.  But is this budget ‘stronger, smarter and fairer’ like it claims to be?  As always, it will depend on what camp you’re in.  The budget estimates a cash deficit of $18billion for the 2013/14 year, and estimated to ‘return to balance’ in 2015/16.  Whilst one side of the budget focuses on where the nation’s funds will be spent – the winners being DisabilityCare Australia (formerly known as the National Disability Insurance Scheme), infrastructure and education; on the other side is the question of how these proposals will be funded?  The answer is change to superannuation, business and personal taxation.   In an election year, there is some doubt that the proposals put forth in the budget will take effect if the Liberal Party win the election in September. 

So how will this affect you from a taxation perspective? 

Business Taxation

•  Entities classified as ‘large’ will be required to make PAYG Instalments monthly.  Currently only large companies are required to pay these instalments monthly.  These measures affect timing of payments only.  The phase in will be as follows:
  • 1 January 2014 – Companies with $1billion turnover or more
  • 1 January 2015 – Companies with $100million turnover or more
  • 1 January 2016 – Companies with $20million turnover or more, and all other entities with turnover of $1billion or more
  • 1 January 2017 – all other entities with turnover of $20million or more.
  • Changes to the Thin Capitalisation regime from 1 July 2014
  • Changes to tax consolidated entities from 1 July 2014
  • Changes to CGT for foreign residents from 14 May 2013
  • Changes to prevent dividend washing – a practice where shareholders can receive two lots of imputation credits for the same share holding
  • Funding provided to the ATO to increase compliance activities to review business restructures to shift profits (transfer pricing).
  • R & D tax concessions eligibility only to companies with turnover of less than $20billion.
  •  Superannuation guarantee to increase from 9% to 9.25% from 1 July 2013, and the phase in of the increase of superannuation guarantee to 12% from 1 July 2019.

Superannuation

• From 1 July 2012 if your income is above $300,000, contributions tax will increase from 15% to 30%.
• The superannuation concessional contributions cap will increase from $25,000 per year to $35,000 per year from 1 July 2013 if you are aged 60 and over; and 1 July 2014 if you are aged 50 and over.  For under 50s, cap remains at $25,000 until 1 July 2014, when it increases to $30,000.
• From 1 July 2013 excess contributions made into the super fund can be withdrawn and taxed at the individual’s marginal rate, with an interest component.
• Pension asset earnings above $100,000 will be taxed at 15% from 1 July 2014.

Personal Taxation

• Previously announced changes to reduce individual tax rates from 1 July 2015 will not be going ahead.
• From 1 July 2014, the Medicare Levy will increase from 1.5% to 2% of taxable income.  These additional funds will be used specifically to fund DisabilityCare Australia.
• From 1 March 2014, the Baby Bonus will be scrapped.  Currently, if you earn up to $150,000 and are not claiming Paid Parental Leave, you are eligible for $5,000 Baby Bonus for your first child, and $3,000 for any subsequent children.    From 1 March 2014, this will change to reduce the maximum earnings eligibility down to $112,000, and a payment of $2,000 for your first child, and $1,000 for each subsequent child, and will be paid with your Family Tax A entitlement.
• Self-education expenses deduction will be capped at $2,000 per year from 1 July 2014.
• The discount for early or up-front payment of HELP (HECS) debts will be removed.
• There will be a phase out of the offset for 20% of the excess of medical expenses over $2,000.

For further information please contact Kirstin Stewart.

You don’t really have to go much further to seek evidence that branding is extremely important than to look at two of the best mistos of marketing over the last two decades – Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson. Both these men not only understood the importance, they have natural talent in the building and driving of a brand. Without the emphasis of branding no doubt they would have been very successful businessmen anyway, but through living their brand, the brands themselves have taken on their own personality, and that personality and culture is adopted the world over by the loyal brand consumers who love those brands.

In comparison, think of a business name like Berkshire Hathaway and dwell for a few seconds on what that name means to you, or how it makes you feel in comparison to Apple or Virgin. Warren Buffett, who is one of the wealthiest men in the world, it is fair to say has never put a great priority on branding (check out the website www.berkshirehathaway.com). Not being a great brand certainly has not hindered his opportunities and successes, simply because he is such a great businessman. But you can only wonder, if he had the same marketing traits of a Branson, what the difference for his companies brand may have been. 

So is branding important? Absolutely. But is it the main element to success or business? In Buffett’s case clearly not. Like a diamond there are many facets to creating, running and building a successful, sustainable business. Branding is just one.

I see brands a bit like the rind of an orange. You peel it back and ultimately the flesh, pulp and juice of the fruit determines the quality. Lets imagine you go to the local market and have the choice of two brands of oranges, when you pick them both up and examine them the store owner invites you to sample and review them for him. One orange has a rich, orange, blemish free skin. It is plump and inviting, but after you eagerly cut it in half you find the fruit granular, tasteless and disappointing. The second orange is irregular in shape, it has blemishes here and there and overall isn’t that inviting, but when you bite into it you are immediately transformed by the sense of taste, the flesh is fine and juicy, but more so the perfectly balanced sweetness of the pulp and juice leaves you wanting for more. As you walk out with a bag full of the less aesthetic oranges, the store owner wonders if maybe there could be a better way to market them. You could suggest he brands them in a way so the look of the orange somehow be used to help define the contrast of the taste, and the road to building a brand with a cultural fit may quickly begin.

