Empowering Smes

Are you missing out on the capital on which your successful small or medium sized business needs to grow? There’s no real reason you should be, if you run a SME that meets the requirements for an all-new capital-raising process. Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising (CSF) has seen a rapid uptake amongst those companies, who have been first to market, since the process was legalized for small proprietary companies here in Australia back in October last year. More than $22M has already been raised as capital for small and medium sized businesses, in less than five months. That’s pretty remarkable, isn’t it? So, if your business is on the hunt for capital, Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising is a path that you and your accountant should seriously consider for your company.     READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE  

Sounds great doesn’t it?  Would you like to be in this position? Already in Australia over $23.1 million has been raised by 27 companies since Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising was given the “green light” just 4 months ago. This change represents the biggest change in business finance for small and medium-sized businesses in the last 35 years. Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising offers a number of distinct advantages for your business/company. Why do I think Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising will receive a vote of thanks by the Australian small and medium-sized business sectors?   READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

So, you want to grow your business. What is it they say? If you’re standing still while others around you are moving forward, then you’re sliding backwards. Everything is relative and that applies to the growth of small and medium-sized businesses as well.     READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Holidays at the beach in January. Starts you thinking, doesn’t it? You look in the mirror and you say to yourself “wouldn’t it be great to be able to relax like this all day, every day?” After all, you’ve put in 30 or so years of hard work. So, you start thinking about retirement, but, you own and operate a small or medium-sized business. That business has been good to you, but you’re now stuck with a lot of obligations, like bank guarantees, and you don’t know how you can slide out from under them. How can you cash up and retire with dignity? I’ll bet you’ve always thought that someone will come along and buy you out just when you we’re ready to ‘hang up your spurs’.     READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

How often do you have people telling you how lucky you are that you own your own business? If only they knew the half of it! Most small and medium sized businesses these days are heavily supported by bank loans or overdrafts. Then, there are always those times, when being in business feels like you’re living inside a pressure cooker.     READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

A recent report by the Australian government’s Small Business Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, indicated that more than 25% of small and medium enterprise loans are being funded by the parents of small and medium enterprise owners. The “Bank of Mum and Dad” is being forced to fund a significant amount of the loans to small and medium enterprises because of the credit crunch which has been worsened by the fallout from the Banking Royal Commission, Kate Carnell was reported as saying in a recent article in the “Financial Review”. (Click here). “Falling residential property prices are compelling the difficulty in borrowing, because most lenders require small and medium enterprise owners/shareholders to put up their houses as collateral”.     READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

A recent report by the Australian government’s Small Business Ombudsman, Kate Carnell, indicated that more than 25% of small and medium enterprise loans are being funded by the parents of small and medium enterprise owners. The “Bank of Mum and Dad” is being forced to fund a significant amount of the loans to small and medium enterprises because of the credit crunch which has been worsened by the fallout from the Banking Royal Commission, Kate Carnell was reported as saying in a recent article in the “Financial Review”. (Click here). “Falling residential property prices are compelling the difficulty in borrowing, because most lenders require small and medium enterprise owners/shareholders to put up their houses as collateral”.     READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE  

Are you a naturally sceptical person? Most of us are a little, I guess, especially when we hear about new ideas involving access to money. Well, Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising isn’t a scam or a ‘get rich quick’ scheme, and it’s not ‘crowdfunding’ that we hear so much about on social media. 'Crowdfunding' is when people are asked to donate money to a worthy cause, like a family left destitute after their house burns down. It's a social media thing, and...  there have been problems. In the non-business world, people are able to utilise social media to assist in raising money for virtually any type of legitimate reason – there is virtually no government control.     READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Doesn’t it really‘frost your cookies’  that medium-sized business always seems to get left out of the most important decisions? Well, as it turns out, the sector has finally scored a big win! Many medium-sized companies will be perfect candidates for a concept that’s going to revolutionise capital raising for Australian business and it’s already underway.     READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Every so often, a new concept comes along that completely revolutionises the way we do things in small/medium enterprise businesses. This…….. is one of those times. As of now, Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising for Small Proprietary Companies (group turnover under $25 million per annum, group gross asset value under $25 million, not listed on a stock exchange anywhere in the world) is legal in Australia.

Why not join “Shark Tank’s” Dr Glen Richards and his team and former Greencross Limited Chair, Andrew Geddes to create your “Growth Plan for 2019 and Beyond” at the “Scaling up Masters” two day highly interactive workshop on 25/26 October?  Click Here.

As the owner of a small or medium size business…Let me ask you…What is your next goal? Do you need funding to lift your company up to the next level, or perhaps you are thinking about retiring and want to get rid of those personal guarantees on your current loans from the bank.

What do you want your business to look like in two to three years’ time?   You might have developed a new technology or a product through to the prototype stage.   What is your goal for two to three years’ time?

If you want to grow your business, stay ahead of competitors and offer a wide range of solutions to your clients – solutions that: provide you with “new income streams” – through new businesses; generate a variety of interesting work for your team, resulting in improved team morale, productivity and team retention; enable management to improve their business skills; you will probably be very interested in finding out about the Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising opportunities that are now available for private companies.

If you want your company/organisation to be successful, directors/committee members have to embrace the development of a “positive culture”. In this article we have summarised comments made by Andrew Geddes, the recently retired Chairman of Greencross Limited, whilst commenting on Greencross’ journey from a small company (founded by Dr Glen Richards) to an “ASX Top 200 Company” where directors and senior managers committed to the creation of a “positive culture” which Andrew Geddes says was vital for the success of Greencross Limited.

Directors of SME companies/committee members of not-for-profits, charities, sporting and social organisations need an understanding of taxation matters for the performance of their duties.

Budgets and Cash Flow Forecasts are an intricate part of a sound financial system for every company, business and organisation.  Directors of SME companies and committee members of not-for-profit, charities, sporting and social organisations should have an understanding of the budgeting and cash flow forecast systems that are being utilised in their respective organisations.

Hello, I’m Peter Towers, Managing Director of ESS Small Business and ESS BIZTOOLS. Welcome to Empowering SMEs. Directors of SME companies, business operators, committee members of not-for-profits, charities sporting and social organisations need to be able to write these three things down. Have you formulated your plan for the next three months? If not, let me help you.

Creating “future proofing” for a SME company and not-for-profits, charities, sporting and social organisations is an important issue for directors of SME companies and committee members of organisations. ESS Small Business’ “Corporate Governance Network” is targeted at SME company directors and officers and committee members and officers of not-for-profits, charities, sporting and social organisations. The particular challenge that is being presented to participants is – “are you and your organisation developing strategies for “future proofing” your company or organisation to meet the challenges of the next few years?”

There are hundreds of government grants for small business provided by the Australian, State and Territory governments.  Company directors and officers need an awareness of the availability of these grants to assist small business – companies, trusts, individuals and partnerships.