Straight Up Small Business

Over my last three years in business I’ve really let my health fall to the wayside and I’m sure many of you might be in the same boat. That’s why on the podcast today I interview Fran Dargaville, who is a functional nutritionist with a Masters degree in Human Nutrition. Fran’s zone of genius is gut health and I was super keen to learn and refresh my knowledge on this topic. In this episode we run...

My main advice for anyone in small business is that they should have a budget and keep a close eye on their finances. So, it might surprise you to learn that I spend a whole lot of my business cash on all sorts of expenses - from the best-of-the-best systems, contractors, staff, insurance, and more. However - I don’t spend any money that isn’t worth it to do so. In this episode, I’ll take you thro...

This week I have a bit of a different episode for you - it’s based on an article I read in the paper last week outlining how the bookkeeper for the surfing legend family The Wrights is going to jail for extorting $1.5 million from them over ten years. I initially didn’t want to talk about this story - I was scared that bringing this to people’s attention would scare people off getting a bookkeeper...

I have a treat for you this week, my very own legal guru, the amazing Riz McDonald from Foundd Legal, is on the show to share all of her expertise and experience. Riz has been a lawyer for 20 years and an eCommerce entrepreneur for the past 10 years. Riz provides insight and legal knowledge to all of the obstacles and challenges you face as a business owner. Through her own experience as a creativ...

How do you know when you’re ready to take on paid employees? Depending on your business situation, you will be considering either an employee or a contractor, or even a mix of both within your team. There are several decisions you’ll need to make when choosing which path to take but don’t worry I’m here to help! In this episode, I’ll cover the important questions surrounding hiring a contractor or...

Payroll is a hot topic at the moment. It’s the end of the financial year and of course, everyone wants their group certificates for tax purposes (even though they don’t exist anymore). We have until the 14th of July to get all of our client's payroll recognised and finalised with the ATO so there are only a few days left.  In this episode, I’m taking you through a high-level overview of what...

It’s the start of a fresh financial year and today I’m going to be talking about why NOW is a good time to increase your prices if you haven’t already. I’ll be sharing from an objective, accounting perspective, not from a money mindset point of view, which many amazing business coaches talk about.  In this episode, I specifically talk about how inflation, superannuation and the state of our countr...

How do I get clients in my service based business? It can feel incredibly challenging at times to find clients. To help your business thrive, in this episode, I’m sharing the strategies, tools and tips that I’ve learned from beginning my business to help you start finding and signing up new clients today. This approach is applicable across a range of service businesses and I can’t wait to share it...

We’re fast approaching the end of the financial year! Do you feel ready? In this episode, I’m going to run you through 5 things I’m doing in my business before 30 June 2022. Your business profit or loss spans the 1st of July to the 30th of June with the tax being calculated on the final position your business is at on the 30th of June. If you’re trying to influence a tax outcome, you need to be ac...

This week I'm bringing you word-nerd, marketing expert and digital product mentor, Carinda Gosling. Carinda is the director of marketing company, This Is Co. Carinda has been helping small businesses for over 10 years get seen, loved and sell through copy, content and compelling marketing. Since 2020, Carinda has been helping solopreneurs ignite and scale their business income, impact and enj...

In this episode I review the book Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. This is because I know how many entreprenuers love this book. But I believe there is information in this book that needs to be considered with a grain of salt. The author proposes that businesses are cash eating monsters that need to be controlled by taking profit before all their business cash is spent on expenses, leaving no inc...

The end of the financial year is fast approaching! My guest today is Diana Todd. Diana is a registered tax agent and the owner of Balance Tax Accountants. Balance Tax Accounts is a full-service online accounting firm that takes the stress out of tax for entrepreneurs and does it in a fun and engaging way.  If you’ve had your tax return completed by Diana and her team, you’ll know it’s the most enj...

I’m coming to you from Fiji! Can you hear the island vibes? In this episode, I’m talking about merchant fees (bank fees) and whether you should pass these on to your customers or not. This is just my opinion and I want to bring you this episode to give you a chance to reflect. Merchant fees are charges incurred by a business using credit cards to take payments, eg. Visa, Mastercard, Amex. Almost a...