So my orange analogy hopefully can work just as well for a business. A great looking, well branded business with a poorly designed structure, culture or organisation is poor fruit. A poorly branded business that is awesome and has best practice in all the other facets of a great business has every chance to be a successful one because the fruit or the business is so good.

So my advice to both types of businesses would be the same albeit opposite. For example, the first business belongs to say Joe. You would say “Joe, you have a great brand that’s really well recognized, and while you have some great things going for your business you need to really invest in fixing up operational and aligning the service and product offering with the brand perception”. Naturally this is a bit more that waving a magic wand, but I really believe that if you are offering a product or service that is in a market with demand, but you are not currently competing well with rival businesses then you have a massive upside and opportunity to investigate and invest in those lagging facets of the business and turn it around.

If you are John and you have the other business, well then you are a marketer’s dream. All they need to do with John’s business is capture the culture of that business and strategically give it a new skin that aligns and represents his great business and he quickly has the best of both worlds. He is now flying but his business brand must be totally aligned with its culture.

In my experience many businesses have lots of variety in both of these variations, but I can tell you there is nothing better than a business who’s product and service hand in hand reflect the culture and style of the brand. Without a shadow of a doubt we all know the Virgin and Apple brands are testimony to the strength of the passion of those who founded and drove them, and I believe as business owners we should follow that path too.

For further information please contact Bruce Reynolds at Crush.

Since 2007, the Australian Business Quality Awards has been rewarding businesses that deserve recognition for their exceptional levels of customer service. They profile and reward businesses that are committed to making sure that their customers are satisfied.

We are glad that one of our clients feels so strongly to nominate us and feel we are already a winner.

It’s never too early to prepare for the future. You should always have a current business plan and exit plan. As the old saying goes ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail’ and in effect you will go nowhere.

Excellent franchisees know the game and are aware of the full support offerings available from the Franchisor. They also know that by using the systems and processes that are available to them, they control their own destiny and direction of the franchise business.

The search for excellence does not stop there!!! You need to be continually challenging yourself by asking these types of questions:

• Do I ask for advice? – never be too scared to ask for advice.
• Is my Business Plan and Exit Plan (Strategy) current?
• How effective is my LAMP (Local Area Marketing Plan)?
• Do I follow the systems and procedures that were outlined during my initial training?
• Do I reinvest in training my people?
• Do I need more training in sales or operations?
• Do I understand what effects my daily cash flow position?
• Do I need my KPI’s compare to the group?
• What stats do I need to keep and how can they assist me monitoring my business?
• Do I know the financial position on a weekly basis?

In addition to running a successful business, successful franchisees also exhibit the following traits:

• Like being on committees and FAC’s (Franchise Advisory Councils)
• Attend FCA functions
• Are positive contributors to the network
• Team players and not individuals
• Regularly attend franchise meetings and training sessions
• Not afraid to ‘test’ new equipment or procedures
• Make themselves available to new and existing franchisees
• Continually reinvest in people, equipment and systems
• Generally embrace change and not resist it.

For further information on ‘What it takes to run a successful Franchise Business’ please contact Mark Fernandez on 0412 345 611

Six Sigma is a business management strategy, originally developed by Motorola, USA in 1986. Six Sigma became well known after Jack Welch made it a central focus of his business strategy at General Electric in 1995, and today it is widely used in many sectors of industry.

Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes.

It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization (“Black Belts”, “Green Belts”, etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction and/or profit increase).

The term Six Sigma originated from terminology associated with manufacturing, specifically terms associated with statistical modeling of manufacturing processes. The maturity of a manufacturing process can be described by a sigma rating indicating its yield, or the percentage of defect-free products it creates. A six sigma process is one in which 99.99966% or the product manufactured are statistically expected to be free of defects (3.4 defects per million). Motorola set a goal of “six sigma” for all of its manufacturing operations.

Six Sigma was heavily inspired by the quality improvement methodologies of the six preceding decades, such as quality control, Total Quality Management (TQM), and Zero Defects.

Like its predecessors, Six Sigma doctrine asserts that:

•  Continuous efforts to achieve stable and predictable process results (i.e., reduce process variation) are of vital importance of business success.
• Manufacturing and business processes have characteristics that can be measured, analyzed, improved and controlled.
• Achieving sustained quality improvement requires commitment from the entire organization, particularly from top-level management.

 Features that set Six Sigma apart from previous quality improvement initiatives include:

 A clear focus on achieving measurable and quantifiable financial returns from any Six Sigma project.

