Sidekick Dunedin

I've sat across the table from a client who's flat, stuck, swamped, and I know that feeling from the inside now.

Before I fix anything, I let them talk. Most people just need to be heard before they're ready to hear a solution.

That's the whole idea behind people-first accounting.

The OCR has moved. Here’s what it could mean for your business.
Yesterday the Reserve Bank increased the Official Cash Rate (OCR) from 2.5% to 2.75%.

Richard has broken down what that could mean for your business in this reel.

The bigger question for business owners is what you do with the change.

You can’t control the OCR, but you can control how prepared your business is for changes in the cost of capital.

That means understanding your profitability, cashflow, debt and what different interest rate scenarios could mean for your bottom line.

It’s also a good excuse to celebrate 8 years of Richard at Sidekick today. Richard, spent years in banking prior to joining the Sidekick family, and is one of the resident banking specialists in our group who we can call on when we need advice.

If you’re keen to look at an interest rate strategy for your business, get in touch. I’d love to help.

What happens to your business if you die without a will?

Without a valid will, you don’t get to decide what happens to the assets you’ve spent years building. The law does that for you.

It can mean frozen accounts, cashflow pressure, uncertainty over who can make decisions and, in some cases, it can get messy and expensive.

September is Wills Month, so it’s a good prompt to get your affairs in order.

Two things I recommend this month:
1. Loop in myself and your lawyer to talk about how your will, business structure and future plans work together.
2. Think about the legacy you want to leave. If supporting your local community matters to you, look into your local community foundation and how you can make a difference beyond your lifetime.

You’ve worked hard to build it. Make sure you have a plan for what happens next.

Half my job is telling clients what they don't want to hear. I can only do that properly because I've got people doing the same for me.

I keep people around who'll challenge a decision before I've made it, let me ask the question I'd normally be too proud to ask, and tell me straight when I've got it wrong.

If you're doing this alone, it’ll be harder than it needs to be.

There's nothing wrong with being wrong. I've never seen a successful business that hasn't had a few bad calls along the way.

What matters is what happens after, do you go back and look at it honestly, or pretend it didn't happen?
Every failure is just information you didn't have before.

Cashflow is like toilet paper. It’s only a problem when it runs out.
Sounds crazy, but it’s the true.

When the money’s coming in and everything’s getting paid, cashflow isn’t something most business owners think about….Until you run out of accessible funds.

Good cashflow management is about seeing the squeeze coming before you’re too deep to make a move.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
• Do you know what your cash position looks like over the next 30, 60 or 90 days?
• Are customers paying on time?
• Do you have enough buffer for the unexpected?

Don’t wait until you get the to last few sheets to find out.

If you don’t have a cash management strategy in place, get in touch. I'll help you build a plan and get ahead of it.

A big thanks to Ali from our Selwyn office for this analogy.