Understanding the business impacts, risk management, incident response and having a recovery plan is important to enabling you to continue operating, GreenStalk can discuss with business continuity planning and assist you in identifying

• The business impacts.
• The critical resources and activities required. Supply chain management.
• The operational impacts to your business such as staffing, telecommuting, succession planning and cross skilling.
• The financial implications such as cashflow and insurance requirements.
• How long your business can cope without critical activities.
• Recovery planning, how to get back to normal operations as soon as possible.

More Information? Contact our GreenStalk representatives: 

• Amy Ryan – amy@greenstalk.com.au
• Rhys Dillion – rhys@greenstalk.com.au

GreenStalk are offering Master Builder members one on one business advice via phone/video meetings for up to 15minutes. To book a consultation, email mba@greenstalk.com.au and list the areas you would like to discuss. Alternatively, call 1300 997 220 and they will arrange for a relevant team member/s to contact you.

Cashflow is the lifeblood of every business, during a downturn having a good handle on your financials is vitally important. Here are some key cashflow management points:

• Fixed vs Variable Costs – know how much it costs to keep your business running. Looking at your profit and loss statement for the past 12 months will give you a good starting point, work out your average monthly fixed expenses, such as rent, loan repayments, utilities, insurances & administration wages. Variable costs are costs directly related to the sales in your business.
• Break–even point – you then need to understand when your total revenue equals your total costs or expenses. That is at what point does your business actually start making a profit. Click HERE for an interactive calculator to assist you.
• Aged Receivables –look at your aged receivables reports and follow up outstanding debtors to get cash owed to you into the business as soon as possible.
• Contact your landlord or Managing Agent– discuss the impact of the current situation and negotiate a rent reduction.
• Bank or Finance Broker – discuss the impact of the current situation and negotiate better loan terms.
• Work with suppliers on obtaining cheaper pricing for your goods or services, during a downturn they are often more willing to negotiate.
• Maximise the use of Government assistance. The Government will be providing multiple stimulus packages both from a state and federal level to help get the Australian economy through this time. Here is some information on the first package.

STATE FEDERAL

• The Government has also announced Coronavirus stimulus packages. These packages are designed to sustain small businesses through this challenging period and keep employees in work. For more information on the packages please click HERE.
• We would also encourage you to contact your Accountant, Finance Broker or Bank.

More Information? Contact our GreenStalk representatives: 

• Amy Ryan – amy@greenstalk.com.au
• Rhys Dillion – rhys@greenstalk.com.au
• Nish Shah – nish@greenstalk.com.au

GreenStalk are offering Master Builder members one on one business advice via phone/video meetings for up to 15minutes. To book a consultation, email mba@greenstalk.com.au and list the areas you would like to discuss. Alternatively, call 1300 997 220 and they will arrange for a relevant team member/s to contact you.

It is highly likely that most businesses will be required to close their doors for a period of time and as such, ensuring you can have the people you need setup and working efficiently and effectively from home is important for the continuity of your business during this time.

Below are some tips to keeping your business running remotely throughout this time:

• Cloud Based Storage – having documents accessible for all staff using a cloud-based system such as sharepoint, dropbox or google drive.
• Phone Systems – there are apps or services that enable your phone system to be run remotely.
• Team management – your staff can collaborate easily from any location with the use of tools such as Microsoft Teams or Slack.
• Screen Sharing – you can assist staff remotely using screen sharing services such as a team viewer.
• Meetings – video conference meetings can be conducted via tools such as Zoom or gotomeeting.
• VPN Access – Remote access to the corporate network to connect to files and services hosted on premises. VPN servers need to be reviewed to ensure enough licensing and processing capacity.
• Cyber Security – Robust firewall and anti-virus systems should be in place to control access and cyber threats both on staff home systems (if being used) and head office.
• Internet Bandwidth – If staff are to be working remotely, internet bandwidth need to be reviewed at both staff premises and head office to ensure capacity to handle increased load. Failure to review may result in poor performance when staff are working remotely.
• Staff Training – Staff will need to be trained on remote access systems to proactively minimize support tickets and disruption.

The forced use of these tools during this time may have long lasting benefits for the efficiency within your business.

GreenStalk are offering Master Builder members one on one business advice via phone/video meetings for up to 15minutes. To book a consultation, email mba@greenstalk.com.au and list the areas you would like to discuss. Alternatively, call 1300 997 220 and they will arrange for a relevant team member/s to contact you.