• An increased emphasis on strong and passionate management leadership and support.
• A special infrastructure of “Champions”, “Master Black Belts”, “Black Belts”, “Green Belts”, etc. to lead and implement the Six Sigma approach.
• A Clear commitment to making decisions on the basis of verifiable data, rather than assumptions and guesswork.

 For more information please contact Mark Fernandez.

The Walker Wayland/BDA Franchising and Business Corporate Golf Day for 2013 was a huge success! A big thank you goes out to our sponsors; Walker Wayland, Borrello Legal, Silver Chef Ltd, Murfett Legal, Tag Finance for your support on the day!

This year we again aligned ourselves with the Make A Difference foundation and up until this post we’re still happily counting receipts. Make A Difference foundation work to improve the overall quality of life across various W.A. families in necessitous situation.  The CEO Ron Conway also joined us on the course for the ‘nearest to pin’ competition.

We started the day with a welcome drink and sausage sizzle, what better way to discuss team tactics.

We teed off at 12pm to a beautiful autumn day. Everyone jumped in their carts and sped out to different holes for the shotgun start! A drinks cart circled between the teams to ensure everyone remained hydrated…after all it was a warm day… There were a few great shots, some birdies, and… some that didn’t quite make it past the ‘ladies’ tee’!

As teams starting arriving back the scores were tallied up. We all enjoyed some delicious cocktail food and refreshments before the winners were announced.

Congratulations to our winners:  Evan Hammond, Nic Petrillo, Hayley Mohony and Mario Surjan, and our runners-up: Clint Atkinson, Alistair Wallace, Peter Wallace and Scott Glasson. To continue reading and view photos of the day please click here.

Consumer protection laws prohibit businesses from making false, misleading or deceptive claims about their products or services and these laws also apply to social media.  Just like any claim a business makes as part of its marketing and promotional activities – including print, radio, television and websites– the claims made on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter or YouTube must not be false, misleading or deceptive.

A business can be held responsible for any public comments made by customers, fans, followers or bloggers on its social media pages which are false or are likely to mislead or deceive consumers. This was confirmed by the Federal Court in 2011 during the ACCC’s court action against an allergy treatment company. Clients of the company posted testimonials on the company’s Facebook “wall” and the court concluded that the company became the publisher and accepted responsibility for the posts and testimonials on its social media pages when it knew about them and decided not to remove them.

Guidance for business

Don’t make statements on your Facebook or other social media pages that you wouldn’t make in any other type of advertising. If you’re unsure about what you can or cannot say, seek legal advice.

Monitor your social media pages and remove any posts that may be false, misleading or deceptive as soon as you become aware of them. This is what the ACCC would expect you to do with any other type of advertisement.

You can respond to comments or testimonials but it is possible that your response may not be sufficient to override the false impression made by the original comments. It may be safer to simply remove the comments.

Establish clear ‘house rules’ that apply to the actions of your fans, friends and followers when using your social media pages. These rules should be featured prominently on your social media pages. You should then block users who breach your rules.

It is important to keep in mind that social media operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and many consumers use social media outside normal business hours and on weekends.

The ACCC can require businesses to substantiate any claims on their social media pages, and can take court action where it identifies a breach of the law (or issue an infringement notice in certain circumstances).

For further guidance when using social media please see: Using social media to promote your business on www.accc.gov.au

• ‘Who have you sold your franchise to?’
• ‘What information did you get before you bought?’
• ‘What do you mean they have already taken over?’
• ‘We should have met before now’
• ‘Who gave you these projections?’
• ‘What do you mean you have assigned your lease already?’
• ‘When will we get our Transfer Fee?’

And many more frustrating ‘after event’ issues 

The key from the Franchisors’ prospective is all about control and process. The franchisor is ultimately responsible for protecting the brand. They are looking to manage the process of

• who does what and when
• what information is given out and when
• who talks to whom and when

Here are some of the things that you should consider when selling your franchise.

1. What is the Franchisor’s Sale Process
2. Notice and responses as per the Franchise Agreement
3. Confidential documentation
4. Information release & exchange
5. Formal right of 1^st refusal by Franchisor
6. Advertising approval – what is the process?
7. Business as usual – keep operations at an excellent level
8. What training is required by the prospective and who pays for it?
9. What equipment, upgrades and refurbishments are required by you before you are able to gain approval to seel your franchise
10. Why use a Sale Information document?
11. What is the handover process including stocktaking of goods?
12. What are my restraint of trade clauses?
13. Procedure by exiting franchisee
14. Property related issues

and many more…..

In summary, selling your franchise is a major decision and one which should not be taken lightly. When selling, remember to disclose all relevant information to the prospective purchaser and ensure all of your accounts are up to date. Whilst your business is on the market be mindful not to neglect its daily operation so that you can attract the best possible price.

In the end, though, the value of your business is only as much as someone is willing to pay for it, so choose the timing of your sale carefully to get the best possible price

For further information on ‘How do you go about selling your Franchise’ please Mark Fernandez at mark@bda-online.com.au

Mark Fernandez

Director

Business Development Alliance

December 11^th 2011