I have a very special guest joining me today as I discuss building a sustainable business with my coach and friend, Kristy Robinson.  Kristy has helped me through so many business challenges over the last year and a half and I’m excited to share her insights and expertise with you today.  Having founded two businesses herself, Kristy knows firsthand the rollercoaster that is entrepreneurship. Thro...

We’ve all seen or been tempted by contractors offering services at a discount for cash and while this may not impact you as the customer, if you operate your business this way you can get yourself in hot water. In this episode, we’re exploring why you shouldn’t be paying for any business expenses with ‘cash in hand’ or paying staff with cash. This doesn’t mean you can’t use cash in a recorded tran...

Three years ago, I was working as a management accountant in a big 4 bank when the roles of my whole team were offshored to Singapore. I was offered another role in the bank but my gut told me it was time for a change so I took the redundancy and Straight Up Bookkeeping was born. Over the last few years, I’ve learned so much from this roller coaster journey. In this episode, I'm sharing 11 le...

Today’s episode is dedicated to the 5 bookkeeping mistakes that I’ve seen happen again and again over the past few months.  As always, I’m keeping this episode practical and relevant to your business to help you understand how to avoid these common mistakes. Then I share the 5 things you should be doing instead. One of the big mistakes I see is mixing business and personal transactions together. I...

*Why is there no cash in my bank account when I know I’m making a profit? This is a very common question amongst entrepreneurs. If you avoid learning your numbers and what they mean for your business, you’ll always be confused about where your money is going. In this episode, I’m going to explore basic accounting and bookkeeping concepts that will allow you to understand your business financials a...

I’m so excited to discuss my absolute favourite bookkeeping topic - GST.  It’s absolutely essential that you grasp the ins and outs of GST to ensure you pay the right amount to the Australian Tax Office. But, from experience, I’ve found many businesses don’t understand it fully and end up making mistakes, so I’m on a mission to help educate everyone. GST, Goods and Services Tax, is a 10% consumpti...

Continuing on from last week’s episode talking about outsourcing, I’m speaking today with an amazing copywriter, Susan Reoch, about communicating value through copywriting.  Susan is a User Experience copywriting expert who’s spent the last 10 years writing razor-sharp web copy for everyone from bookkeepers to Booking.com. She helps other copywriters skill up on user experience inside her group co...

The decision to start outsourcing tasks in your business is a big one. Many business owners have fears and uncertainties around making this shift. Will the money be worth it? What if the people I outsource to don’t do a good enough job? In this episode, I run through the specifics of what I outsource in my business and how I actually make more profit by doing so. The list includes branding, copywr...

Have you wondered what a bookkeeper actually does? How can they actually help you in your business? Can I just do it all myself? In this episode, I’m taking you through exactly what it looks like behind the scenes of a bookkeeping business. I’ll be giving you clarity on what we do, when you should hire a bookkeeper, the benefits and misconceptions and much more. If you’re going to pay someone to d...

Last week I was impacted by the devastating floods in Northern New South Wales. Whilst returning home, I became stuck on a flooded highway for the night sheltering in a tunnel with many other people. My anxiety over the work I was meant to be doing was making me feel sick.  Then our internet and phone services went down in my region for 5 days. It became impossible to conduct any work and I was co...

Cash is king. There are many reasons why revenue stops coming and having cash flow in your business becomes paramount to keep everything moving forward. I’m currently in a flood disaster area in Northern New South Wales and we have no phone or internet service so all businesses have stopped - nobody saw that coming. In this episode, I’m talking about all things cash. We’ll explore how to better ma...

Do you have a budget in your business? In this episode, I’m going to discuss everything you need to know about budgeting and why you need one in your business. When starting out, we’re often just fumbling our way through for a while but this isn’t an approach that will benefit your business in the long run. I’ll explain how to create a budget, types of budgets, what you should include in your budg...