Talking Cents

Ipa accountants giving you tips to survive the Christmas period

As we rapidly approach the festive season, or the silly season as some like to call it, there are many opportunities and also many dangers that small business need to pay close attention to.

Perhaps the most relevant one for many small businesses is how to successfully manage the post Christmas slow down as we all take well-earned breaks and businesses wind down for a short time.

With our experience as small business accountants in Sydney and being apart of the ipa accountants, here are a few brief tips on surviving the post-Christmas period we believe will help!

· Where possible ensure all partially complete jobs are completed before Christmas and invoiced to allow sufficient time for payment to be made for your services before the customers accounts team goes on holidays Or hits the annual Christmas party a little too hard!
· Ensure a sufficient cash reserve is in place to cover staff wages for the month of January if regular income won't be coming in the door. (see point 1 above)
· Make a budget of known expenses for the month of January and allocate funds to cover them. Fixed expenses like rent don't go away just because your office is closed!
· Try and make plans or confirm quotes/orders now for work to commence in January. By doing so it will keep staff busy on their return and allow your business to start the calendar year on a positive note.
· Finally, and most importantly, as a small business owner take time to reflect on your successes and failures during the year. Take time to re-group, re-focus and re-energise yourself for the year ahead.

As the Christmas period gets ever closer no matter what industry your small business operates in I'm sure that at least some of today's small business tips will get the old grey matter churning over. As well as reminding you to take some time for yourself. You deserve it!