Small Business

[Houses4Rent]

I have an accountant, the third one so far. I just give him my spreadsheets and makes AFS out of them. Then I question everything which does not make sense to me. By doing that I often find mistakes he made and get a much better understanding myself. Practise makes perfect.

[john morley]

I like the IDEA of SMALL BUSINESS - I have been in that arena all my life...... Still AM. .....It has served me well ..... given me a very enjoyable life, and continues to do so.
I like everything to be simple ... easily manageable ..... and enjoyable .... WHY CHANGE

[adrianh]

I like everything to be simple ... easily manageable ..... and enjoyable .... WHY CHANGE

I learned this lesson the hard way. I am too doff to manage a big operation. It's much better for me to keep it small, within my management abilities (which is near non existent) and within arms reach.

[adrianh]

I must apologize for not saying this earlier:

Thanks for your support!

[wynn]

This in today's 'Pete's Weekly'
I can see the reasoning but if you have a small (I mean small) business can you really afford an accountant?

"Accounting, Marketing, and Tax...
December 2, 2015

I am the kind of guy who does not like forms. When a form asks me for my name I break out in a sweat. What do they really want, I worry? All three of my names or just two. But mostly, why do they want it?

I had an interesting life-episode back in the early nineties when every form I ever signed turned out to be a guarantee. And that took a decade to unwind. It kinda stays with you.



And so I do not like doing the accounts for my business. I want the reports, sure. But I do not want to process the data, and then complete the forms that the govt wants so that they can take their share. And worse, punish me for what they perceive to be errors.



Accountants in Norway charge about R4000/month to process 50 entries per month. That kinda hurts.



I discussed this with both the firms I have used in the past year. (One to complete the 2014 work and a new one to do this year's work.) In both cases they gave much the same answer.



They asked how long it might take me to do the work myself. I suck at accounting, and I reckoned I would need about two hours each week to file it neatly and complete and submit the VAT returns and the annual tax return. That's about 100 hours each year of extreme discomfort and stress.



They asked how much I know about Norwegian business rules. For instance, where the shortcuts are or where the hidden savings are. I know almost nothing.



They asked what I could do with those 100 hours if I used them to do work that I enjoyed, like marketing. (These Norwegians are wilier than they look.)



Two hours each week devoted to selling or marketing would bring in at least 100 new clients each year. This would total almost 12 times the fee said accountants were charging. 100 new clients each year would be growing like gangbusters, while a completed tax return, no matter how well I might do it, represents no growth at all.



They suggested I leave the books to them while I get on with other work. I no longer see it as a grudge expense.



I raise this gently because having an accountant in background is like having a marketing team in background. Background support to keep a constant flow of prospects knocking at the door allows each of us to get on with selling - which is our only path to enough growth and enough profit to build reserves to survive the troughs.



I do this kind of work for 160 small business owners and now that my accountant is doing all the real work I have time to help you with your marketing.



Warm regards


Peter Carruthers"

[southcape]

Personally, after experiencing quite a bit of what you are talking about, my next business will be operated from home with no labour and on a cash basis.

Internet based, no products, no shipping, minimal overheads, international client base.

[Gaynor]

In an ideal country, government would roll out cheap or free and reliable internet with the resources to access it, to all. That's the first thing entrepreneurs need - IMO.

[southcape]

Couldn't agree more. Give people the tools they need and then watch as they find the solutions to the challenges all by themselves.

[adrianh]

Couldn't agree more. Give people the tools they need and then watch as they find the solutions to the challenges all by themselves.

Life doesn't work that way. If it did then the masses wouldn't destroy technicons, universities, steal electrical cable etc. People are inherently lazy and stupid. No matter what tools you give people, unless they are able to appreciate those tools and learn to use them then you are p1$$ing money away.

[workshop]

Are you not generalising? What about the progress made by mankind in the last five years? The last fifty years? Mostly driven by individuals who have a bee in their bonnet. Just pause long enough, to think about what we could achieve, if all of them started talking to each other.

[ians]

Small Business

Which leaves a total to be paid ofR3,024.oo
at the end of the year which would be
paid every two months averaging @R504.oo X 6

The cost of my time to do the admin to pay this amount of VAT every two months nearly equals the payment. (assume your income of R20,000.00 divided by 4 weeks, 5 days and 8 hours a day =R125.oo and it takes four hours to assimilate the information, tabulate the figures on a spread sheet, do the calculation, and submit it via eFiling including the EFT payment, so R500.oo for a R504.oo payment)
To satisfy a proportion of my clients I need to be able to issue VAT invoices so I have to suffer this unnecessary admin to repay this bi-monthly amount, where is the logic?

If I just paid the VAT on the original invoices without worrying about claiming back the input I would lose R4.oo but would save four hours of unnecessary admin which could be better used in other areas, (drinking beer with my mates at the club) there would be a threshold where claiming back input becomes viable so until I reach that figure why should I be burdened by this totally unnecessary and wasteful expense? Just so that I am able to issue a VAT invoice to those clients requiring one.


This calculation does not include income tax after various rebates etc. but that should be a once a year exercise, at this income level I should not have to pay provisional tax.

That pretty much sums up my situation. My yearly accounting documents fit into a file 😳

A book keeper charges me R 800 pm to submit returns and give me a balance sheet at the end of the year. It 2014 it cost me R10 000 in accounting fees. I am now being told that i am gona be charged with fraud by sars because the accountant submitted nil returns in 2014. I have decided to move to another accountant. It seems between gerry baudin selling his company to finance spec, something has gone terribly wrong. Nobody knows what has happened to all my 2014 documents. It has taken them a year and it still not sorted out.

If i was banking with FNB, it would be a simple sms and all my bank statements would be emailed to me, unfortunately because bank with standard bank it is going to cost R14.50 per statement and i have to wait for them to print them before i can go collect.😳

[adrianh]

Couldn't agree more. Give people the tools they need and then watch as they find the solutions to the challenges all by themselves.

Are you not generalizing. What about the universities, technicons, schools, clinics etc. that have been destroyed in recent years.

[workshop]

No. I am talking about individuals. People who make things happen. I am talking about the internet and opening doors to opportunities. You are talking about hot air, politics, mobs, institutions and it would appear you have managed to get yourself bogged down in all negativity that goes with it.

[HR Solutions]

People do make things happen, but it is not just as easy as giving them the tools

Give people the tools they need and then watch as they find the solutions to the challenges all by themselves.

It really doesn't work this way .......

[workshop]

I can assure you it does. Have you ever taken the time to watch those fishermen on the beach? They return time and again to cast those teeny weeny hooks into a restless sea. And guess what, sometimes they go home with the catch that keeps them going back day after day. The net is no different.