Business Health Check in Melbourne
Is your business performing as well as it could be?
Successful small business owners know just how important it is to regularly evaluate the performance and ‘health’ of their business.
Yet, in our experience as Melbourne business accountants, we find that many small business owners are often consumed by working in their business and tending to day-to-day operations.
It’s for this reason that business owners rarely have the time to work on their business in the way they’d like to. When they do find time to work on their business, many don’t know how to work on their business. Business owners are often unsure of where to begin. Which aspect of their business should they prioritise? What area of their business needs the most improvement?
We are specialist Business Accountants in Melbourne who work with small business owners just like you. We help you to:
- Create the time to work on your business
- Identify the areas of your business that need improvement and priority
- Understand the meaning behind – and beyond – your business numbers
- Ensure that the time you spend working on your business is done efficiently by following a strategic plan based on your business’s specific goals and needs
What is a Business Health Check?
A business health check measures the overall ‘health’ of your business. It provides you with feedback that empowers you to set the right goals to improve your business in the areas needing the most attention.
A business health check assesses all aspects within your business including:
- Business Strategy
- Financial Position
- Operations and Business Process Improvement
- Marketing and Promotion Strategy
- Tax Planning and Compliance
- Business structure
A business health check is an essential house-keeping task that should be undertaken regularly and proactively, rather than as a reaction to business distress. In fact, regularly business health checks will serve to prevent business difficulties by highlighting potential issues and giving you adequate time to resolve them.
Why is a Business Health Check important?
A business health check is important for a number of reasons – and, because we’re more than just accountants, it extends well beyond the realm of accounting and tax.
Our Business Health Check and it is designed to help you:
- Uncover the areas of your business which require fine tuning
- Extract information which can be used for strategic planning and proactive change
- Identify business processes which are not working optimally
- Increase business profitability
- Convert your business into a valuable and saleable asset
A Business Health Check gives you immediate and tangible outcomes, including:
- An action plan on what steps to take to improve your business.
- A concise report outlining your performance on the categories above.
- An overview of the state of your business in one easy-to-understand package.
- The input of an objective adviser who has seen inside many businesses just like yours
Does a Business Health Check include Tax Planning?
Yes, your business health check can consider tax planning opportunities if you wish to include this in the scope of service. There is a clear advantage to working with a Melbourne small business accountant who is also a small business tax specialist. Unlike some business coaches out there who promote business health check services, our service can include an evaluation of tax planning and business structuring matters. When you work with us, you receive a holistic assessment of your business’ health.
How is a Business Health Check different to Business Coaching?
Our business health check service is a stand-alone service designed to provide you with valuable feedback about the overall health, success and sustainability of your business. The outcome of the business health check will give you actionable strategies that you can implement immediately for business improvement.
Our Business Health Check also forms the basis of our Business Coaching services. A business health check is a periodic activity that you may choose to undertake every 6 months or annually to track the performance and improvement of your business.
Business Coaching, in contrast, is a collaborative one-on-one service. Business coaching involves working together for an agreed period of time with a goal of achieving specific outcomes for your business. We use the findings of your Business Health Check to devise a customised Business Coaching program to show you how to reach your desired business goals. You can learn more about our Business Coaching here.
We strongly encourage all small business owners to undertake a Business Health Check which assesses the following:
Business Strategy
Your business strategy is the blueprint to achieving your goals and objectives. Your business strategy should form part of your business plan. Our business health check begins with a review of your business strategy. What is a strategic plan? It’s a plan where you set out your business goals and the strategy to make them a reality. If you don’t have a have a documented business plan or business strategy, we’ll provide you with a resource to get you started.
Financial Position
A review of your business’s financial position will enable us to firstly establish the accuracy and robustness of your business bookkeeping and financial reports. Secondly, we will assess your cash flow, and analyse margins and other KPI’s that are meaningful and indicative of success in your business.
Operations and Business Process Improvement
How you operate as a business is another key area for review. The nature and structure of your business will determine the approach that we take in the review of your operations and processes. For example, a sole trader with few to no staff will operate differently to a larger organisation with employees. Despite the structure and scale of your business we assess the aspects that drive efficiencies and resource utilisation within your business.
Greater efficiencies increase the likelihood of increased profits. As Melbourne accountants who are experienced in management accounting, we are well placed to provide this analysis of your business.
Marketing and Promotion Strategy
As qualified marketing strategists, we will review the effectiveness of your current marketing. Irrespective of your industry, your product, service, location or scale, marketing is vital to growing your business. We will analyse the aspects of marketing that we know will make the greatest improvement to your profitability. Factors such as the marketing mix, competitor analysis, market share, current tactics, pricing strategy, customer retention, product/service development are just some of the areas we’ll review. We can offer great insight into your current marketing strategy as well as guide you through the marketing tactics that will support your strategy.
Tax Planning and Compliance
A review of your business tax compliance will ensure that your business is meeting the correct tax and other statutory obligations, including:
- GST
- PAYGW
- Fringe Benefits Tax
- Taxable Payments Annual Reporting
- Superannuation
- Workcover
- Payroll Tax
- Income Tax
- Div 7A compliance
Our business health check will also identify tax planning opportunities. You can learn more about the benefits of proactive tax planning here.
Business structure
Our business health check can also include a review of your business structure, based on your business strategy, current or projected financial position and tax planning requirements.You can learn more about the importance of having a suitable business structure here.
What services are available for a start-up business?
While a Business Health Check is a service generally designed for businesses that have been operational for at least twelve months, a start-up business can certainly benefit from our Startup Business Services in Melton and Melbourne. In fact, a startup business has a greater chance of success by seeking professional business advice early on during the start up phase. Ideally, you’ll meet with an accountant business advisor just prior to business start up. You can learn more about our business startup services here.
Enquire now about your Business Health Check
To find out more about how our services can help your business beyond the numbers, book your free discovery call with our Melbourne Accountants here or call (03) 9746 6479.
We’re Accountants and Business Advisors located in Melton servicing small businesses in Melbourne and across Australia.