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“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.” (Benjamin Franklin) When a company is struggling with cashflow, or simply looking to improve profitability, the directors will often consider making grand sweeping changes like retrenching staff, slashing the marketing budget or even selling off resources. While this kind of kneejerk reaction can provide instant gratification, it may not be the solution to your long-term struggles. Cutting back…  Read more

“Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” (Jeff Bezos) You have a great product or service that fills a need. You are doing your marketing. Your accountant has helped you streamline your cashflow and provided you with your financial forecasts. You are well aware of the risks and challenges, but you are still not connecting with your customers. What could possibly be…  Read more

“There are no shortcuts when it comes to getting out of debt.” (Dave Ramsey, finance journalist and author) Most businesses have debt of some kind or another. Whether you need help to buy stock, maintain equipment or even fund a property, it’s likely that at some stage in your business’ life you will need to take out loans. The challenge comes in balancing the needs of your business with the…  Read more

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you will do things differently.” (Warren Buffett) During tough economic times it can be tempting to illegally cut corners, hire staff at lower salaries, or avoid paying taxes you know you should be paying. The unethical approach can be very tempting if you find yourself battling to keep your business going.…  Read more

“Artificial intelligence is just a new tool, one that can be used for good and for bad purposes and one that comes with new dangers and downsides as well.” (Sarah Jeong, information and technology journalist) Using powerful data analytics and pattern recognition, Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the latest buzzword in every business on the planet. If you looked hard enough, you could probably find an AI solution for every…  Read more

“Employee orientation centres around and exists to help the individual employee, but it is the company that ultimately reaps the benefits of this practice.” (Michael Watkins, author of “The First 90 Days”) Onboarding a new employee is always a delicate task. And it’s a whole lot trickier (and arguably more important) if your new hire is going to be working remotely. Here are our tips for getting your new remote…  Read more

“We can in fact change the world and make of it a better place.” (Nelson Mandela) Rolihlahla Mandela was born into the Madiba clan in Mvezo, Transkei, on 18 July 1918. He was given the name Nelson by a teacher on his first day at school. Affectionately known as Tata, grandfather of the Rainbow Nation, Mandela is best remembered for successfully leading South Africa’s transition from apartheid to a multiracial…  Read more

“People want to know they matter and they want to be treated as people. That’s the new talent contract.” (Pamela Stroko, Vice President, HCM Transformation & Thought Leadership at Oracle Corporation) Any business leader knows that hiring the best team possible is the first step to success, so it stands to reason that keeping them around is just as important. What’s more, finding, hiring and training new employees is an…  Read more

“One of the fun things about venture capital is you are constantly learning new ideas and strategies from one business and then applying them to others.” (Joe Lonsdale, technology entrepreneur and investor) At its simplest, the term Venture Capital (VC) simply refers to capital that’s invested in any business or project where there’s an element of risk. Typically, this refers to innovative new companies, but it can also refer to…  Read more

“The employment tax incentive is aimed at encouraging employers to hire young and less experienced work seekers.” (SARS Employers ETI Guide) With Youth Day celebrations around the corner, business owners have an opportunity not only to consider unlocking the benefits of having young workers in their teams, but also to make a difference to South Africa’s dismal youth employment rate. What are the benefits of hiring young employees? More likely…  Read more

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” (John F. Kennedy) The world of work is changing, rapidly. With more teams made up of diverse people from a wide variety of locations, leadership these days has become less about personal relationships and more about managing across distance and effective organisation. Leaders in this world need skills they had never considered previously, and companies need to train them. Despite companies spending…  Read more

“Fraud and deceit are anxious for your money. Be informed and prudent” (John Andreas Widtsoe, scientist, author and religious leader) While accountants have become adept at spotting and preventing financial fraud simply by analysing a company’s books, there is another kind of fraud that needs alert leadership, record keeping and careful analysis to completely snuff out. Time fraud sounds like a concept from a sci-fi movie, but in reality, it’s…  Read more

“The Compensation Fund is mandated to provide social security to the injured-on-duty employees and those who contracted diseases at the workplace.” (Compensation Fund Annual Report 2021/2022) By law, all employers are compelled to register for COIDA (Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act No. 130 of 1993) within 7 days of employing their first employee. COIDA provides for compensation for disablement caused by occupational injuries or diseases sustained or contracted…  Read more

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”- (Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company) Data from StatsSA has shown that more than 1,500 businesses closed their doors for good in South Africa last year. This can come as no surprise to anyone who conducts business in South Africa at the moment, with spiralling costs, high interest rates and other tough market conditions that include frequent load…  Read more

“The Internet is a worldwide platform for sharing information. It is a community of common interests. No country is immune to such global challenges as cybercrime, hacking, and invasion of privacy” – (Lu Wei, the head of the General Office of the Central Leading Group for Internet Security and Informatization from August 2013 to June 2016) On the 1st of March 2024, the CIPC admitted it had been hacked. The…  Read more

“The cold, harsh reality is that we have to balance the budget.” (Michael Bloomberg, former New York City Mayor) Budget shortfalls are not uncommon across the public and private sectors, especially in these economically challenging times. A budget shortfall is a significant concern for any individual or organisation and should be corrected promptly. To address the R15 billion shortfall in National Budget 2024, the South African government earlier this year…  Read more

“Find the right price for an irresistible offer, which, by the way, isn’t necessarily the lower price.” ― (W. Chan Kim, Business strategy advisor and author)        A good businessperson pays attention to the price of their products. With accountants by their side, they wisely analyse every expense, tax and logistical possibility to ensure their product goes out at the best rate for maximum profitability. Like with everything in society, no…  Read more

“People are not your most important asset. The right people are.” (Jim Collins, author, speaker and consultant) Knowing whether to hire a freelancer or full-time employee for any particular role is vital for the successful running of a modern business. With budgets constantly being constrained and the pressure to perform going up, ensuring you maximise your workforce is absolutely essential if you want to build a successful company. Here is our…  Read more

“Our bigger challenge… is that our pie is not growing fast enough and this limits our ability to generate sufficient revenues to distribute among our priority areas.” (Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana – Budget 2024) Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s third Budget Speech in an election year contained few surprises, but also little in the form of good news, especially for South Africa’s personal income tax payers. The Minister quoted dismal local…  Read more

“It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price.”- (Warren Buffett, investor, businessman and philanthropist) When buying a small business there are a number of things that need to be checked before pulling the trigger and signing the contract. Doing proper due diligence will ensure you don’t invest hard earned money on a lemon. Here are the five most…  Read more