If you are experiencing a quieter time in business with the lock down occurring in Australia here are some things you can focus on for your marketing:

• Marketing Strategy – Revisit your marketing strategy and plan and review what’s working, what’s not and areas for improvement. Where are all your customers coming from? Is  your marketing spend being allocated in the right place.
• Social Media – Keep posting on social media share video tips, engage with your audience, keep showcasing your work and the types of clients you can help.
• Local SEO – From an SEO point of view, make sure you are still ranking for your key search terms on Google by writing relevant blogs, posting on your Google My Business page, ask your customers for Google Reviews, and start creating a free tool or eBook that can be downloaded from your website.
• Email Marketing – Continue to grow your email list and share useful content to potential clients via email marketing.
• Website – Do an audit of your website, assess it’s ease of use, customer experience and is it easy to identify who you help, how help them and what do you want them to do. Perhaps add to your website that you are doing Zoom consultations via video too during this period.
• Videos – Start recording a series of educational videos for your business that can be released over time to your social accounts and website.

The key thing to do in this period, is to keep marketing yourself, stay visible online.

More Information? Contact our GreenStalk representative: 

• Vanessa Geraghty – vanessa@greenstalk.com.au

GreenStalk are offering Master Builder members one on one business advice via phone/video meetings for up to 15minutes. To book a consultation, email mba@greenstalk.com.au and list the areas you would like to discuss. Alternatively, call 1300 997 220 and they will arrange for a relevant team member/s to contact you.

The Federal and State Government have released several stimulus packages and support measures and we understand that getting a handle on the support that is available to you and your staff can be overwhelming. GreenStalk can help you determine what assistance is relevant to your business and for your staff.

Help for business owners

• Tax-free cashflow boost for employers.
• Apprentice wage subsidy.
• Help from the ATO.
• Boosted instant asset write-off
• Accelerated depreciation.
• One-off grants of $17,500 to small and medium businesses
• Fast-track payroll tax relief for small businesses
• Deferred payment 2019-20 payroll tax available to small and medium sized businesses

Help for your staff

• Income support.
• Temporary early release of superannuation.

More Information? Contact our GreenStalk representatives: 

• Amy Ryan – amy@greenstalk.com.au
  Nish Shah – nish@greenstalk.com.au

GreenStalk are offering Master Builder members one on one business advice via phone/video meetings for up to 15minutes. To book a consultation, email mba@greenstalk.com.au and list the areas you would like to discuss. Alternatively, call 1300 997 220 and they will arrange for a relevant team member/s to contact you.

Many business owners are facing unprecedented challenges, those that use this as way to innovate and adapt will find there can be opportunity for improvement that create a more resilient business. Issues become clearer and solutions can be found.

Looking towards the future and creating resilience through appropriate planning, assessing your business model and looking at diversifying revenue streams.

The Government has provided temporary relief for financially distressed businesses. The Government is lessening the threat of actions that could unnecessarily push otherwise profitable and viable businesses into insolvency to help ensure businesses can resume normal operations when the crisis has passed. This includes temporarily:

• increasing the threshold at which creditors can issue a statutory demand and the time companies have to respond
• relieving directors from personal liability for trading while insolvent
• providing flexibility in the Corporations Act 2001 to deal with unforeseen events that arise as a result of the Coronavirus health crisis.

There are also businesses that after taking everything into account due to either the maturity cycle they are in or other financial and practical factors will potentially have to close their doors. If this is the case, GreenStalk can refer you onto an insolvency specialist.

GreenStalk are offering Master Builder members one on one business advice via phone/video meetings for up to 15minutes. To book a consultation, email mba@greenstalk.com.au and list the areas you would like to discuss. Alternatively, call 1300 997 220 and they will arrange for a relevant team member/s to contact you.

Councils continue to support local communities as we all face the significant challenges of this pandemic. View the current initiatives here.

Launch Finance is WA’s leading and most trusted broking firm. Contact a Launch Finance Representative today to review your finances and discover the opportunities available in the market.

Fore more information on how Launch Finance can help you, click here.

For information on staff management, please see below.

WORKPLACE HEALTH AND SAFETY   INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Information to help Company Boards can be found HERE.

For any information on insurance please contact MBAIS HERE.

For more information on Superannuation and how Cbus has responded to COVID-19, please click here.

As we all navigate through the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, HBF are committed to keeping their members and client partners informed and encourage you and your team to refer to our member resource hub regularly.

For any queries relating specifically to health cover, members can contact their Corporate Members Team on 1300 132 549.